This one of two episodes where both Huggy Bear and Capt. Dobey do not appear, the other being Satan's Witches.
The movie that Starsky is telling Hutch their situation reminds him of is Shock Corridor (1963) (1963) starring Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans, James Best, Hari Rhodes and Philip Ahn.
Vincent Schiavelli would play a similar role of a mentally ill patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).