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Despite an outstanding cast and a talented director--Laslo Benedek (THE WILD ONE; DEATH OF A SALESMAN)--this is a lackluster thriller. Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow became available when MGM turned thumbs down on Fred Zinnemann's A MAN'S FATE, so they jumped feet first into this project, and one wonders if they bothered to read the script. Salem (von Sydow) is being housed in a Swedish prison for the insane because he has been convicted of killing a farmhand with an axe. The truth is that he's innocent; the murder was actually done by Esther Jenks (Ullmann) and her physician husband, Anton (Oscarsson). Although the asylum he is held in is supposedly escape-proof, Salem is able to come and go as he pleases, undetected. Taking advantage of this situation, he visits violent, though cleverly untraceable, revenge on those responsible for his unjust conviction and on the family and friends who refused to testify on his behalf at his trial.