Shock

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.

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.

Tom Cruise might hold this film up as evidence on the evils of Psychiatry.

Vincent Price murders his wife, and this is witnessed by a woman (Anabel Shaw) waiting on her husband (Frank Latimore) to return from a POW Camp. She lapses into catatonia and Price is called to help. He realizes what she may have seen and whisks her off to his sanitarium to see what she knows.

The film also features Lynn Bari, second only to Betty Grable in WWII pin-up popularity according to a GI's poll taken at the time, as the lover of Vincent Price and his collaborator in the abuse of Shaw.

Ending was a little far fetched, but Price was great in his pre-horror days.

According to the Films Of Vincent Price from the Citadel Film Series, sometime in late 1945 Darryl Zanuck was on one of his budget cutting kicks and was looking to produce cheaper films. Vincent Price was offered the story of Shock and liked it and said he could get it done under 20 days with no interference. Zanuck gave him his head on this one and Price and director Alfred Werker brought it in 19 days shooting time.

Shock was also the film that Vincent Price got top billing for the first time in his career. He plays a psychiatrist who kills his wife because she won't give him a divorce to marry the sultry Lynn Bari. The problem is that young war wife Anabel Shaw who is anxiously waiting the return of a husband who was thought missing in action in the Pacific sees him through the window of her room at the hotel they're both staying at.

Shaw's got a lot of issues and she collapses and goes into Shock. It's recommended that she go to a sanitarium and husband Frank Latimore now returned takes her to a highly regarded one that is run by both Price and Bari. I don't think I have to go any further.

Shock may have been done on a dime and in a hurry, but it's well constructed and was the film that opened new vistas for Vincent Price's career. Price elicits a lot of audience sympathy being caught by mantrap Lynn Bari. As for Bari I don't think she was ever sexier or more dangerous. Stronger men than Price might have killed for her.

Definitely a must for the still strong legion of fans that Vincent Price has.

While Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) is waiting for her husband, Paul (Frank Latimore), whom she hasn't seen in over two years (he's been at war and at one point was thought to be dead), to meet her at a hotel, she witnesses an argument and then a murder in another room. She goes into shock, and is taken to a mental hospital for treatment. Unfortunately, Richard Cross (Vincent Price), the doctor treating her, is the same man she witnessed committing murder.

Although somewhat of a potboiler and a bit short on running time per today's standards, Shock is a tightly scripted, directed and acted thriller. As usual, Price is at the top of his game here, and any Price fans who haven't seen this film yet will want to check it out. The rest of the cast is also fantastic, and Shaw particularly stands out when she's on screen (which is not as often as we might like, but given the story, a necessity). Suspense is maintained throughout the film--even in the minor scenes. There was even a fair amount of tension in the opening when Janet Stewart is first checking into the hotel.

My score is 9 out of 10. I only subtracted one point for the ending, which came too soon and a bit too abruptly for my tastes. However, given typical studio restrictions during this era, when it was mandatory that the "bad guys" get their just deserts, the ending is also admirable for its relative ambiguity. It is almost similar in style to Stanley Kubrick's lauded ending of The Killing (1956), which also tried its best to circumvent the just deserts conclusions, though Shock predates the Kubrick film by 10 years.