Child's Play

Nearly ten years after graduating from St. Charles Catholic School for Boys, Paul Reis returns to the school as the new physical education teacher. After meeting with headmaster Father Frank Mozian, Paul is welcomed in the faculty lounge by his former English teacher, Joseph Dobbs. When Father Bill Griffin observes with concern that thirty-five students are on detention, Father George Penny cynically calls the boys "little killers." Dobbs dismisses Father Griffin's apprehension, reminding them that the students are always restless before winter holidays. When Latin teacher Jerome Malley comes into the lounge, Dobbs asks him to reconsider reporting student Jennings for a prank phone call to Malley's home. Malley refuses, asserting that he will bring the issue up with Father Mozian. Later, Paul accompanies Dobbs to his classroom and they reminisce about Paul's days as a student. After Paul admits the stern Malley still frightens him, Dobbs confides that he looks forward to assuming responsibility for the senior class once Malley retires. The men visit the gym but upon hearing a noise from the locker room, Paul goes to investigate and is horrified to find several students forcibly slamming the arm of another boy, Travis, in a locker door. After the students flee, Paul questions the injured Travis about the incident, but the boy refuses to comment. When Paul returns to the lounge and mentions the disturbing assault, Father Penny relates that students have seriously injured six boys at the school and wonders what is causing the malevolence among them. That evening, Malley, who lives with his elderly, infirm mother, is angered when Dobbs telephones him to discuss Jennings. The next day in Malley's class, only Fred Banks successfully translates the assigned text correctly. Later in gym class, Paul asks Banks to supervise the class momentarily while he returns to the lounge for his stopwatch. Paul finds Malley and Dobbs quarrelling, with Malley accusing Dobbs of going to extremes to win the students' affections. When the men hear muffled cheering from the gym, Paul hastens back to find several boys striking a prostrate Banks. After his cries to stop the attack fail, Paul strikes two students to reach the strangely submissive Banks, whose eye is shockingly bloodied. At a staff meeting later, Paul relates the incidents surrounding the assault, ending with his stunned conclusion that Banks seemed to want to be hurt. Uncertain how to respond, Father Mozian declares that the school cannot suspend all eleven of the boys who attacked Banks. Afterward, Father Mozian meets privately with Malley to request that he drop his accusation against Jennings in light of the far more serious Banks incident. When Malley refuses, insisting that despite his rigid expectations he cares about the students, Father Mozian points out that the students despise him, reflected by the crude graffiti about Malley scrawled in the boys' lavatory. Mozian then gives Malley an ugly note being passed among the students and is startled when Malley accuses Dobbs of writing it. Later, Paul and Dobbs visit Banks in the infirmary, where the injured boy refuses to discuss the assault but hints there is some pact among the boys. In the chapel that afternoon, Malley finds Dobbs, who expresses his concern that Malley's inflexible manner has alienated the students. Malley criticizes Dobbs for taking all his complaints to Father Mozian and acknowledges his awareness of Dobbs's hatred for him, but implores Dobbs to stop tormenting his ailing mother with phone calls to their home. After the men depart the chapel from opposite ends of the church, several boys gather in the gloom and move the altar's life-size Christ statue. Later, when Father Griffin arrives to set up mass, he is mortified to find a dazed student, stripped and bound, hanging over the altar. After the incident, Dobbs learns that Father Mozian has instituted a cessation of all mass services and ordered the students to leave the building directly after classes. Soon after, Malley's mother's condition worsens and upon the advice of the live-in nurse, Malley has her hospitalized. Father Griffin contacts Malley to inform him that he may take time off, but Malley refuses and instead of going to the hospital, returns to St. Charles. Malley finds only Paul in the lounge and angrily begins searching Dobbs's desk. When Paul expresses concern over Malley's agitation, Malley accuses him of joining in Dobbs's plan to harass him and force his retirement. Sensing Paul's sincere confusion, however, Malley reveals he is searching for a magazine that he claims Dobbs sent him. Not finding the magazine, Malley sits at his desk and reflects that he knows he was unpopular with even Paul's class, but believes his blunt honesty is best for students. Soon after, when the hospital telephones to report Mrs. Malley has died, Malley laments that Dobbs's actions have kept him from his mother's side. Late in the afternoon, while alone in the lounge, Paul discovers a framed picture of Jesus with the eyes gouged out lying on the floor outside the door. When Dobbs arrives, Paul express his fears that the students are prowling about, then mentions Malley's accusations and distress. Angered, Dobbs complains that he has endured years of Malley's warped allegations and knows Malley believes that Dobbs hounded Mrs. Malley to her death. Insisting that the students despise Malley's bitter destructiveness and want him to leave the school, Dobbs declares he will always support "his" boys. The day after Mrs. Malley's funeral, Malley returns to the school, although his classes have been reassigned to a substitute. At a staff meeting, Father Mozian reads a letter from the Archdiocese stating that the next incident at the school will result in its closure for the term. Father Mozian then meets with Malley, but when the teacher refuses to take a leave-of-absence, the priest shows him a lewd magazine and asks him if it belongs to him. Malley admits he received it in the mail at home, but never brought it to school and insists that Dobbs sent him the magazine. Malley refuses to sign resignation papers and attempts to return to his classroom, but Paul intercepts him. As Paul guides him away from the classroom, Malley relates Father Mozian's attempt to force him to resign, prompting Paul to visit the headmaster to plead for the Latin teacher. When Father Mozian admits that Dobbs gave him the magazine, Paul realizes Malley has been telling the truth about Dobbs's machinations. In the faculty lounge Paul finds a silent Malley and Dobbs. Confronted by Paul's accusation, Dobbs admits he gave Father Mozian the magazine to protect the students. Malley lashes out at Dobbs for poisoning the school against him and rushes from the room to the top of the building, where he throws himself to his death as students watch implacably. Later, as St. Charles prepares to close down, Paul finds a grade book and then goes to Dobbs's office, where he overhears the professor accepting a new job at another boys' school. Paul confronts Dobbs with the fact that all the students who had high grades in Malley's class were the ones attacked and injured. Dobbs insists the students love him and takes Paul to a classroom full of students. Paul tells the boys not to trust Dobbs and reveals that he has already taken a job elsewhere, but several boys recite a Latin quote about trust, then as Dobbs departs, attack Paul. Later in the chapel, Dobbs sits quietly, only to be surrounded by a group of threatening students.