Glynis Johns plays Barbara, a 17-year-old schoolgirl who has a crush on her popular Latin teacher, played by Leo Genn. When he gives Barbara extra tuition at his home, his wife, played by Gene Tierney, confronts Barbara about her crush. (Is the wife, a lonely, friendless, insecure American woman, jealous of the girl?) Confused, Barbara rushes home. When the teacher finds out what has happened, he phones Barbara and agrees to meet her to explain in all innocence. This proves to be the last time Barbara is seen alive as she goes missing.
This causes everyone to look at themselves in a kind of An Inspector Calls way. The teacher, at first shunned, is forced by the Head Master to resign. His wife gets more neurotic, especially when a strange man starts to make threatening calls. Barbara's parents are in despair, especially her mother, played by Megs Jenkins. They aren't helped by Barbara's strange, frustrated, chain smoking and accusatory maiden Aunt, played by Pamela Brown who is the spitting image of Anna Massey!
In the end, after 3 days of rumour mongering and dredging the river, Barbara returns almost like a ghost, having fled to an old school friend in London to sort her mind out. The teacher, having been brought in for questioning, is released, but his wife, now thinking the worst, doesn't answer the phone to be told about her husband's release as she thinks it's the hoax caller. Instead, she runs to the church and then to the bridge. About to throw herself over the edge, she is saved by her husband's arrival. They laugh and embrace, and everything is right with the world. The End... My trouble with the film is mainly the dialogue, which is so stilted, and even almost Shakespearean in places, as to be unnatural. The only natural performance comes from Megs Jenkins as the mother, who slowly loses control of things on a mix of worry and prescription sleeping pills.
The other thing is that everybody is so old for their parts, especially the two main men - Leo Genn as the teacher and Walter Fitzgerald as the father. Genn is dashing and kind, but isn't young enough for any 17-year-old to have a crush on. Fitzgerald doesn't seem of this world and is the most Shakespearean of them all. The conversation between the teacher and the father doesn't make sense, with the father turning on a sixpence, and believing and understanding the teacher on grounds that would lead anyone else to hate the teacher even more.
The worst, though, is Glynis Johns as Barbara who was touching 30 when she played this 17-year-old. The comparison with the teacher's wife at the beginning works as Glynis Johns is good enough an actress to carry it off. The problem comes at the end when the father has a heart-to-heart talk with his wayward daughter. Most 17-year-olds wouldn't have the foggiest idea what he is on about. As if Barbara has gone through some rapidly ageing Epiphany, she is forced to accept what her father says like a 30-year-old!
What at times could have been a good film, even a Brit noir, seems to lose its way. The effect which gave us the montage of everyone that represents their inner thoughts could have been repeated at the end as a recap while the teacher's wife feels 'trapped' by the shadows round the church's west door. The film never loses its 'tweeness' and insight into Britain in the 1950s. This is emphasised by Thora Hird's performance as the teacher's housekeeper...
This causes everyone to look at themselves in a kind of An Inspector Calls way. The teacher, at first shunned, is forced by the Head Master to resign. His wife gets more neurotic, especially when a strange man starts to make threatening calls. Barbara's parents are in despair, especially her mother, played by Megs Jenkins. They aren't helped by Barbara's strange, frustrated, chain smoking and accusatory maiden Aunt, played by Pamela Brown who is the spitting image of Anna Massey!
In the end, after 3 days of rumour mongering and dredging the river, Barbara returns almost like a ghost, having fled to an old school friend in London to sort her mind out. The teacher, having been brought in for questioning, is released, but his wife, now thinking the worst, doesn't answer the phone to be told about her husband's release as she thinks it's the hoax caller. Instead, she runs to the church and then to the bridge. About to throw herself over the edge, she is saved by her husband's arrival. They laugh and embrace, and everything is right with the world. The End... My trouble with the film is mainly the dialogue, which is so stilted, and even almost Shakespearean in places, as to be unnatural. The only natural performance comes from Megs Jenkins as the mother, who slowly loses control of things on a mix of worry and prescription sleeping pills.
The other thing is that everybody is so old for their parts, especially the two main men - Leo Genn as the teacher and Walter Fitzgerald as the father. Genn is dashing and kind, but isn't young enough for any 17-year-old to have a crush on. Fitzgerald doesn't seem of this world and is the most Shakespearean of them all. The conversation between the teacher and the father doesn't make sense, with the father turning on a sixpence, and believing and understanding the teacher on grounds that would lead anyone else to hate the teacher even more.
The worst, though, is Glynis Johns as Barbara who was touching 30 when she played this 17-year-old. The comparison with the teacher's wife at the beginning works as Glynis Johns is good enough an actress to carry it off. The problem comes at the end when the father has a heart-to-heart talk with his wayward daughter. Most 17-year-olds wouldn't have the foggiest idea what he is on about. As if Barbara has gone through some rapidly ageing Epiphany, she is forced to accept what her father says like a 30-year-old!
What at times could have been a good film, even a Brit noir, seems to lose its way. The effect which gave us the montage of everyone that represents their inner thoughts could have been repeated at the end as a recap while the teacher's wife feels 'trapped' by the shadows round the church's west door. The film never loses its 'tweeness' and insight into Britain in the 1950s. This is emphasised by Thora Hird's performance as the teacher's housekeeper...