****SPOILERS*** In an effort to track down on the lamb judge-for taking bribes-Finlay Drake, Herbert Hayes, reporter Ross Stewert, Richard Carson, with the help of of fellow reporter Kathy Lawrence, Lucille Bremer, goes undercover as a mental patient in the La Siesta Sanatorium in order to smoke him out and have him arrested by the police. First getting a clean bill of health that he in fact is nuts by psychiatrist J,R Bell, John Holland, Ross tries to find out if in fact Drake is a resident or inmate of the sanatorium before he himself is found out by the staff headed by Dr. Clifford Porter, Tom Brown Henry, that he's not nuts but a totally sane undercover reporter.
Much like Samuel Fuller's 1963 movie "Shock Corridor" the film "Behind Locked Doors" follow or introduced the same storyline of a man faking insanity to track down a criminal in a mental institution that in this case, unlike in Fuller's movie, he doesn't end up being insane in doing it. It turns out that Dr. Porter is in on the scheme in hiding Judge Drake in his sanitarium but he gets cold feet when it's discovered that Stewart isn't what they think he is-a nut-case-and is told by the judge to off him: Hiding a fugitive from justice is one thing but murder is quite another!
***SPOILERS*** Trying to get Stewart killed in a staged accident he's locked in a cell with "The Champ" former heavyweight boxing champion suffering from in the ring brain damage, he always hears bells ringing, played by the hulking 400 pound Tor Johnson. Johnson was later to become immortalized in the 1955 Ed Wood classic "Bride of the Monster" as Bela Lugosi's hulking and mute assistant Lobo. It's in fact "The Champ" or Tor who's believe it or not not even in the film credits who turns out to be the hero here. After manhandling Stewart he suddenly turns on Dr. Porter and his goons and puts an end to their plans as well as to them themselves.
Much like Samuel Fuller's 1963 movie "Shock Corridor" the film "Behind Locked Doors" follow or introduced the same storyline of a man faking insanity to track down a criminal in a mental institution that in this case, unlike in Fuller's movie, he doesn't end up being insane in doing it. It turns out that Dr. Porter is in on the scheme in hiding Judge Drake in his sanitarium but he gets cold feet when it's discovered that Stewart isn't what they think he is-a nut-case-and is told by the judge to off him: Hiding a fugitive from justice is one thing but murder is quite another!
***SPOILERS*** Trying to get Stewart killed in a staged accident he's locked in a cell with "The Champ" former heavyweight boxing champion suffering from in the ring brain damage, he always hears bells ringing, played by the hulking 400 pound Tor Johnson. Johnson was later to become immortalized in the 1955 Ed Wood classic "Bride of the Monster" as Bela Lugosi's hulking and mute assistant Lobo. It's in fact "The Champ" or Tor who's believe it or not not even in the film credits who turns out to be the hero here. After manhandling Stewart he suddenly turns on Dr. Porter and his goons and puts an end to their plans as well as to them themselves.