Man Afraid

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.

George Nader and Phyllis Thaxter starred in Man Afraid from 1957, featuring Tim Hovey, Eduard Franz, Martin Milner, and Harold J. Stone, as well other familiar faces.

A burglar breaks into the home of David (Nader) and Lisa Collins (Thaxter) entering into their son Michael's (Hovey) room. Thinking the music box might have jewelry, he opens it. Hearing the music, Lisa enters. The burglar scratches her corneas during a struggle; David enters, throws a snow globe at his head and kills him.

David is extremely upset that he's killed a man. He's called a hero, which he doesn't like, and he asks to speak to the boy's father, Carl (Franz). Meanwhile, Lisa will have to wear patches and an eye mask until her eyes are healed.

Carl Simmons then begins stalking Michael. Of course times were different then. His parents thought nothing of letting him walk to his friend's house in the dark. He runs home sweating he's seen Simmons, whom he encountered while playing. Later he actually enters the Simmons' home.

This isn't a bad B movie, nor is it great. The pace is a little too leisurely and uneven. George Nader was a decent actor and handsome. While his career in films here wasn't spectacular, he had a good TV career and starred in films in Germany.

In 1972, he began to work for Rock Hudson; he and his partner, Mark Miller, were like family to Hudson and inherited the interest of his $27 million estate.

Sadly, the child, Tim Hovey, died of a drug overdose at the age of 44.

I'm sorry, but. I wasn't afraid of a man who didnt change his clothes for over a week. You could probably smell him two blocks away. George Nader plays a minister and is relatively convincing. Eduard Franz, however, steals the film as the sicko Simmons, who wants some type of revenge for his son being killed by a fastball to the bean of his son by the minister while he was robbing a house. He had it coming. Nice pitching job by Nader; he might have helped the Yankees that year.

Watchable mess just for the Simmons character. The music by Henry Mancini is not very romanic. Nader's son, Michael Collins, would go on to become a great leader of the Irish resistance in Ireland, although the name might just be a coincidence. Don't waste your time on this one.

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.

Growing up, my list of favorite action heroes was an odd one, including George Nader, who I enjoyed starring in that series of German-made B movies beloved by TV syndication packages (similarly, Klaus Kinski my favorite villain from his endless Edgar Wallace junkers -imagine my thrill in 1981 interviewing the great KK when "Venom" was released!).

Here we have Nader starring as a most unusual man of the cloth, playing perhaps the obverse of the character played by Charles Bronson in "Death Wish" two decades later. Watching this Universal-International release on Youtube in glorious CinemaScope and crisp black & white just now was a reminder of the late '50s when theaters were a great leveller - little movies given a deluxe treatment. In fact, here's a Nader vehicle shot by the great Russell Metty and boasting an original score by Henry Mancini!

The problem with "Man Afraid" is very, very poor pacing. The opening reel dramatically sets the table: putting all the elements of suspense and thrills in play, then for seemingly a full hour the picture just lies there, not action-packed, not heroic, but merely repetitive. Eduard Franz as the silent, dour bad guy wanders around threateningly, and given that this came from Universal Pictures, I immediately thought of The Mummy, that shambling horror figure in the studio's pantheon who is the least frightening of all, desperately in need of a shot of industrial strength Geritol.

Nader is earnest and forced to carry the movie single-handed, while poor Phyllis Thaxter as his wife is scripted pathetically, literally.