Burt Lancaster gives a commanding performance as the psychiatrist in charge of an institution for mentally handicapped children in a sincere and moving film version of American writer Abby Mann's acclaimed TV drama. It was steered to the cinema by liberal-minded producer Stanley Kramer, who two years earlier had brought Mann's Judgment at Nuremberg successfully to the big screen. Among the other admirable performances in the film are Judy Garland's obsessive teacher, Bruce Ritchey as the child with whom she gets emotionally involved, plus Gena Rowlands and Steven Hill as the child's worried parents. Unexpected choice as director John Cassavetes, though famed for much more experimental and edgy stuff, does a top-notch job, fired by the emotional power of the story.

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