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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: Kino Video
Salesrank: 56779
Released: July 18, 2000 |
| Our Price: $3.91 |
| Used Price: $3.52 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A shadowy sanitarium provides the claustrophobic stage for sadism paranoia and murder in this classic film. Studio: Kino International Release Date: 07/18/2000 Starring: Richard Carlson Lucille Bremmer Run time: 62 minutes Rating: N/r Director: Budd Boetticher
Behind Locked Doors Reviews:
If you enjoy B-movie Forties noirs (and even if you don't), better remember to duck when you meet The Champ 
2009-01-08 - If you like Forties B-movies -- especially Forties B-movie noirs -- Behind Locked Doors might bring a contented smile to your face. It's no more than what it is, but the plot is an old reliable one and director Budd Boetticher keeps things moving. Once more we have a man who places himself in a prison, in this case a private sanitarium for the mentally ill, to get the goods on crime and finds it's a lot harder to get out than it was to get in.
Ross Stewart (Richard Carlson), a wisecracking private eye who likes dames and dollars, lets himself be recruited by Kathy Lawrence (Lucille Bremer), a stylish newspaper reporter with the San Francisco Tribune, to get the goods on Finlay Drake. He's a crooked judge on the lam and she's traced him, she thinks, to the La Siesta Sanatorium, a private institution for mental cases run by Dr. Clifford Porter. She can't prove it unless she can get someone inside to locate the judge. So Stewart becomes Harry Horton, a manic-depressive husband, who is admitted to La Siesta.
Does he find the judge? Well, sure. But he also finds that Dr. Porter is as corrupt as the judge, the warder in charge is a sadistic bully, and upstairs in the lock-down ward is a very big guy called The Champ, who beats anyone he can reach when he hears a bell. When the bad guys realize who Harry Horton really is, it's likely the only way Ross Stewart is going to leave La Siesta is feet first. Steward has only three things going for him. A friendly warder, the determination of Kathy Lawrence to not just get her story but to rescue Stewart, and Stewart's own ingenuity.
Now bear in mind that Richard Carlson may not be the most persuasive actor to play a private eye. In this case, the dialogue is snappy most of the time, with some romantic bantering between Steward and Lawrence. Carlson had skill and, in my opinion, was best in lightweight roles. The dialogue helps make him attractive and believable. Top billed but playing second lead is Lucille Bremer, an accomplished dancer but not so good an actor. Probably through no fault of hers, her screen personality left the impression of a reserved and chilly woman. She registers here only because of the trajectory of her Hollywood career: Four years only, with that glossy MGM grooming to start with, two big MGM musicals (Meet Me in St. Louis, a hit, and, co-starring with Fred Astaire, Yolanda and the Thief, a flop) specialty dances in two more MGM high-gloss movies, and then quick loan-outs for four B movies. And that was that. She retired right after Behind Locked Doors, married a millionaire from Mexico, had four kids and a divorce, in that order. To see Richard Carlson at his goofiest, watch him in Too Many Girls [DVD] - Authentic Region 1 from Warner Brothers with Lucille Ball. To see Lucille Bremer at her dancing best, watch her in Ziegfeld Follies with Astaire doing "Limehouse Blues" and "This Heart of Mine."
Behind Locked Doors has two other good points. First is the effective cinematography. Most of the movie takes place in the sanitarium. It might look cheerful by day, but at night, with all those shadows cast by moonlight, it's definitely not a healthy place to be stuck in. And there are all those in the cast whose faces we remember but almost always can't place where we saw them. Among the many is Thomas Brown Henry as the doctor. I doubt if there was a cheap science fiction movie in the Fifties that he wasn't in. And there's Douglas Fowley as Larson, the warder with thick glasses and round shoulders. Larson likes to hit the patients with his heavy ring of keys, or hit a fire extinguisher so it rings outside the door of The Champ, sending the poor lump into a frenzy of punching. Better yet is putting another patient into the room with The Champ, then hitting the extinguisher. Larson likes watching the result. It's a mild satisfaction to see someone like Fowley being a really bad guy, and then remembering him playing the exasperated, frustrated and funny Roscoe Dexter, trying to direct Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain.
All this in just 62 minutes.
Z PICTURES NEED A GOOD SCREENPLAY 
2008-11-14 - When a 61 minutes film needs padding(the TREVOR BARDETTE and DICKIE MOORE characters) you know that you are in trouble. Poverty row studios EAGLE-LION and MONOGRAM are not REPUBLIC PICTURES. JEAN LUC GODARD, the ultimate twerp dedicated his first picture to MONOGRAM (how many films had he seen?) and french conceit goes on in its ignorant snobbery.
It's a pleasure to see THOMAS BROWN HENRY in a big part, as a crooked psychiatrist, but the plot doesn't hold water. DOUGLAS FOWLEY is OK as a sadistic attendant, but he goes on and on, doing the same thing. LUCILLE BREMER is pretty weak. RICHARD CARLSON is really bad, his character's wisecracking is ridiculous. The HERBERT HEYES character, a crooked judge hiding in a sanatorium, is not believable. Unfortunately, MALVIN WALD is responsible for the story and the screenplay. The cinematography, by GUY ROE is poor.
BOETTICHER is now celebrated for his RANDOLPH SCOTT westerns. He directed
13 movies before that, plus 11 as OSCAR BOETTICHER Jr. I only saw two of the latter in 35mm: OUT OF THE FOG, a 1945 Columbia production who is not bad and this Eagle-Lion defeat. I did not see THE SWORD OF D'ARTAGNAN.
CITY BENEATH THE SEA and EAST OF SUMATRA, both 1953 Universal are not so good. BRONCO BUSTER, 1952 Universal is not so bad. The CIMARRON KID, Universal 1951, must be seen, even if you are not an AUDIE MURPHY fan, as I am. HORIZONS WEST (1952), SEMINOLE and THE MAN FROM THE ALAMO, both 1953 Universal, are very good. The best is WINGS OF THE HAWK, 1953 Universal. THE MAGNIFICENT MATADOR, 1955 Fox is best kept under wraps.
THE KILLER IS LOOSE and THE BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY are now well known.
RED BALL EXPRESS, 1952 (in black and white) Universal is a very special film: a minor tribute to African American soldiers in WWII, who drove trucks to supply the Patton troops. We didn't wait for Mr SPIKE LEE to know that African Americans wanted to fight for their country and against fascism, and many of them just did it, in spite of the military brass and the Congress.
Short and Sweet B-Movie Thriller.
2005-07-06 - At just over an hour long, "Behind Locked Doors" is a short B-movie that would have played as part of a double bill in the 1948. Now it seems barely longer than a television episode, but its style is decidedly cinematic. Investigative reporter Kathy Lawrence (Lucille Bremer) has tracked a disgraced judge, Finlay Drake (Herbert Hayes), to a private mental hospital where he is hiding from the police. To get proof of Drake's whereabouts, Kathy enlists the aid of private detective Ross Stewart (Richard Carlson) in infiltrating the sanatarium. In exchange for half of the $5,000 reward for Drake's capture, Stewart poses as a mental patient and is committed to the asylum. The plan seems simple enough until Stewart discovers that he is in real danger. The sanatarium is ruled by a sadistic, abusive attendant named Larson (Douglas Fowley) whose suspicions are aroused by Stewart's snooping.
"Behind Locked Doors" is sometimes categorized as "film noir", but this is a thriller without any implication of noir except perhaps its claustrophobia. It does showcase several elements common to film noir and to 1940s cinema in general: low key lighting and night scenes enabled by improving film technology, confinement, and the prevalence of psychology -although this film doesn't take psychology seriously. "Behind Locked Doors" isn't a great film, but I was surprised by how really entertaining it is. It's short, predictable, and has elements of suspense and romantic comedy. The characters don't have depth, but they have enough pluck to keep the audience interested. Kathy is a no-nonsense, ambitious, career woman with a sense of humor. Ross is smitten with her, even as he has gotten himself locked in a looney bin. Don't expect the sophistication of film noir, but director Oscar Boetticher made "Behind Locked Doors" a captivating little film. 3 1/2 stars. The Kino Video (2000) DVD has an acceptable print but no bonus features.
What kind of a joint is this?
2004-08-01 - There's something spare and muscular about Budd Boetticher's 1948 BEHIND LOCKED DOORS. Storytelling without any frills or ruffles, I guess you could say. A lean 62-minute, Poverty Row thriller that Kino International files under "film noir" because, well, noir sells. And because any film with deep shadows and venetian blinds can pass nowadays. Besides, you have to justify a rather inflated price for a video that contains nothing else besides the movie and chapter selections.
Boetticher is better known for the westerns he directed in the 50s with the likes of Audie Murphy and Robert Ryan and, especially, Randolph Scott. Boetticher's westerns are currently unavailable on dvd and this is my first exposure to his work. If they were available I'd certainly put them at the top of the queue. On the basis of BEHIND LOCKED DOORS I've filed Boetticher under "storytelling genius."
BEHIND LOCKED DOORS stars Lucille Bremer as an enterprising and ambitious reporter who is convinced a crooked judge is hiding out in a private sanitarium. Richard Carlson (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) plays private investigator Ross Stewart, who is convinced by the beautiful young reporter to pretend to be her husband and allow himself to be committed and do a little snooping inside the sanitarium. As further inducement, there's a $10,000 reward for the person who discovers the elusive jurist.
Lucille Bremer sang and danced with Fred Astaire in a couple of MGM musicals (YOLANDA AND THE THIEF, ZIEGFIELD FOLLIES) before, apparently, MGM dropped her contract in the mid-1940s. She made three films for the Poverty Row production company Eagle-Lion Films in 1948 before retiring, that same year, at the age of 31. BEHIND LOCKED DOORS was her last movie. Her film career lasted less than a decade, and according to The Film Encyclopedia Ms. Bremer ran a child's clothes shop after retirement. Her and co-star Carlson have an easy, wise-cracking chemistry.
Keep your eyes open for Tor Johnson (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) as the hulking, ex-boxer inmate and target of the delightfully sadistic attendant Larson (Douglas Fowley.)
Although you can probably find a copy of BEHIND LOCKED DOORS for less than the listed retail price, considering the asking price it's hard to give this great film five stars. The print and sound quality are good.
Interesting grade B thriller 
2003-04-19 - It seems like everything done in black and white in the forties, unless there was some singing and dancing in it, is now a film noir. (Well, excluding Olivier's 1949 Hamlet, I suppose.) When this "Poverty Row" production came out in 1948 I'm sure it was billed as a mystery/suspense tale, but never mind. "Film noir" is now a growth industry.
There's a gumshoe, Ross Stewart played by Richard Carlson, whom I recall most indelibly as Herbert A. Philbrick of TV's cold war espionage series "I Led Three Lives" from the fifties when HUAC had us all looking under our beds for commies. Lucille Bremer, near the end (which was also near the beginning) of a very modest filmland career, co-stars as Kathy Lawrence, a newspaper woman with a story idea. She needs a private eye to do the investigative dirty work.
Ross Stewart has just hung out his gumshoe shingle and had the frosted glass door of his office lettered and is paying the painter when Kathy Lawrence shows up. (I love all the private eye movies which begin with the dame showing up at the PI's office needing help. So logical, so correct; so like a noir "Once upon a time.") She wants him to pretend to be insane so that she can get him committed to a private sanitarium where she believes a corrupted judge is hiding, thus the locked doors in the title.
What I liked about this is the way the low-budget production meshed with the gloomy and aptly named "La Siesta Sanitarium," the scenes shot in rather dim light giving everything a kind of shady appearance. The story itself and the direction by Oscar "Budd" Boetticher defines "pedestrian," but there is a curious and authentic period piece feel to the movie that can't be faked. Postmodern directors wanting to capture late-forties, early fifties L.A. atmosphere would do well to take a look at this tidy 62-minute production.
Tor Johnson, the original "hulk" (perhaps) plays a dim-witted but violent punch drunk ex-fighter who is locked in a padded cell. He comes to life when the fire extinguisher outside his door is sadistically "rung" by one of the attendants with his keys, thereby springing the hulk into shadow boxing imaginary opponents. Could it be that he will get a live one later on...?
See this for Richard Carlson who made a fine living half a century ago playing the lead or supporting roles in a slew of low budget mystery, horror and sci fi pictures, most notably perhaps The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).
