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Mabrey, LaytonMental Hospital (1953)

A University of Oklahoma Production. Produced for the Oklahoma State Department of Health in cooperation with the State of Oklahoma Department of Mental Health. Distributed by International Film Bureau.
Director: Layton Mabrey.
Scriptwriter: Dwight V. Swain.
Coordinator: Jim Bragg.
Photographer: Wayne Rock.
G.F. Mathews, M.D., Commissioner, State Department of Health.
Charles F. Obermann, M.D., Director, Department of
Mental Health.
Psychiatric Consultants: Charles A. Smith, M.D., A.A.
Hellams, M.D.
"Recognizable personages appearing in this film are not
patients in a mental institution." (According to Dwight Swain, patients were played by producers, crew and friends, since actual patients weren't legally competent to sign talent releases.) Filmed in and around Central State Hospital, Norman, Oklahoma. Jack Stevenson's article on Swain and Hockman appears in Brutarian (Vol. 1, No. 1).

Documents the case of a mental patient who is treated for schizophrenia (paranoid type) at the Oklahoma State Hospital. Summarizes the treatment of a patient from admission to the hospital to the time of discharge. Explains
the methods used in the treatment of mental diseases and stresses the value of occupational therapy in rehabilitating patients and the need for an atmosphere of calm and security.

TITLE CARD: Recognizable personages appearing in this film are not patients in a mental institution.

PARANOIA / DEPRESSION / INSTITUTIONALIZATION: Man's voice over as he is driven down a gray, snowy road. HE IS VERY PARANOID. He leans his head against the rear window. There's a close up of his eyes, then hands, then mouth. Men in dark, tweed jackets lead him into the hospital.

MEDICAL ABUSE: Nurses examine Joe. He has blood taken from his arms, a chest x-ray, and a spinal tap.

PARANOIA: Joe talks to an Oklahoman psychiatrist (with a southern accent).
He says, "They're turning my wife, you know, Peg, against me. They're taking up all of her time." Joe rings his hands. The psychiatrist replies, "Why do you think they're doing you this way?" Joe answers, "Well, I've been working on this for years. They don't know it but I'm on to them."

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING: The narrator describes various treatments for psychological disorders, and we view these methods in action (which look somewhat barbarous to today's viewers). First there's insulin shot therapy in which a patient receives a shot (camera pans down to twitching feet), then electric shock, hydrotherapy, and cold pack therapy.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Director: Mabrey, Layton
Producer: University of Oklahoma
Production Company: University of Oklahoma
Audio/Visual: sound, B&W
Keywords: need keyword

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: boxcaro - - January 18, 2008
Subject: Central State Hospital, Norman, Okla. 1973-1976
I was a Mental Patient in this Hospital, called "Griffin Memorial CSH" in the years 1973-1976, my Father secured my release for Thanksgiving Home Leave, 1976, & steered me to Apply for S.S.I. benefits. I began receiving Benefits early 1977 & have been (mostly) living outside of custodial care these past 30 years. The Hospital was a Great Place, and people (above) who disparage the place of ignorant and opinionated without understanding. A look at the CURRENT PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT MODEL belies the myth of "BAD" State Hospitals. The TEEMING Homeless populations, the Filling of PRISON BEDS with Schizophreniacs, the POLICE KILLINGS of Delusional Mental Patients, all belie the "assumption" that Mental Hospitals were "bad." This LIE is fostered by the same PR Firms that got us into yet another "VICTORY IMPOSABLE" war. The State Hospitals were closed to USE THE MONEY for MORE IMPORTANT endeavors; WAR, ARMS, PRISONS, SURVELLANCE, and PORK BARREL POLITICAL paybacks.
I was also a Patient at Winnebago State Hospital, Wisconsin and met & became friends with ED GEIN. It was 20 years before I realized WHO HE WAS! At times I was a Patient at Louisiana Central State Hospital, Pineville, LA. Benton State Hospital Colony, ARK. (Where my Mother was Director of Recreation over 13 Years) and Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo, CA. My Grandfather was a Paychiatrist, and related to Edward L. Bernays, the Public Relations Megastar, and Anne Frued, the Child Psychiatrist. I am a accomplished Guitarist, and my life was spent HOBOING around the North American Continent PLAYING FOLK & BLUES as a Street Musician. I still play weekly in San FRancisco, CA where I have succeed in obtaining SAFE & BEAUTIFUL housing. I own a Epiphone Jazz Guitar, a Epiphone Dreadnaught Acoustic & several Amplifiers, am a Amateur Radio Operator & Build my Own Computers. Had it NOT been for the TREATMENT I received in State Hospitals, I Would Be DEAD!

See My AUDIO FILES http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=hobo%20preacher%20AND%20mediatype%3Aaudio

Reviewer: autoguy - - September 9, 2006
Subject: Christmas presents for Fred!
Run Fred, RUN! Look out, it's the bug house! That darned George and Betty, they framed Fred. Fred can't can't be fooled though, he knows that even the judge is in on it! They gas light poor Fred so much, he's not sure what his name is any more. Or was it something slipped into his coffee every morning? What do they want? Fred's bank account or his real estate? That's right Fred, into the bug house. Drug induced seizures, electrically induced seizures, pokes, prods, Chinese water torture! Take THAT Fred! There, everything is all better now, right buddy? Now sign over the farm and the bank account, and think twice before you cross George and Betty again!

Reviewer: Christine Hennig - - July 14, 2006
Subject: It Might Look Like a Big Forboding Institution, but Really It's...a Big Forboding Institution
This 50s film, made by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health, tries very hard to make its state mental hospitals look friendly and not intimidating, but it doesnâÂÂt wholly succeed. It tells the story of Fred Clanton, a guy who began to believe his wife and brother-in-law were conspiring against him. He is committed to the state hospital in short order by a judge, where he is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and given insulin shock treatments. He gets better eventually, begins to participate in the hospitalâÂÂs recreational therapy programs, gets a hospital job as a groundskeeper, and eventually gets to go home, where he is no longer suspicious of anyone and is grateful to the hospital for his treatment. Much is made of the hospitalâÂÂs facilities, which are all huge and institutional. Much is also made of the therapeutic benefits of patients working at various jobs at the hospital, enough so that you start to wonder after awhile whether or not some exploitation might be going on. The positive-sounding narration fails to overcome the visuals, which tend to confirm most stereotypes about mental hospitals. The film does give a fascinating portrait of mental health treatment during the 50s, which was the heyday of treating mental patients in big institutions.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.

Reviewer: Marysz - - September 7, 2004
Subject: Watch Out, You Could Be Next
Fred Clanton is committed to the Oklahoma State mental hospital because he thinks his wife Betty and friend George are conspiring against him. What if heÃÂs right? The film is honest about how the hospital is not only for mental patients. Pesky relatives can be put away there involuntarilyÃÂall it takes is an incurious judge at a rudimentary hearing to commit them. ItÃÂs also place where adult children dump their unwanted, elderly parents when theyÃÂre too old to work anymore. And it's a work farm staffed with unpaid patient labor.

The patients are treated by insulin therapy, shock therapy and hydrotherapy; all these techniques seem brutal and medieval. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Fred is issued a pair of denim overalls (the women wear calico housedresses) and is treated with insulin therapy (whatever that is). Finally, heÃÂs considered cured and happily leaves the hospital in the company of the same Betty and George who got him locked up in the first place. And how sane are they? Betty looks tense and withdrawn. George seems manic. No wonder they put Fred on edge. Now that he knows the ropes, maybe Fred can turn the tables on them. George especially, looks like a good candidate for some of the hospitalÃÂs ÃÂtreatments.ÃÂ

Reviewer: Spuzz - - December 1, 2003
Subject: What? You're Smoking again? You're CURED!
Pretty wild and dated exploration of what can happen once Uncle Charlie hits the looney ward. It starts off with a VERY curious title card which says 'Recognizable Personages appearing in this film are not patients in a mental hospital", I have absolutely no idea what that means. An unlucky man thinks that everyone is conspiring against him and he is shipped off to the mental hospital to get better. After bathing him (can't he do that himself?) giving him a shot, collecting spinal cord fluid (!!) from him, he's put through wacky psychological tests. I am not too sure what the picture test was, but I think it was "Spot the Loony". After that, he's put in front of doctors and nurses and evaluated (or put on display). From there comes treatment, which involves analysis, insulin and shock therapy (shown very mildly here, as if it were a cakewalk), and some rather odd treatment methods (Hydrotherapy and "Sedative Packs"). All throughout this, we see some shots of "mentally ill" people, some of which are, and some of which arent (aging seniors who aren't wanted anymore and yes, homosexuals). Soon, after treatment for awhile, the male subject we've been following greets his family and takes a cigarrette from the doctor. He's not shaking any more, so he must be well! Rather inspired lunacy, and is highly reccomended!

Reviewer: Steve Nordby - - July 7, 2003
Subject: The usual PR
This 1953 film, sponsored by the University of Oklahoma, tries to make you feel OK about "modern" treatment (institutionalisation, insulin shock and electro shock) of mental illness and reduce the stigma, yet begins and ends with a full screen disclaimer: "Recognizable personages appearing in this film are not patients in a mental institution" which nullifies its believability. I guess the target audience of this film would have been the Oklahoma state legislature and relatives of the potentially committed.