The Caretakers
| The Caretakers | |
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Original theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Hall Bartlett |
| Produced by | Hall Bartlett |
| Screenplay by | Henry F. Greenberg |
| Story by |
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| Based on | the book by Dariel Telfer |
| Starring |
Robert Stack Polly Bergen Joan Crawford Janis Paige Diane McBain |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
| Cinematography | Lucien Ballard, A.S.C. |
| Edited by | William B. Murphy, A.C.E. |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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August 21, 1963 |
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Running time
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97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2,050,000 (US/Canada) $1,110,000 (Foreign) |
The Caretakers, released in the UK as Borderlines, is a 1963 American drama film starring Robert Stack, Polly Bergen, Diane McBain, Joan Crawford and Janis Paige 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, co-produced by Paris and distributed by United Artists. The Caretakers is reminiscent of a 20th Century Fox film set in a similar hospital, The Snake Pit (1948). The on-screen text in opening credits states: "Dedicated to the caretakers whose research and sacrifice discover truth. For Beba, Alice, Paul, Cathy, Laurie, Pearl, Margaret, Warren, Arthur".
Optimistic psychiatrist Dr. Donovan MacLeod 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 his unyielding and self-righteous head nurse, Lucretia Terry, who believes in traditional methods such as strait-jackets and padded cells for treating the mentally ill.
Head of the hospital Dr. Harrington is weak-willed. Terry's assistant, nurse Bracken, 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; a former prostitute, Marion; a pyromaniac, Edna, and a former schoolteacher, Irene.
Co-writer/co-producer Jerry Paris also appears in The Caretakers as a passerby Lorna bumps into 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.
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.
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