User Reviews

Hi there, The movie, the Other Side of Hell, originally aired on NBC. Another title in the works had been Escape from Hell. It is actually a true life story of a man named Bill Thomas. Everyone involved in the shooting of the movie was quite surprised at the end when the disclaimer came on and said that the movie was not based on real events. The insane asylum was in Pennsylvania. Bill went crazy because, at his father's death bed, he asked him for forgiveness (of what I never found out), and his father told him he would never forgive him and then died. Bill went around trying to talk to the dead at funerals to get a message to his father. He realized he was sick and needed help so he confessed to the murder of a girl. He ended up in Fairview State Mental Hospital and was there for nine years before he escaped using the keys he found. After the movie was released, S.L. Stebel (not sure of spelling) wrote a biography entitled "The Shoe Leather Treatment" published by J.P. Tarcher. The Shoe Leather treatment referred to the term the guards used in the hospital/prison when the patients misbehaved. Basically they were kick and beaten half to death. I will look and see if we have any copies of the Other Side of Hell at home any more, though I doubt it. If so, I will post back to the site. NBC might be a good place to look otherwise. Hope this information helps y'all.

Never heard of this great movie, no doubt as it was a tv movie. Very long film but doesn't feel it, a great thoughtful watch. Not sure if title refers to what's playing out in his mind and then he enters a new kind of hell in institution. Very little humour but engrossing all the way. Arkin keeps u watching, one nudge away from going over the edge himself. I liked the warmth he shows other inmates at times, everyone deserves respect no matter how far gone they are. I've never understood why people are mean or brutal like this, but sadly it still goes on. Heads up for Magnum alum TJ I think, nice to see him. Glad I found this, big fan of prison type films. Highly recommend this movie. One little thing I found a bit fake, shoe-shining scenes looked very unreal, actors clearly not landing blows, but it was made for tv. A bit of a hidden gem all told.

I saw this movie and it is partially true and partially misleading. I was a patient at Farview Asylum for the Criminally Insane (PA) in the late 1970's. I'd like to clear up any misconceptions of what went on there. First, I never saw any mistreatment by the hospital staff. If anything, I saw frequent, often brutal, attacks by patients on the guards. And there were also many attacks of patient upon patient. Really nasty stuff, like one patient chewing off the nose of another. Sexual "hook-ups" were commonplace, but rape was not. The worst thing about being there was that you never knew when someone would "go off" and attack you without provocation. I survived without any problems because I carried myself around the wards with the comport of "you mess with me, I will hurt you, badly. " Hence, I was never attacked.

I personally knew Bill Thomas, he used to manage my group in the early 90's. He was a fantastically intelligent and sensitive man. This is absolutely a true story, based on real facts and with very little of the plot points changed. Bill would often recount little snippets, details that occurred while he was in the institution. They were both horrific and fascinating, it is difficult to believe that this kind of treatment was actually perpetrated on patients in such places during the 20th century. Both the "Shoe Leather Treatment" and "The Other Side Of Hell" are amazing examples of our ability as humans being to survive and persevere. Bill, I miss ya'. Kurt

This movie was filmed at Warmsprings State Mental Hospital between Anaconda Montana and Deerlodge Montana and the cast and crew stayed at Fairmont Hotsprings Hotel/Resort(closer to Anaconda).I grew up at a village called Ramsay,not far away, and we often went to Fairmont to swim and drop a few coins at the arcade afterwords and I remember seeing some of the cast for this movie in the hotel lobby or walking to the hotel restaurant.I didn't know Morgan Woodward's name but knew his face from Coolhand Luke,Gunsmoke episodes and other TV westerns. Gee he was tall,must have been 6'8" or more it seems.I don't recall seeing Alan Arkin but I remember his son,Adam, playing a pinball machine and a bunch of kids gathered around. None of us knew who he was but years later,seeing him on TV,it "clicked".

I found this movie, The Other Side of Hell, on You Tube. My father was imprisoned at Farview Institution for the Criminally Insane from 1943 until he died in 1964. I had not known where my father was until 1970. I had always thought he was in a place where he had "a room," and only this past week had I learned about those events depicted in the movie. I have purchased "Cold Storage" and "The Shoe Leather Treatment." It was disheartening to say the least to learn that my father apparently was there during those events/years. He had not seen me since l943 and I am now 74 years old never having seen him after 1943.

I am trying to find out any information I can about him. Nothing to do with the dark side of the institution, that is all in the past, but just to know anything at all about him as a person. I have only this one fact: that he was an artist and a painting of his was displayed in the Superintendent's office.

I am grateful to the person who posted the movie, The Other Side of Hell, on You Tube. It was very revealing.

The Other Side of Hell, starring Alan Arkin, is a movie about Frank Doyle who is a patient in the Hillsgate Institution for the Mentally Insane. Hillsgate did not exist and there was a disclaimer at the end of the movie saying it was not a true story. It came out in 1978, two years before the following books. Cold Storage by Wendell Rawls was published in 1980 about conditions at the Farview State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Pennsylvania. The Shoe Leather Treatment by Bill Thomas (as told to S.L. Stebel) was published in 1980 and is about Bill Thomas who was a patient at Farview State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Pennsylvania. Both books are true stories and are listed as biography by the library, but the movie is fiction.

Well, as I have stated... if you are reading this you probably have seen this movie, if you haven't and are still reading, I very well may give away plot points... this shouldn't matter too much as it took the bulk of my life to actually find a copy of the darn thing. So if you wanted to view this movie... You honestly can't unless you REALLY try.

To start, it takes place in a mental institution that is more like a prison than a hospital. The main character, Frank Dole, is committed there hoping to receive medical help... He doesn't. He witnesses another patient (inmate) getting beaten to death, and decides he must escape. Befriending Jim Baker, another inmate who plead insanity at his wife's murder trial, the two try and escape. They fail... But Frank eventually manages to escape with the details of the Hospital's brutality.

There is so much story to go around in this movie, that I can't even begin to delve into it all... Some of my favorite parts include Frank collecting keys he finds; hoping one day to unlock the right door, Jim's involvement with the prison cock fights, and Johnson's insane brutality.

Characters are developed extremely well, and you truly feel for them. At least I did.

Should you ever find a copy of this movie, and you haven't seen it... if you like a good drama, give it a try. I saw it on HBO in 1988 or so, and eventually found somebody who had a video copy of it. It was never released on video, and hardly is shown on TV...

This is one of my top ten favorite movies of all time.

I watched this with the recent passing of Alan Arkin and it was on a free streaming service and the other reviews looked good with many comparing it to The Shawshank Redemption and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

It's a well acted film of decent quality to be sure and Arkin is terrific but my goodness did this thing really need to be over 2 and a half hours long?

I know the IMDB says 98 minutes but it's actually over 2 and a half hours and some scenes go on forever that it becomes so redundant.

I mean this thing could have been 40 minutes shorter and would have been terrific and got it's message across fine.

It's a decent movie for made for TV standards with some good acting.

But there is no legitimate reason for this to be as long as it is.

If they had edited it down to 90 minutes or two hours max I would recommend this as an underrated gem.

Due to excessive length and unnecessary repetitive scenes I can only rank it as an average movie.

This is a 90 minute made for TV movie premise that got dragged on too long and for no good reason.

With some editing I truly think this could have possibly been one of the greatest television films ever made and certainly one of the best prison movies ever.

Not bad, but weakened significantly for the aforementioned reasons.

I remember seeing the movie when it first aired as a TV movie back in 1978, and it has stuck with me since. I've been looking for it on video for 10 years as I would really like to see it again to see if it still resonates. Alan Arkin did an excellent job of conveying the desperation of being trapped. If you liked the Shawshank Redemption, this movie has similar themes-you really feel for the protagonist trapped in a corrupt system. It would also appeal to fans of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest as well. It is hard to believe that this was a made for TV movie, as they are rarely as engaging as this. I wish I knew who I could lobby to get this released on DVD.

My Father and Mother were both employed at Warm Springs State Hospital (Dad as a plumber, Mom was an Aide) I grew up in Warm Springs as housing was provided for state employees. One of my first jobs was for the movie company, my job was to move crates and boxes of clothes up into one of the old buildings, unpack all the clothes and hang them on the clothes racks I assembled. I started the day with my brother, but by noon he had to go home as he was exhausted. I finished the day out around 5PM and was paid $5.00, so yeah they must have been on a tight budget as they ripped me off pretty good!

All the state employees and kids were trying to get a taste of the big movie people! Some of the local kids got full time positions, I knew one other that actually was given the Police Car after they were done filming... it didn't run of course, they actually had to tow it when they filmed it in the movie. The same kid that got given the police car, his father got a part in the movie, he was hired to act as one of the guards and had to join the actors union as he got to say a line, something about what kind of pie he wanted or something like that...

Needless to say, depending on what your parents did at the hospital, determined if you got to work or not... I went back to my lawn mowing jobs, they paid better anyways!

I have seen on Amazon in reviews about The Book, the shoe leather treatment, that commentators Believe that Farview staff were convicted of Murder and that the Hospital was shut down. No one was ever Convicted of a Crime although some were Charged. Farview continued to Operate in Pennsylvania as a hospital for the Criminally Insane (a Forensic facility) until it was Given to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in the 1990s to become SCI Waymart. It continued to Function with about 200 beds as a facility for Mentally Ill DOC inmates. Prior to that it served DOC inmates but also took inmates from County Jails who were considered "too Dangerous" for the Forensic facilities at Norristown, Mayview, and Franklin. Often these people had been Charged but not Convicted or sentenced, ie: unable to stand trial by reason of insanity (incompetent). But it also took Sentenced county prisoners who were Mentally Ill. The problem at Farview was essentially that it was Controlled by the Security Officials (law enforcement), not the Treatment Staff, and throughout its life as a State Hospital this conflict for Control raged. Technically ,all the prisoners (patients) were Involved with the Criminal Justice system, Sometimes as today, for Criminalized minor manifestations of their Mental Illnesses. Like most State Hospitals it probably had good wards, and Bad Wards where the atrocities took Place. The books, Cold Storage and The Shoe Leather Treatment, plus the movie The Other Side Of Hell, helped expose these conditions hidden from the Public's View. Now we need to start Looking into State Prisons and county jails where the Criminalized Mentally Ill are being warehoused without any claim to Providing Treatment or a medical model of Staffing. Farview is happening Everywhere.

Imagine a darker, bleaker variation on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and you have The Other Side of Hell. Both films are well-made and powerful, but sadly this one has faded into obscurity, never released on home video or streaming. As of this writing, I had to watch the film on YouTube in poor quality, though even then, the impact of the performances and story shine through.

While there's nothing graphic in the film, the atrocities depicted are still harrowing for the viewer, and Alan Arkin gives one of his best performances as the disturbed but persevering Frank Dole. Though long and rarely cheery, the story never drags and is well-paced. Given the poor quality of the recording I saw, I cannot judge the cinematography too much. I can only imagine how much more impact-ful this movie would be with clearer picture and sound.

The film deserves more attention and a decent release so more people can watch it.

I have one of the only known copies of this film that I personally recorded in the fall of 1978 (which is BTW in pretty poor shape,) and have never been able to track down a better version. My father-in-law was a carpenter who worked on the construction of the set. As as fate would have it -- I now work at the same institution where this was filmed.

Alan Arkin played a believable role in this movie. As the plot line developed -- he and his wife had an argument and the police had him in custody. He was then committed via court order to the Hillsgate Institution for the Mentally Insane. During his stay he witnessed many atrocities that were taking place behind the institution walls. He convinced his wife to smuggle him in a camera to record these events.

This was a low budget film produced for one of the major television networks.

Overall this film could really have been a documentary of the time.

I saw this movie when I was 17, and have been looking for forever (it seems) to see it again. It really had an impact on me. The review above is pretty accurate, but I thought that I remember that he is an "undercover" reporter "posing" as insane so he can get a story...when the people working at the insane asylum realize that he is going to spill the beans, and report on all of the atrocities that occur in that place, they have him committed and he can't get out...That's what I thought happened anyway. I would love to see it again to see how it really happened ( 25 years ago is a long time to remember correctly)If anyone has a copy they can make I would gladly pay for it!

I would just like to say that I personally own this movie, I received it from my grandfather who worked at the hospital that this was filmed at,which is Warm Springs Hospital and the courtroom (Deer Lodge County Courthouse) that was in the movie is in my hometown of Anaconda, MT.

It was not made anywhere else and this hospital was shut down because of the events that took place in the movie. I have been to all the place seen in the movie and driven on the highway shown at the beginning of the movie. If anyone would like to get a copy of this movie just send an email and I will see what I can do. This movie was not one of my favorites but watched it to see the places in the movie.

I'm a big fan of TV films from the 80's and 90's. The seventies TV films were not nearly as well written or played. The hallmark of the good TV film is that it stresses dialogue and performance rather than action. Film started well but became too bland in dialogue to follow straight through. Only Arkin's patient and a clergyman were well written and played. Realistic but not high quality.

Kayderr I read your review and although I never saw the movie, my father worked in Farview in the late 50s early 60s. Unfortunately, he passed in 1995, however, I do know that he had made friends with alot of patients/inmates. One man painted a beautiful portrait of my sister from a snapshot photo. Another made him a frame, using wooden matchsticks, he also made my Dad a battleship out of matchsticks! Yet another made my mother a pocketbook out of soft pack empty cigarette packs. All items were of extraordinary quality. I'm sorry I cannot be of more help.

Amazon is running this movie currently (2020) and claiming its release date was 2018. Once you get over that and realize it's actually 40 years old, it's pretty good. Alan Arkin never disappoints.

"Insane" is an adjective and adjectives are modified by adverbs, so "criminally insane" would be correct, e.g. What kind of insane? Criminally insane. Be that as it may, the hospital was named Farview Hospital for the Criminal Insane when it was instituted in the early 20th century.

Just saw the movie on an "old movie" channel. It is supposed to be 1 hr 38 min, but I think it went on for at least 4 hrs if not 5 because of all the commercials. When it (finally) came to an end I was doing something else and never saw if the Frank caracter (Alan Arin) ever escaped or not. I thought it was too long and repetitative, even without the commercials.

Just making a point - the hospital mentioned in other reviews and about which Wendell Rawls Jr. wrote is Farview, not Fairview.

This hospital is still in existence today though it is no longer known as Farview (except for us locals who will always call it that.) It is SCI Waymart.

There appears to be some controversy over whether this film was about Farview or some other mental hospital. I wish someone could clear it up.

I drive by Farview often. It is a creepy looking place now - I can't imagine how ominous and awful it must have looked 40 or 50 years ago when these atrocities were still going on.