jayraskin1

Hari Rhodes gives a nice, calm and understated performance as a boxer who may have a shot at the middle-weight crown, if Dr. Casey doesn't find anything wrong with him. Casey has the dilemma of giving him a clean bill of health and letting him pursue his 12 year dream of being a championship boxer, or getting his boxing license cancelled to prevent possible future injuries. There's a nice twist when Rhodes sister shows up. She helps to resolve the complicated issue.

The second story concerns a strange 11 year- old girl named Lucy Carter (Gena Gillespie) who becomes involved with an elderly patient she meets in the hospital ward. The old man wants to die and tries to get Lucy to help him.

Lucy seems too sweet for this part, but once we realize that she played the young Blanche Hudson in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," that same year of 1962 when this was made, we can see why she was chosen to add a rather bizarre and horrific element to this episode.

Abner Biberman does an excellent job directing.

A lot of the prints on Youtube are muddy. If you watch the film on the Internet Archives or OK. Ru, you'll find excellent copies, which allow you to see the truly excellent cinematography.

There are many levels of evil in this film. George Sanders is at once both terrifying and pathetic, knowing that he will make mistakes and get caught, but being unable to resist the sadistic excitement of his crimes. The second evil are the Nazis who who simply obey orders and believe whole-heartedly in the Third Reich madness of Adolf Hitler. The third level of evil is wonderfully portrayed by Gail Patrick, a woman who sees an opportunity to liberate herself by becoming rich and doesn't care who she works for to do it.

Besides, its meditations on evils, the movie also shows us the United States just after entering World War Two with the Dec 7th, 1941 invasion of Pearl Harbor. It is amazing to see how the U. S. was expecting an invasion from Nazi Germany and preparing for the same black-outs and air-raids that the English were experiencing on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean . These fortunately turned out to be unnecessary preparations.

Another great thing about the movie is that it suddenly moves inside a library as the main location in the second half of the film. The setting of such a frightening scene in a library, perhaps the most cherished and free institution of the enlightenment adds to the drama.

I noticed some people criticizing Richard Dennings' performance. I thought it was quite naturalistic and it went along well with the performances of George Sanders and Gail Patrick.

This is Film Noir at its best.