Before he made a name for himself directing westerns under the first name "Budd," Oscar Boetticher made this nicely smug little film noir about a private investigator (Richard Carlson, later the non-scaly star of The Creature From the Black Lagoon) who checks himself into the shady La Siesta Sanitarium in search of a corrupt judge hiding from the law. Once there his cover is blown and it’s up to the femme fatale who sent him there (Lucille Bremer) and a punch-drunk inmate (Tor Johnson, who later achieved immortality via Plan 9 From Outer Space) to save his bacon. Presaging Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor, the film often plays mental illness for laughs but gets genuinely creepy when the doctors conspire to make the shamus a permanent resident. Snappy dialogue, the requisite black and white chiaroscuro (in a fine Kino Video transfer) and the pleasant sixty-two-minute running time make Behind Locked Doors a valuable addition to anyone’s noir library.

Excerpt from Eddie Cockrell's review at Nitrate Online located HERE