Carol White gets out of the San Francisco airport a stranger to the city, moves in with Scott Hylands, falls pregnant, gets an abortion, breaks up with him, meets Paul Burke, gets married, has a baby. Hylands kidnaps the baby.
Mark Robson's movie is a marvel of storytelling brevity, thanks to Dorothy Spencer's editing. Burke's courtship of Miss White is a marvel of speed. On being introduced, Burke asks "How do you do?" and Miss White replies "I do" in a wedding dress. Unhappily, in its haste to get to the meat of the story, which is dealing with the abduction, all the characters are reduced to very limited types. Burke is stalwart, Hylands is crazy, Miss White is.... well, she is reduced to a plot item, saying and doing whatever is needed to advance the plot, and then moving on to the next act.
Clearly this is intended to make them less individuals, and more as stand-ins for the audience to experience their own feelings, so long as it does not involve empathy with the characters. It also leads to some dull line readings. In trying for universality, the film makers lose sight of the single human being.
Technically this is fine film making, with a score by John Williams and camerawork by Ernest Laszlo. What it lacks is humanity and the pathos that can engender.
Mark Robson's movie is a marvel of storytelling brevity, thanks to Dorothy Spencer's editing. Burke's courtship of Miss White is a marvel of speed. On being introduced, Burke asks "How do you do?" and Miss White replies "I do" in a wedding dress. Unhappily, in its haste to get to the meat of the story, which is dealing with the abduction, all the characters are reduced to very limited types. Burke is stalwart, Hylands is crazy, Miss White is.... well, she is reduced to a plot item, saying and doing whatever is needed to advance the plot, and then moving on to the next act.
Clearly this is intended to make them less individuals, and more as stand-ins for the audience to experience their own feelings, so long as it does not involve empathy with the characters. It also leads to some dull line readings. In trying for universality, the film makers lose sight of the single human being.
Technically this is fine film making, with a score by John Williams and camerawork by Ernest Laszlo. What it lacks is humanity and the pathos that can engender.