****SPOILERS**** Cleaned up version of the Charles E. Israel novel about a convicted child molester who's released from prison and tries to fit back into society has Stuart Whitman as Jim Fuller confront his demons head on and almost end up being institutionalized for it as well as shunned by everyone he comes in contact with in the movie. Convicted of attempted not actual, like in Charles Israel's novel, child molestation Fuller is after three years released from prison and put under the care of his prison appointed psychiatrist Dr. Edmund McNally, Rod Steiger, who despite his English surname speaks with a heavy German or Viennese accent. At first Fuller does fit into society and with Dr. McNally's help gets a job as an accountant for a major firm as well as a place to stay at the Carwright's Gertrude and Arnold, Brenda de Banzie & Maurice Denham, residence.
Despite his sexual attraction to under aged girls, he has trouble connecting to adult women, Fuller soon gets friendly with a woman working at the firm he's employed in the recently widowed Mrs. Ruth Leighton, Maria Schell, who has a ten year old daughter Janie, Amanda Black,who soon looks up to the very nervous, in being alone with her, Fuller as her surrogate father. As Fuller starts to get the hang of it, living a normal life, a young girl is abducted and murdered in the neighborhood and he's, in being just released from prison, picked up and questioned by the police. Found innocent of any crimes, he was in fact with Ruth at the time of the murder, Fuller is spotted by the "Daily Reporter" tabloid crime reported Austin, Donald Houston,who knowing his backgrounds and smelling a big story starts to hound Fuller day and night. It's when Austin spots Fuller at a local carnival with little Janie buying her an ice cream cone he sees his big chance of getting the "scoop of the century". Austin by plastering Fuller and Janie's photo all over the front page of his newspaper the cat is now out of the bag in what Fuller was convicted of as well as him being seen and photographed with a little girl that has the provable you know what hit the fan.
***SPOILERS*** Fired form his job and kicked out of his apartment Fuller homeless and unemployed now on the skids is on the verge of a complete mental & physical breakdown. It's Dr. McNally who come to Fuller's rescue by giving him the confidence that he so badly needs to feel that he's in fact normal and be able to put his shattered life back together again for the second time. Hard as it seemed it was also Ruth as well as little Janie who knowing that he isn't the fiend that the papers make him out to be who also help Fuller get back on his feet by showing him that his past is his past and keeping it that way. Strong performances by both Stuart Whitman & Maria Schell that in a ground breaking film tackles a subject, pedophilia, that was never , with the possible exception of Fritz Lang's 1931 movie "M", seen by the movie going public.
P.S ironically Stuart Whitman lost out in winning the Academy Award for best actor in 1961 to Maximilian Schell who won it for his performance in the movie "Judgment at Nuremburg". Schell just happened to be the brother of Whitman's co-star in the movie "The Mark" Maria Schell.
Despite his sexual attraction to under aged girls, he has trouble connecting to adult women, Fuller soon gets friendly with a woman working at the firm he's employed in the recently widowed Mrs. Ruth Leighton, Maria Schell, who has a ten year old daughter Janie, Amanda Black,who soon looks up to the very nervous, in being alone with her, Fuller as her surrogate father. As Fuller starts to get the hang of it, living a normal life, a young girl is abducted and murdered in the neighborhood and he's, in being just released from prison, picked up and questioned by the police. Found innocent of any crimes, he was in fact with Ruth at the time of the murder, Fuller is spotted by the "Daily Reporter" tabloid crime reported Austin, Donald Houston,who knowing his backgrounds and smelling a big story starts to hound Fuller day and night. It's when Austin spots Fuller at a local carnival with little Janie buying her an ice cream cone he sees his big chance of getting the "scoop of the century". Austin by plastering Fuller and Janie's photo all over the front page of his newspaper the cat is now out of the bag in what Fuller was convicted of as well as him being seen and photographed with a little girl that has the provable you know what hit the fan.
***SPOILERS*** Fired form his job and kicked out of his apartment Fuller homeless and unemployed now on the skids is on the verge of a complete mental & physical breakdown. It's Dr. McNally who come to Fuller's rescue by giving him the confidence that he so badly needs to feel that he's in fact normal and be able to put his shattered life back together again for the second time. Hard as it seemed it was also Ruth as well as little Janie who knowing that he isn't the fiend that the papers make him out to be who also help Fuller get back on his feet by showing him that his past is his past and keeping it that way. Strong performances by both Stuart Whitman & Maria Schell that in a ground breaking film tackles a subject, pedophilia, that was never , with the possible exception of Fritz Lang's 1931 movie "M", seen by the movie going public.
P.S ironically Stuart Whitman lost out in winning the Academy Award for best actor in 1961 to Maximilian Schell who won it for his performance in the movie "Judgment at Nuremburg". Schell just happened to be the brother of Whitman's co-star in the movie "The Mark" Maria Schell.