Stairway to Light is a 1945 short film (ten minutes) directed by Sammy Lee. It was written and narrated by John Nesbitt, part of Nesbitt's Passing Parade series of MGM shorts.
The Passing Parade series focused on true stories and figures from history. This installment is a portrait of Philippe Pinel
, an 18th century doctor and pioneer in the field of psychiatry. As the film points out quite accurately, in the 1700s mental patients were regarded as little more than animals, commonly chained up in cells and forgotten. Pinel believes that mental patients can be treated, and that letting them out of their cages will improve their mental health. He has success, but he meets resistance from the howling mobs of The French Revolution.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – History: While Pinel was an innovator in establishing the idea that mental illness could be treated and even cured, he wasn't the one who hit upon the idea of letting inmates out of their chains: that was his assistant, Jean-Baptiste Pussin. And the story of a former patient of Pinel's saving him from a mob is believed to be apocryphal.
- Bedlam House: Unfortunate mental patients left in chains for decades, in dark, cold cells, sprayed with water from fire hoses to keep them in line.
- Chekhov's Gun: The film takes care to note that Hector Chevigny, the hollow-eyed mental patient with the long beard that Pinel frees from a cell, has a tattoo of the French fleur-de-lis on his hand. Later, the prosperous older gentleman that saves Pinel from an angry mob has that same tattoo, and is revealed to be a recovered Chevigny.
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Pinel throws open the door to the underground cells, thus "letting the sunlight blind the eyes of those who lived below." Later when Chevigny is released, he seems to be about to assault Pinel when the light from above blinds him.
- Dutch Angle: Used a couple of times for shots of random people attacking Pinel and his methods.
- Light Equals Hope: The light at the top of the stairs symbolizes mental patients being liberated from chains and, hopefully, cured.
- Narrator: There's no dialogue, only Nesbitt's narration telling the story.
- Title Drop:
- The "stairway to light" is the flight of stairs from the dark underground cells to the surface.
- And the end refers to the freed mental patients coming out "to march with us in the passing parade."
