IMDb plot summary: At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.
Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring James Mason, Robert Preston, and Beau Bridges.
Child's Play -- not the Chucky movie, this one's by Sidney Lumet -- is set in an all-boys' school where James Mason and Robert Preston are warring teachers. Preston is a warm, sympathetic ear who challenges his students gently, while Mason is a zero-tolerance taskmaster who all the boys hate, and he's convinced Preston is out to get him. There's been a mysterious uptick in unexplained violence at the school, and the new gym teacher is trying to figure out what's going on and whether it has something to do with the feuding teachers. This is some sort of halfway point between the melodrama of Lumet's earlier works and the dark crime noir of his later ones, and it's kind of an odd mix that ends up leaning into a strange psychological gothic horror. It works, but it's an odd duck. The mystery of figuring out what's actually going on is very compelling, and the answer isn't obvious at any point -- I kept going back and forth about what I thought was happening and why, and the final answer gave me a satisfying ending. Definitely a fun little gem!
How it entered my Flickchart:
Child's Play > The Keep
Child's Play < Till Death
Child's Play > Poltergeist
Child's Play < Watchmen
Child's Play > The General
Child's Play > The Death of Stalin
Child's Play > Carefree
Child's Play < Death by Hanging
Child's Play > Mary Poppins Returns
Child's Play > The Happening
Child's Play < The Harvey Girls
Final spot: #1117 out of 3519, or 68%.
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