When Dianne Hull's otherwise energetic and sexy college student/disco queen Kelly wakes up in a mental ward (like Dorothy back in Kansas), surrounded by onlooking patients with endearingly unique personality traits, you'll think this was a heartfelt made-for-TV movie. That's until the full frontal nudity occurs within that fifth floor, a mental ward that isn't such a bad place after all.
Except for Bo Hopkins as Carl, who seems like a nice enough attendant but he's dead-set after Kelly's body. He's already raped another inmate, that being scene-stealer and poster girl Shannon Farrell as Melanie. With shaggy dirty-blond hair and an eclectic range of emotions, she's the person most effected by what our main character Kelly should be more effected by: being stuck in a blue-walled purgatory that offers random electroshock therapy like peanuts at a ball game.
Kelly, falsely accused of attempting suicide, had been intentionally poisoned. There doesn't seem to be any way out of the ward except one successful escape that doesn't last very long since Kelly's boyfriend (John David Carson) is in cahoots with the friendly head doctor (Mel Ferrer). Meanwhile strict nurse Julie Adams has real Nurse Ratched potential but turns out sweet and friendly, making Bo the sole antagonist.
With frightfully promising taglines like "Once the door closes here, it never opens" or "The Nightmare is knowing You're Sane," it's much too cozy a cuckoo's nest for our sexy and vulnerable ingénue, who winds up teaching the patients how to disco dance and assert themselves... That is, except for Sharon Farrell's emotionally-scarred Melanie, stubbornly remaining the only worthy example of (what could have/should have been a much edgier version of a) character-driven 1970's exploitation that, despite the flaws and missed opportunities, is still somewhat intriguing.
Other inmates including Patti D'Arbanville (BIG Wednesday), Robert Englund (the original Freddie Kruger), Anthony James (who starred in THE TEACHER also directed by Howard Avedis), and Earl Boen (the doubting Thomas of the TERMINATOR franchise) add little to the overall melodrama but it's a nice bouquet of character-actors nonetheless.
1 out of 4 found this helpful