The Shrike

José Ferrer made his directing debut with this record of his stage performance in Joseph Kramm's play about a Broadway director who suffers a nervous breakdown and then starts to have flashbacks in a mental hospital. Ferrer acts his socks off, as does June Allyson as his wife, an unsuccessful actress who resents her husband's success and makes sure he never gets to read his good reviews. As a depiction of Broadway's egotism and bitchery, it may be quite accurate but as an entertainment it's defiantly gloomy. The title, by the way, is the name of a bird which impales its victims on thorns.