The Fifth Floor (1978)

College disco dancer is wrongly committed to an insane asylum.

Director:

Howard Avedis

Writers:

Meyer Dolinsky (screenplay), Howard Avedis (story),

Stars:

Bo Hopkins, Dianne Hull, Patti D'Arbanville

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bo Hopkins	...	Carl
Dianne Hull	...	Kelly McIntyre
Patti D'Arbanville	...	Cathy
Sharon Farrell	...	Melanie
Robert Englund	...	Benny
Anthony James	...	Derrick
Julie Adams	...	Nurse Hannelord
Mel Ferrer	...	Dr. Sidney Coleman
John David Carson	...	Ronnie Denton
Earl Boen	...	Phil
Betty Kean	...	Sophy
Alice Nunn	...	Emma
Cathey Paine	...	Lois
Udana Power	...	Nurse Whelan
Maggie Appel	...	Mental Patient

Storyline

A young woman collapses on the disco dance floor of what's revealed to be strychnine poisoning. Assuming that this is an attempt at suicide, her boyfriend and doctor have her committed to the Fifth Floor, an asylum with obviously crazy inmates and a predatory orderly. The problem is, she's still sane!

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Plot Keywords:

electroshock therapy | rape | poison | hydrotherapy | sexual abuse | 

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Taglines:

Once the door closes here, it never opens.

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Genres:

Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 November 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

To pempto patoma

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hickmar Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Spank Your Thang"
Written by Jerline Shelton and Maurice Commander

User Reviews

Kind of like a TV Movie-of-the-Week, but with full-frontal nudity. . .

A woman (Dianne Hull) is poisoned with strychnine while disco dancing (now THAT might have been an effective way to stop disco). Everyone (including her clueless boyfriend) takes her poisoning to be a suicide attempt and she ends up involuntarily committed to a co-ed mental institution where there is a lot of melodrama, but really little that goes beyond a typical 70's TV movie of the week. Her main antagonist is a corrupt male orderly (Bo Hopkins) who pressures her for sex. Her fellow inmates, meanwhile, include a young Robert England and an (apparently genuinely) pregnant Patti D'Arbanville.

A lot of stuff in this movie seems rather preposterous today, but back in the 70's perhaps not so much. This movie kind of reminded me of the the contemporary theatrical film "Human Experiments" and the TV movie "Nightmare in Badham County". Dianne Hull was one of those very cute 70's actresses who appeared in a few things and then pretty much vanished into oblivion. This is perhaps her most memorable role aside from "Girls on the Road" (where she'd played a hitch-hiking teenager who almost has sex with "Papa Walton"). Her full-frontal nude scenes are about the only thing that separate this from a tame TV movie, but she does give a pretty good performance. And it's always fun to watch Bo Hopkins play a redneck villain even if he's not quite as memorable as he is in "White Lightning" and .

This is probably not a movie that's going to make a deep impression on anybody, but it's entertaining enough I guess.