Child's Play

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Child's Play

PG

Released Dec 12, 1972

1h 40m

Drama

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4 Reviews

50%

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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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Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

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.

Sep 29, 2023

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Brian Orndorf

Blu-ray.com

"Child's Play" has its issues, including an absurdly overbearing score by Michael Small, but it never falters when it focuses on acting.

Rated: B-

Mar 3, 2025

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a complete misfire that remains hopelessly unable to hide its stage origins from start to finish.

Rated: 1/4

Dec 31, 2021

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Tony Mastroianni

Cleveland Press

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.

Nov 16, 2018

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Steve D

Unsettling but never interesting.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/02/23

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Audience Member

CLever BUT DUMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

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Audience Member

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...

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Audience Member

(** 1/2): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img]

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

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Audience Member

Mason is fantastic but the rest of the movie is too melodramatic and way beyond the scope of reality.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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john l

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.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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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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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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