Rating: C
Dir: S.F. Brownrigg
Star: Rosie Holotik, Bill McGhee, Annabelle Weenick, Gene Ross
a.k.a. The Forgotten
Is this film the origin of the “Don’t…” trope, memorably parodied by Edgar Wright in his fake trailer for Grindhouse? There were a couple of earlier, foreign horror movies whose titles went there, most notably Lucio Fulci’s nonsensically-named Don’t Torture a Duckling from the preceding year. But it never received a theatrical release in the United States, so was likely unknown in 1973. The same goes for 1971 French film, Don’t Deliver Us from Evil, so I think this probably deserves the crown. The distributor retitled it from the original name for its nationwide release in August 1973 – perhaps partly in reference to Don’t Look Now, which it beat to screens by a few months.
Such a discussion is probably more interesting than the movie itself, whose reputation is mostly due to it making the video nasty list in Britain, albeit in the less severe Section 2 category. Like most such films, you will be left wondering what all the fuss was about, especially considering the decision to recycle the Last House on the Left tag-line, “Keep repeating: it’s only a movie.” This is nowhere near vicious enough to deserve such a slogan. Indeed, when eventually submitted to the BBFC in 2005, it didn’t even merit an ’18’ certificate, being passed uncut at the ’15’ level. But while unremarkable, it’s not actually terrible. Bland and predictable, sure. But if that were a criminal offense, a lot of Hollywood would be in jail.
Half-way done, and I guess I should mention the plot. Charlotte Beale (April 1972 Playboy covergirl Holotik) arrives at Stephens Sanitarium to take up a position as a nurse. However, her timing sucks, because Dr. Stephens was just hacked to death by an inmate whose therapy, dubiously, involved chopping wood with an axe. This leaves Dr. Geraldine Masters (Weenick) in charge, though only be the loosest definition. Charlotte soon discovers that the poster does get one thing right: the lunatics have taken over the asylum, exhibiting a range of mental disorders, from the lobotomized Sam (McGhee) through the nympho/schizo Allyson to a Vietnam vet with PTSD called Danny. The telephone line is cut, and somebody is very keen to make sure that contact with the outside world is not re-established.
Despite typically being oblivious to such things, I guessed the twist in this very early on, and spent much of the movie waiting for Charlotte to catch up. I will say, with the exception of the killer, this is a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of the mentally ill (though you can certainly question its accuracy). Most of them are depicted as victims, both of their conditions and Dr. Stephens’s questionable efforts at treatment. It is clear from the start that things are going to go badly wrong, and so it’s no surprise this is exactly what happens, in a final surge of murder. Still falls well short of justifying the “nasty” label, without which this would likely have vanished alongside the drive-ins which played it.