James Maxwell and Rachel Roberts agree to foster 16-year-old Annette Whitely playing a 14-year-old. She's a nearly broken child; her mother abandoned her and is now in prison. Miss Whitely is a surly girl, adept at setting other people off, lying to set the adults against each other, and subject to fits of destructive temper. Maxwell and Miss Roberts find her a constant trial, and think they are failing her, not noticing her fondness for the dog and eventually their youngest son. It all comes to a head when Miss Whitely runs away.
It's an early offering in the British New Wave, offering a grueling glimpse into the problems of fostering children, even with the best of intentions and nearly boundless good will that frays under the constant barrage of stress. I came from a stable family, and I kept cringing at the well-written and performed outbursts. Director Charles Frend had begun at Ealing, where he directed the sentimental and heartfelt A RUN FOR YOUR MONEY; more recently he had fallen into the Bs and television work, but shows what he was still capable of with a good script and performers.