Arkadin is excited to present this very special screening of Vincente Minnelli’s underseen psychiatric drama THE COBWEB with a preceding talk on THE HISTORY OF THE ASYLUM IN MISSOURI by Felix Vincenz, former CEO of the Forensic Treatment Center in St. Louis.

Set in the fictional “Castle House Clinic for Nervous Disorders,” Vincente Minnelli’s THE COBWEB is one of the more unusual American films of the 1950s: a star-studded, lavishly mounted Cinemascope melodrama about a set of drapes. Of course, a set of drapes is not always just a set of drapes: here, the seemingly banal selection of a new window treatment in the clinic’s library sparks a political feud that implicates the radical methods of the clinic’s new staff lead Dr. Stewart McIver (Richard Widmark) who espouses patient democracy, while exposing all sorts of backbiting and jealousies among both patients and staff. With a cast of screen legends that includes Lauren Bacall, Gloria Grahame, Lillian Gish, Charles Boyer, Fay Wray, and Susan Strasberg (in her film debut), THE COBWEB is also notable for its unique modernist score by Leonard Rosenman, the first twelve-tone music ever written for a motion picture. A film that questions the fine line between patient and doctor, THE COBWEB has rightly been called “the most elaborate treatment of the psychiatric profession in any Hollywood film to date” (Psychiatry and the Cinema).

Before the film, Felix Vincenz, the former CEO of the Forensic Treatment Center, will give a talk before the film on the History of the Asylum in Missouri.

When it was released, advertisements for THE COBWEB teased it as “The Story of the Strange Mansion on the Hill,” and so we’ve paired the film with a talk that touches on St. Louis’ very own clinic on the hill, the Forensic Treatment Center (formerly known as St. Louis County Insane Asylum), which still looms above South City at 5300 Arsenal St. Dr. Vincenz trained at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, which directly inspired the Castle Clinic in THE COBWEB. Dr, Vincenz currently serves on the faculty of University of Missouri-St. Louis.

For anyone interested in psychiatry, the asylum, or the history of St. Louis, this is a can’t-miss event!

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Arkadin presents INSTITUTIONALIZED: MENTAL INSTITUTIONS ON FILM, a series of movies that depict asylums, sanitariums, and psychiatric hospitals — some with unvarnished realism, others with surrealism, whimsy or horror. At several screenings, academics and mental health experts will introduce the film with a talk that unpacks the film’s treatment of mental healthcare and provides context on the history of psychiatric institutions.

Arkadin does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. However, we encourage researching titles to determine if a screening may contain content that could be upsetting to you. Please feel free to contact us for guidance on specific films. Information about content can also be found on Common Sense Media, IMDB and DoesTheDogDie.com, as well as through general internet searches.