In 1961, this remarkable British film by Guy GREEN (winner of the Cinematography OSCAR for GREAT EXPECTATIONS by David LEAN in 1948) was released in cinemas after being nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Jim Fuller (Stuart WHITMAN) is released after a three-year prison sentence and starts a new life in a strange city. He gets help from his psychoanalyst (Rod STEIGER) and an initiated boss (Donald WOLFIT, known as Hildegard KNEF's hypnotist in SVENGALI (1954)). Soon everything is going very well. He finds a furnished room with the nice, if sometimes somewhat pushy, Cartwright couple (Brenda DeBANZIE and Maurice DENHAM), gets along well at work and soon gets to know the executive secretary Ruth (Maria SCHELL) who works there. But the demons of the past don't completely let go of Jim. Severely insecure due to an unhappy childhood, he was suspected of molesting a child, for which he then had to serve a prison sentence. When everything comes out through the unscrupulous actions of a tabloid journalist (Donald HOUSTON), the situation threatens to escalate...
The film, based on the novel of the same name by Charles E. ISRAEL, deals with a topic that is still considered explosive more than 60 years later. Basically, a psychoanalytic healing process is discussed with great sensitivity and precision, which certainly demands a lot from the audience. Some of it may be outdated by now, but the courage to make this film alone is very impressive.
The acting performances are all terrific! Stuart WHITMAN, who stood in for Richard BURTON, plays the prisoner with a Canadian background so convincingly that he was nominated for an ACADEMY AWARD in 1962.
ACADEMY AWARD Winner Rod STEIGER (awarded in 1968 for IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT), standing in for Trevor HOWARD, plays the psychoanalyst blessed with a lot of understanding and benevolence very well. It's amazing what enormous range this exceptional actor has shown in his long career.
BAFTA AWARD nominee Maria SCHELL (nominated for THE HEART OF THE MATTER in 1954 and for GERVAISE in 1957) impresses as a widowed single parent who also works. That was also very remarkable for the time! Her Ruth Leighton is shown as a Swiss-born woman who found work and true love in England after the war. The exceptional actress Maria SCHELL, who is often underestimated as a "little soul / Seelchen", especially in German-speaking countries, plays this with a naturalness that is impressive.
Because of the explosive nature of the topic, the film was shot in Ireland, which sounds quite surprising at first. In West Germany, the explosive film with audience favorite Maria SCHELL was seen by at least 304,000 visitors (source: InsideKino), which corresponds to a box office of the equivalent of 234,080 EURO.
When her playing partner Stuart WHITMAN was nominated for the ACADEMY AWARD in 1962, Maria SCHELL (1926 - 2005) had to make a difficult decision. Her little brother Maximilian SCHELL (1930 - 2014) was also nominated in the same category for JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. SCHELL won the OSCAR, the rest is history!
Jim Fuller (Stuart WHITMAN) is released after a three-year prison sentence and starts a new life in a strange city. He gets help from his psychoanalyst (Rod STEIGER) and an initiated boss (Donald WOLFIT, known as Hildegard KNEF's hypnotist in SVENGALI (1954)). Soon everything is going very well. He finds a furnished room with the nice, if sometimes somewhat pushy, Cartwright couple (Brenda DeBANZIE and Maurice DENHAM), gets along well at work and soon gets to know the executive secretary Ruth (Maria SCHELL) who works there. But the demons of the past don't completely let go of Jim. Severely insecure due to an unhappy childhood, he was suspected of molesting a child, for which he then had to serve a prison sentence. When everything comes out through the unscrupulous actions of a tabloid journalist (Donald HOUSTON), the situation threatens to escalate...
The film, based on the novel of the same name by Charles E. ISRAEL, deals with a topic that is still considered explosive more than 60 years later. Basically, a psychoanalytic healing process is discussed with great sensitivity and precision, which certainly demands a lot from the audience. Some of it may be outdated by now, but the courage to make this film alone is very impressive.
The acting performances are all terrific! Stuart WHITMAN, who stood in for Richard BURTON, plays the prisoner with a Canadian background so convincingly that he was nominated for an ACADEMY AWARD in 1962.
ACADEMY AWARD Winner Rod STEIGER (awarded in 1968 for IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT), standing in for Trevor HOWARD, plays the psychoanalyst blessed with a lot of understanding and benevolence very well. It's amazing what enormous range this exceptional actor has shown in his long career.
BAFTA AWARD nominee Maria SCHELL (nominated for THE HEART OF THE MATTER in 1954 and for GERVAISE in 1957) impresses as a widowed single parent who also works. That was also very remarkable for the time! Her Ruth Leighton is shown as a Swiss-born woman who found work and true love in England after the war. The exceptional actress Maria SCHELL, who is often underestimated as a "little soul / Seelchen", especially in German-speaking countries, plays this with a naturalness that is impressive.
Because of the explosive nature of the topic, the film was shot in Ireland, which sounds quite surprising at first. In West Germany, the explosive film with audience favorite Maria SCHELL was seen by at least 304,000 visitors (source: InsideKino), which corresponds to a box office of the equivalent of 234,080 EURO.
When her playing partner Stuart WHITMAN was nominated for the ACADEMY AWARD in 1962, Maria SCHELL (1926 - 2005) had to make a difficult decision. Her little brother Maximilian SCHELL (1930 - 2014) was also nominated in the same category for JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. SCHELL won the OSCAR, the rest is history!