Theme Song: “Fly Away” written by Lenny Laks and Matt Ender, sung by Pattie Brooks. This is a disco song about wanting to fly away that sounds like a disco song about wanting to fly away. I did not bother to record it.
There is also a ton of weird, disco-y sax-jazz that drops in at odd places throughout the movie. If you are into disco-y sax-jazz, then this is definitely something you should check out. I did not bother to record it.
Interesting Dated References: Super-awesome disco dancing clubs; victim-blaming and shaming when someone is poisoned; a medical system that takes into account your previous mental health history.
Best Line: None
Social Context: Best described as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with a female disco-dancing protagonist and a made-for-TV heavy vibe, The Fifth Floor is well acted and deftly put together. It definitely balances late-70s schlock with sincere performances.
Summary: Naive Kelly shows up to her discotheque dancing job visibly upset over a fight with her boyfriend. She immediately slams a drink and starts getting crazy on the dance floor like she’s having an acid freakout, or at least an acid freakout as was portrayed in late-70s cinema, and then she collapses.
It is revealed Kelly drank strychnine and not for one second does a single person (coworkers, doctors, her boyfriend) think she was poisoned. Everyone immediately assumes she did it intentionally and they all agree she should be committed.
Upon waking in to the psychiatric ward, Kelly attracts the (unwanted) attention of the caretaker, Carl (played by character actor Bo Hopkins). Kelly is told she has to be kept for observation and cannot leave. Her doctor is totally dismissive and brings up past suicide attempts on her “record.”
Carl repeatedly tries to rape and/or grope Kelly, including a few scenes with a surprising amount of full frontal nudity (from actress Diane Hull, not Bo Hopkins). Hull really puts a lot of effort into acting this part and some of her struggles with Carl are fairly uncomfortable.
Kelly’s roommate, Melanie (Sharon Farrell), appears to be in a similar situation as Kelly, but is further down the rabbit hole (and also somehow super tan). She is distraught and unstable and tells Kelly to give in to Carl’s advances.
Eventually Kelly decides to escape during a zoo field trip. Upon arriving home, her boyfriend turns snitch and has her recommited. She immediately escapes one more time with a fellow pregnant inmate, but is caught and returned.
This time Carl fries her brain with the ECT machine, which results in his being stabbed by an inmate who had become protective of Kelly. Somewhere in there it’s revealed her boss at the disco club was actually trying to poison a different employee with whom he had been embezzling money, but Kelly had accidentally drank the strychnine-laced cocktail instead. There’s a postscript that mentions Kelly was released after six months of terror on “the fifth floor.”
Worth Mentioning:
– There are a variety of character actors playing denizens of the fifth floor psychiatric ward, including Alice Nunn (Large Marge from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure), Robert Englund (C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud), Earl Boen (Dr. Silberman from Terminators 1-3), Michael Berryman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Hills Have Eyes I & II, Crüe videos), and Tracey Walter (although I swear I didn’t see him, Mad Bull, Batman, Repo Man, Middle Man, Ultraman, Raggedy Man, Honkytonk Man, Manhood, Man on the Moon, Man in the Chair, The Man from Elysian Fields, The Manchurian Candidate, Amanda).
– When Kelly escapes from the zoo, she is picked up by a guy driving a righteous two-tone Subaru BRAT.
– Directed by Howard Avedis (aka Hikmet Avedis), who churned out some really good sleaze in his short working career: The Stepmother (1972), Scorchy (1976), Texas Detour (1978), Mortuary (1983), Kidnapped (1987). Seriously, these are all worth checking out.
Poster and Box Art: The main poster features Melanie shrieking and an ominous tagline.
My Media Home Entertainment Betamax has the same artwork. It’s good and has a nice composition, but this alternate poster is where it’s at.
Way better layout and tagline. There was a subtle attempt to make the lettering on the logotype look like strychnine powder, but it may be bad timing with the late-70s since everyone probably assumed it was supposed to be cocaine. You can see on the main poster they changed the powder lettering to blue.
This UK Polestar Home Video artwork is totally bonkers.
Availability: Not currently on DVD or streaming, so you’ll have to buy used VHS on eBay, which as I’ve said before is a total nightmare of assholes trying to rip you off so they don’t have to get real jobs and can claim to their family and friends that they are entrepreneurs.