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Shock

  • 1946
  • Approved
  • 1h 10m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
3.5K
YOUR RATING
Vincent Price and Lynn Bari in Shock (1946)
Film NoirDramaThriller

A psychologically distraught woman is committed to a private sanitarium by the man she witnessed commit a murder.A psychologically distraught woman is committed to a private sanitarium by the man she witnessed commit a murder.A psychologically distraught woman is committed to a private sanitarium by the man she witnessed commit a murder.

  • Director
    • Alfred L. Werker
  • Writers
    • Eugene Ling
    • Albert DeMond
    • Martin Berkeley
  • Stars
    • Vincent Price
    • Lynn Bari
    • Frank Latimore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    3.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Alfred L. Werker
    • Writers
      • Eugene Ling
      • Albert DeMond
      • Martin Berkeley
    • Stars
      • Vincent Price
      • Lynn Bari
      • Frank Latimore
    • 86User reviews
    • 44Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win total

    Photos91

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    Top cast21

    Edit
    Vincent Price
    Vincent Price
    • Dr. Richard Cross
    Lynn Bari
    Lynn Bari
    • Nurse Elaine Jordan
    Frank Latimore
    Frank Latimore
    • Lt. Paul Stewart
    Anabel Shaw
    Anabel Shaw
    • Mrs. Janet Stewart
    Stephen Dunne
    Stephen Dunne
    • Dr. Stevens
    • (as Michael Dunne)
    Reed Hadley
    Reed Hadley
    • District Attorney O'Neill
    Renee Carson
    • Miss Hatfield - Head Nurse
    Charles Trowbridge
    Charles Trowbridge
    • Dr. H.J. Harvey
    Robert Adler
    Robert Adler
    • Frank - Male Nurse
    • (uncredited)
    Margaret Brayton
    • Nurse
    • (uncredited)
    Harry Carter
    Harry Carter
    • Sanitarium Orderly
    • (uncredited)
    Ruth Clifford
    Ruth Clifford
    • Mrs. Margaret Cross
    • (uncredited)
    John Davidson
    John Davidson
    • Mr. Edwards
    • (uncredited)
    Selmer Jackson
    Selmer Jackson
    • Dr. Blair
    • (uncredited)
    Ruth Nelson
    Ruth Nelson
    • Mrs. Margaret Cross
    • (uncredited)
    Claire Richards
    • Nurse
    • (uncredited)
    George E. Stone
    George E. Stone
    • Cab Driver
    • (uncredited)
    Charles Tannen
    Charles Tannen
    • Hotel Clerk
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Alfred L. Werker
    • Writers
      • Eugene Ling
      • Albert DeMond
      • Martin Berkeley
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews86

    6.23.5K
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    10

    Featured reviews

    6claudio_carvalho

    Reasonable Thriller

    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
    7secondtake

    You won't know the end until the end

    Shock (1946)

    You know right away this is a little creaky, but Vincent Price is in great form, and the idea of being committed to an insane asylum when you aren't insane is enough to carry almost any hour long movie. The filming in particular gives the film a polish the actors generally do not, and the plot has some conveniences that you can only smile at. They are not inconsistencies, and people act with a high level of logic.

    You might call this a film noir, because of its gloom, because of its classic (and cruel) femme fatale, and because there is murder at hand. But most important is the appearance here and there of the solider, still in uniform, just returned from the war after two years missing in action. His positively sweet good nature in the face of an utter breakdown of the world he expected to find is meant to resonate with so many in the audience on both sides of just such homecomings. It's 1946, after all, and there isn't any larger theme for the average Jane and Joe.

    Totally fun. And great, undiluted suspense.
    6didi-5

    routine B movie

    Although it is fun to see Vincent Price early in his career before his spine-chilling horror roles really took off, this psychological thriller feels long at 70 minutes.

    Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) checks into a hotel at night and waits for the return of her GI husband. While in her room she sees a woman being murdered and sinks into a state of comatose shock. She's carted off to a psychiatric hospital but the psychiatrist (Price) is not all he seems.

    A formulaic story isn't helped by the wooden performances of Shaw, of Lynn Bari as nurse Elaine Jordan, and by Frank Latimore as Lt Stewart.

    Moody B picture visuals and the usual tinny music give this minor film a sense of space and time but overall 'Shock' is a bore which outstays its welcome.

    Of interest to Price fans but not really much there for anyone else.
    7bmacv

    Psychiatric villainy in an old-dark-house sanitarium, starring evildoers Price and Bari

    At first, Shock looks like it should be assigned to the `Oneiric' Wing of forties film noir, but soon comes to occupy a niche in the Evil Psychiatry Wing instead. Anabel Shaw checks into a San Francisco Hotel awaiting her serviceman husband. Bad weather has delayed him, so, instead of curling up with a cozy mystery, she witnesses a murder from the balcony of her suite. Next morning, her husband finds her in a state of complete catatonia. A psychiatrist (Vincent Price) is summoned, who turns out to be none other than the murderer.

    Checking sight angles from the balcony to his apartment across the way, Price realizes that Shaw's trancelike state no doubt stems from her seeing him take a candlestick to his older, inconvenient wife. He whisks her off to that chamber of horrors, his Private Sanitarium, to find out what she remembers. He and his accomplice/mistress Lynn Bari devise a scheme to make Shaw, and everyone else, think she's delusional – that she views everyone as a murderer. Meanwhile, however, a fluke of circumstance leads the police to reopen the case of Price's wife, whose death had been contrived to look accidental. Next, Price and Bari escalate their therapy to dangerous insulin-shock treatments....

    Price glides through his role with the disdainful urbanity that was his trademark in the morning of his career; interestingly, though, the plot turns on his having some shreds of conscience, or at least professional ethics, after all. The same can't be said of Bari as the Lady Macbeth of the piece; what can be said is that there should be more of her. She hits her peak during a violent nocturnal thunderstorm, when a menacing patient slips out of his room and into Shaw's. It really does turn the sanitarium into a chamber of horrors.
    Doylenf

    Modest programmer based on witness to murder theme...

    SHOCK hardly lives up to its promising title. It's a rather tepid little B&W thriller that serves only to remind us what VINCENT PRICE was like just as his career was beginning to take shape at Fox. As usual, he's at his best as a shady character, a doctor who commits a crime of passion only to find out that it has been witnessed by a woman neighbor. Annabel Shaw plays the woman who goes into shock after witnessing the crime--a performance that is not quite as riveting as it should be for this type of suspense yarn. The suspense lies in wondering how Price will deal with the woman. Lynn Bari is his cohort in keeping the crime away from the police.

    It's a premise that has been used countless times, often to better advantage than it is here. Worthwhile for some suspenseful moments at Price's sanitarium but none of the suspense is milked for all it's worth. Frank Latimore does nicely as the husband whose wife has gone into shock after her traumatic witnessing of murder and Reed Hadley does a smooth job as a detective.

    Modestly entertaining if you don't expect too much.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      While on the set one day, Lynn Bari was talking with co-star Anabel Shaw and mentioned that she was a direct descendant, on her mother's side, of Revolutionary War hero Alexander Hamilton. Shaw revealed that she was a direct descendant of Aaron Burr, the man who killed Hamilton in the famous duel.
    • Goofs
      Insulin is injected subcutaneously. The needle Dr. Cross uses is for intravenous use.
    • Quotes

      Lt. Paul Stewart: Well, if you give Janet this insulin, how certain can you be it'll help her?

      Dr. Richard Cross: I'm neither a miracle man nor a prophet, Lieutenant. If medicine were an exact science, not an art, I might be able to tell you.

    • Connections
      Edited into Schlock! (2009)

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    FAQ18

    • How long is Shock?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 1, 1946 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Streaming on "Baka o Mestre de Obras" YouTube Channel
      • Streaming on "Classic Movie Time" YouTube Channel
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Chock
    • Filming locations
      • Backlot, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Twentieth Century Fox
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $375,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 10 minutes
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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