Loretta Young presents this dramatic tale for her TV series in her usual glamorous, dress-spinning fashion, pearly smile and fawn eyes ablaze. However, the minute she takes over in the story as the rigid, spinsterish principal of a typical American high school, one senses the smart talents behind this work, with solid writing and directing backing Young and her supporting cast. Walter Slezak is terrific as a Hungarian physics teacher who doesn't fit in with the students or the staff, or with principal Young (seems he prefers to forgo taking roll and rely on his memory, while his students are complaining about the amount of homework he assigns). Suellyn Lyon (later to be Sue Lyon, star of Kubrick's "Lolita") plays a flirtatious teenager with a curvy figure who accuses Slezak of making inappropriate comments to her, forcing Young to sit in on Slezak's class to find out if her negative first impression of him was correct. Written by Michael Cosgrove and Pauline Stone, from a story by Walter Tevis, this perceptive study of human behavior isn't overheated or ham-handed in the slightest. It leaves an impact behind, mostly with its small gestures and quiet observations. All the performances are first-rate, with Lyon very fine in her acting debut.
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