Two words sum up The Caretakers (1963) pretty nicely and those words are "Jerry Paris." Why? Because the picture is lousy with directors, actors, producers, and writers of 1960s televsion. Jerry Paris himself has a writer and producer credit on this film, which turns out to be a cross between The Snake Pit (1948) and The Cobweb (1955), also borrowing liberally from both.

The movie opens with Polly Bergen running frantically through the streets trying to escape the noise in her head. She winds up in a movie theatre where the trailers are all about rollercoasters, racecars, and guns and such, so Polly breaks into a cold sweat and runs screaming to the front of the theatre, from which she is taken to the mental hospital, then the Nuthatch, while concerned husband, Robert Vaughn, stands outside doors wringing his hat.  This Nuthatch has a new director, the wooden Robert Stack, who is trying to bring a kinder, gentler type of treatment to the patients (a veritable smorgasboard of 60s B actresses) — over the dead body of Head Nurse Joan Crawford, who doesn't even show up until 31 minutes into the picture, where, I swear to god, in every scene,  the shadow from a louvered door or window fell across her forehead. Nurse Crawford is Old School.

The music (Elmer Bernstein) was quite good, especially during the scene where Polly Bergen finds herself in the men's ward. Not the best situation for an attractive brunette.

I thought it was interesting that Jerry Paris was so involved in this picture, because it is quite a departure from his usual projects. The only other producer credits he has are 123 episodes of Happy Days (a hundred and twenty-three) and three TV movies:

** Ernie, Madge and Artie (TV 1974): The ghost of dead husband threatens marriage of remarried widow. Starring Cloris Leachman Dick van Patten.

** Every Man Needs One (TV 1972): Male chauvinist architect pressured into hiring a feminist assistant. Connie Stevens, Ken Berry [NOTE: Don't you wish there were a Crappy TV Movies of the 1970s cable channel? CrapTV?]

** But I Don’t Want to Get Married (TV 1970); widowed accountant dumbfounded to have  marriage-minded women descend upon him. Herschel Bernardi, Shirley Jones, Brandon Cruz.

See? Not a hint of mental illness (putting aside Potsie, obviously). It must have meant something important to him  to make this picture, so it's a shame that it couldn't have been more original.  That said, Lucien Ballard was nominated for a Best Cinematography, Black and White Academy Award (he lost to James Wong Howe for Hud — totally), and was nominated for Golden Globes Best Picture, Best Director (Hall Bartlett of Jonathan Livingston Seagull), and Best Actress (Polly Bergen) Awards.