The main draw here is an 18-year old, baby-face Dennis Hopper, in a role quite unlike his usual screen persona. He's Robert, a painfully shy epilectic, who's been kept sheltered by his aged aunt. When she dies, he's turned over to medical authorities for treatment of his malady. Unfortunately, there's no cure, but there are treatments, including the possibility that the attacks will simply go away. But now, Robert must adjust to a more normal life, which his shyness hasn't prepared him for.
Hopper is winning in a sympathetic role, showing an affecting range of subtle emotions. The epilectic attacks are also convincingly done. I wouldn't be surprised the performance here influenced his later casting in Nicholas Ray's epochal Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Also impressive is unknown Evelyn Eaton as the understanding nurse. Anyway, it's easy to see that Hopper was on his way up the Hollywood ladder, even if many of his later characters were as different from the conventional Robert as day is from night.
Hopper is winning in a sympathetic role, showing an affecting range of subtle emotions. The epilectic attacks are also convincingly done. I wouldn't be surprised the performance here influenced his later casting in Nicholas Ray's epochal Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Also impressive is unknown Evelyn Eaton as the understanding nurse. Anyway, it's easy to see that Hopper was on his way up the Hollywood ladder, even if many of his later characters were as different from the conventional Robert as day is from night.
