Crisis

A film set in a Latin American country. Doctor Ferguson is on holiday with his wife. Their car is stopped on the road and soldiers take them away. The reason is this: the country's dictator, Farrago, has a tumour on the brain and must be operated on. Ferguson is a brain surgeon and it has become known that he is passing through. Ferguson refuses to operate. His wife is then held. At the same time there is an uprising in the city. The resistance reaches the doctor and wants the opposite: for the man to die on the table. From there the film is about a man caught between two pressures. Ferguson took an oath as a physician; both sides want that oath broken in their favour. Farrago is the most interesting thing in it. He is shown not as a crude tyrant but as clever, sardonic and well aware of his position; he is also afraid of his illness. The matter at the centre is whether professional responsibility can be separated from politics. Cary Grant plays Ferguson, José Ferrer plays Farrago, Paula Raymond his wife and Signe Hasso the dictator's wife. Richard Brooks directed and wrote it; it is his first film as director. It did not do well at the box office and stayed a little known production for a long time. An interesting choice for anyone who likes political tension and narratives of moral dilemma. For a viewer expecting action, the film takes place almost entirely in rooms and conversations.