Stuart Whitman stars in 1964’s “Shock Therapy.” Whitman jogs my memory of a younger  Colin Farrell right here, on this tawdry thriller set in a sanitarium.

Shock Therapy is a kind of “all-star forged in cinema
confinement” flicks! Normally introduced as pulling again the curtain on what
actually goes on behind jail/sanitarium bars, motion pictures like this had been actually an excuse
to depict lurid intercourse and violence. There’s typically somebody within the clink or
cuckoo’s nest that is not actually responsible or loopy. The roll name of stereotypes
goes one thing like this: the lead who’s both been framed or has ulterior
motives to get inside; the attractive younger girl who’s both frigid or a
nympho; the child-like lunatic; the Blanche DuBois sort, residing in delusions of
grandeur; the seemingly regular affected person who activates a dime; and the powerful
feminine in cost. This one lacks the idealistic younger man or girl who tries to
change issues, since Shock Therapy is
extra of a suspense film than an expose of the system. 

***Spoiler alert of this movie’s plot cliches forward!***

Roddy McDowall performed the boyishly delicate pyscho as many instances as Anthony Perkins. Roddy is Martin, the gaga gardener who is aware of the place the cash’s hidden!

Roddy McDowall is Martin,
the maniac man-child. Roddy at all times appeared in a contest with Anthony Perkins to
see who may play essentially the most quirky neurotics. It’s amusing that Martin was let
out of the asylum, the place he makes use of one in every of his gardening instruments on his witchy
employer, and when he’s despatched again for decapitating her, guess his remedy of
alternative—gardening!

Stuart Whitman performs a thea-tah actor employed to behave loopy and get despatched to a sanitarium.  Why? To search out out the place an actual loopy hid one million {dollars}, in “Shock Therapy.”

Stuart Whitman is the
hotshot actor, Dale Nelson, who breaks into
the sanitarium, pretends he is loopy, after which cannot get out! Nelson is employed by
the decapitated dowager’s property lawyer to seek out out the place Martin hid her cash.
Whitman’s antics to persuade as loopy would recommend that his character studied
appearing on the William Shatner College of Dramatic Arts.

Whitman’s actor pretends to be a flower skilled to get on McDowall’s insane gardener’s good facet, in 1964’s “Shock Therapy.”

Whitman appears to be like quite a bit
older than 36, particularly reverse china doll Carol Lynley, 22 on the time.
Roddy McDowall was the identical age as Whitman, however he nonetheless regarded fairly boyish. Stuart
Whitman additionally jogged my memory a variety of Colin Farrell. Roddy and Stuart’s characters
bond on the sanitarium over flowers, after an preliminary struggle of the roses. Carol
Lynley is her regular wan, doll-like self as Cynthia, the neurotic/nympho. Of
course, regardless of being a person with a mission in a nuthouse, Whitman’s character nonetheless
finds time to pursue Lynley’s cold and warm miss.

Although Carol Lynley’s Cynthia is recognized as bi-polar, Whitman’s Dale pursues her.  Maybe the problem of romancing a lady who’s each frigid AND a nympho?

Lauren Bacall is the
Nurse Ratched sort, Dr. Edwina Beighley, who goes from coolly environment friendly to
cuckoo. The physician takes Martin again not as a result of she cares about his
well-being, however as a result of she desires to know the place’s the cash. Sure, Bacall’s
Edwina goes off her nut when she finds out her monetary scheme about Martin was
all for naught. Let’s simply say that the physician’s goals for analysis massive bucks
finally ends up as burnt choices!

Guess who’s operating this joint? Lauren Bacall as brisk Dr. Beighley in 1964’s “Shock Therapy.”

Bacalls’s Edwina will get
led away from the scene of the crime like Kate Hepburn’s Violet Venable in Out of the blue, Final Summer season. The identical
courtroom employees has to endure one other nut who desires to plead their very own case.
Bacall’s delusional doc defends herself ala Bogie’s Captain Queeg, ranting and
slapping desktops!

Lauren Bacall’s physician’s goals of economic safety have actually gone up in smoke, in 1964’s “Shock Therapy.”

The ultimate scene is a
hoot, with Betty bitching to herself concerning the billing hours, whereas the opposite
sufferers look on, and stars Whitman and Lynley leaving the cuckoo’s nest,
seen on the opposite facet of the fence. I really like Bacall’s fixed billing bitch:  “Thirty one separate hours!”

Love the side-eye that Olive Deering provides Lauren Bacall, as her now-demented physician rehashes her neuroses advert nauseum! Observe Carol Lynley & Stuart Whitman getting the hell out of this nuthouse & nutty film! And what sanitarium film could be full and not using a affected person pretending a doll is her child?

 Betty was not sufficient of an actress to transcend
her pragmatic, snarky persona, although it is amusing to look at her strive. Let’s simply
say this wasn’t the “Excessive Level” of Bacall’s profession. Shock Therapy could be very cartoonish, but watchable, however most positively
a decaffeinated thriller!

Had been Stuart Whitman, Roddy McDowall, & Ossie Davis making an attempt to look optimistic concerning the field workplace probabilities of 1964’s “Shock Therapy?”

The pictures by Sam
Leavitt is superb, nearly noir-like. His work ran from I Love Lucy to Anatomy of a
Homicide, and he gained three Oscar nominations. And Jerry Goldsmith’s rating
provides to the scariness.

Not less than over-acting Stuart Whitman appears to be like higher along with his shirt off than William Shatner, in 1964’s “Shock Therapy.”

The ensuing high quality
of Shock Therapy will not be the fault
of the forged, as they’re given clichés to play however do their finest. The movie’s script
is horrible, a glorified “B” film, bolstered by the celebrities and manufacturing
values.

Try Lauren
Bacall in one other sanitarium cinema effort, the place she’s an artwork therapist in
1955’s The Cobweb right here:  https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2019/01/its-curtains-for-cobweb-1955.html

That is a lot stronger stuff than “Excessive Level” in Dr. Lauren Bacall’s hypodermic, in 1964’s “Shock Therapy.”