A film about censorship of books and why it's wrong is a noble concept. Aside from a grossly exaggerated child character who loves reading and his misguided father who doesn't understand, the first act led me to believe I was in for a juicy potboiler that was somehow lost in the Columbia vaults. I wish.
"Storm Center" is contrived and manipulative propaganda done in the most sensationalist, cartoon-like manner conceivable. The climax almost looks like a satire and is even more hokey than the red scare films it was clearly attempting to counter. This was really just Hollywood attempting to dumb down their vision of the blacklisting scandal so that even the mere dummy general public could see the evil of hatin' on commies. It didn't work. Further, the theme of book burning is used to 'subliminally' rail against McCarthyism -- they really have nothing in common, so the story sets up the offensive book in question about Communism, which allows the film to haphazardly leave its bread crumbs.
The screenplay is terrible and despite a whole lot of good talent in the cast, they are too often directed to perform on the same level as the script. (ie, Bette Davis' closing speech, Kevin Coughlin's performance after his remarkable change of personality, etc.) The entire subplot of Davis' librarian being a buddy to all the neighborhood kids is unrealistic and calculated.
I suppose it's worth watching if you have an interest in any of the cast; a number of TV character actors also appear, like Edward Platt (Get Smart) and Joseph Kearns (Dennis the Menace.) But the main interest should be to see hyperbolic melodrama at its most vacuous.
