Director – Bernard Girard, Screenplay – Bernard Girard & A.Z. Martin, Based on a Screenplay by Reginald Denham & Garrett Fort, Based on the Play Ladies in Retirement (1940) by Reginald Denham & Edward Percy, Producer – Norman Maurer, Photography – Harry Stradling, Jr., Music – David Grusin, Art Direction – Sidney Litwack. Production Company – Columbia/Norman Maurer Productions.
Cast
Stella Stevens (Ellen Hardy), Michael Burns (George Hardy), Barbara Sammeth (Mandy Hardy), Shelley Winters (Gladys Armstrong), Skip Ward (Sam Aller), Carol Cole (Chris), Severn Darden (Nate), Beverly Garland (Mrs Racine), Lloyd Haines (Dr Marion Kincaid), Jennifer Bishop (Sally Ericson), Lou Kane (Armand Racine)
Plot
Ellen Hardy works as an assistant to Gladys Armstrong, a wealthy widow living on Vancouver Island, and is engaged to Gladys’s stepson Sam. Ellen then receives news about her younger brother and sister George and Mandy. They were placed in an institution in Toronto years ago after killing their parents, although nobody was able to determine which one of them was the killer. They are now about to be released because George is coming of age. Ellen flies to Toronto to take custody of them. Mrs Armstrong agrees to allow them to stay at the house, although Ellen urges George and Mandy to say nothing to Mrs Armstrong or anybody about their past. Upon arriving, Mandy insists that they have what she calls a mad room – where they can go and be alone with their troubled thoughts and feelings until they pass. Ellen reluctantly agrees to allow them to use the attic where Mrs Armstrong stores her late husband’s belongings, cautioning them to touch nothing. However, that evening, Mrs Armstrong finds Mandy there. Under pressure, Ellen confesses the truth whereupon Mrs Armstrong decides that the children must go. However, that night somebody stabs Mrs Armstrong. As she conspires to hide the body from others, Ellen cannot be sure which of the children killed her.
Ladies in Retirement (1941) was a classic work of film noir, based on a 1940 Broadway play. The Mad Room is a remake. In this case, the original has been given a spin that makes that makes the story adhere more of the 1960s fad for Psycho Films that came out following the success of Psycho (1960). In the original play and 1941 film, the children are two sisters and there is no backstory about them murdering the parents, while here who the murderer is in made into much more of a central mystery. The Mad Room also drops the character of the thief Albert Feather (Louis Hayward) from Ladies in Retirement who plays games of blackmail with Ellen.
The Mad Room was also made in the aftermath of the Grand Dame Guignol genre brought about by What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), another key work of the psycho film featuring aging former name stars going completely over-the-top. This is not one of those films but it does feature Shelley Winters who found a certain fame in these Grand Old Dames films with the likes of What’s the Matter with Helen? (1971) and Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972). Winters is not present for the whole film but from the opening moments where we are introduced to her getting a massage, she gives a broad and brassy performance that owns much of the show. There is also Beverly Garland, a blonde starlet of the 1950s in films like It Conquered the World (1956), The Alligator People (1959) and assorted tv roles, who goes the Baby Jane route and appears trashed for most of her scenes.
(l to r) Troubled siblings Mandy (Barbara Sammeth) and George (Michael Burns), older sister Ellen (Stella Stevens) and Mrs Armstrong (Shelley Winters)
Once we get to the murder, the dramatics of The Mad Room kick in quite well. The whole film hangs on not letting us know which of the children is the killer. As the children, Barbara Sammeth is fragile and intense, while Michael Burns plays cocky and with potentially stalkery tendencies. In the best tradition of Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Girard winds the tensions up after the murder – Stella Stevens having to cover up what happened and deal with maid Carol Cole, workman Severn Darden and then the arrival of the ladies’ committee, not to mention the dog finding the severed hand. It all arrives at a not-that-unpredictable a twist ending that works with modest effect.
Bernard Girard (1918-97) was a director who had worked mostly in television since the early live days. Girard had made a handful of theatrical films with The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957), Ride Out for Revenge (1957), As Young As We Are (1958), The Party Crashers (1958), Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), which contains the first ever screen appearance of Harrison Ford, and one other horror film with A Name for Evil (1973).
