Hopeless confusion... misunderstanding... pain, rage and fear... and the sick silence that follows violence - this is the repetitious hell of young Donald Peters. His grandmother, charged with his care, is overburdened with the young boy. Behind in his schoolwork and unable to concentrate in class, Donald has fallen through the cracks of the system - a drain on everyone that tries to help out. Unable to make friends and socialize, Donald is an emotional powder-keg waiting to explode. The Wiltwyck School for troubled youths may be his last chance for a normal life.
Co-written by Pulitzer Prize winning author, screenwriter and actor, James Agee, The Quiet One shows, in documentary style, the process and treatment used on disturbed boys in the late 1940s. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1949, and writer/director Sidney Meyers received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.