The Frame

This simple title heads a deceptively simple story detailing one day at a city police precinct, largely confined to the station’s second floor. This rather claustrophobic setting is peopled with weary detectives questioning petty criminals, a young man driven to embezzlement and the girl who loves him unconditionally, and the star detective of the force, obsessed with justice to the exclusion of mercy. His strict definition of righteousness is tested when his current investigation into a murder case uncovers an unsavory side to his wife’s past. The conflict between his uncompromising moral sense and love for his wife brings this contemporary Javert to a crisis of character. It’s a small film, played in a cramped three rooms and on the faces of Kirk Douglas and Eleanor Parker, but well-done and attention-holding–aside from a few instances of old-fashioned overacting which threatens credulity at times.
Well Above Average