| Behind Locked Doors | |
|---|---|
DVD cover from the Kino Video release |
|
| Directed by | Budd Boetticher |
| Produced by | Eugene Ling |
| Written by | Eugene Ling (story and screenplay) Malvin Wald (screenplay) |
| Starring | Lucille Bremer Richard Carlson Douglas Fowley |
| Cinematography | Guy Roe |
| Editing by | Norman Colbert |
| Distributed by | Eagle-Lion Films Inc. |
| Release date(s) | September 3, 1948 (U.S.) |
| Running time | 63 mins |
| Language | English |
Behind Locked Doors is a 1948 black-and-white B-movie starring Lucille Bremer. The movie, directed by Budd Boetticher, runs a scant 63 minutes. The film also stars Richard Carlson and features Tor Johnson (uncredited) as 'The Champ'.
A private detective goes undercover in an asylum in search of a judge who is hiding out from the police. The detective was hired by a pretty reporter who is sure the judge is hiding out in the private sanitarium. The reporter and P.I. begin to fall in love as well as falling more and more into danger from abusive attendants and other guests of the asylum. Other inmates include an arsonist patient and 'The Champ', a man who attacks anyone put into a room with him.
Reviews for the movie when released on DVD in 2002 were mixed. Keith Phipps, writing for the Onion AV Club, wrote of the film, "A probable inspiration for Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor, Doors suffers in comparison; Fuller made transcendent B-movies, and this isn't one. In just about every other respect, however, it's everything it should be: fast-paced, stylishly shot, a little lurid, a little topical, and thoroughly entertaining."
When asked about the similarity of his film's story to the earlier film, director Sam Fuller pointed out that both scripts were based on a newspaper incident in the 1940s. (Fuller had been a newspaper reporter at the time.)