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The screen is littered with award-winning plays that were magic in the theater but pedestrian on the screen, and The Shrike, regrettably, is one of them. While one suspects that the play itself would not really hold up well nowadays either, at least the play had the courage of its convictions and created a striking, memorable, repugnant, yet fascinating character in Ann Downs, the shrike of the title. (A shrike, by the way, is a bird that seems perfectly ordinary and innocent, but has a habit of using thorns in a rather nasty way to murder its victims.) Whether because of censorship pressures or because the studio feared audiences would reject such a strong female character, or simply because they had cast eternal girl-next-door June Allyson in the role, the decision was made to soften the character. She's no girl scout, but she's no longer the force to be reckoned with that had been found on-stage, and as a result, the entire enterprise totters and, by the time of its enforced happy ending, sinks. Allyson tries hard and is better than might be expected, but she's simply wrong for the part. José Ferrer's performance, fortunately, is quite strong, even if his direction is a trifle weak. The end result is not terrible, just kind of so-so, but it's a shame that the opportunity to create a truly memorable character was missed.