Plot Summary for
Shock Corridor (1963) More at IMDbPro »

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>

The ambitious journalist of the Daily Globe Johnny Barrett aims to win the Pulitzer Prize solving the murder of the inmate Slone, stabbed in the kitchen of a mental hospital with a butcher knife and witnessed by three insane interns. With the support of his boss and manager of the newspaper Swanson and the orientation of the psychiatrist Dr. Fong, Johnny simulates an incestuous situation with his stripper girlfriend Cathy, who is totally against the idea, and is sent to the institution. While being submitted to a mental treatment along the weeks, he approaches to the three witnesses, waiting for a moment of sanity to interview them. The former soldier Stuart tells him that the killer wore white pants; the former university black student Trent tells him that it was an attendant; and the former physicist Dr. Boden tells him the name of the killer. However, Johnny finds the price he pays for his award. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Journalist Johnny Barrett is out to solve a murder at an insane asylum but the only way he can do so is to have himself committed to the institution and solve the crime from the inside. He spends a full year being coached by professionals to convince psychiatrists that he is a fetishist who desires his sister sexually. Posing as his sister, his girlfriend Cathy files a complaint with the police leading to Johnny's arrest and eventual committal. Once inside he encounters a variety of mental patients but learns that there were three witnesses to the murder of the patient named Sloan. The first was Stuart who thinks he's a Confederate general. In a lucid moment he tells Johnny that the killer wore white pants, meaning the killer is either a doctor or an attendant. The second patient, Trent, is an African-American who hates blacks and in his mind is a member of the KKK. He can't identify the killer but the third witness, Boden, tells him exactly who the killer is. Unfortunately for Johnny his own mental condition has been deteriorating and is now behaving erratically, to the point that even when the doctors learn of the deception, they're not sure they can release him. Written by garykmcd

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