Five Finger Exercise (1962)

Set in the summer home of an upper middle class family in the seaside town of Carmel in California, the film follows the unraveling of a dysfunctional family precipitated by the presence of a gentle, sensitive German emigre (Maximilian Schell) whose attendance causes them to face their maladjusted lives. Directed by Daniel Mann (THE ROSE TATTOO) and based on the play by Peter Shaffer (AMADEUS, EQUUS), the play is transposed from England to America which causes it to lose some of its resonance though the film keeps the father (Jack Hawkins) a Brit. There have been many books and movies about the "innocent" American who goes to Europe only to be corrupted by the worldly Europeans. Here, it is the innocent European who is nearly destroyed by the poisonous American family which feeds upon itself. Schell is wonderful but Rosalind Russell as the family's pretentious matriarch overplays her hand. At times it feels like she's regurgitating her AUNTIE MAME performance but this time without the comedic inflections. Richard Beymer (WEST SIDE STORY), never the strongest actor, is saddled with some of the play's most affected dialogue and can't manage to make it sound real instead of being a mouthpiece for the author. Still, the storyline is strong enough to sustain one's interest though the abrupt ending seems like we've been left out of the loop and the film touches peripherally on German guilt about WWII which I wish had been expanded on. Harry Stradling did the crisp B&W cinematography almost making us forget this was once a play and Jerome Moross did the score. With Annette Gorman and Lana Wood.