El susto

This movie, Shock, is noted by one thing: It's Vincent Price's first starring role after years in compelling supporting parts for 20th Century Fox. Here, he plays a psychiatrist whose murder of his wife is witnessed by a young woman (Anabel Shaw) across another hotel window as she waits for her returning soldier husband to come soon. The woman fainted from shock when the killing happened so when Price becomes her doctor, he and his mistress nurse (Lynn Bari), try to fix it so everyone would be convinced she's crazy. I'll stop there and just say this is such a subtle suspense thriller that anyone expecting the kind of shocks today's horror/suspense fans get would be very disappointed in this one. Since this was made early in Price's career, his character has something of a conscience here. In fact, Ms. Bari steals her scenes from him as something of a Lady McBeth character. Ms. Shaw is also good in her constant frightfulness as she struggles to be heard and believed. By comparison, Frank Latimore as Shaw's husband is simply adequate as someone constantly trying to see his wife. Price himself handles his part capably. Also worth mentioning are John Davidson (not to be confused with the singer who once co-hosted "That's Incredible") as crazy mental patient, Mr. Edwards, (Loved the lightning sequence that involves him) and Reed Hadley as D.A. O'Neill who's questioning of Price's Dr. Richard Cross threatens to drive Cross over the edge. I'd also like to note that the voice of Mrs. Cross, Ruth Clifford, was also that of Minnie Mouse at this time. While she's not noted on the DVD audio track by John Stanley, many of the leading and supporting players are of their lives, interests, and other roles. Not great but pretty good for anyone who's a fan of Vincent Price.

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.

I've always enjoyed Vincent Price's sad expressions and gentle voice. It's full of threat and pity. He is one of a kind. His savoir faire and manners are right at the top. In this one he commits a murder he really didn't wish to and then must use some pretty extreme measures to cover his tracks and get together with his ruthless lover. The victim is an unstable young woman who has a nervous breakdown when she witnesses the murder. The doctor, one of the top in his field, is constantly pulled between evil actions and the good that is in him. He comes to realize he is wrong and that he has been led astray, but it is too late now. Viewing this in the year 2007, it is filled with some pretty questionable tactics and oversights. What they do to this girl would require a lot of documentation. The sad part isn't the aged quality of the social setting. It's that at some point it all seems to become rather dull. Once they are on to Price's character, the story just falls into a voluble anticlimax. Enjoy watching Vincent Price. Otherwise it is pretty pedestrian.

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

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.