McCarthy hysteria was largely ignored or deliberately avoided by Hollywood, so any movie of the era that acknowledged it is worth investigating. But this low-budget, very dully photographed melodrama (it looks like a TV show) suffers from weak writing and two annoying performers. There's Bette Davis at her most mannered, in frumpy frocks and old-maid hair, as the town librarian who is branded a red when she refuses to lift a Communist manifesto off the shelves. Her way of being a librarian is to pitch her voice higher than usual and snap her consonants; it's a monotonous performance, and though we eventually hear what brought her to this spinsterish life, nothing in her manner suggests her livelier past. Far worse is Kevin Coughlin as the adoring little boy who's confused and eventually maddened by the town controversy; it might be Daniel Taradash's undisciplined way with actors, but he's one of the most obnoxious child actors I've ever seen. The always-good Brian Keith is an ambitious young local pol who uses the dustup for political gain; it's a poorly drawn character, one we alternately like or hate depending on the scene. The movie's firmly on the side of the First Amendment, but it's simplistic and unconvincingly beholden to mob mentality; you can't believe the whole town would be this frightened and prejudiced, or that the explosive denouement would be so quickly and patly resolved. I figure the kid's going to need years of therapy, or maybe end up in the nuthouse.
Review of Storm Center
