***SPOILER ALERT*** A bit talky and at times confusing the film "Mine Own Executioner" is still way ahead of its time,when it was made in 1947, about the complexities of the human mind and how to go about, if at all possible, curing them.
Psychoanalyst Felix Milne, Burgess Meredith, resents being called doctor in that he's not qualified, by not having a medical degree, in being one. It's for that very reason that Mrs. Molly Lucian, Barbara White, contacts him in order to help her very unstable husband Adam, Kieron Moore, who from previous experiences hates doctors with a passion. Told by Molly that Adam had attempted to strangle her Felix has Adam visit him at his office to see what he can do for him. It's when Felix sees the very weird looking Adam, who also turned out to be a kleptomaniac, outside his house he realizes that his problems, besides being somewhat homicidal, are far greater then he ever imagined!
Having been captured by the Japenses during the war Adam was brutally tortured by them in a Japanese, in Burma, prison camp. Making his escape from his Japaneses captors Adam ended up killing one of them, a prison guard, by cracking his skull open with a bamboo pole. It's when Adam saw his wife in their darkened apartment that he mistook her for his Japanese captors and thus tried to murder her!
As Felix tried to cure his patient's severe mental problems he's also having an affair with family friend Barbara Edge,Christine Norden, behind his wife Pat's, Dulcie Gray, back. This leads him to neglect Adam which in the end leads to disastrous results for everyone, including his wife Moll, involved with him.
Far better then most movies made about the subject, psychology and mental illness, at that time without the usual quick fix in neatly solving things by the time the film is finally over.
****SPOILERS*** Felix Milne did what he could to help his troubled patient but in the end the problems that Adam had were far too great, and complicated, for him or medical science to handle. The fact that Felix failed despite his best efforts to help Adam Lucian shows how honest the movie-"Mine Own Executioner"-was. Psychology-like Felix kept saying in the movie- is not an exact science but far from it. It was that realization on Felix's part that had him change his mind, when he wanted to quit his practice, when he was confronted with another patient of his, who was being abused by his father for actions he had no control of, who desperately needed Felix's help: The sad and frightened little Charlie Oakes, Malcolm Dalmayne.
Psychoanalyst Felix Milne, Burgess Meredith, resents being called doctor in that he's not qualified, by not having a medical degree, in being one. It's for that very reason that Mrs. Molly Lucian, Barbara White, contacts him in order to help her very unstable husband Adam, Kieron Moore, who from previous experiences hates doctors with a passion. Told by Molly that Adam had attempted to strangle her Felix has Adam visit him at his office to see what he can do for him. It's when Felix sees the very weird looking Adam, who also turned out to be a kleptomaniac, outside his house he realizes that his problems, besides being somewhat homicidal, are far greater then he ever imagined!
Having been captured by the Japenses during the war Adam was brutally tortured by them in a Japanese, in Burma, prison camp. Making his escape from his Japaneses captors Adam ended up killing one of them, a prison guard, by cracking his skull open with a bamboo pole. It's when Adam saw his wife in their darkened apartment that he mistook her for his Japanese captors and thus tried to murder her!
As Felix tried to cure his patient's severe mental problems he's also having an affair with family friend Barbara Edge,Christine Norden, behind his wife Pat's, Dulcie Gray, back. This leads him to neglect Adam which in the end leads to disastrous results for everyone, including his wife Moll, involved with him.
Far better then most movies made about the subject, psychology and mental illness, at that time without the usual quick fix in neatly solving things by the time the film is finally over.
****SPOILERS*** Felix Milne did what he could to help his troubled patient but in the end the problems that Adam had were far too great, and complicated, for him or medical science to handle. The fact that Felix failed despite his best efforts to help Adam Lucian shows how honest the movie-"Mine Own Executioner"-was. Psychology-like Felix kept saying in the movie- is not an exact science but far from it. It was that realization on Felix's part that had him change his mind, when he wanted to quit his practice, when he was confronted with another patient of his, who was being abused by his father for actions he had no control of, who desperately needed Felix's help: The sad and frightened little Charlie Oakes, Malcolm Dalmayne.