Suburban Disturbance
A Cub Scout careens through the yards and streets of a neat, clean college town on his way to school. He stops to pick up his friend Timmy Ainley, but Timmy has the sniffles and must stay home with his mother (Rosemary DeCamp) while Mr. Ainley (Ray Milland), a professor of English at the local college, thinks the sniffles are being faked to avoid a math test. As the professor sets off to work, he and his wife are approached by their elderly neighbor Mrs. Niemoller who complains timidly that the boys in the neighborhood, including Timmy, make too much noise when they play and also heedlessly trample her garden. After promising to address the issue, the Ainleys raise one of their own: Mr. Niemoller plays Mozart very loudly in the middle of the night, keeping Mr. Ainley awake. This is the tip-off that all is not so neat and perfect in this seemingly idyllic community.
And then the plot shifts gears: While discussing a passage from Shakespeare's "Richard II" (which probably has a symbolic bearing on the story) Milland and his students hear sirens. Fire trucks are racing to the professor's own house, which has been engulfed in flames after a freak furnace explosion. His wife and son are killed.
In his stunned grief he turns to drink and is also given solace by a colleague (Nancy Davis), a war widow who empathizes with his loss. Davis's boyfriend (John Hodiak) is uncomfortable with the attention Davis is giving to Milland, even though there is no romantic angle to it. Hodiak's discomfort builds toward angry jealousy while Milland's drinking gets out of control (don't expect a rehash of "Lost Weekend"; the boozing here is mild in comparison).
Much of the movie involves gentle conversational attempts by Davis to help Milland cope. Jean Hagen appears late in the proceedings as a sluttish young woman who occupies a hotel room across the hall from the professor's, her inclusion perhaps a device to set in relief his hopeless emotional isolation. Incidentally, Milland meets Hagen when he knocks on her door to complain about the loudness of the classical music coming from her phonograph player. But after only one viewing, it is not clear why loud classical music has to figure twice in the scenario.
All of the performances are very good and come across as if the director toned them down as much as possible. Hodiak and Davis make an odd couple. At one point she refers to his "big, thick head," when in fact his head is smaller than hers! There is a laid-back conversational feel to the film in general and its small scale and fake looking sets suggest a television drama.
****SPOILER: The whole story can be reduced, really, to the single trite and true observation that it is better to feel your grief than swallow it or bottle it up; once you feel it, i.e., break down and cry, etc., you are on the road to recovery.***** END OF SPOILER
A Cub Scout careens through the yards and streets of a neat, clean college town on his way to school. He stops to pick up his friend Timmy Ainley, but Timmy has the sniffles and must stay home with his mother (Rosemary DeCamp) while Mr. Ainley (Ray Milland), a professor of English at the local college, thinks the sniffles are being faked to avoid a math test. As the professor sets off to work, he and his wife are approached by their elderly neighbor Mrs. Niemoller who complains timidly that the boys in the neighborhood, including Timmy, make too much noise when they play and also heedlessly trample her garden. After promising to address the issue, the Ainleys raise one of their own: Mr. Niemoller plays Mozart very loudly in the middle of the night, keeping Mr. Ainley awake. This is the tip-off that all is not so neat and perfect in this seemingly idyllic community.
And then the plot shifts gears: While discussing a passage from Shakespeare's "Richard II" (which probably has a symbolic bearing on the story) Milland and his students hear sirens. Fire trucks are racing to the professor's own house, which has been engulfed in flames after a freak furnace explosion. His wife and son are killed.
In his stunned grief he turns to drink and is also given solace by a colleague (Nancy Davis), a war widow who empathizes with his loss. Davis's boyfriend (John Hodiak) is uncomfortable with the attention Davis is giving to Milland, even though there is no romantic angle to it. Hodiak's discomfort builds toward angry jealousy while Milland's drinking gets out of control (don't expect a rehash of "Lost Weekend"; the boozing here is mild in comparison).
Much of the movie involves gentle conversational attempts by Davis to help Milland cope. Jean Hagen appears late in the proceedings as a sluttish young woman who occupies a hotel room across the hall from the professor's, her inclusion perhaps a device to set in relief his hopeless emotional isolation. Incidentally, Milland meets Hagen when he knocks on her door to complain about the loudness of the classical music coming from her phonograph player. But after only one viewing, it is not clear why loud classical music has to figure twice in the scenario.
All of the performances are very good and come across as if the director toned them down as much as possible. Hodiak and Davis make an odd couple. At one point she refers to his "big, thick head," when in fact his head is smaller than hers! There is a laid-back conversational feel to the film in general and its small scale and fake looking sets suggest a television drama.
****SPOILER: The whole story can be reduced, really, to the single trite and true observation that it is better to feel your grief than swallow it or bottle it up; once you feel it, i.e., break down and cry, etc., you are on the road to recovery.***** END OF SPOILER