Portrait of a Murderer
"Portrait of a Murderer" is an episode of the TV show "Playhouse 90" starring Tab Hunter as killer Donald Bashor. Leslie Stevens wrote the script with the assistance of a former cell mate of Bashor's. He also wrote while listening to interviews with Bashor. Reception. The "Los Angeles Times" thought it was "extremely interesting TV." The "AV Club" says the director Arthur Penn "makes extensive use of Bashor’s actual statements and a first-person camera to create a faux-documentary style that was decades ahead of its time. Penn marveled at the improvisatory aspect  of Tab Hunter’s performance as Bashor, citing an unplanned moment in which Hunter stops to pick up a basket of spilled laundry just after his character has committed murder. It was a textbook case of how the immediacy of live television was meant to work." Ray Stark wanted to make a film version directed by Stevens with Hunter reprising his role but it was never made.