An old lady has died and left her estate to a foundation that now runs it as a free psychiatric clinic. You ought to see the place. Square footage galore, marble floors, modern furniture for everyone, a circular wooden staircase, the original of Van Gogh's "Blue Irises" on the wall. (Well, not that last, but it's a classy place.) Burgess Meredith, as one of the psychotherapists who does pro bono work at the clinic when not listening to rich old ladies in his own practice, gives one of his finest performances.
We meet a few of his patients. One is an ex RAF pilot, Kieran Moore, who has grown sullen over the past two months and finally tried to choke his pretty young wife. He doesn't seem to remember the incident, or is unwilling to talk about it during his first five minutes of conversation with Meredith. When he leaves, Meredith records his diagnosis in his notebook: "Schizophrenia. Split Personality." I'm a shrink and that's all wrong, but this is a drama not a documentary on psychiatric diagnosis.
Meredith is full of insight. Happy most of the time yet he realizes that he snaps at his loving wife an bullies her. And he's also treating a mutual friend, a cute married blond, with some sort of unresolved "sex problems." Meredith is attracted to his new patient but acts within the bounds of middle-class propriety.
The focus of the film is not Meredith's relationship with the flirtatious blond, though. It has to do with his attempts to try working through the repressed memories of Kieron Moore's terrible experiences as a Japanese POW.
It's an intelligently written and responsible film, not an uplifting soap opera. There is tension and tragedy.
Recommended, for adults, anyway.
We meet a few of his patients. One is an ex RAF pilot, Kieran Moore, who has grown sullen over the past two months and finally tried to choke his pretty young wife. He doesn't seem to remember the incident, or is unwilling to talk about it during his first five minutes of conversation with Meredith. When he leaves, Meredith records his diagnosis in his notebook: "Schizophrenia. Split Personality." I'm a shrink and that's all wrong, but this is a drama not a documentary on psychiatric diagnosis.
Meredith is full of insight. Happy most of the time yet he realizes that he snaps at his loving wife an bullies her. And he's also treating a mutual friend, a cute married blond, with some sort of unresolved "sex problems." Meredith is attracted to his new patient but acts within the bounds of middle-class propriety.
The focus of the film is not Meredith's relationship with the flirtatious blond, though. It has to do with his attempts to try working through the repressed memories of Kieron Moore's terrible experiences as a Japanese POW.
It's an intelligently written and responsible film, not an uplifting soap opera. There is tension and tragedy.
Recommended, for adults, anyway.