Tiger Bay (1959)

Fourteen years before psychologists coined the term "Stockholm syndrome," this 1959 film skillfully explored the bizarre irony of its main symptom: the sympathy a captive exhibits for his or her captor. And the film did so with excruciating suspense and a remarkable performance by young Hayley Mills in her film debut. Stockholm syndrome entered the English lexicon in 1973 when four released hostages in Stockholm, Sweden, refused to testify against their captors, would-be bank robbers. In Tiger Bay, set in the Welsh seaport of Cardiff, Hayley's character Gillie also refuses to betray a captor. The suspense begins when she sees a murder while peering through a letter slot. After the murderer, Polish sailor Bronislav Korchinski (played by Horst Buchholtz), tracks her down, he kidnaps her. Then the unexpected happens -- Gillie and Korchinski warm to each other, and she pledges to help him escape. After her release, Gillie is good to her word and even lies to a police detective (played by Hayley's father, John Mills) to protect Korchinski. The film, directed by J. Lee Thompson, builds to a powerful climax that tests the friendship between Gillie and the murderer. Throughout the film, Mills proves her mettle as an actress, always reacting as one would expect a child in her situation to react, using her expressive face to advantage. Her performance earned her a special award at the 1959 Berlin Film Festival and a contract offer from Walt Disney Studios. Buchholtz and her father -- a veteran actor of considerable talent -- also give fine performances, but Tiger Bay is clearly Hayley Mills' film, and deservedly so. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide