"The question, in the most cloth-conscious picture since "The Robe," is simply this: Who gets to choose the new library drapes?

The ensuing hassle sends Richard Widmark, the intelligent superintendent, into the arms of Lauren Bacall, the nice crafts director. Charles Boyer, a weak-willed, tippling staff member, streaks after Gloria Grahame, Mr. Widmark's restless wife, who develops a hysterical drape fixation. The abominably tempered spinster auditor, Lillian Gish, uses the issue for her own fifth-column purposes. One patient, young John Kerr, finally goes berserk. The clanging climax, which Mr. Minnelli graphically stages on a river bank during a storm, simmers down to some sane resolutions at a board meeting, and the board would have done well to meet daily."