Shock Corridor (1963)

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writer:

Samuel Fuller (written by)

Release Date:

11 September 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Bent on winning a Pulitzer Prize, a journalist commits himself to a mental institution to solve a strange and unclear murder.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Psychiatrist | Police | Shock Therapy | Strait Jacket

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins

Cast

Peter Breck	...	Johnny Barrett
Constance Towers	...	Cathy
Gene Evans	...	Boden
James Best	...	Stuart
Hari Rhodes	...	Trent
Larry Tucker	...	Pagliacci
Paul Dubov	...	Dr. J.L. Menkin
Chuck Roberson	...	Wilkes
Neyle Morrow	...	Psycho
John Matthews	...	Dr. L.G. Cristo
Bill Zuckert	...	'Swanee' Swanson
John Craig	...	Lloyd
Philip Ahn	...	Dr. Fong
Frank Gerstle	...	Lt. Kane
Rachel Romen	...	Singing nympho

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:12 | Sweden:(Banned) (1964) | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Norway:16 (1964) | UK:(Banned) (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) (1990) | USA:Approved (certificate #20495)

Company:

Leon Fromkess-Sam Firks Productions

Trivia:

Both this and Samuel Fuller's following movie The Naked Kiss (1964) were rejected for UK cinema certificates and remained unavailable until 1990.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the fight scene in the kitchen, a bent table leg is abruptly straight and the pots and pans on the stove in the background change.

Quotes:

Johnny Barrett: Who killed Sloan in the kitchen?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Best of Film Noir (1999) (V)

Faking Madness Can Make One Mad

****SPOILERS**** "Shock Corridor" begins and ends with the fifth century b.c Greek historian and philosopher Euripides famous quote "Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first makes mad". In the movie we see a normal but aggressive young reporter John Barrett, Peter Beck, get destroyed by his own greed and self-importance in trying to and winning a Pulitzer Prize in news journalism but ending up going mad winning it.

John goes undercover in a mental institution to uncover a murder of one of the patients-Slone-as John keeps saying, all throughout the movie, over and over in his mind as well as out loud "Who killed Slone in the kitchen". There's thee witnesses to the crime at the mental asylum who saw what happened and who killed Slone but their all insane and what they saw is buried deep inside their unconscious minds.

Getting committed John begins to work on the three witnesses Stuart Trent & Boden, James Best Hari Rhodes & Gene Evens, but finds them too unstable and hallucinogenic to get any of the information on the crime that he's searching for. As John starts to get closer to solving the murder he starts to lose his sanity due to the treatment he's having at the hospital as well as being exposed to the inmates that are really insane. It's then that John's mind slowly starts to snap and by the end of the movie John's as psychotic as anyone else in the mental asylum.

Interesting but flawed movie about mental illness that comes across somewhat comical even though the subject is a very serious matter and nothing to be laughed at. There's a real off-the-wall scene in the movie when John is attacked by a group of man-hungry nymphomaniacs which came across more like a Saturday Night Live comedy shtick then the really vicious attempted gang rape of John by the nymph's that it was.

Another thing about the movie that's somewhat unrealistic is that the killing and killer of Slone is never really explained to the movie's audience. The "killers" confession would have been thrown out of any court due to John beating it out of him. The killer would have, as well as anyone else, confessed to anything just to stop from getting beaten almost to death and no grand jury in the country would have ever indited him to go on trial in the first place.

Another big flaw in the movie was how could a renowned and prominent psychiatrist like Dr. Fong, Philip Ahn, not know as well as allow his patience John to be committed so that he can go undercover in a mental hospital with out being effected by being there. It that John would end up not only with a destroyed mind but body as well which Dr. Fong should well have known due to his expertise on the subject.

And finally how come the police as well as the mental hospital staff didn't and couldn't find out that Johns girlfriend Cathy, Constance Towers, was not really his sister whom John was supposed to be sexually aroused by. And which was the reason for him to get committed and then go undercover in the mental hospital?

John must have been in the hospital for weeks and how would he be committed at all without the conformation that Cathy was really his sister? It would have been as easy for the police to find out the truth with Cathy's drivers license or social security number but they and the hospital staff seemed to just take her word for it and not look any farther then that. Still the movie "Shock Corridor" is well worth seeing just for how it handles the subject of mental illness that at that time, 1963, was even more taboo then nudity and sex was in films made in Hollywood.