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Child's Play

Play trailer Poster for Child's Play PG 1972 1h 40m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 4 Reviews 50% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Paul Reis (Beau Bridges) arrives for his new job as gym teacher at the Roman Catholic all-boys boarding school he attended as a youth. It does not take long, however, for Reis to perceive that something strange is going on. An alarming feud is raging between Joe Dobbs (Robert Preston), the likable English teacher, and Jerome Malley (James Mason), the authoritarian Latin teacher. Reis, the outsider, resists getting involved, but it becomes inevitable once the student body erupts into violence.
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Child's Play

Critics Reviews

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Pauline Kael The New Yorker 09/29/2023
The movie version of Child’s Play needed a polished surface and suave craftsmanship. Instead, it has been turned into a horror melodrama -- to cash in, One assumes, on the young movie audience’s new interest in diabolism. Go to Full Review Brian Orndorf Blu-ray.com Mar 3
B-
"Child's Play" has its issues, including an absurdly overbearing score by Michael Small, but it never falters when it focuses on acting. Go to Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews 12/31/2021
1/4
...a complete misfire that remains hopelessly unable to hide its stage origins from start to finish. Go to Full Review Tony Mastroianni Cleveland Press 11/16/2018
Child's Play comes on strong with its feeling of something ominous, of a pervading sense of evil and for most of its 100-minute length it manages to maintain that notion of undefined menace. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Steve D 08/02/2023 Unsettling but never interesting. See more 08/26/2019 CLever BUT DUMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB See more 04/29/2017 A little too schlocky and melodramatic for my tastes. It also didn't help that it couldn't decide who was the protagonist here and who was the antagonist... See more 07/24/2014 (** 1/2): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img] See more 04/18/2014 Mason is fantastic but the rest of the movie is too melodramatic and way beyond the scope of reality. See more john l 04/10/2014 Based on a stage play of the same name, it's typical Lumet stage play adaptation to film that retains much of a stage play "feel" to it. The film centers around the blood feud between Jerome Malley (James Mason) and Joseph Dobbs (Robert Preston) with a newcomer PE teacher and sports coach to the school Paul Reis (Beau Bridges) getting caught in the middle of the feud between the two, each one attempting to get him to side with him. Malley (Mason) repeatedly accuses Dobbs (Preston) of subterfuge and maliciously going things to malign his character. Tension gradually builds through the entire film until it reaches a climactic head at the end, and it won't be what most expect. A first rate psychological thriller, it's like most stage plays, longer on dialog and shorter on action as there are limits to how much "action" one can have on a stage. That's OK as this is a cerebral thriller, not an action thriller. See more Read all reviews
Child's Play

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Cast & Crew

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Sidney Lumet

Director

James Mason

Jerome Malley

Robert Preston

Joseph Dobbs

Beau Bridges

Paul Reis

Ron Weyand

Father Mozian

Charles White

Father Griffin
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Child's Play

Child's Play (1972) Child's Play (1972) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Paul Reis (Beau Bridges) arrives for his new job as gym teacher at the Roman Catholic all-boys boarding school he attended as a youth. It does not take long, however, for Reis to perceive that something strange is going on. An alarming feud is raging between Joe Dobbs (Robert Preston), the likable English teacher, and Jerome Malley (James Mason), the authoritarian Latin teacher. Reis, the outsider, resists getting involved, but it becomes inevitable once the student body erupts into violence.
Director
Sidney Lumet
Producer
David Merrick
Screenwriter
Leon Prochnik
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Production Co
Paramount Pictures
Rating
PG
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 12, 1972, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 1, 2013
Runtime
1h 40m
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