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Cast

Richard Widmark
as Dr. Stewart McIver

Lauren Bacall
as Meg Rinehart

Charles Boyer
as Dr. Douglas Devanel

Gloria Grahame
as Karen McIver

Lillian Gish
as Victoria Inch

John Kerr (II)
as Steven W. Holte

Susan Strasberg
as Sue Brett

Oscar Levant
as Mr. Capp

Tommy Rettig
as Mark

Paul Stewart
as Dr. Otto Wolff

Jarma Lewis
as Lois DeMuth

Adele Jergens
as Miss Cobb

Edgar Stehli
as Mr. Holcomb

Sandy Descher
as Rosemary

Bert Freed
as Abe Irwin

Mabel Albertson
as Regina Mitchell-Smythe

Fay Wray
as Edna Devanal

Oliver Blake
as Curly

Olive Carey
as Mrs. O'Brien

Eve McVeagh
as Shirley

Virginia Christine
as Sally

Jan Arvan
as Mr. Appleton

Ruth Clifford
as Mrs. Jenkins

Myra Marsh
as Miss Gavney

James Westerfield
as James Petlee

Marjorie Bennett
as Sadie

Stuart Holmes
as Mr. Wictz

Dayton Lummis

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Critic Reviews for The Cobweb

Audience Reviews for The Cobweb

• May 29, 2012

  Minnelli managed to assemble an all star cast for such a strange concept. On paper it would seem like the plot of a screwball comedy but the movie is played completely straight, and is all the worse for it. You'll be screaming at the characters to lighten up. None of them are particularly likable, neither inmates or administrators. You would think someone with as much experience of clinics as Minnelli had, thanks to his estranged wife, would give us more of an insight. The patients just aren't convincing enough and are reduced to big name extras. The administrative staff are given cliched storylines to follow. If there are any central characters it's Widmark and Grahame, a bickering married couple. Bacall is completely wasted in a throwaway role as a chain-smoking activities director. Levant is perfectly cast as an inmate but doesn't get enough screen time to exploit his melancholy persona. Perhaps the movie would have fared better had it been made twenty years later. With it's sprawling cast it resembles the films of Altman but Minnelli couldn't call on the technology that allowed Altman his famous overlapping dialogue. Considering the subject matter the movie is far too sane. A seventies version would have allowed a lot more freedom to explore the issues. At one point, young inmates Kerr and Strasberg leave the clinic for a night at the cinema. A metaphor perhaps for Minnelli's plunging himself into his work to escape the grim reality of life with Judy? There have been some great movies set on psychiatric wards, "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest", "Shock Corridor", but I wouldn't bother booking yourself in for treatment here.
  The Movie W Super Reviewer
• Sep 16, 2011

  It's all about the DRAPES!!!! Truly odd film is loaded with great actors and a ludicrous story. How it ever got the green light from the studio is mystery number one, that Vincente Minnelli said okay to directing it is the second although that would explain why so many great actors allowed themselves to be involved. Laughable take on mental health but good for one fun viewing as a camp catastrophe.
  jay n Super Reviewer

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