I was drawn to this for the presence of Joan Crawford. If she hadn't been in it, I probably wouldn't have watched it. She's an executive or supervising nurse at a hospital that helps the mentally ill, some worse off than others. But we really don't see that much of Joan Crawford. Enter Polly Bergen who has lost it, because of something awful she's done. Polly Bergen's not a bad actress, but I couldn't help feeling that a better actress would have done a better job. Polly's rants and ravings were over the top. Olivia de Havilland has played a similar type, but who would have really knocked this out of the park would have been Shelley Winters. The score by Elmer Bernstein, whose music I usually like, was so overblown it overwhelms the picture. In fact, the film was overblown. If you have the patience to get past the first 45 minutes, with that awful and laughable dialogue, it does manage to quieten down a bit and get a little serious. But on the whole the film tends to overdramatize and even sensationalize its characters, the ones who need compassion and help, and not to be made fun of. While the film on the whole has a trashy feel to it, there were some rather good performances by Constance Ford, Janis Paige, and Ellen Corby in supporting roles. Even Robert Stack who started out as wooden seems to endear himself to the viewer by the end with idealistic dreams of trying to be a good doctor. And, Robert Vaughn was probably the biggest surprise of the film, as he came off very believable as Polly's husband. He was very natural in maybe one of his best and underrated roles. But the film itself is one-dimensional and is not deserving to be called a testament to those nurses who tend to those that need them.
Review of The Caretakers
