More Schlock than ‘Shock Treatment’ 1964

 

Stuart Whitman stars in 1964's "Shock Treatment." Whitman reminds me of a young
 Colin Farrell here, in this tawdry thriller set in a sanitarium.  

Shock Treatment is one of those “all-star cast in cinema confinement” flicks! Usually presented as pulling back the curtain on what really goes on behind prison/sanitarium bars, movies like this were really an excuse to depict lurid sex and violence. There's often someone in the clink or cuckoo’s nest that isn't really guilty or crazy. The roll call of stereotypes goes something like this: the lead who’s either been framed or has ulterior motives to get inside; the gorgeous young woman who's either frigid or a nympho; the child-like lunatic; the Blanche DuBois type, living in delusions of grandeur; the seemingly normal patient who turns on a dime; and the tough female in charge. This one lacks the idealistic young man or woman who tries to change things, since Shock Treatment is more of a suspense movie than an expose of the system. 

***Spoiler alert of this film's plot cliches ahead!***

Roddy McDowall played the boyishly sensitive pyscho as many times as Anthony Perkins. Roddy is Martin, the gaga gardener who knows where the money's hidden!

Roddy McDowall is Martin, the maniac man-child. Roddy always seemed in a contest with Anthony Perkins to see who could play the most quirky neurotics. It’s amusing that Martin was let out of the asylum, where he uses one of his gardening tools on his witchy employer, and when he’s sent back for decapitating her, guess his therapy of choice—gardening!

Stuart Whitman plays a thea-tah actor hired to act crazy and get sent to a sanitarium. 
Why? To find out where a real crazy hid a million dollars, in "Shock Treatment."

Stuart Whitman is the hotshot actor, Dale Nelson, who breaks into the sanitarium, pretends he's crazy, and then can't get out! Nelson is hired by the decapitated dowager’s estate lawyer to find out where Martin hid her money. Whitman’s antics to convince as crazy would suggest that his character studied acting at the William Shatner School of Dramatic Arts.

Whitman's actor pretends to be a flower expert to get on McDowall's
insane gardener's good side, in 1964's "Shock Treatment."

Whitman looks a lot older than 36, especially opposite china doll Carol Lynley, 22 at the time. Roddy McDowall was the same age as Whitman, but he still looked quite boyish. Stuart Whitman also reminded me a lot of Colin Farrell. Roddy and Stuart’s characters bond at the sanitarium over flowers, after an initial war of the roses. Carol Lynley is her usual wan, doll-like self as Cynthia, the neurotic/nympho. Of course, despite being a man with a mission in a nuthouse, Whitman’s character still finds time to pursue Lynley’s hot and cold miss.

Though Carol Lynley's Cynthia is diagnosed as bi-polar, Whitman's Dale pursues her.
 Perhaps the challenge of romancing a woman who's both frigid AND a nympho?

Lauren Bacall is the Nurse Ratched type, Dr. Edwina Beighley, who goes from coolly efficient to cuckoo. The doctor takes Martin back not because she cares about his well-being, but because she wants to know where’s the money. Yes, Bacall’s Edwina goes off her nut when she finds out her financial scheme about Martin was all for naught. Let’s just say that the doctor’s dreams for research big bucks ends up as burnt offerings!

Guess who's running this joint? Lauren Bacall as brisk Dr. Beighley
in 1964's "Shock Treatment." 

Bacalls’s Edwina gets led away from the scene of the crime like Kate Hepburn’s Violet Venable in Suddenly, Last Summer. The same courtroom staff has to endure another nut who wants to plead their own case. Bacall’s delusional doc defends herself ala Bogie’s Captain Queeg, ranting and slapping desktops!

Lauren Bacall's doctor's dreams of financial security have literally gone up in smoke,
in 1964's "Shock Treatment."

The final scene is a hoot, with Betty bitching to herself about the billing hours, while the other patients look on, and stars Whitman and Lynley leaving the cuckoo’s nest, viewed on the other side of the fence. I love Bacall’s constant billing bitch:  “Thirty one separate hours!”

Love the side-eye that Olive Deering gives Lauren Bacall, as her now-demented
doctor rehashes her neuroses ad nauseum! Note Carol Lynley & Stuart Whitman
getting the hell out of this nuthouse & nutty movie! And what sanitarium movie
would be complete without a patient pretending a doll is her baby?

 Betty was not enough of an actress to go beyond her pragmatic, snarky persona, though it's amusing to watch her try. Let’s just say this wasn’t the “High Point” of Bacall’s career. Shock Treatment is very cartoonish, yet watchable, but most definitely a decaffeinated thriller!

Were Stuart Whitman, Roddy McDowall, & Ossie Davis trying to look optimistic about the box office chances of 1964's "Shock Treatment?"

The photography by Sam Leavitt is excellent, almost noir-like. His work ran from I Love Lucy to Anatomy of a Murder, and he won three Oscar nominations. And Jerry Goldsmith’s score adds to the scariness.

At least over-acting Stuart Whitman looks better with his shirt off than
William Shatner, in 1964's "Shock Treatment."

The resulting quality of Shock Treatment is not the fault of the cast, as they are given clichés to play but do their best. The film’s script is horrible, a glorified “B” movie, bolstered by the stars and production values.

Check out Lauren Bacall in another sanitarium cinema effort, where she’s an art therapist in 1955’s The Cobweb here:  https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2019/01/its-curtains-for-cobweb-1955.html

That's much stronger stuff than "High Point" in Dr. Lauren Bacall's hypodermic,
in 1964's "Shock Treatment."