Edit
Storyline
Johnny Barrett, an ambitious journalist, is determined to win a Pulitzer Prize by solving a murder committed in a lunatic asylum and witnessed only by three inmates, from whom the police have been unable to extract the information. With the connivance of a psychiatrist, and the reluctant help of his girlfriend, he succeeds in having himself declared insane and sent to the asylum. There he slowly tracks down and interviews the witnesses - but things are stranger than they seem ... Written by
David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk>
Plot Summary
|
Add Synopsis
Taglines:
The Medical Jungle Doctors Don't Talk About!
Edit
Did You Know?
Trivia
Early in the film Dr. Menkin mentions that Johnny started as a copy boy at the age of 14. This is how director Sam Fuller got started.
See more »
Goofs
When talking to the police near the beginning of the movie, when shot from the back, Cathy's coat collar is up, but when we see her from the front, her collar is down.
See more »
Quotes
Wilkes:
I used to work in the Female Wing. But the "Nympho Ward" got too dangerous for me.
See more »
Shock Corridor is one of Samuel Fuller's wildest works, a deeply personal examination of insanity by the premier exponant of 50's and 60's Pulp Cinema. I prefer "The Naked Kiss", but "Shock Corridor" certainly stands as a unique and memorable work. It is silly, no downright ludicrous at times, as seen today, but this must have been strong stuff when it came out in 1963. It boldly takes on such topics as incest, racism and cold war paranoia. Not sensitively, mind you, yet quite boldly!
Every scene in this movie seems to be played at fever pitch, and I have to say I believe its been over-rated critically, due to the auteur theory run amok, but I do admire Fuller's gutsiness and directorial skill. If only his skills as a scenarist and dialogue writer were commensurate! He did, however, certainly know how to pull an intense performance out of an actor. Breck and Towers are rather ridiculously intense at times, as a matter of fact, though forgivably so, as they are instruments of their director and express his style perfectly. Hari Rhodes, who people of my generation may remember from the tv series, "Daktari", gives a terrific supporting performance, as does the memorable Larry Tucker, who later became a Hollywood screenwriter and producer.