Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Pluskylang Great Film overall

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Neil Doyle This unknown little MGM item is based on a Charlotte Armstrong story (American mystery writer who wrote THE UNSUSPECTED and DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, among others). The main focus is on the little boy (BILLY GRAY) who thinks the new menacing neighbor is the man who killed his faithfuldog and he's played with professional assurance by Gray. In fact, he has to carry the film since GEORGE MURPHY and NANCY DAVIS are relegated to roles on the sidelines.It's directed in competent style by Arthur Bradley, photographed in more than competent style by John Alton, full of moody B&W imagery, but the story is so thin it's almost transparent and winds up in a brief running time of one hour and five minutes.The last ten minutes wind up the story in good fashion, although the ending is a bit hard to swallow, as contrived and synthetic as any character-driven tale could be. KURT KAZNAR is the mean looking neighbor who suddenly turns out to be Mr. Good Guy when we learn about his past. The simple moral of this fable is that you can't judge a book by its cover, nor a person by first impressions.I have no criticism of Billy Gray's performance in the central role. He was one of the least self-conscious of all the child actors who came along at this time--and probably reached his peak as Doris Day's bratty little brother in BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON and ON MOONLIGHT BAY.

Scarecrow-88 A child's pet dog dies of poisoning and young Robert(Billy Gray)points the finger at a mysterious neighbor named "Matlock"(Kurt Kasznar)who lives near where the mutt was found dead. Robert pursues the truth with passion and without restraint no matter the consequences his doggedness brings..but is he correct on his presumption that Matlock committed the deed to start with? Robert didn't see Matlock actually poison the dog, but a few near run-ins with the strange, quiet man who keeps to himself, separated from the little town merely only to drop in for supplies every now and then, motivates his blinded rage for finding the truth against him making up most of this little film. Robert's father(George Murphy) is an orange farmer and when Daddy doesn't charge Matlock for supposedly killing the dog, their relationship is strained. We watch as Robert, Jr. forces his hand around town asking local newspaper publisher William Wardlaw(Lewis Stone)to print the story of Matlock's poisoning the dog. While Wardlaw won't just publish a story based on theory, he does encourage Robert the truth by asking around and fishing for clues. So Robert does, but his anger for the loss of his pet pooch might cause the young lad to make rash decisions he might soon regret.Little film barely runs over an hour and has a simple story regarding the reasons for not storming blindly against someone without knowing all the facts just because the accused seems guilty of the crime presented. The boy is the perfect protagonist for his dangerous mission might not yield the results he built up in his little mind..yet his pursuit often causes him to make irrational decisions which could cause multiple harm to others. And, I'm pretty sure many will point out that this whole dangerous mission is over "just a mutt", but I think to a kid who grown to love it with all his heart, that this film is able to capture that. Still, when the result is shown, the child makes a decision out of hatred, and it could possibly affect the farmers trying to make a living with the frost threatening their crops, that the film comes full circle speaking it's peace(the moral lesson this story had been planning to unleash) about finger-pointing without knowing for sure if the one whose getting singled out is actually the culprit. I think this flick is much ado about nothing, but it does build up some tension considering the child's journey into possible(this is the word I'm trying to emphasize) shark-infested waters. Some fabulous photographic work by John Alton bringing a noirish look that actually heightens the suspense which might dazzle some viewers(there is a cool sequence where little Robert is returning home from a California estate that might've pointed out Matlock as a murderer and appears on the verge of being run over just to watch the headlights split under the fog pointing out a young man on a motorcycle, or the scene where it, at first appears, that Robert is being pursued by Matlock in the orange grove), but the film, in my opinion, isn't that lasting..you'll probably forget it shortly after you've watched it.

David (Handlinghandel) This movie is creepy. To a small degree it's creepy in the way it intends: It does seem as if Harper Lee may have seen this before writing her lovely "To Kill A Mockingbird," also about children (here just one child) wrongly suspicious of an odd neighbor.In that novel, and the movie made of it, the children are very likable. Billy Grey is not, though possibly he was at the time. Maybe if I ha been a little boy seeing this at the time I would have identified.The fact is, though, the boy at the center of this is very troubled, constantly near the brink of hysterics. When he is acting like a boy, he is shooting a toy gun or making gun sounds. In a time capsule, this aspect would be interesting indeed but today it is distasteful.The original may well have had to do with the boy's worries about his mother's pregnancy. Would a new little girl (the whole thing seems very misogynistic) or little boy take away all her attention? Something, for sure, has made his kid a bundle of nerves.Nancy Davis has a thankfully small role and so does George Murphy. Kurt Kazsner as the eponymous stranger is good, as are the supporting players.The fifties gave us some fine music and art but a little item like this serves to remind, or show someone unfamiliar with that decade, what an unpleasant time it was, also.

Eric Chapman Rather surprising that the director here, David Bradley, would go on to make some notoriously awful films. There isn't quite enough to the story and the ending is a timid disappointment, but the film boasts some unusually powerful, even unforgettable imagery. The kind that, if you see this movie as a child, will probably stick with you for a lifetime.Bradley does a wonderful job conveying a sense of how alien and intimidating the world must look through the eyes of a ten year old, especially when that ten year old ventures outside the safe, protected space that is his every day environment. (An environment that seems relatively harmless during the day but hostile and terrifying at night.)What images. The boy's head framed against the backdrop of the huge, sinister house next door where the mysterious, ill-tempered man resides. The boy sprinting through a fog-enshrouded orchard toward a raised, judgmental camera. Hitch-hiking on the side of a lonely highway as headlights bear down. A motorcyclist appearing like a ghost. Getting a ride through the dark in the cold night air, the biker's affable ramblings distant, dream-like. A mesmerizing montage of the boy watching his dedicated dad scrambling to heat his orchards on a night when the temperature drops below freezing, lighting flame after flame after flame. A subtle, unsettling sequence set in an abandoned home on the ocean where a creepy older boy scares the living daylights out of him."Father Knows Best" brat Billy Gray plays the lonely boy and he is an odd, atypically intense child actor. At times he is effective, at others he is simply obnoxious. He is one moody little actor in a moody little film. He would probably even unnerve that red-headed demon from those unfortunate "Problem Child" movies. Nobody else in the cast makes much of an impression, though everyone is adequate. George Murphy is the decent dad. Nancy Davis (actually not a bad actress at all) is hardly on screen and when she is she's playing the least pregnant looking pregnant lady you'll ever see. Kurt Kasznar is the strange neighbor, though he's not as ghoulish or ghastly looking as you're supposed to think he is. The child actress who plays Gray's nemesis/sweetheart, a girl named Anna Glomb, looks remarkably like Denise Richards must have looked like at the same age.A not-so-distant cousin of "To Kill A Mockingbird". Bradley was clearly a uniquely gifted film-maker, though this may be the only evidence of that talent. What happened?