People are voting emotionally.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The movie is so bloody serious and ridiculous that at least by 2018 eyes, I think it's a comedy. I laughed at all sorts of absurdities and overwrought situations in the film. Perhaps it was a serious drama back in 1955, but it's a hellava hoot now.I can't believe that anyone at MGM in 1955 ever green-lighted this absurd drama...and I'm surprised at the cast Minnelli was able to obtain. This is certainly one of the all-time camp classics of the 1950's.

All-star cast cannot decide on window treatments. Angst ensues. Movie about the pitfalls of overthinking your interior-decorating. Perfect movie for the absurdist-sacastic. Do not play a drinking game with the word "draperies" as your shot-trigger - because, alcohol poisoning.

As the great satirist Tom Leher once observed, "If people can't communicate then the very least that they should do is to shut up". "The Cobweb" is a perfect case in point. There's a tremendous amount of talk in this movie, but almost no communication. The plot revolves around the selection of new drapes for the library in a psychiatric hospital. However, it's the lack of communication in regard to that issue, and the complications ensuing therefrom, that form the crux of the story. Along the way it becomes clear that the staff are not all that much more well-adjusted than the inmates. They display a great deal of professional and personal jealousy, insecurity and frustration. But then, as the frustrated head of the Bullock household wisely observed in the classic screwball comedy film, "My Man Godfrey", "All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people." There are plenty of the right kind of people in "The Cobweb", among both the staff and the inmates.Directed by Vincent Minelli and featuring a first-rate cast (including one of the great stars of silent films, Lillian Gish), "The Cobweb" had all the elements to have become a really great movie. Nevertheless, somehow, it doesn't quite come off. Perhaps it's because the film is a little bit too talky. Perhaps the issue of which drapes to hang in the sanatorium library is a bit too minor and superficial to excite the viewer's attention. Nevertheless, if you haven't seen this one, give it a chance, it might just grab you.

Between the stilted family trauma given as back story and the spoiled brats in Richard Widmark's rat pack, it's no wonder that the shrinks sling drugs at these whiners today. Perhaps this form of psychotherapy (considered the top drawer treatment of the era) should be resurrected, maybe the 'family unit' scenario is called for in this world of today where innocence has been totally lost. Now that neurosis (at least) is accepted in our society, the problems of these people seem mildly absurd. Perhaps it's a farce and I was just too dense to get it. Interesting dynamic between the shrink and his wife: in 2014 she'd get lawyered up and take him for everything he's worth. Bacall is sultry and beautiful as always. It's amazing that she could do a movie like this, as Bogart, if he wasn't already deceased, had to be very very ill.