They locked a movie star in an asylum and threw away the key. Hollywood's darkest secret.
This is the story of actress Frances Farmer, her struggles with mental illness and involuntary confinement in an insane asylum.
Acting
Susan Blakely's descent is physically devastating to watch.
Direction
Cook's asylum sequences feel genuinely suffocating.
Writing
The mother-daughter dialogue cuts deeper than the restraints.
Director
Fielder Cook
Susan Blakely
Frances Farmer
Lee Grant
Lillian Farmer
Royal Dano
Ernest Farmer
John Heard
Clifford Odets
Melanie Mayron
Sophie
Leonardo Cimino
Adolph Zukor
James Eckhouse
Harold Clurman
Jeannie Elias
Lottie
Joseph Maher
1st Doctor
Bruce Ornstein
John Garfield
Paul Perri
Luther Adler
Madeleine Sherwood
2nd Doctor
Ivor Francis
Drama Teacher
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Jessica Lange played Farmer the same year in 'Frances'—two competing biopics, two very different women, one tragic life.
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