Man Afraid (1957)

• Year: 1957
• Released: 23 Aug 1957
• Country: United States
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050674/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/man_afraid
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Approved
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
• Runtime: 84 min
• Writer: Herb Meadow, Daniel B. Ullman
• Director: Harry Keller
• Cast: George Nader, Phyllis Thaxter, Tim Hovey
• Keywords: burglar,

6.3/10

Man Afraid Storyline

Burglar FRANKIE breaks into a suburban home through MIKE’s (7) bedroom window. The boy is asleep in his bed. Frankie stays in the bedroom after he realizes that the boy’s PARENTS are awake in the next room. When Frankie opens a music box and music plays, Mike awakens and screams. Mike’s mother LISA rushes into the room and finds Frankie trying to suffocate the boy with a pillow. She grabs at Frankie who whips her in the face with a rope. Mike’s FATHER bursts into the room and struggles with Frankie. When the burglar brandishes a knife, Mike’s Father hurls a solid glass snow globe at Frankie and hits him in the head. The burglar collapses.Later at the police station, police detective LT. MARTIN takes a statement from Mike’s Father, who is the REVEREND DAVID COLLINS. When Martin reveals that Frankie died from the blow to the head, the Reverend is stunned. Lurking in the background is Frankie’s father SIMMONS, a chain smoking, poverty stricken tailor with a limp. Outside the station, it is a media circus. The press hails the Reverend as a hero. The Reverend goes home to find a TV crew set up in his son’s room. They are eager to reenact the crime. The Reverend orders them out of his house, Lisa’s eyes were injured in the attack and she has been confined to bed with both of her eyes bandaged. Meanwhile, Simmons sees a news report comparing his dead son, a habitual criminal, with the Reverend’s angelic little boy. Simmons stares hard at the picture of Mike and an idea forms in his head.That night, the Reverend feels guilt over Frankie’s death. Mike can’t sleep, he is afraid someone is watching him. The Reverend lets Mike sleep with him. The boy says he is praying to be brave and strong just like his father. Lurking outside the house is Simmons. Days later, the Reverend goes to Simmons’ shop in the hopes of somehow consoling the man. However, the LANDLADY says Simmons has been missing for days and reports that he owes three months back rent. She also says Frankie was a “born murderer.” Meanwhile, Mike and his friends wander down to the old wharf. Mike climbs aboard a derelict paddle boat. Simmons follows the boy onto the boat and corners him. Mike is terrified. Just then a WATCHMAN appears and Simmons flees.That night at dinner, Mike insists that Simmons cornered him and intended to murder him. Lisa is fearful but the Reverend thinks Mike is telling a tall tale because the boy was forbidden from going to the old wharf. That evening, the Reverend urges Mike to walk alone to his friend SKUNKY’S house. The Reverend is meeting with a fellowship group when a fearful Mike appears. He claims that Simmons is lurking nearby. The Reverend is skeptical but goes out to investigate. No one is there, but he does find a distinctive tin of cigarette butts just like the one he saw Simmons carrying. At home later that night, the Reverend finds Skunky at his son’s window. He persuades Skunky not to run away from home just yet. Then the Reverend calls the police, but Martin isn’t in. Lisa overhears the conversation and is very worried. The next day, the Reverend tells Martin about the incident aboard the boat and about the cigarette butts. The cop is skeptical that Simmons is menacing the family, especially after they cannot find the cigarette butts. That Sunday, the Reverend presides over church services. Mike is singing in the choir when he notices the ponies arrive for the church bazaar. The Reverend is spooked when Simmons briefly appears at the back of the church. The clergyman panics after he notices that Billy is missing. The Reverend frantically searches the church grounds for his son and finally finds him sitting atop a pony. He orders the boy to go home with his mother’s NURSE. Meanwhile, Simmons enters the Reverend’s home, kicks at Mike’s toys and then approaches the terrified Lisa. She pulls the bandages off her eyes and flees from Simmons. Mike finds his mother cowering in a closet. Afterwards, a skeptical Martin says there is no proof that Simmons was in the Reverend’s home. Lisa is hysterical so the Nurse administers a sedative. Later, Mike is in the first bout at the church bazaar’s peewee boxing contest. The Reverend is the referee. Simmons slinks into the tent where the match is being held and sets fire to a pail of rags. The billowing smoke creates a panic. In the confusion, Mike wanders under the stands and Simmons grabs him. Mike screams and the Reverend wrestles Simmons to the ground. But when Simmons croaks out the word murderer, the Reverend releases him. Later at the police station, Martin says there is no real evidence that Simmons set the fire. He bluntly tells the Reverend that they can’t do anything until Simmons commits a crime, and then it will be too late. The Reverend goes home and tells his family to start packing; they are leaving town to escape from Simmons. However, Skunky’s parents call from the hospital and say their son is asking for the Reverend. Skunky was injured during the fire. The Reverend goes to the hospital. He is unaware that Simmons is watching his every move. Then Simmons phones Lisa, impersonates a hospital employee, and says that the Skunky is asking for Mike. The Nurse drives Lisa and Mike to the hospital. The boy runs ahead of his mother and he is snatched by Simmons. Mike escapes from Simmons and flees to the nearby beach. Meanwhile, Lisa finds her husband and they realize that the phone call was a ruse. They go outside and the Reverend chases after Simmons and Mike. The boy hides among the pier pilings but Simmons spots him. Mike climbs out underneath the pier over deep water. Simmons chases him. The Reverend soon catches up to them. Simmons loses his footing and falls in the water. Simmons is drowning so the Reverend dives in and rescues him. Mike makes his way back to the beach where the Reverend insists he never hated Simmons son and he begs the man’s forgiveness. Simmons cries and then departs. The Reverend and his family watch him go.

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Man Afraid Movie Reviews

A 1957 Amber Alert.

In this case, the kid is Tim Hovey, stalked throughout the motion picture by the creepily photographed Eduard Franz, playing the crazed father of a robber costume preacher George Nader found in his house, in the bedroom of the little Hovey. Saying little, Franz is the Lon Chaney of the year (in addition to James Cagney who plays him in the biographical film made at Universal, maybe at the same time this was being filmed there), so in grief over the death of his son that he loses all sense of reality in his need for vengeance. Nader’s wife, Phyllis Thaxter, is injured at the same time as the home invasion, left nearly blinded and thus vulnerable to fear. The invaluable Reta Shaw is warm and loving as the nurse hired to look after Thaxter and take care of Hovey, quite funny but definitely formidable, stealing every scene that she is in. A fellow future “Bewitched” co-star, Mabel Albertson, is cast against type as the drunken landlady, pointing out Nader as a killer and adding to his feelings of guilt over accidental homicide. Martin Milner is instantly recognizable as one of the parishioners in Nader’s church.

This is an amazingly intense thriller, quite different then I expected it to be. The spiritual tones indicating that had Nader not been a minister, the accidental death would not have been the recipient of the as much attention. The scene where Franz sees pictures of Nader’s family on television is a prime example of the sometime irresponsibility of the press, the bomb that set him off on his path to madness. Everything about this film is gripping from start to finish, and the film’s conclusion handles everything in a perfect manner. The musical score by a young Henry Mancini is very dramatic and unlike anything else he wrote during his heyday, and the photography and editing are top notch. Even though the film is done in Cinemascope, the black and white photography aids to the mood and makes it all the better.

A priest’s extreme predicament

George Nader is the priest who is visited by a burglar at home scaring the wits out of his young son and his wife, but Nader interrupts the burglar in his act, there is a fight, and accidentally the priest kills the burglar by just throwing a hard object at him, in defence of his son, his wife and himself. He can not be convicted of the homicide, while at the same time he refuses to call it an act of self defence, as the death of the burglar nails his conscience. The burglar succeeded in damaging his wife’s eyes at that, and she has to remain blindfolded from now on, until it becomes clear whether she may keep her sight or not. Since the burglar is dead and the priest can’t be prosecuted, the case seems to be closed, but the burglar had a father, and here is the complication. The father can’t get over it, and starts stalking the reverend’s boy. The reverend tries to come to terms with him, which proves impossible. That father never speaks a word throughout the film.

It’s an educating study in the mentalities of fathers, a failed father, another father whose boy ends up in hospital, and the father of the criminal, whose depths of unfathomable anguish we can never understand, as little as his way of acting. He probably isn’t aware himself of what he is doing in persecuting the boy. What really gives the film some dynamic dimension is the terrific music by Henry Mancini. It is brutal, subconsciously suggestive and horribly intrusive, like a dramatic illustration of the common nightmare of all the protagonists. The film is unique in many ways, as I’ve never seen any film trying to cope with the same kind of dilemma of conscience, despair and death.

Pleasantly Surprised

This 1957 movie is fairly typical of a certain type of film from the fifties, usually made in black and white, often a thriller or crime drama, heavy on the suspense, with hints of madness, obsession or perversity of some sort in the villain. Most of these movies were made independently, but some studios ground them out, too. This one’s a studio job, with a good deal of location shooting, and is a tad better than the average.

Competently directed by Harry Keller, a veteran of this sort of thing, the plot revolves around a gentle, decent minister stalked by the father of a man he killed accidentally during a robbery. Most of the cast is competent if unexciting for the most part, with only Harold J. Stone really outstanding in his role as a police lieutenant. He handles his dialog excellently. The big surprise with with this one is the performance of George Nader in the lead. Never the most compelling of actors, I generally find Nader lacking in credibility in most everything he did. In this picture, however, he’s excellent as the upstanding reverend. His acting is well above average for him, and elicits genuine sympathy, from this viewer anyway, and this made watching this otherwise generic movie a pleasant surprise.