Kitty Genovese Killing Is Retold in the Film ‘37’

Walking her dog through a sun-roasted film set in Queens last Monday, Lois Gillman said she couldn’t believe it at first when she heard about the movie being made, just around the corner from her house.

“This story had the greatest impact on me as child,” she whispered during a break in filming, adding, “The whole thing was so horrifying.”

The movie being shot — “37” — won’t be a horror film. But its story has been haunting New Yorkers for more than 50 years: In the early hours of March 13, 1964, the 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was stabbed and sexually assaulted while her neighbors allegedly listened. And watched from their windows. Or closed their drapes. Or turned up the radio to drown out the screams.

What followed was a public outcry and a communal soul searching. It was the kind of thing about which people once said, “It can’t happen here.” But it did — although not exactly, and not exactly where the film is being shot.