In modern usage, legal or administrative
bodies with strict, arbitrary
rulings and secretive proceedings are sometimes called, metaphorically or poetically, «
star chambers».
Gregg Henry (
Body Double, Payback)
stars as Paul Ramsey, a musician that, through a case of mistaken identity and deliberate malice on the part of a negligent politician, ends up in a prison camp
ruled by burly Captain Kinsman (Kennedy, The Eiger Sanction), his rogue assistant Sgt. Whacker (Wainwright, Joe Kidd), and a pack of hunting dogs, led a vicious Doberman named Rattler.