Man Afraid (1957)

When a minister (George Nader) and his wife (Phyllis Thaxter) catch a burglar in their son's (Tim Hovey) room, the ensuing struggle ends with an injury to the wife's eyes and the unintentional killing of the burglar. Then, the minister must deal with not only his wife's temporary blindness but the resulting publicity and the burglar's vengeful father (Eduard Franz). Directed by Harry Keller (THE UNGUARDED MOMENT), this noir-ish thriller with a slight religious bent is inept film making. The suspense is weak, it has one of those annoying children (Hovey) who causes all sorts of problems because he doesn't listen, an ineffectual leading man and no real background on the vengeful father (whose son was a bad one), who's played as some sort of boogeyman. On the plus side, there's some good shadowy cinematography by the great Russell Metty (TOUCH OF EVIL) and a very early Henry Mancini score. With Reta Shaw, Martin Milner, Mabel Albertson and Harold J. Stone.