Excellent performances and quirky flashback scenes are the highlights of "Pressure Point," a 1962 film starring Sidney Poitier and Bobby Darin, with Peter Falk as "guest star" in a small role. The film is directed by Herbert Cornfield.
The film takes place in 1942, with Poitier a psychiatrist at a federal prison with Darin as a patient. Darin plays a member of the German-American Bund who wants to overthrow the government. Needless to say he hates blacks (called Negroes here), Jews, etc. He can't sleep and wants the psychiatrist to give him something so that he can. He doesn't feel he needs psychiatry.
Over time, he tells his story, and it's a harrowing one, a drunk and sadistic father, and a dependent mother. In flashback, a little boy representing the patient realizes that having power is his only way out. He comes to admire Hitler. Now, when Hitler's your role model, there's a problem.
Based on a story from the book "The Fifty-Minute Hour," the psychiatrist personally has a difficult time with this patient, though he does his best by him. However, the patient is manipulative, and when it comes time for parole, the doctor finds himself alone in his opinion.
This black and white movie first of all has Sidney Poitier in it, always an excellent actor, and even though this is somewhat early in his career, he already had a fully-developed talent. As the psychiatrist, he is strong yet conflicted. Darin always did a good job with these cocky, arrogant types, and here is no exception.
Cornfield does some interesting things with the flashbacks, making objects bigger, people smaller, and using odd camera angles.
This is an effective if slightly dated movie - I can't speak about the psychiatric theories put forward, but the use of the word Negro is jarring. Hearing the patient spout his philosophies, however, one realizes there are still people who think this way -- and once, a lot of people did.
The film takes place in 1942, with Poitier a psychiatrist at a federal prison with Darin as a patient. Darin plays a member of the German-American Bund who wants to overthrow the government. Needless to say he hates blacks (called Negroes here), Jews, etc. He can't sleep and wants the psychiatrist to give him something so that he can. He doesn't feel he needs psychiatry.
Over time, he tells his story, and it's a harrowing one, a drunk and sadistic father, and a dependent mother. In flashback, a little boy representing the patient realizes that having power is his only way out. He comes to admire Hitler. Now, when Hitler's your role model, there's a problem.
Based on a story from the book "The Fifty-Minute Hour," the psychiatrist personally has a difficult time with this patient, though he does his best by him. However, the patient is manipulative, and when it comes time for parole, the doctor finds himself alone in his opinion.
This black and white movie first of all has Sidney Poitier in it, always an excellent actor, and even though this is somewhat early in his career, he already had a fully-developed talent. As the psychiatrist, he is strong yet conflicted. Darin always did a good job with these cocky, arrogant types, and here is no exception.
Cornfield does some interesting things with the flashbacks, making objects bigger, people smaller, and using odd camera angles.
This is an effective if slightly dated movie - I can't speak about the psychiatric theories put forward, but the use of the word Negro is jarring. Hearing the patient spout his philosophies, however, one realizes there are still people who think this way -- and once, a lot of people did.