Cinema: Crisis of Character

A Covenant with Death. Some people think character is an old-fashioned word. In this seemingly modest melodrama, Director Lament Johnson ambitiously attempts to bring the word up to date—to say what is wrong with an all-too-average American male, and what he has to do to make himself a man.

The man in the making is a small-town lawyer (George Maharis) who at 29 is appointed to the bench. He has the training but he lacks the character for the job. He still lives at home with a matriarchal mother (Katy Jurado) and keeps company with a girl friend (Laura Devon) who seems less interested in him than in what he can give her—”a home and kids and a sensible car.”

The new judge, in short, is a boy who has been sent to do a man’s work; but the work quickly forces him to grow up. A man convicted of killing his wife runs amok on his hanging day and kills the executioner. Before a new hangman can be brought in, another man confesses to the original murder. Acquitted of that crime, the husband is then accused of murdering the hangman. The legal dilemma that confronts the young judge: Does a man have the right to kill a representative of justice in self-defense, in order to prevent a miscarriage of justice?

In facing up to his dilemma, the hero must also face up to his unmanliness. The theme is not original, but in scenes that conquer the cliche, the hero gives his girl friend the gate and reads his mother the riot act: “Leave me alone.

A man’s life is in my hands. And so is my own.” A few days later, right or wrong, the young judge delivers judgment and takes his place as a man in the world of men.