La marque

This is such a great, intelligent, courageous film, about so much that's right and wrong in our culture - good parenting, disastrous parenting, thoughtless media, unthinking prejudgments, psychology grounded in reality not dogma, fear, ignorance, innocence, love, hate, and the reach for deep inner joy and redemption. This is besides the great acting on the part of everyone involved, and the great direction, script, and cinematography. The film is not what the subject matter might lead someone to believe. I guess it's not better known because it is in part such an indictment of our anxieties, unthinking cruelty, and self-righteous morality - without condoning in the least the guilt at the heart of the central tragedy. It should and does make viewers uneasy - not because we're all repressed criminals at heart, but because we so often, as individuals and as a culture, refuse to look deeper than appearances, settling for inanities and superficial distractions, ignoring the profound possibilities for the growth of nobility we're all capable of, no matter what we've done. It may seem unrealistic to some, considering the kind of crime it revolves around and the nature of many if not most such criminals, but that's just the point - so often, without bothering to really investigate, we think we know enough to label and condemn.

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."

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.

Stuart Whitman gives an excellent portrayal in "The Mark," today a generally forgotten film of the early 60s. He brings to his character a depth and sensitivity that makes us care about his outcome.

The film subject itself is quite mature and challenging, yet Whitman and a fine multinational cast create a revealing portrait of a provocative psychiatric study.

Whitman was not awarded before or after this film with as meaty a role, and as a result we were deprived of similar quality work by this most gifted actor.

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.