BEHIND LOCKED DOORS

US, 1948, 61 minutes, Black and white.
Lucille Bremer, Richard Carlson, Douglas Fowley, Tor Johnson, Kathleen Freeman, Dickie Moore.
Directed by Oscar Boetticher.

A very small-budget supporting film, notable for its being directed by prolific Western director of the 1950s, Budd Boetticher, here credited as Oscar Boetticher. It is the last film of Lucille Bremer who starred in several MGM musicals of the 1940s, including Meet Me in Saint Louis. Richard Carlson was a 1stalwart of many supporting films of this period. Douglas Fowlie is the incarnation of the sadistic warden. (Comedian Kathleen Freeman is seen briefly as a nurse.)

Lucille Bremer is a reporter who persuades a private detective on his first case to pose as her husband, have him committed to a sanatorium, have him get evidence that a corrupt judge is taking refuge there. The head of the sanatorium is corrupt. There is a sympathetic warden who eventually acts, working there because of his disabled son. Wrestler, Tor Johnson, who appeared in the famous Plan 9 from Outer Space appears as a punchdrunk inmate.

1. Small budget? Quality director? Complex plot? Tension?

2. Offices, doctor’s offices, the sanatorium, the interiors? Musical score?

3. Kathy, determined, reporter, following managed to the sanatorium, going to see Ross, the proposition, the plan, posing as married, has been committed, to search for evidence of the corrupt judge, the roommate crying out in the night, the other with his warnings? His investigations, following leads, caught on the steps by Larson, the brutality? Working with Fred Hopps? Larson suspicious, finding his wife’s photo, the photo of the judge?

4. The inmates, the punchdrunk boxer, Larson taunting him with the key sounds? Ross put in the cell, the attack, pretending to be unconscious, Larson leaving the door ajar, the boxer’s attack on Larsson?

5. Larson, sadistic, collaborating with the head of the sanatorium? Serving the judge?

6. The judge, Madge visiting him, the complaint to the doctor, the money, suspicions of Ross?

7. Kathy, the visits, put off, going to see the psychiatrist, his wariness? Her getting the gun, in the taxi with Madge, disguising herself, getting in and confronting the judge?

8. Hopps, meet, friendly with Ross, calling the police?

9. The final confrontation, arrests, and a happy romantic ending?