Shock Corridor (1963)

In the hands of writer / producer / director Samuel Fuller, "Shock Corridor" is a good, stunning B movie with brains to match its lurid thrills. Shot in an amazingly stark manner by Stanley Cortez, it creates a true rogues' gallery of memorable characters. Extremely well performed all the way down the line, it touches upon subjects like racism while showing all of us how thin the dividing line between sanity and insanity can be. *Anyone* can crack if they're put under enough strain, or have to spend an extended amount of time among unbalanced individuals.The person who comes to understand this is reporter Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck). He's determined to solve a murder case, so he feigns insanity to earn admittance to a mental hospital where a person named Sloan was killed. Johnny already knows of three witnesses, so he must spend time with each of them, getting one more piece of the puzzle every time. Meanwhile, Johnnys' girlfriend Cathy (Constance Towers) is afraid that not only will Johnny lose his mind, but that she will, too, being party to his deception.There's a fair bit of character actor talent in small and supporting roles: corpulent Larry Tucker as opera singing Pagliacci, Paul Dubov and John Matthews as psychiatrists, Chuck Roberson and John Craig as attendants, and Philip Ahn as Dr. Fong. Three top actors appear as the patients whose confidence Johnny must earn: James Best as Stuart, Hari Rhodes as Trent, and Gene Evans as Boden. Trents' dilemma is particularly distressing: he's a black man who believes himself not only to be white, but a rabble rousing KKK member to boot.The atmosphere of this film is extremely effective, and Fullers' visual approach is also noteworthy: although this is mostly a black & white affair, there are a few colour sequences along the way.Striking entertainment from start to finish.Seven out of 10.

Samuel Fuller wrote, produced and directed this "expose" on mental institutions, with newspaper reporter Peter Breck having himself committed in order to crack a murder case from behind asylum walls. High-pitched, 'hard-hitting' potboiler both fascinates (because of the compelling milieu) and repels (because of the creaky, warhorse clichés and irresponsible melodrama). Breck isn't a strong enough or interesting enough actor to carry such a heavy load, and he's not helped by the mediocre supporting cast. Fuller also helmed the photography for the color hallucination sequences, which certainly break up the visual monotony but are ultimately silly instead of enlightening--much like the picture itself. ** from ****

Before the late sixties when things opened up and the new wave of sex and violence was unleashed on movie audiences and gave unexplored territory to filmmakers, the grind houses were playgrounds for rain-coat crowds gawking at nudie cuties and exploitation documentaries.Sam Fuller's The Naked Kiss (1965) and Shock Corridor (1963) could have and probably did play these theaters. They certainly have that look and had some of the subject matter, dialog and images that fit right in. In this film they speak of incest, impotency, and nymphomania. It is these lurid laments that gave the Director a voice unlike his more respectable peers. Subtlety was never Sam Fuller's problem, and that made him almost always ahead of his time. He was puerile in his inhibitions and could be counted on to write with a sledgehammer.Although the movie is set in an asylum and has assorted perverts and neurotics, the thrust here is America and social reform. Leave it to Fuller to approach such topics as racism, communism, mental health facilities, and war through the distorted lens of the camera and the sharp angled sets with piercing black and white photography enclosed in the claustrophobic confines of these corridors.There are bizarre characters and even more bizarre dialog. Nothing here is smooth, it is a bombastic breakthrough into the little known world of the cuckoo's nest, the nut house, the loony bin, the funny factory, the snake pit, and it is crammed down your psyche with pages of pulp and some of the most freakazoid, gonzo journalism of its time produced as a B-Movie.

Sam Fuller isn't for everyone, but if you can tolerate writing and performances that are way over the top and don't even attempt to be realistic - i.e. melodrama in the extreme, then Fuller may delight you as much as he does me. Shock Corridor is his hands down masterpiece and for me one of the greatest films ever made. Though the first 10 min are terribly wordy and slow once underway it is incredibly powerful. Its surreal structure and complex use of displaced sound and image were way ahead of its time (pre 8 1/2) and must have left the B movie audience it was meant for completely confused. The story I heard was that the final thunderstorm was shot on a stage that wasn't waterproofed and he left town for a while after the shot. I've seen it many times and always end feeling shaken and disturbed. Try to find a version that has the original dream scenes in color. Fullers trio of 1960's films - Underworld USA, Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss are all brilliant Noir, powerful indictments of American society and pretty much over the top insane. Not to be missed.