The Caretakers

Infobox Film
name = The Caretakers


caption = Original theatrical poster
director = Hall Bartlett
producer = Hall Bartlett
writer = Hall Bartlett
Jerry Paris
starring = Robert Stack
Joan Crawford
music = Elmer Bernstein
cinematography = Lucien Ballard
editing = William B. Murphy
distributor = United Artists
released = flagicon|USA 21 August, 1963
runtime = 97 min.
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 1:130344
imdb_id = 0056908

"The Caretakers" (1963) is a United Artists feature film starring Joan Crawford and Robert Stack in a story about a mental hospital. The screenplay was adapted by Henry F. Greenberg from a story by Hall Bartlett and Jerry Paris based on the 1959 novel "The Caretakers" by Dariel Telfer. The film was produced and directed by Bartlett and co-produced by Paris. "The Caretakers" is reminiscent of the 20th Century Fox mental hospital film "The Snake Pit" (1948).

Plot and cast

Young, optimistic psychiatrist Dr. Donovan MacLeod (Stack) wants to prove his theory that mental patients can benefit from group therapy. His method of treatment, with no violence or punishment, is met with a great deal of resistance from unyielding and self-righteous head nurse, Lucretia Terry (Crawford) who believes in traditional methods such as strait-jackets and padded cells for treating the mentally ill. The head of the hospital Dr. Harrington (Herbert Marshall) is weak-willed, and nurse Bracken, Terry's assistant, (Constance Ford) supports her superior's stand. After much trial and error and the harrowing near-rape of a patient, MacLeod's ideas prevail in spite of the opposition and meet some success. Patients include a distraught mother Lorna Medford (Polly Bergen); a former prostitute, Marion (Janis Paige); a pyromaniac, Edna (Barbara Barrie); and a former schoolteacher, Irene (Ellen Corby). Others in the cast include Virginia Munshin as Ruth, Diane McBain as Alison, Sharon Hugueny as Connie, Susan Oliver as Cathy, Ana St. Clair as Ana, Robert Vaughn as Jim Melford, and Van Williams as Dr. Larry Denning.

Production notes

Co-writer/co-producer Jerry Paris also appears in "The Caretakers" as a passerby into whom Lorna bumps on the street.

Joan Crawford arranged for each day's scenes with veteran actor Herbert Marshall, an old friend who was in frail health, to be shot first, thus allowing him to finish his work early in the day.

Joan Crawford was on the board of directors of Pepsico and Pepsi-Cola product placements include a scene at the hospital picnic, which features a wagon dispensing the soft drink.

Reception

"Variety" commented, "Miss Crawford doesn't so much play her handful of scenes as she dresses for them, looking as if she were en route to a Pepsi board meeting."

Bosley Crowther noted in the "New York Times", "Altogether, this woman's melodrama is shallow, showy, and cheap - a badly commercial exploitation of very sensitive material." [Quirk, Lawrence J.. "The Films of Joan Crawford". The Citadel Press, 1968.]

Awards and nominations

"The Caretakers" received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White:Lucien Ballard. It also received Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama: Polly Bergen, and Best Motion Picture Director: Hall Bartlett.

ee also

* Joan Crawford filmography

References

Navbox
name = Joan Crawford
title = The 1940-1970 Films of Miss Joan Crawford
group1 = 1940-1949
list1 = nowrap| "Strange Cargo" (1940) • nowrap| "Susan and God" (1940) • nowrap| "A Woman's Face" (1941) • nowrap| "When Ladies Meet" (1941) • nowrap| "They All Kissed the Bride" (1942) • nowrap| "Reunion in France" (1942) • nowrap| "Above Suspicion" (1943) • nowrap| "Hollywood Canteen" (1944) • nowrap| "Mildred Pierce" (1945) • nowrap| "Humoresque" (1946) • nowrap| "Possessed" (1947) • nowrap| "Daisy Kenyon" (1947) • nowrap| "Flamingo Road" (1949) • nowrap| "It's a Great Feeling" (1949)
name = Joan Crawford
title = The 1940-1970 Films of Miss Joan Crawford
group2 = 1950-1959
list2 = nowrap| "The Damned Don't Cry!" (1950) • nowrap| "Harriet Craig" (1950) • nowrap| "Goodbye, My Fancy" (1951) • nowrap| "This Woman is Dangerous" (1952) • nowrap| "Sudden Fear" (1952) • nowrap| "Torch Song" (1953) • nowrap| "Johnny Guitar" (1954) • nowrap| "Female on the Beach" (1955) • nowrap| "Queen Bee" (1955) • nowrap| "Autumn Leaves" (1956) • nowrap| "The Story of Esther Costello" (1957) • nowrap| "The Best of Everything" (1959)
name = Joan Crawford
title = The 1940-1970 Films of Miss Joan Crawford
group3 = 1960-1969
list3 = nowrap| "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) • nowrap| "The Caretakers" (1963) • nowrap| "Strait-Jacket" (1964) • nowrap| "I Saw What You Did" (1965) • nowrap| "Berserk!" (1967)
group4 = 1970
list4 = nowrap| "Trog" (1970)