John Cassavetes portrays an American gambler, recently sprung from jail, who returns to England and his girlfriend of fourteen years earlier. She now is remarried and has a son-exactly fourteen years old. The boy's traumatic confusion as to the identity of his father is exacerbated by his experiences in school, where he is the victim of bullying seniors and a sadistic schoolmaster. "Written by Leo Marks, the great wartime code-breaker who, a couple of years earlier, had also written Peeping Tom, an equally quirky foray into troubled father-son relationships, The Webster Boy is virtually unknown in the U.S.... That doesn't make it a great film, of course, but it is unorthodox and interesting and with some extremely good performances. Moreover, although conditions have changed a great deal, at the time its depiction of the absolute power enjoyed (and mis-used) by certain masters in the British school system was not at all exaggerated, although fortunately the sadistic schoolmaster depicted here...was not a regular component of most facilities." William K. Everson