Shock (1946)

Am a fan of film noir and murder mysteries, have done from a very early age. Also love Vincent Price, a great actor with a deserved status as the master of horror and even in lesser films he was a redeeming quality. So 'Shock' seemed right up my alley.'Shock' had an intriguing, and not too schlocky, title and an even more intriguing premise. Also having Price as the star/lead and that it's a murder mystery and film noir promised a lot. While there are good things, 'Shock' wasn't particularly compelling, let alone shocking, and generally failed to live up to its promise and its name. Not terrible, also just not great by any stretch. Instead 'Shock' is more in the watchable mixed feelings category, if mainly for Price fans trying to see all his work. Price is the best thing about it, he commands the screen with such ease and even in an early role there is the urbane suavity and sinister charm that made him as great an actor he was and why he is so highly regarded. Lynn Bari also makes much of what she has, it's not the most interesting of roles but she is imposing in it and she and Price are great together. Reed Hadley has fun.The sets have an eeriness as does the music score. There are a few nifty sequences, the best being the scary stormy night/thunderstorm one that sees Bari at her best.However, the rest of the cast are undistinguished at most in stock roles and Annabel Shaw is painfully wooden. The eeriness of the sets is wasted sadly by the shoddiness of the way the film is photographed and edited, betraying low budget and very rushed production. The script is silly and thin and direction is pedestrian, routine at best.It's the story and pace where 'Shock' falls down the most. The pace drags as a consequence of the film struggling to having enough content to fill the short duration. The story is thin and creepiness and suspense, let alone shocks, come only in spurts, due to the dull pace, the static way it's all staged, that a lot of it is too ridiculous to take seriously and that it's too obvious too early who's up to no good (a not particularly good job is done to hide it). The ending is unsatisfyingly anti-climactic and took far-fetched to extremes. Concluding, watchable for Price but as a murder mystery it falls well short. 5/10 Bethany Cox

In San Francisco, Mrs. Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) checks in a hotel late night to meet her husband Lieutenant Paul Stewart (Frank Latimore). However Paul does not arrive and Janet goes to the balcony in the middle of the night after a nightmare. She witnesses the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Richard Cross (Vincent Price) asking for the divorce to his wife and having an argument with her. Out of the blue, Dr. Cross kills her with a candlestick and Janet has a nervous collapse and stays catatonic in shock in her room.When Paul arrives and sees his wife, he summons Dr. Stevens (Michael Dunne). After the examination, Dr. Stevens tells that Janet has had a psychological breakdown and recommends Dr. Cross to treat her. When Dr. Cross comes to the room, he realizes that Janet might have seen him and he tells that she needs to be interned in his clinic. He calls Nurse Elaine Jordan (Lynn Bari), who is his lover, and they take Janet to their clinic. He decides to make Janet forget the incident but then they decide to discredit her proclaiming Janet insane. But when the District Attorney O'Neill (Reed Hadley) asks for the authorization to Dr. Cross to carry out an autopsy in his wife since he believes that she might have been murdered, Elaine tells that Dr. Cross must kill Janet. "Shock" is a reasonable thriller with a dated story of a woman that witnesses a murder and has a strange reaction, ending coincidently in the sanatorium of the killer. The performances are very decent but the greatest problem is the shameful low quality American DVD released by the DVD movie distributor. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): Not Available

And of course, he WAS punished but it was all so anti-climactic. Vincent Price strolled amiably off screen with District Attorney O'Neill (Reed Hadley) when it was all over, and the lack of a final explosive confrontation took a lot of the steam out of the finale. Up till then, Dr. Richard Cross's (Price) crime served as a back drop in a tense psychological game in which he and conniving mistress (Lynn Bari) sought to convince Mrs. Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) that she was slowly losing her mind. The theme was well established in the early Forties with a couple of treatments of "Gaslight", and the soft spoken, genteel manner of an actor like Price was quite suitable for his role here. Ultimately though, the picture misses the mark somewhat as Price's character goes bonkers a second time and chokes out his paramour. At that point, both the viewer and the good doctor realize that it's close to curtain call. With a little better writing, he might have gotten patient Edwards to take the fall and gotten away scot-free.

According to the Films Of Vincent Price from the Citadel Film Series, sometime in late 1945 Darryl Zanuck was on one of his budget cutting kicks and was looking to produce cheaper films. Vincent Price was offered the story of Shock and liked it and said he could get it done under 20 days with no interference. Zanuck gave him his head on this one and Price and director Alfred Werker brought it in 19 days shooting time. Shock was also the film that Vincent Price got top billing for the first time in his career. He plays a psychiatrist who kills his wife because she won't give him a divorce to marry the sultry Lynn Bari. The problem is that young war wife Anabel Shaw who is anxiously waiting the return of a husband who was thought missing in action in the Pacific sees him through the window of her room at the hotel they're both staying at. Shaw's got a lot of issues and she collapses and goes into Shock. It's recommended that she go to a sanitarium and husband Frank Latimore now returned takes her to a highly regarded one that is run by both Price and Bari. I don't think I have to go any further.Shock may have been done on a dime and in a hurry, but it's well constructed and was the film that opened new vistas for Vincent Price's career. Price elicits a lot of audience sympathy being caught by mantrap Lynn Bari. As for Bari I don't think she was ever sexier or more dangerous. Stronger men than Price might have killed for her.Definitely a must for the still strong legion of fans that Vincent Price has.