Man Afraid

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.

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.

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.

Having disturbed and overpowered a burglar in his son's bedroom (No doubt in search of a priceless jigsaw puzzle), church minister George Nader is shocked to find himself at the centre of a homicide case. Who would have imagined that skidding on a toy, seconds before being involved in a head on collision with a flying snow globe would have such tragic consequences?

The relatively tense climax and moralistic denouement only partially mask the fact that much of the plot is just a series of cobbled together contrivances. Terrorized, half blind Phyllis Thaxter contrives to demolish a table lamp and dislodge pictures from the wall as she frantically reels around the room, while hard as nails detective Harold J. Stone contrives to be ultra cynical as Nader shovels more and more clues in his direction. When Nader discovers vital evidence in the form of a tin box full of half smoked dimps, dog ends and roll ups, close to the church bazaar, he bizarrely neglects to hand it in to the police. When he later returns to the spot.....Whaddya know? It's gone!

Home security was clearly low on Nader's list of priorities. Long before the walk-in shower became fashionable, he had a walk-in house. An all too easy target for the passing trade of thieves, prowlers and cops.

Man Afraid is.....Oh Man! A frayed and frazzled stab at film noir. Never rising above routine, a loose retread of the previous year's 'The Killer is Loose', with disturbed loner, Eduard Franz out to avenge the murder of his son paralleling angry, grudge bearing Wendell Corey's eye for an eye fixation in the aftermath of his wife's fatal shooting.

The reverend George Nader hears noise from his son's bedroom and goes in to investigate. He leaves the lights off to avoid waking the child. When he dimly sees a burglar, he throws a snow globe at him, and kills him. After police lieutenant Harold Stone investigates, he goes home. The papers cover the news, and we see shots of the burglar's father, tailor Eduard Franz, ripping the seams out of a coat with a razor.

Odd things start happening, and eventually Nader concludes that Franz is stalking Nader's son, Tim Hovey. The police refuse to do anything because of lack of evidence.

It's a very slow and very flat build-up, so much so that all the suspense was drained out of the story, and Nader's near-constant, solemn and pastoral demeanor don't help much. There's some good camerawork by DP Russell Metty, including views of the seedy parts of Santa Monica Pier. With Phyllis Thaxter, Reta Shaw and Martin Milner.