Having seen the Trailer for this film on other DVD releases from Something Weird, and knowing that the trailer usually has the best scenes from a film, I didn't have high expectations when I finally broke down and purchased the DVD. While far from a perfect film, it is competently made technically, which makes it watchable despite the glaring gaps in logic and the weak storyline. What really sells the film, though, is Garth's creepy portrayal of the wacko 'scientist' Dr. Bradley. I don't think he personally looks like Henry Kissinger, but if you ever had a itch that you could only scratch by imagining good ol' Henry rubbing his bare torso down in oil and getting his groove on, this is the place to look!
9 Reviews
A sleazy '60s softcore roughie.
BA_Harrison23 December 2023
Pretty work colleagues Ann and Terry (Eve Reeves and Joyce Danner) attend a wild party at an isolated barn where Ann is almost raped -- saved in the nick of time by voyeur Dr. Bradley (Daniel Garth), who hits Ann's attacker with a pitch fork handle. When the girls decide to leave the party, they discover that their car has no gas, so they walk to a nearby house to ask if they can use the owner's phone.
The girls are surprised to find that the house belongs to Dr. Bradley and his sister Ida (Irene Lawrence), but are disappointed to hear that the Bradleys' phone is out of order and that their car is being serviced. The Bradley's invite Ann and Terry to stay for the night, but the girls become worried when they discover that the windows to their room are barred and that their door has been locked from the outside. It turns out that Ann and Terry are just the latest in a long line of female 'guests' at the house, all of whom became unwilling participants in Dr. Bradley's sexual experiments.
If The Texas Chain Saw Massacre had been made a decade earlier, then the girls in Behind Locked Doors might have been more wary about knocking on the door of a remote house in the country while looking for help. Speaking of Tobe Hooper's '74 classic, there's a chase scene in Behind Locked Doors that gave me serious Texas Chain Saw vibes, while the ending, in which Dr. Bradley's 'human mannequins' come to life for revenge, reminded me of another horror classic... William Lustig's excellent Maniac (1980). I wonder if either Hooper or Lustig were influenced by this film.
Of course, Behind Locked Doors isn't in the same league as either The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or Maniac: it's cheap, sleazy trash that suffers from clumsy direction, bad acting and terrible pacing (the first 15 to 20 minutes primarily consists of crap go-go dancing to bad music). Director Charles Romine seems more intent on catering to the dirty raincoat brigade than in delivering tension and scares, missing no opportunity for his female stars to get naked, even having lesbian Terry masturbate under the covers while sharing a bed with Ann.
4.5/10 for the sleaze, rounded down to 4 for the bit where Dr. Bradley covers his body with baby oil -- horrifying!
The girls are surprised to find that the house belongs to Dr. Bradley and his sister Ida (Irene Lawrence), but are disappointed to hear that the Bradleys' phone is out of order and that their car is being serviced. The Bradley's invite Ann and Terry to stay for the night, but the girls become worried when they discover that the windows to their room are barred and that their door has been locked from the outside. It turns out that Ann and Terry are just the latest in a long line of female 'guests' at the house, all of whom became unwilling participants in Dr. Bradley's sexual experiments.
If The Texas Chain Saw Massacre had been made a decade earlier, then the girls in Behind Locked Doors might have been more wary about knocking on the door of a remote house in the country while looking for help. Speaking of Tobe Hooper's '74 classic, there's a chase scene in Behind Locked Doors that gave me serious Texas Chain Saw vibes, while the ending, in which Dr. Bradley's 'human mannequins' come to life for revenge, reminded me of another horror classic... William Lustig's excellent Maniac (1980). I wonder if either Hooper or Lustig were influenced by this film.
Of course, Behind Locked Doors isn't in the same league as either The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or Maniac: it's cheap, sleazy trash that suffers from clumsy direction, bad acting and terrible pacing (the first 15 to 20 minutes primarily consists of crap go-go dancing to bad music). Director Charles Romine seems more intent on catering to the dirty raincoat brigade than in delivering tension and scares, missing no opportunity for his female stars to get naked, even having lesbian Terry masturbate under the covers while sharing a bed with Ann.
4.5/10 for the sleaze, rounded down to 4 for the bit where Dr. Bradley covers his body with baby oil -- horrifying!
S10 Reviews: Behind Locked Doors (1968)
suspiria1025 September 2005
Two swinging chicks get trapped out in the country after attending a party. When directed to a phone at a house down the street they become the test subjects of a depraved maniac doctor with his sister wanting to use there bodies for sex experiments. "Behind Locked Doors" is actually a notch above most of the Something Weird titles. It does have plenty of sleaze to go around but the acting is pretty good for this type of production. The story is pretty solid as well and the production value is pretty good too. If you like films like "The Last House on the Left", "I Spit on Your Grave" or "The House on the Edge of the Park" you may like this one too.
Cult/Camp Classic that deserves a revival
bakerjp10 May 2000
This ultra-rare 1969 sex/thriller/horror film deserves immediate re-release and high-profile exposure. Directed by Charles Romine BLD is a tale of a spooky old house, the two girls who are trapped there, and the weirdos who inhabit it. "A palace of PLEASURE or a pit of PERVERSION?" screamed the voice-over, while two women who looked like they'd failed the audition for Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! were subjected to various tortures by a psychotic middle-aged brother and sister combo.
Behind Locked Doors is the tale of two female "swingers", Ann (Eve Reeves) and Terry (Joyce Denner). They go to parties, held in out-of-the-way barns apparently, and dance to bad lounge music. It is at one of these parties that they encounter gate-crasher Mr Bradley (Daniel Garth), an unattractive tubby man with thick glasses and a posh accent. He saves Ann from being raped in a hayloft, and later offers hospitality to the girls when their car mysteriously won't start.
My favourite character in the film is Mrs Bradley - a sadistic house-keeper with short greying hair who makes Mrs Danvers from Rebecca seem like Mother Theresa. Many of the film's best moments come from lingering close-ups of Mrs Bradley's evil face, Mrs Bradley listening at doors, Mrs Bradley with her whip! We want more Mrs Bradley!
The muscle-bound handyman (played by Ivan Hager) is one of the least perverted characters in the film - and that's saying something. And as this is a Harry Novak presentation, we have a lesbian subplot involving the two main characters and quite a bit of nudity, including a few unneccesary shots of Mr Bradley rubbing baby oil onto his lardy body (stop the horror!). He's been conducting these strange "experiments" you see, and like it or not, Ann and Terry are about to be recruited as his latest subjects. And if they make a fuss, they'll end up like the previous victims in the cellar...who in many ways are better actresses than our heroines - even though they aren't supposed to move or speak. I think that Mr Bradley is a good representative of this film's potential audience, where no doubt it was shown at the "Pussycat" or other similarly named flea-pit, where unattractive, bespectacled men fiddled for mints under their raincoats throughout the whole film. But oddly, this is more than simply sexploitation. Plot appears to be central, and little nudity is present. The majority of the violence is off-screen too. The film does have an interesting sound-track and occasionally makes good use of lighting. However, it seems a little short on props. Various bits of furniture keep turning up in different rooms, as the budget is stretched to its limits.
I also like the clothes that the girls wear throughout the film. Ann is dressed in a tacky black and white leopard print top with frills down the front, while Terry is forced to wear an ugly brown patterned sweater that's right out of a 1970s knitting pattern. No wonder the poor things keep taking their clothes off at every opportunity - you would too! Actually, the lesbian subplot is handled almost delicately (or perhaps I've just been desensitised by watching too many adverts for other Harry Novak films), and although it's clearly just there for a little bit of extra titillation for the raincoat brigade, at least it's resolved in a gentle way. Terry was not "punished" in the storyline for being attracted to Ann, and it's suggested that she's in a relationship with another woman at the end of the film. Ann, on the other hand seems content to go back to the man who wanted to rape her at the beginning. Rape isn't really handled very sensibly in the film. Both Terry and Ann are subjected to unwanted sexual encounters, which while they find rather distressing, they both seem to take a rather matter-of-fact attitude to it all. It's a case of "oh well, now it's my turn. I suppose you'd better get it over with if you must," beforehand. And then "Well, that wasn't much fun was it?" afterwards. Germaine Greer was probably not consulted on the script.
The suspension of (dis)belief is required throughout the film. Although much of the action is supposed to happen at night, it is always day outside. Are we really supposed to believe that the two girls wouldn't be able to get away from a fat middle-aged man and his frail-looking sister? Why are their attempts at escape so pathetic? Why does Ann seem in denial about the danger she's in one minute, and the next pushing Terry into making a run for it? And for that matter, why does she appear so sexually naive? If she's not going up into a hayloft with a potential rapist, she's suggesting to Terry that they undress to their underwear and get into bed together. Talk about mixed messages. And as for the final scenes - well, even you're able to discount all of the above, there are still a few suprises left, which defy explanation...
Still, for all its (many) flaws, this one goes under the genre of camp/cult classic. I'd like it to be revived, with audiences shouting the lines back at the screen, dressing as the central characters and acting out key scenes.
Behind Locked Doors is the tale of two female "swingers", Ann (Eve Reeves) and Terry (Joyce Denner). They go to parties, held in out-of-the-way barns apparently, and dance to bad lounge music. It is at one of these parties that they encounter gate-crasher Mr Bradley (Daniel Garth), an unattractive tubby man with thick glasses and a posh accent. He saves Ann from being raped in a hayloft, and later offers hospitality to the girls when their car mysteriously won't start.
My favourite character in the film is Mrs Bradley - a sadistic house-keeper with short greying hair who makes Mrs Danvers from Rebecca seem like Mother Theresa. Many of the film's best moments come from lingering close-ups of Mrs Bradley's evil face, Mrs Bradley listening at doors, Mrs Bradley with her whip! We want more Mrs Bradley!
The muscle-bound handyman (played by Ivan Hager) is one of the least perverted characters in the film - and that's saying something. And as this is a Harry Novak presentation, we have a lesbian subplot involving the two main characters and quite a bit of nudity, including a few unneccesary shots of Mr Bradley rubbing baby oil onto his lardy body (stop the horror!). He's been conducting these strange "experiments" you see, and like it or not, Ann and Terry are about to be recruited as his latest subjects. And if they make a fuss, they'll end up like the previous victims in the cellar...who in many ways are better actresses than our heroines - even though they aren't supposed to move or speak. I think that Mr Bradley is a good representative of this film's potential audience, where no doubt it was shown at the "Pussycat" or other similarly named flea-pit, where unattractive, bespectacled men fiddled for mints under their raincoats throughout the whole film. But oddly, this is more than simply sexploitation. Plot appears to be central, and little nudity is present. The majority of the violence is off-screen too. The film does have an interesting sound-track and occasionally makes good use of lighting. However, it seems a little short on props. Various bits of furniture keep turning up in different rooms, as the budget is stretched to its limits.
I also like the clothes that the girls wear throughout the film. Ann is dressed in a tacky black and white leopard print top with frills down the front, while Terry is forced to wear an ugly brown patterned sweater that's right out of a 1970s knitting pattern. No wonder the poor things keep taking their clothes off at every opportunity - you would too! Actually, the lesbian subplot is handled almost delicately (or perhaps I've just been desensitised by watching too many adverts for other Harry Novak films), and although it's clearly just there for a little bit of extra titillation for the raincoat brigade, at least it's resolved in a gentle way. Terry was not "punished" in the storyline for being attracted to Ann, and it's suggested that she's in a relationship with another woman at the end of the film. Ann, on the other hand seems content to go back to the man who wanted to rape her at the beginning. Rape isn't really handled very sensibly in the film. Both Terry and Ann are subjected to unwanted sexual encounters, which while they find rather distressing, they both seem to take a rather matter-of-fact attitude to it all. It's a case of "oh well, now it's my turn. I suppose you'd better get it over with if you must," beforehand. And then "Well, that wasn't much fun was it?" afterwards. Germaine Greer was probably not consulted on the script.
The suspension of (dis)belief is required throughout the film. Although much of the action is supposed to happen at night, it is always day outside. Are we really supposed to believe that the two girls wouldn't be able to get away from a fat middle-aged man and his frail-looking sister? Why are their attempts at escape so pathetic? Why does Ann seem in denial about the danger she's in one minute, and the next pushing Terry into making a run for it? And for that matter, why does she appear so sexually naive? If she's not going up into a hayloft with a potential rapist, she's suggesting to Terry that they undress to their underwear and get into bed together. Talk about mixed messages. And as for the final scenes - well, even you're able to discount all of the above, there are still a few suprises left, which defy explanation...
Still, for all its (many) flaws, this one goes under the genre of camp/cult classic. I'd like it to be revived, with audiences shouting the lines back at the screen, dressing as the central characters and acting out key scenes.
A b-movie at its finest!!
mtthawk14 February 2003
This creepy yet unintentionally hillarious film is one of my favorite b-movies. I mean you have got it all in this film-cheesy music, cheesy clothing, and the bad guy's hair alone is worth seeing this film. The plot goes something like this. A couple of college gals are partying, one of them almost gets raped, but is saved by the ubiquitous bad guy with the hair, Dr. Bradley. He invites them back to his house, where he lives with his warped sis and their necrophiliac handyman. The girls are then introduced to Bradley's demented world. Don't worry, it's not very scary or suspenseful, but definitely a campy film worth watching when you have some time to kill!
Surprisingly effective flick marred by weak ending.
moycon30 June 2007
Warning: Spoilers
**MILD SPOILERS NO ENDING GIVEN AWAY!!** I gave my girlfriend the movie list this week-end and asked her to pick one out. She said she was in the mood for a spooker. Looking through the list she asks, what is this movie Behind Locked Doors about? I said I didn't have a clue and popped in the ol DVD player. After watching the trailer, I wasn't all too sure we would be able to make it through the flick, but we gave it a go and as it turned out, we were both pleasantly surprised.
Two chicks Ann and Terri (one a virgin, one a lesbian) who work at the same job decide to go do something together, and like most women would, decide to go to a swingers barn dance. The virgin almost gets raped, but luckily a helpful near-by birdwatcher comes to her rescue. The next morning the girls find that they are not able to leave because they are out of gas and that conveniently, everyone else is gone. A beefy simpleton happens to be walking by. Ivan Agar of Shriek of the Mutilated fame here billed as Ivan Hagar probably because the flick took a couple hours to shoot and the director probably didn't hear his name right. This is one creepy dude and I wish he was in more movies, but alas IMDb only lists these two, still I smiled as I realized that simpleton was my good friend Laughing Crow from SOTM. Anyways..... They call out to Ivan and ask for help.
Ivan tells them there is only one house in the area and they can let them use a telephone and probably even give them some gas. Naturally the house is that nice old birdwatcher that "saved" Ann earlier. He introduces them to his sister who lives with him at the creepy old house. The girls soon find out that the nice old birdwatcher isn't so nice and they have been captured and locked up to take part in his bizarre experiments, which seem mainly to consist of him asking questions and then porking the girls. The stuffed corpses of previous girls that tried to escape are in the basement and the girls are told that if they try and escape the same fate will befall them. (It should be noted that Ivan is still around to help make sure the girls don't escape) The flick at this point centers around the girls attempts to escape. Can they possibly get away from the evil clutches of the frumpy mad doctor and his frail whip wielding sister? Will Ivan and the basement corpse ever get married? Does Terri's libido ever take a break? Watch this flick and find out! First off, the movie is well acted for a no-budget flick. This is a completely story driven movie as there is very little blood and gore. To keep things interesting the director was nice enough to include some ample nudity. Ann has some nice junk in the trunk if you know what I mean and I think you do. Production values are about what you would expect for a no-budget movie. Filmed on location shots, with lots of dialog. The tension builds as the story unfolds, even if you will have to suspend you dis-belief in a scene or two. That said I really liked this flick and surprisingly so did my girlfriend. I personally felt the ending was a bit of a letdown. The premise was decent enough, but the execution of it sucked. It really could have worked if the surprise was sprung at breakneck speed catching the viewer off guard. Instead everyone involved moves like a turtle riding a snail and you're left wondering. Why don't you just RUN!!?? Still, ending aside, there is a lot to recommend here. A real fine watch if low budget drive in horror flicks are your bag. I give this movie 7 out of 10 (Would have been higher if the ending was done more competently)
Two chicks Ann and Terri (one a virgin, one a lesbian) who work at the same job decide to go do something together, and like most women would, decide to go to a swingers barn dance. The virgin almost gets raped, but luckily a helpful near-by birdwatcher comes to her rescue. The next morning the girls find that they are not able to leave because they are out of gas and that conveniently, everyone else is gone. A beefy simpleton happens to be walking by. Ivan Agar of Shriek of the Mutilated fame here billed as Ivan Hagar probably because the flick took a couple hours to shoot and the director probably didn't hear his name right. This is one creepy dude and I wish he was in more movies, but alas IMDb only lists these two, still I smiled as I realized that simpleton was my good friend Laughing Crow from SOTM. Anyways..... They call out to Ivan and ask for help.
Ivan tells them there is only one house in the area and they can let them use a telephone and probably even give them some gas. Naturally the house is that nice old birdwatcher that "saved" Ann earlier. He introduces them to his sister who lives with him at the creepy old house. The girls soon find out that the nice old birdwatcher isn't so nice and they have been captured and locked up to take part in his bizarre experiments, which seem mainly to consist of him asking questions and then porking the girls. The stuffed corpses of previous girls that tried to escape are in the basement and the girls are told that if they try and escape the same fate will befall them. (It should be noted that Ivan is still around to help make sure the girls don't escape) The flick at this point centers around the girls attempts to escape. Can they possibly get away from the evil clutches of the frumpy mad doctor and his frail whip wielding sister? Will Ivan and the basement corpse ever get married? Does Terri's libido ever take a break? Watch this flick and find out! First off, the movie is well acted for a no-budget flick. This is a completely story driven movie as there is very little blood and gore. To keep things interesting the director was nice enough to include some ample nudity. Ann has some nice junk in the trunk if you know what I mean and I think you do. Production values are about what you would expect for a no-budget movie. Filmed on location shots, with lots of dialog. The tension builds as the story unfolds, even if you will have to suspend you dis-belief in a scene or two. That said I really liked this flick and surprisingly so did my girlfriend. I personally felt the ending was a bit of a letdown. The premise was decent enough, but the execution of it sucked. It really could have worked if the surprise was sprung at breakneck speed catching the viewer off guard. Instead everyone involved moves like a turtle riding a snail and you're left wondering. Why don't you just RUN!!?? Still, ending aside, there is a lot to recommend here. A real fine watch if low budget drive in horror flicks are your bag. I give this movie 7 out of 10 (Would have been higher if the ending was done more competently)
The House of Sex Slaves.
HumanoidOfFlesh23 February 2015
When their car is deliberately drained of gas by ex-mortician Dr.Bradley Ann Henderson and her semi-lesbian friend Terry Wilson seek help in Bradley's isolated house where he lives with his creepy sister Myla and a servant Freddy.Dr.Bradley captures both girls for sex as he wants to find 'perfect love mate'.His ghastly memorial exhibition room with naked women looks truly memorable.Very likable exploitation movie directed by Charles Romine and shot in upstate New York.There is plenty of delicious sleaze and mannequin-like naked ladies are lovely.The film is quite atmospheric too!6 cat-fights out of 10.The climax slightly reminded me "Maniac" with Joe Spinell.
Delirious east-coast sexploitation from the golden age!
marshall crist10 October 2001
This film is long overdue for rediscovery! Apparently titled ANYBODY ANYWAY until Harry Novak got his hands on it, by any name it smells as sweet. The barn sequence at the beginning with its twenty minutes of grade "A" film library/go-go music (some of it recognizable from H.G.Lewis movies) is worth the price of admission alone. This is one politically incorrect film. From the adenoidal Mr. Bradley and his "love experiments" to the jaw-dropping "happy" ending, trash fans can not go wrong with this one. The tone is perfect--not too self-parodic, but definitely impossible to take seriously as it catalogs the various clichés of male fantasies that invariably appear in softcore films.
A little something for the ladies
zot_rex913 April 2005
As one can derive the plot from the many previously posted messages here, I'll not address it in this post. Perhaps it's a girl/girl thing, or maybe I've just watched too many Harry Novak "classics," but I have to say that I found Joyce Danners to be the 'erotic anchor'of this film. I chose to watch this flick on the strength of her presence in the trailer. This red-headed vixen steals the movie with her measured speech and the deft way she somehow manages to blink under those hefty-looking false eyelashes. She's my hero-again, probably just a girl/girl thing. Though the rape scene and the character's subsequent reaction to being violated make this movie irritating at times, you gotta' love the fact that the lesbian character (joyce danner) 'takes care of her own business' after her advance are spurned. Danners could definitely benefit from the enhancement surgeries of today. Still, she's got a definite sex appeal, if you go for that sort.
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