Vincent Bruce, a war veteran, begins working as an occupational therapist at Poplar Lodge, a private psychiatric facility for wealthy people where he meets Lilith Arthur, a charming young woman suffering from schizophrenia, whose fragile beauty captivates all who meet her.
Cinematography
Eugene Shuftan's lens makes madness look like a perfume ad
Acting
Jean Seberg's fragile magnetism is genuinely unsettling
Direction
Rossen's last film — slow, hypnotic, deeply personal
Director
Robert Rossen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rossen rewrote the script himself after original author Robert J. Oppenheimer objected to changes; the film's troubled production mirrored its themes of creative control.
Jean Seberg's performance channels her own public struggles—she'd been destroyed by FBI surveillance and smears, making Lilith's fragmentation eerily autobiographical.
US
