The Mad Room Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Mad Room Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 26, 2024

Bernard Girard's "The Mad Room" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films. There are no supplemental fetures on the release. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

It is very interesting to see how different the two characters that Stella Stevens played in Gilberto Gazcon’s Rage (1966) and Bernard Girard’s The Mad Room (1969) are. In fact, I had to double-check the production dates of these films because I think that Stevens’ transformations are quite remarkable. In Rage, she is a single, mature woman who has been through a lot and has a perfect grasp of how challenging and unfair the real world can be. In The Mad Room, Stevens looks at least a decade younger and plays a character that would be doomed if left alone in the real world. What is most unusual about these transformations is that they are unmistakably authentic, making it virtually impossible to tell which one retains more of the real Stevens.

The Mad Room is broken into three fairly even sections that link a tragic past event to several dramatic developments in a large mansion somewhere on Vancouver Island. Stevens is Ellen Hardy and is soon to be married to her boyfriend, Sam Aller (Skip Ward), who has welcomed her to the mansion, which after the death of his father is run by his trashy, often unbearably pretentious mother-in-law, Mrs. Armstrong (Shelley Winters). The three have learned to coexist, but know perfectly well that the current status quo is a temporary solution until the marriage papers are signed. But the status quo is prematurely disrupted when Ellen is informed that her younger sister, Mandy (Barbara Summeth), and younger brother, George (Michael Burns), are scheduled to be released from a mental institution where they have been kept for years after murdering their parents. Deeply concerned, Ellen travels to the mental institution and after a quick discussion with a senior doctor discovers that the decision to release her siblings is final.

This is where the second section of The Mad Room begins. Several days later, Ellen introduces Mandy and George to Sam and Mrs. Armstrong and they move into the mansion. Soon after, Mandy demands to be given a ‘mad room’ -- a place where she can regularly visit to recollect her thoughts and ensure that her inner demons do not escape from the mental cage she has created for them -- and when Mrs. Armstrong scolds her for picking one on her own, the static in the air becomes almost unbearable. While Sam is away from the mansion, someone then slits Mrs. Armstrong’s throat. Terrified that her worst nightmare about her reunion with Mandy and George has come true, Ellen confronts her siblings and then rushes to clean up the blood and get rid of the cold body.

The final section of The Mad Room has several interesting twists that essentially make the film worth seeing. (Its atmosphere is decent at best, so it does not do much to enhance the suspense in a memorable way). Every single one of these twists does something that resets the key relationships, plus a few alter the viewer’s perception of past and present developments.

Apparently, The Mad Room combines material from several sources. One of them is an original play by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham, which was tweaked by Girard and A.Z. Martin. Additional material also came from a screenplay written by Denham and Garret Fort. However, considering the great emphasis that is placed on the visual aspect of the crucial transformations, it is probably fair to say that Girard made The Mad Room as he understood the nature of the drama that is at the center of it.

The overall quality of the production is quite good. The finale is wonderfully ambiguous for a film from a film from the late 1960s, which is rather surprising, too. Only Winters disappoints a bit because her over-the-top performance cheapens portions of the drama and occasionally makes it look as if it is coming from a mediocre B-film.

Girard’s director of photography was Harry Stradling Jr., whose credits include such films as Little Big Man, 1776, and Midway.

The Mad Room Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Mad Room arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films.

The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by Sony Pictures. The overall quality of the visuals is good. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections, so all visuals have pretty good organic qualities. However, it is also easy to tell that the film can look fresher and more vibrant, boasting better delineation and depth as well. On my system, delineation, clarity, and depth were still pretty good. In fact, there are many close-ups throughout the film that tend to look very good. Color balance is stable and convincing. However, saturation levels can be improved, and some supporting nuances can be adjusted. Image stability is good. I noticed various specks and some blemishes popping up here and there, but there are no large cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to repot. All in all, while slightly dated, I think that the current presentation of The Mad Room has fine organic qualities. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

The Mad Room Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is very strong. This did not surprise me because older Sony masters almost always have great audio. The dialog is very clear, clean, and easy to follow. There are no balance issues. The music creates good dynamic contrasts too, especially in the second half of the film, where the drama becomes quite intense. I did not encounter any audio dropouts, distortions, or similar anomalies to report in our review.

The Mad Room Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are no bonus feature to be found on this release.

The Mad Room Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The final act is very interesting. The twists did not surprise me, and I knew that they were coming much earlier. However, the resolution of the drama did, which I did not think was possible. I was also very surprised by Stella Stevens, who is terrific and looks at least a decade younger than she does in Rage, a very good but elusive film she made with Glenn Ford a couple of years earlier. I liked The Mad Room and am happy that it was made available on Blu-ray. RECOMMENDED.