Flood Tide

This is a wonderful film, a wonderful story, well acted in perfectly convincing realism and advanced psychology of the very trickiest kind, because it is the story of a crippled boy whose mind is distorted by the tragedy of his life, which has embittered him beyond human recognition; but fortunately one person sees him through and takes him on and makes wonderful job of mental rehabilitation by taking him out in a boat and teaching him to sail. There are few films of this very high psychological calibre, and the one which comes closest to my mind in equally empathic understanding is "Johnny Belinda" 1948 by Jean Negulesco, which is more shocking by all means but all the same presents the same kind of extremely fine human sensitivity. George Nader and Cornell Borchers are both outstandingly excellent, but still the prize goes to the boy Michel Ney, a very serious child of ten years, who really only expresses himself by his eyes, until he is taken out to the sea. There gradually his personality is awakened from the nightmare eternity of disability, making it possible for him to reassess himself and reach maturity. It's a long way to the final conclusion and redemption, but when it finally comes I don't see how any eye could refrain from crying.