Where to watch Behind Locked Doors online

Storyline

Behind the locked doors of a mental institution resides crooked politico Judge Drake, free from prosecution so long as he pretends to be crazy. To get the goods on Drake, private detective Ross Stewart has himself committed to the asylum as a patient. Meanwhile, reporter Kathy Lawrence, posing as Stewart's wife, acts as his liaison to the outside world.

Released

1948-09-13
Revenue

n/a
Budget

n/a
Runtime

1hr 2m
Genre

Thriller, Crime
Status

Released
Language

English
0
Production

Aro Productions Inc.

Crew

Budd Boetticher

Director

Eugene Ling

Screenplay

Eugene Ling

Producer

Keywords:

insane asylum film noir

Stream and watch Behind Locked Doors

similar movies

The Low End Theory

Honeygiver Among the Dogs

"Gumdrop", a short horror

Cry Terror!

Goodnight, My Love

Hardly a Criminal

The Black Vampire

Autopsia de un criminal

Half Dead Fred

The 39 Steps

Notorious

The Lady from Shanghai

Gilda

Mildred Pierce

Secret Beyond the Door

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Killing

Scarface

The Big Sleep

The Maltese Falcon

Cast

Lucille Bremer

Kathy Lawrence

Richard Carlson

Ross Stewart

Douglas Fowley

Larson

Ralf Harolde

Fred Hopps

Thomas Browne Henry

Dr. Clifford Porter

Herbert Heyes

Judge Finlay Drake

Gwen Donovan

Madge Bennett

Trevor Bardette

Mr. Purvis - a Patient (uncredited)

Morgan Farley

Mental patient (uncredited)

Kathleen Freeman

Nurse (uncredited)

Dickie Moore

Mental patient (uncredited)

Tor Johnson

'The Champ', a patient (uncredited)

John Holland

Dr. J.R. Bell (uncredited)

Tony Horton

Trooper Captain (uncredited)

Wally Vernon

Maintenance Man (uncredited)

Videos and Photos

Movie Reviews

Reviews for Behind Locked Doors

A Review by John Chard 7

Written by John Chard on 2019-09-09

I'm not getting myself locked up in any nut-house on some hunch! Behind Locked Doors is directed by Oscar "Budd" Boetticher and written b... read more

I'm not getting myself locked up in any nut-house on some hunch! Behind Locked Doors is directed by Oscar "Budd" Boetticher and written by Eugene Ling and Malvin Wald. It stars Richard Carlson, Lucille Bremer, Douglas Fowley, Ralf Harolde, Thomas Browne Henry, Herbert Heyes, Gwen Donovan and Tor Johnson. Music is by Irving Friedman and cinematography by Guy Roe. Private detective Ross Stewart (Carlson) is coerced into going undercover at the La Siesta Sanitarium in search of a corrupt judge that reporter Kathy Lawrence (Bremer) believes is hiding out there. Getting himself committed under the guise of being a manic depressive, Stewart finds more than he bargained for once inside the gloomy walls of the asylum. Clocking in at just over an hour in length, Behind Locked Doors is compact and devoid of any sort of flab. Firmly a "B" asylum based pot boiler of the kind film makers always find fascinating, it's a picture dripped thoroughly in noir style visuals. This not only pumps the story with atmosphere unbound, it also allows the economically adroit Boetticher to mask the low budget restrictions to make this look far better than it had any right to be. Cure or be killed! Narratively it's simple fare, undercover man uncovers sadistic humans entrusted to care for the mentally ill. The "inmates" are the usual roll call of the unfortunates, the criminally inclined or the outright hulking maniac. There's a good male nurse who we can hang our hopes on, we wonder if our intrepid protagonist will survive this perilous assignment, and of course there's a love interest added in to spice the human interest factor. Cast performances are effective for the material to hand, but without the said visual arrangements of Boetticher and Roe the characterisations would lack impact. The camera-work shifts appropriately with the various tonal flows of the story, angles and contrasts change and with the picture almost exclusively shot in low lights and shadows, the Sanitarium is consistently a foreboding place of fear and fret. And not even some rickety sets can alter the superb atmospherics on show. 7/10

A Review by Geronimo1967 6

Written by Geronimo1967 on 2022-07-09

The snag with this little pot-boiler is that you have to leave your sense of realism in the foyer. "Judge Drake" (Herbert Hayes) is wanted f... read more

Read Full Review (The thoughts and opinions expressed here are solely those of the reviewer.)

A Review by John Chard

A Review by John Chard 7

Written by John Chard on 2019-09-09

A Review by Geronimo1967 6

Written by Geronimo1967 on 2022-07-09

The snag with this little pot-boiler is that you have to leave your sense of realism in the foyer. "Judge Drake" (Herbert Hayes) is wanted for questioning by the police, but they can't find him. Meant...