Fast transfer of a smash WWII B'way play is both fascinating and unintentionally ludicrous. An OTT idea ('typical' American family take in a German refugee relative and find an unrepentant Nazi Youth!) is given an OTT treatment, right down to Louis Applebaum's balmy background score. Character actor turned megger Leslie Fenton can't camouflage a penny-pinching budget and he certainly doesn't hold the actors down. (Skippy Homeier's award-winning perf as the Nazi boy is berserk.) Yet he pulls off a remarkable chase/fight climax that's like something out of F. W. Murnau. Even Henry Sharp's lensing comes to life, recalling his glory days shooting Doug Fairbanks classics & THE CROWD. (Bump down your brightness level to increase the 'grey scale' on this Image DVD edition.) With naturalism out of the question, pros like Fredric March, Betty Field & Agnes Moorehead all succumb to heightened stage manners, but they still can't pull off the simplistic humanistic psychological ending. The story might make a bit more sense if the kid remained the monstrous automaton we first meet. Put on your own double bill with Roger Corman's THE INTRUDER/'61 and see who decides to follow the Leader.