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Brief Synopsis
A black psychiatrist tries to help a racist convict deal with his mental demons.
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Synopsis
A young psychiatrist is unable to make progress with a black patient who hates whites, and he asks his superior, a black, to remove him from the case. The superior, however, tells the younger man of a similar assignment he dealt with years before. While serving on the staff of a Federal prison during World War II, the psychiatrist is asked to treat a young Nazi imprisoned for subversion. The prisoner suffers from sleeplessness, nightmares, and blackouts. Despite his hatred of blacks, the patient submits to therapy in hopes that it will end his terror. Events from the man's past help explain some of his disturbances: his father was a drunken sadist who resented the boy for being the cause of his marriage to a whining semi-invalid; the patient created an imaginary playmate whom he bullied; he left home at an early age and exhibited sadistic tendencies in a drunken barroom orgy; and he joined the Nazi party after he was barred from the home of a Jewish girl whose father felt him unworthy of his daughter. The patient finds relief after the psychiatrist explains the causes of his nightmares, but, once able to sleep, he refuses to continue his therapy. Because the patient is still a Nazi, the psychiatrist refuses to recommend his release, but prison authorities prevail and the patient is paroled. The psychiatrist regards himself as a failure because the patient's racism has swayed him from a disinterested role as an analyst. Shortly after his release, the patient brutally murders an old man and is executed. After hearing of his superior's experience, the younger doctor decides to continue with his case.
Jerome Davis
GREAT PERFORMANCES - RELEVANT MATERIAL
The understated and "cool" performance of Sidney Poitier provides a great cinematic contrast to Bobby Darin's "hot" portrayal. My ...
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