Pressure Point

When a young psychiatrist (Peter Falk) comes to his Afro-American chief (Sidney Poitier) to tell that he can not bear a thirteen year-old patient, the doctor discloses a similar experience he had with a patient when he was a rookie and worked as prison psychiatrist.

In 1942, the doctor is assigned to give psychiatric treatment and evaluate a dangerous American Nazi patient (Bobby Darin) accused of sedition. The racist patient has nightmares and insomnia and the doctor analyzes him along eighteen months, finding the reason of his disturbance. The patient convinces the board of direction that he deserves to be on probation but the doctor is reluctant and diagnoses that the patient has only resolved his sleeping problem but is still a despicable bigoted person.

"Pressure Point" is a theatrical film of intolerance and stress, dated in 2012, but nevertheless a great movie. I do not know how accurate is the psychiatric treatment, but the duel between Bobby Darin and Sidney Poitier is outstanding, both performing victims with strong characters – the patient, son of an abusive father that made him a bigot sadist and the doctor, a winner in a racist society. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Tormentos da Alma" ("Torments of the Soul")

As a kid, I never failed to catch this movie when it was on TV. Bobby D. steals the show as a nazi punk with big time mental problems. He played a similar role in" Captain Newman, M.D." but this one had more meat to it.The boy actor who played Bobby D. as a child is Barry Gordon. There is an interesting Jack Benny connection here. In a 1961 Jack Benny Show, Jack was casting a TV special about his life story. A little boy comes in to audition and Jack is pleased that his parents aren't with him probably because he can get the kid for less money.Then the boy actor's "agent" (Barry Gordon) storms in and makes demands on the surprised Benny. Jack immediately signs up Barry to play him as a child instead of the kid actor. Little Barry wowed the studio audience with a letter- perfect imitation of Benny's famous"Well!" complete with black suit and tie and eyeglasses. A few years later Benny did an episode where he was casting a movie about his life and Bobby D. was the guest star. This time Jack wanted Bobby to play him as a young man! It should also be noted that James Anderson who plays Barry/Bobby's sadistic butcher father in "Pressure Point" is the same actor who played the sadistic racist father in "To KIll a Mockingbird" which like "Captain Newman, M.D." featured a young actor called Robert Duvall as a catatonic.Mr. Anderson was always excellent in a malevolent role. Downright menacing I'd say. If Bobby had lived he might have tied Sinatra in the "legendary all-around entertainer" category.

Bobby Darin has earned my utmost respect.

I've heard "Mack the Knife" and other snappy songs by him, but I only recently realized that he was an actor as well. I'll admit that this was not a rented movie or something I sought out, just one that I caught from the classic channel, but it was from beginning to end, no commercials or cuts and I cannot express how much admiration I have for Bobby Darin. He came from a weird life (a life only Jack Nicholson could relate to) and add to that a disease that shortened it, but Bobby Darin made his time around one to be remembered. This man's performance in 'Pressure Point' stunned me.

Darin plays a man who's childhood was not one to be envious of. This man's life became even less envious, because the story takes place inside a prison where he is a convict. Sidney Poitier plays the prisons psychiatrist and Darin is sent to him because he cannot sleep due to anxiety. Poitier's character has a hard time with Darin's due to the fact that he is extremely racist (a Nazi even) and is continually treating Poitier as though he understands how he feels is wrong but doesn't care (that is the attitude that I got from it). That he knows everything he feels is based on a lie but he simply does not care...it allows him to be violent and hateful and that is why he does what he does. It's pretty scary and even though sometime you think, "goodness, I hate that sometimes what Darin's character is saying makes a little sense, what in the world is Poitier going to say to that?", that's when the doctor sets him straight.

I am a pretty emotional person and this movie really knows how to pull at them, even for an older movie, it has its 'I can't believe he said that' moments, but it was very impressive for Bobby and Sidney to do a movie with such a point, when others at the time were doing such cheesy things.

Splendidly acted social drama produced by Stanley Kramer. As is usually the case with Kramer productions (except perhaps "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"), "Pressure Point" looks at society and the human condition, finding much to admire, but also much to deplore. Sidney Poitier is on the side of righteousness, playing a black prison psychiatrist whose ideals are challenged by his patient, a bigoted Nazi played by singer Bobby Darin.

The film is most impressive for its refusal to pander to an audience whose enjoyment might be enhanced if all the conflicts between the protagonists were resolved at the conclusion, but "Pressure Point" does not compromise its own integrity by pretending to provide easy answers to the questions it raises. Doctor and patient do not reach an understanding-- they do not embrace each other at the end, nor does the film suggest that society has benefitted from the encounter between two such disparate souls. Life simply goes on, and so do its troubles. "Pressure Point" makes its point subtly without a lot of sanctimonious preaching, and is more effective as a result.

The two stars are well matched with Poitier bringing his usual humanity and quiet pride to a role that does not place as much emphasis on his skin color as one would expect in a 1962 production. Darin is simply superb as Poitier's patient, and one can't help but admire the popular crooner for having had the courage to inhabit such an unappealing character at a time when he was still one of pop music's most prominent "teen idols" (and husband of America's sweetheart, Sandra Dee). The cinematography, music, and direction (by Hubert Cornfield) match the performances perfectly.

I don't know why this film is virtually unknown. For its time it must have been very controversial and even today it still packs a wallop of a punch. But I am as equally impressed by the style of this film as I am with the performances and the screenplay. Fans of THE TWILIGHT ZONE will feel right at home with the stark B&W stylization of the dream sequences and the childhood flashbacks. Yet like any great film, it doesn't let its style overwhelm the viewer. It simply acts as a springboard from which it can stun the viewer with the emotional impact of the story. It takes a lot to shock me, yet the flashbacks of the patient's childhood (especially one terrifying scene in a meat hanger that reminded me of the father-son relationship in PEEPING TOM) chilled me with its honest portrayal of childhood terror and helplessness. The other aspect of this film that intrigued me was the whole analytical forum of intellectual cat-and-mouse between patient and doctor. Realistically, an adult black man in the 1940s would have built up a shield to fend off the kinds of brutal statements made by his patient. But the patient's high intelligence throws Poitier off guard. He makes Poitier confront the injustices and indignities present in the country that he is so vigorously defending, thus he makes him confront his own anger and contempt. He makes Poitier an ally in anger, and that would throw anyone off balance. I also want to congratulate the film for its honest portrayals of terror and humiliation. An abusive game of tic-tac-toe in the hands of another director and actor would have come off as silly, but here it is startling and chilling. I don't know why Bobby Darin didn't continue his career with more dramatic performances like this but I'm grateful that this one is out there on video. It's one of the best performances that I've seen by an actor in anything!