A private investigator endures the rigors of an insane asylum in order to locate $1 million in stolen loot.
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A pretty bland thriller with a plot that could have been played out and wrapped up much more quickly via a TWILIGHT ZONE episode. When a wealthy old lady is murdered by her demented gardener, one of her greedy heirs hires actor Stuart Whitman to infiltrate a mental hospital, befriend the gardener and find the whereabouts of a some buried loot. Also on the prowl for the fortune is power mad psychiatrist Lauren Bacall. Directed, poorly, by Denis Sanders and featuring a cast made up of what one would think is camp heaven...in addition to Bacall and Whitman, there's Carol Lynley, Timothy Carey and Roddy McDowell as the gardener. They barely register, though Carey's cameo gives the film a brief lift. Ultimately, it's all silly and very slow moving. Any irony introduced is diminished by multiple endings. Jerry Goldsmith's score is pretty impressive and was clearly expanded upon later on with PLANET OF THE APES.
Stuart Whitman is seen in a classical acting role and recruited to play a very rough part: He is to be paid for feigning insanity and being committed to psychiatric hospital. The goal is to learn more about a character played by Roddy McDowell, who is confined there.Whitman is excellent, as is McDowell. The latter develops a bit of an unstated crush on the former. So does Carol Lynley, who has a very small role for the major billing she gets.The plot revolves around psychiatrist and researcher Lauren Bacall. This character could give Dr. Caligari a run for his money.It's not hough art but i's exciting and suspenseful. And the acting is excellent all around.
SHOCK TREATMENT has a delicious hook: an actor is hired to impersonate a lunatic so he can be put in an institution and become friends with a lunatic killer who just happens to know where a lot of money is hidden. Of course, there are all sorts of complications, primarily head psychiatrist Lauren Bacall, who also has her eye on the money and figures out the actor's game. Not a bad set up, but the script is full of holes and lame dialogue and the direction is lackluster. But Bacall, as a precursor to Nurse Ratched, is a hoot as the villain and gets to administer shock treatment to the actor (Stuart Whitman) to try to break him! The ending isn't bad either, a couple of reversals and a nice battle with a pitch fork. This is one to watch with one eye closed on a rainy afternoon, which is just about how I caught in on Fox Movie Channel. In her autobiography, Bacall refers to the film as "truly tacky." She's right on target, both in her performance and her critique!
This film had some intense moments. Stuart Whitman is sent into a mental institution to pretend he is insane in order to spy on inmate Roddy Macdowell and find out where he might have hidden $1 million. Lauren Bacall plays the doctor/research scientist who is very much interested in the money as well.With her own animal torture lab(in California and Africa!), and grumbling that she cant perform dangerous experiments the way she'd like to...we get a picture early on that she isnt Florence Nightingale! There are a couple of scenes that were as disturbing as comparable moments from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the Marathon Man.Although i found the film decent enough--with fine performances from the leads, and a good ending, it did seem a bit rushed in places, and some supporting characters either had unwarranted emphasis(Carol Lynley) or too little(Ossie Davis, Bert Freed). The rest of the patients seemed to be borrowed from "the Snake Pit."As a 1960's suspense flick it wasnt bad, but this would be a great contender for a remake.