DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

bensonmum2 A judge who has run afoul of the law has gone into hiding. Reporter Kathy Lawrence (Lucille Bremer) believes she has tracked the judge to a private sanitarium. She hires a private detective, Ross Stewart (Richard Carlson), to go undercover as a patient to help find the judge. Stewart quickly falls out of favor with one of the sanitarium attendants and puts himself in danger. Can they bust open the case before Stewart's cover is blown?There's an amazing amount of entertainment stuffed into Behind Locked Doors' less than 62 minute runtime. Being brief, there's no time for filler. This is one quick, fast paced film. Even so, director Budd Boetticher was still able to give the film atmosphere – and I love atmosphere. The sanitarium setting, with the locked rooms upstairs housing the dangerous patients, provides the right amount of mystery. The cast is good – especially for a B-noir. Richard Carlson has always seemed like a very capable actor and does good work here. I wasn't at all familiar with Lucille Bremer, but she gives her reporter just the right amount of spunk. As good as they are, though, it's Douglas Fowley that really makes this film tick. He is the perfect, brutal advisory for our heroes. Finally, I got a little joy when I realized that Tor Johnson had a brief, but pivotal, role in Behind Locked Doors. He's as convincing as anyone in the film playing the dangerous, mute psycho. It's nice to see Tor is a "good" movie for a change. I'm sure I could pick apart the movie and write about plot holes and logic inconsistencies, but Behind Locked Doors is so entertaining that I had no problem looking past these issues.

Alex da Silva Reporter Lucille Bremer (Kathy) convinces private investigator Richard Carlson (Ross) to go undercover as a patient into the "Siesta Sanitarium" where she believes wanted man Herbert Hayes (Judge Drake) is hiding out. Indeed, he is there. Behind locked doors and with the protection of the staff at the institution, headed by Thomas Browne Henry (Dr Porter) and sadistic warden Douglas Fowley (Larson). Once inside, Carlson also comes face to face with violent inmate Tor Johnson (the "Champ").The film is OK. It needed a little more pace during the beginning sequences at the asylum. While it is not a bad film, it is all familiar stuff these days, and you can probably predict the ending. The staff and patients at the mental hospital are stereotypical and somewhat cartoonish but the film keeps you watching during its short running length.There is an interesting fun game to play at the beginning of the film where Bremer and Carlson decide to pick a mental illness to have. Hmmm….what to choose…they consider schizophrenia before settling for depression. Yep, nice choice. They then read up about all the symptoms and behaviours associated with the condition before getting their deception past the doctor. Everyone plays this game nowadays in their quest to get off sick from work. So, it's a film ahead of its time in that respect.I thought Lucille Bremer got the more memorable scenes – the interview with Thomas Browne Henry in order to get Carlson admitted into the hospital and her sudden appearance in a scene towards the end of the film. She also had some good dialogue to keep the rather slimy Carlson at arm's length. Unfortunately, the film's quality is poor with interference throughout.Sanitariums no longer exist, so you can no longer bluff your way into these places, but if you fancy 3 years off work – approach your boss with details of a new mental illness which manifests itself in an ability to actually show up and do some work as required. There won't be any psychologist theories about this and you should ask to be rushed immediately home to recuperate.

Spikeopath 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

Snow Leopard This works pretty well for a B-grade film noir. The atmosphere is mostly convincing, and the story is interesting, even if not always entirely plausible. It has some creative touches and some moments of real tension that make up for the routine leading characters and the occasional lack of believability.The story opens with a reporter visiting the office of an inexperienced private investigator (Richard Carlson), with a proposition. The reporter believes that she knows where to find a prominent judge who has become a fugitive from the police (and for whom there is a $10,000 reward). She thinks that the judge is hiding in a private sanitarium, and wants the investigator to pretend to be insane so that he can get inside and find out. Most of the story that follows takes place inside the asylum, as the investigator tries to find the judge and stay out of danger.The asylum setting is done well, and furnishes a suitable atmosphere. They use the setting in several ways to further the action, most notably with horror-film favorite Tor Johnson appearing as a dangerous inmate, along with a number of other strange inhabitants. The unusual setting adds considerably to the more routine aspects of the film."Human Gorilla" (also called "Behind Locked Doors") works rather well, and this is not a bad movie to check out if you like film noir or crime movies, and wouldn't mind the generally low production values.