Real life is often stranger than fiction and some real-life characters far more obscure, sinister and twisted than any ever written for the screen. That is definitely true of Robert Durst, the wayward son of a New York real estate dynasty worth a reported $8 billion, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 78 while serving a life sentence for the execution-style shooting of his longtime best friend, Susan Berman. At the time of his death, the eccentric Manhattanite was also facing criminal charges for the 1982 murder of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack. But incredibly, those two deaths are not the only ones attributed to the infamous scion! Durst also stood trial – and was found not guilty – for the 2001 shooting and subsequent dismemberment of his neighbor Morris Black, an act he carried out while living in hiding as a mute female in Galveston, Texas and which he inexplicably claimed was self-defense. Stranger than fiction, indeed!
So it’s no surprise that the bizarre story has made its way to the screen in several forms, including a handful of “Law & Order” episodes, a Lifetime Original Movie and the thriller “All Good Things.” Released in 2010, the latter tells a somewhat fictionalized version of Durst’s life, with Ryan Gosling stepping into the role of Robert counterpart David Marks and Kirsten Dunst playing his loving, ill-fated young wife, Katie McCarthy. The film was directed by Andrew Jarecki, who was also behind the esteemed true-crime documentaries “Capturing the Friedmans” and “Catfish,” but is most famous for his other Durst endeavor, “The Jinx.” It is thanks to the 2015 docuseries (streaming now on HBO Max) that the murderous heir was finally arrested after Jarecki caught him confessing to his many killings off-camera via a hot mic. Interestingly though, without “All Good Things,” there would never have been “The Jinx.”
In the docuseries, Andrew explains that he was drawn to “All Good Things” because he wanted to “make a movie that Robert Durst himself could sit and watch and have an emotional reaction to.” Well, mission accomplished! Shortly after the film debuted, Robert contacted Jarecki and, against the advice of his lawyers and pretty much anyone else with half a brain, offered to sit for an interview with the director to finally tell his side of the story. Jarecki wound up compiling more than 20 hours of footage of the typically reclusive Durst, the result of which is “The Jinx.”
While “All Good Things” often gets lost in the many chapters of the twisted saga, it makes for a compelling watch. Named after the Vermont health food store that Bob and Kathleen ran in the early years of their relationship, the film closely follows actual events – so much so that Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey sought to use it as evidence in the Berman trial. A 2018 motion regarding the matter rather sardonically summed things up by stating, “The Defendant, through his admissions, has adopted the truth of allegations presented in the movie . . . after reading the script and watching this movie, Defendant did not sue the production company for slander, nor did he object to how the movie portrayed him. Instead, he contacted the director and expressed how much he had enjoyed the film and agreed to sit for a series of interviews, including the DVD commentary for the movie. When Defendant was asked on camera about his feelings about a film which had alleged that he had murdered three people and a dog, he responded, not with denials, but by stating, ‘I felt the movie was very, very, very close in much of the ways about what, pretty much, happened.’” You honestly can’t make this stuff up!
At the center of both the real story and its cinematic counterpart is the idyllic lakehouse Durst purchased after abandoning the health food store to work for his family’s business.
Said to be at 24 Lobel St. in South Salem, the movie version of the abode can actually be found in Brookfield, Connecticut, on the shores of Lake Lillinonah at 38 Lillinonah Dr.
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Image Credit: Zillow Situated on a large leafy parcel overlooking the serene lake, the home, which appears extensively throughout the film, initially serves as an idyllic weekend retreat for David and Katie, an enviable country house for the seemingly enviable couple. As things start to sour in the marriage, though, it becomes Katie’s escape, where she moves full-time to live alone while David remains behind at their Manhattan apartment. And it is from the bucolic abode that she eventually goes missing that fateful rainy night in 1982, never to be seen again.
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Image Credit: Zillow With its exquisitely preserved midcentury detailing, the property functions as an ideal backdrop for the portion of the storyline involving Katie and David’s relationship, which takes place from 1971 through her disappearance 11 years later.
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Image Credit: Zillow The wood paneling, clerestory windows and open spiral staircase effortlessly bring the retro setting to life.
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Image Credit: Zillow And it appears that some of the place’s actual furnishings, such as the kitchen barstools and blinds, the curved royal blue couch and the open shelving, even made it onto the screen – or perhaps were props brought in for the shoot that the homeowners then left in place following the filming.
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Image Credit: Zillow In real life, the striking abode, which was originally built in 1964, boasts three bedrooms and two baths in 1,675 square feet.
Featuring an open floor plan, the main level is centered around a sprawling living room made complete with vaulted ceilings that tower 20 feet above the hardwood flooring below, a rock fireplace that stretches to the roofline and vast walls of glass offering panoramic views of the surrounding grounds and Lake Lillinonah below.
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Image Credit: Zillow The adjacent kitchen is updated with granite counters and stainless appliances, though it still retains a midcentury vibe perfectly in line with the rest of the house.
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Image Credit: Zillow Outside on the 0.57-acre lot, you’ll find an incredible 325 feet of waterfront, a 10-foot by 12-foot dock and a wraparound deck overlooking it all. The pad, which last sold in June 2020 for $600,000, sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac next to a 35-acre forest, affording residents the utmost in privacy.
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Image Credit: Zillow Aside from its lakeside location, though, the dwelling doesn’t resemble Bob and Kathy’s actual former country house (pictured above) in the slightest. That property, located at 62 Hoyt St. in South Salem, has been remodeled and expanded since the Dursts’ tenure, but, truth be told, it never looked anything like its onscreen counterpart, instead boasting a much more traditional, formal and cottage-like vibe. It is the one area of “All Good Things” in which Jarecki strayed far from the truth, perhaps opting to shoot at a midcentury abode to better represent the film’s retro time period.
(Please remember the houses mentioned in this article are private homes. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the properties in any way.)