In this case, the kid is Tim Hovey, stalked throughout the motion picture by the creepily photographed Eduard Franz, playing the crazed father of a robber costume preacher George Nader found in his house, in the bedroom of the little Hovey. Saying little, Franz is the Lon Chaney of the year (in addition to James Cagney who plays him in the biographical film made at Universal, maybe at the same time this was being filmed there), so in grief over the death of his son that he loses all sense of reality in his need for vengeance. Nader's wife, Phyllis Thaxter, is injured at the same time as the home invasion, left nearly blinded and thus vulnerable to fear. The invaluable Reta Shaw is warm and loving as the nurse hired to look after Thaxter and take care of Hovey, quite funny but definitely formidable, stealing every scene that she is in. A fellow future "Bewitched" co-star, Mabel Albertson, is cast against type as the drunken landlady, pointing out Nader as a killer and adding to his feelings of guilt over accidental homicide. Martin Milner is instantly recognizable as one of the parishioners in Nader's church.
This is an amazingly intense thriller, quite different then I expected it to be. The spiritual tones indicating that had Nader not been a minister, the accidental death would not have been the recipient of the as much attention. The scene where Franz sees pictures of Nader's family on television is a prime example of the sometime irresponsibility of the press, the bomb that set him off on his path to madness. Everything about this film is gripping from start to finish, and the film's conclusion handles everything in a perfect manner. The musical score by a young Henry Mancini is very dramatic and unlike anything else he wrote during his heyday, and the photography and editing are top notch. Even though the film is done in Cinemascope, the black and white photography aids to the mood and makes it all the better.
This is an amazingly intense thriller, quite different then I expected it to be. The spiritual tones indicating that had Nader not been a minister, the accidental death would not have been the recipient of the as much attention. The scene where Franz sees pictures of Nader's family on television is a prime example of the sometime irresponsibility of the press, the bomb that set him off on his path to madness. Everything about this film is gripping from start to finish, and the film's conclusion handles everything in a perfect manner. The musical score by a young Henry Mancini is very dramatic and unlike anything else he wrote during his heyday, and the photography and editing are top notch. Even though the film is done in Cinemascope, the black and white photography aids to the mood and makes it all the better.