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The Mark, daring for its time in handling the matter of recovering sex offenders, is rather tame stuff for today. It's also something that the cops on Special Victims Unit wouldn't buy in a million years.

Mainly because the rate of recidivism among them is very high. Rod Steiger as psychiatrist claims he's 'cured' Stuart Whitman of any lingering desires for pubescent young females, but Detectives Benson and Stabler would never buy it.

The film is a British production with three imported stars. Stuart Whitman is an American who settled in London and did serve a stretch in prison for unlawful imprisonment of a minor. Rod Steiger tried out the brogue he was to use 14 years later in Hennessy as the psychiatrist who works with sex offenders. And Maria Schell from Austria plays a young widow with a child who develops a relationship with Whitman.

Whitman's been placed in a job with Donald Wolfit's firm and he knows about Whitman and why he was in jail. Brenda DaBanzie and Maurice Denham rent Whitman a room and start treating him like surrogate parents. Things really start going well for Whitman, but when he's picked up for questioning in a child sex murder, reporter Donald Houston recognizes him and writes a story. A lot of people then reevaluate their relationship with Whitman.

As for what happens you'll have to see the film for it. It's a well acted drama, Stuart Whitman got an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, but lost to Maximilian Schell, Maria's brother ironically enough for Judgment at Nuremberg. Still it could never be made today, because the audience simply wouldn't buy it.

An extremely difficult film to watch, knowing what we know now that the makers of this film did not know then, so many decades ago, about pedophiles / child predators and (if any) treatment. The film's heart is in the right place - it comes from a place of faith that any mental disease is curable, that every person can be restored to a normal life around vulnerable people with proper treatment, etc. - ideas that we know now, very clearly, aren't true for child predators, but you have to admire how much the film-makers support mental health services and therapy. But the film's incredibly outdated ideas and characters committing dangerous actions can make you oh so uncomfortable - like a psychiatrist talking about the seductiveness of prepubescent girls, same psychiatrist condoning his pedophile patient being around a young girl and even giving his patient alcohol, his patient not telling the woman he's dating, a mother of a young girl, why he was in prison, etc. None of those activities would be tolerable or condoned now - in fact, some would be criminal. On the other hand, the movie remains valid in its accurate portrayal of some pedophiles that know realization of their propensities would incredibly harmful and who are tortured by those inclinations and a lack of cure: Stuart Whitman is remarkable, truly, in the lead role, giving a powerful but, at times, very subtle performance, and is absolutely worthy of his Oscar nomination.

Stuart Whitman, Rod Steiger, and Maria Schell star in "The Mark," a 1961 film from 20th Century Fox, filmed in England.

Whitman is Jim Fuller, who has been released from prison after being convicted of intent to molest a child. His psychiatrist, Dr. McNally, believes him to be cured and continues to see him in an attempt to help him get back into society and have some sort of a life.

The above is what makes the film seem dated, but in the case of the Whitman character, maybe not. Today we believe that this tendency is incurable or nearly incurable. In the case of Jim Fuller, a troubled man, he took a girl for a ride in a car, but backed out of doing anything. He brought the girl home. Seen in that light, it's possible this incident came out of something in his past (as we're told in flashbacks) and wasn't the result of some sort of perversion and therefore could be eradicated.

Jim has a job from a sympathetic employer and proves himself excellent at it. He rents a room from an older couple. And he meets a woman in his office, Ruth (Maria Schell) whom he tentatively starts to date. They fall in love, and he is introduced to her young daughter, Janie (Amanda Black), who is crazy about him.

When a young woman is kidnapped, Jim is brought in by the police but he has an alibi. Unfortunately a reporter who knows who he is starts stalking him. When he sees Jim at an amusement park with Janie acting completely above board, he writes a lurid story.

This is a well-done film with a sympathetic performance by Whitman, who received an Oscar nomination. He does a beautiful job as a sad, insecure, sometimes angry man who doesn't quite have the confidence in himself that his doctor has, but wants to believe he's okay. Rod Steiger is simply great, low-key (unlike The Big Knife where he chewed any scenery available) -- a perfect psychiatrist, patient, friendly, supportive.

Maria Schell was supposed to be a star in the U.S., but it didn't happen. A friend of mine recalls the night that Schell and Audrey Hepburn were given a party to introduce them to Hollywood. Norma Shearer, retired for over ten years by then, came with her ski instructor husband. She took off her gown's evening jacket and danced the night away. Audrey and Maria sat up against the wall all night.

At any rate, Schell is lovely here. Ruth, too, is afraid of love after being widowed. She falls for Jim knowing he was in prison -- but not why -- and trusts him with Janie. Can she stick with him once the story is published? Some trivia: Whitman lost the Oscar to Schell's brother Maximillian for his marvelous performance in Judgment at Nuremburg.

Excellent film. You're really pulling for Jim all the way through. A lost film well worth seeing.

The groundbreaking "The Mark" has now been released on a splendidly restored widescreen DVD with commentary by director Guy Green and star Stuart Whitman. Green admits that if the Whitman character had actually followed through on his child molesting tendencies and attacked the little girl he takes for a drive, the film would never have been made, as it would have been too difficult to keep the audience caring and sympathetic to such a man. While Whitman has fantasies and comes close to acting them out, he recognizes that he has a problem and turns himself in for psychiatric treatment, which is largely successful. The focus then shifts from his attempts to reintegrate himself back into society to the misunderstanding and persecution he experiences from those around him once they hear of his arrest. Thus the film can congratulate itself on being daring while staying well within the "safe zone." It's one of those movies that can pretend to be controversial while carefully editing out all the elements in it that would really make it so. This may be why it has been largely forgotten today. "The Mark" is engrossing as far as it goes, and avoids overt titillation (other than the kind that comes from dealing with such a story at all). It's expertly directed and acted by a fine cast. However, for a film that deals with the psychology of a child molester with complete honesty and candor, you would have to turn to Todd Solandz's heartbreaking, yet brilliantly funny and insightful "Happiness."

I caught this film on TV back in the late 70s. A local station showed it late one night with no cuts and no commercial interruptions. Over 20 years later I still remember it. Even when I saw it (about 1979) it was strong stuff for TV. For one thing it shows the child molestor (Stuart Whitman) in a sympathetic light...you see he has no power over his impulses and, at one point, gets sick just before he's about to molest a small girl. Then there are the scenes of group therapy when he's in prison--the language is pretty frank (again, for its time) and it doesn't hold back in its subject matter.

It doers have its slow moments when him and Maria Schell were falling in love, but the performances by Whitman and Schell pull it through. The film is (almost) ruined by a stupid happy ending (probably imposed by the studio)...almost. It's sadly a forgotten film today...purportedly there was a DVD release earlier this year with no fanfare whatsoever. Still, this is worth searching out. It deals with a sensitive subject intelligently and with taste. See "Happiness" for a much more graphic view.