The Cobweb

Two words spoken by a patient pretty much sum up this whole film, start to finish- "I'm phobic!". It's all phobia, neurosis and hysterics, so its kinda like watching a train wreck.

The main difference between patients and staff is that the patients seem more self aware, often knowing just what their problems are, in contrast to the staff who flounder in self ignorance while totally unaware of their own internal issues. Overall the film lacks much depth, maybe the depth was lost in the editing process, so that we are left with...well...mostly just drapes (at least four different sets of drapes by my count, if you include the originals that are to be replaced). Maybe the writers of this story had a drapery fetish? Strange, but you never know!

Lillian Gish and Gloria Grahame steal the movie and their performances are worth your viewing time. The whole movie is a guilty pleasure, as neither inmates nor staff seem to be in charge of this asylum. Its fun to watch as the wheels come off and the "Institute for Neurosis" descends into 1950's campy chaos.

MGM put together quite a stellar cast for The Cobweb, another film in the tradition of Private Worlds and The Snake Pit about an insane asylum and the politics of running the place. After seeing this crowd at work, I'm not sure that the patients haven't taken over the place as they did in that classic Star Trek episode.

Richard Widmark is a new psychiatrist whose new methods allow granting of more freedom of the grounds to the inmates. What Widmark's character might think today of the number of patients walking around completely free today with only our trust that they will take their medications is interesting to speculate. Anyway it puts him at odds with Charles Boyer who is the medical head of the place.

Boyer is a man beset with problems of his own of a personal nature, he's drinking and wrenching around openly, a man going through a midlife crisis and playing it out in front of everyone including all the enemies he's made. Widmark however as a former disciple of his can't quite pull the trigger to get rid of him.

And Widmark is having his own problems, a neglected wife in Gloria Grahame and a fetching Lauren Bacall to tempt him.

But the best performance of the film comes from that grand old lady of the screen, Lillian Gish. She's the civilian record keeper of the place and a politician to the max. She plays off Widmark and Boyer, in fact The Cobweb would have been a better film had she been the central character. There's also a real good performance by Olive Carey as a Ratched like nurse, Ms. O'Brien.

John Kerr, Susan Strasberg, and Oscar Levant are all inmates of the place which is a rather posh establishment for the richer brand of neurotics. You can't imagine Widmark trying his experiments in freedom on the inhabitants of The Snake Pit.

The Cobweb is a film whose parts are greater than the whole effort. It could have been a whole lot better than it was given the talent involved.

You can see what attracted Minnelli to this story, as it's partly about a conflict over decor. Maybe this worked in the novel, but it's hardly the stuff of compelling screen drama. Of course the choice of drapes is symbolic of independence to the patients, and symbolic of her power to Miss Inch, and it's actually a realistically mundane conflict such as might actually occur anywhere. It just seems to be much ado about nothing when it's acted out.

Minnelli uses a bit of the soundtrack of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, here (the picture that trumped his own Brigadoon at the box office) - in a scene at the movies. Guess he had no hard feelings.

One of Minnelli's interesting misfires. Even though it doesn't really work, I've seen it three or four times.

The acting is good, overall. Richard Widmark (as the director of the clinic) has two leading ladies, Lauren Bacall and Gloria Grahame. This is one of the few times I've ever really seen Grahame miscast. She had a wide range, after all she played everything from Violet Bick in It's A Wonderful Life, to Rosemary Bartlow in The Bad And The Beautiful, to Ado Annie in Oklahoma. But I think you will agree her role defeats her best efforts here. She starts out very well but I'm not sure I always understood where she was coming from as the film wore on. Bacall plays a simple, sensible girl, and does a good job. Lillian Gish plays the unpredictable Miss Inch, Charles Boyer the self-destructing Dr. Devanal, John Kerr the young and artistic Stevie (a role originally announced for James Dean). Oscar Levant is called upon to go outside his usual comfort zone and I'm not sure he makes it. Susan Strasburg is excellent in a small role.

This is a very strange film about a mental institution which is operated by Dr. Stewart McIver, (Richard Widmark) and Dr. Douglas Devannal, (Charles Boyer). Stewart is married to Karen McIver, (Gloria Grahame) and they are both having marital problems, she claims he does not pay much attention to her and especially in bed. Meg Rinehart, (Lauren Bacall), is a new employee with the hospital and is divorced and has a young son. All of the staff has their own serious problems as well as trying to take care of some very serious mental patients who require a great deal of attention. It is hard to believe that the main subject in this film is about just plain simple drapes and just where to hang them and this is causing a great deal of problems with the patients and staff. Richard Widmark and Lauren Bacall gave a great performance along with the very sexy gal, Gloria Grahame. This is a very crazy film and it will keep you guessing just how this picture will ever end.

In the 1950's, Vincente Minnelli was making some of the strongest films in Hollywood. Pictures like Some Came Running and The Bad and the Beautiful were very strong and probing studies of American life; The Cobweb deserves to be considered alongside these great films. The tranquil world of a psychiatric clinic in the Midwest countryside (somehow I can see cows in the fields even though there aren't any) is disrupted by a power struggle between two strong-willed men: Dr McIver, a young man whose first important post this is, and Dr Devanal, who has spent more than 20 years at the clinic and seems to be burnt-out. A stiff-necked spinster, Victoria Inch, whose father had created the clinic does everything she can to aggravate the principals. The clash between old settled practices and innovative new ones is the subject of the film.

People fret about the drapes--well really they're only the trigger for the clash. I have the strong feeling that by leaving Chicago to settle in this back-water, McIver has made a mountain of trouble for himself. His wife Karen (splendid performance by Gloria Grahame) is experiencing severe boredom and frustration; she's a sensual romantic woman who is being ignored by her husband, who is trying to find romance with Meg Rinehart (a cool Lauren Bacall). The romantic disappointments of the main characters make this film work.