Shock Corridor

This is one experience I'm not likely ever to forget, it is truly unsettling. One of the most ferocious, savage and disturbing films I have ever seen, and brilliant cinematic art on top of it.

Ambitious reporter has himself admitted to a mental hospital in order to solve a murder there. He poses as an incestuous brother to his 'sister' and real-life stripper girlfriend, and once inside gets to talk to all three witnesses to the murder. Gradually, though, his own mind starts to disintegrate ...

Was there ever an asylum like Samuel Fuller's? Hope not. One of the inmates is singing the Factotum Aria from 'Barber of Seville' around the clock, another savours the words "I am impotent and I like it", but they are the sanest ones. Of the three witnesses one imagines himself to be a general at Gettysburg but suddenly shifts and claims to be a Communist in reaction to "my folks (that) fed my bigotry for breakfast and ignorance for dinner" in a long pathetic virtuoso solo by actor James Best. One, a young black man, dresses as a Ku Klux Klan member, advocating white supremacy, expressing his loathing for blacks ("Oh, they're alright as entertainers, but ..."), and the third, a Nobel prize winner, has retreated into infantilism.

'Shock Corridor', which obviously turned out to be a cult favourite, directed by maverick independent filmmaker and former journalist Samuel Fuller, makes no excuses for itself, and its style is swaggeringly confident, blending pulp and downright tawdriness with high melodrama and noir, in unforgettable, dramatically lit images. Sometimes it's plain silly in its excessive irony, at other times searing in its empathy, and probably the most funny moments are those when the reporter (a wonderful Peter Breck) once more asks his increasingly absurd and irrelevant question, "Who killed Sloane in the kitchen?", and when he finally learns who, he forgets about it immediately! I cannot recommend this film enough, it is one of the great works of art of American cinema. No less.

To describe SHOCK CORRIDOR as lurid would be an understatement: it plays like something torn from a supermarket tabloid. An ambitious reporter feigns madness and has himself committed to an insane asylum in order to investigate a recent and unsolved murder--and once inside he encounters everything from hateful attendants to a whole ward of crazed nymphos, and all the characters are presented in the most explotational tone possible.

But SHOCK CORRIDOR has a lot more going for it than just lurid exploitation. Director-writer Sam Fuller was renowned for his gutsy, no-frills, straight-to-the-point style, and in his hands SHOCK CORRIDOR becomes a vision of America as a society that places so much emphasis on conformity and success that people crack and go mad under the strain. And Fuller's cast is remarkable: even when the story goes ridiculously over the top, they perform with such sincerity, conviction, and realism that you can buy into the story in spite of its improbabilities.

SHOCK CORRIDOR will not be to every one's taste, but even those who dislike it will probably find themselves grudgingly fascinated by the film, and although the film transcends such labels fans of explotational and cult cinema will also find lots to enjoy. A classic of its kind. Recommended... but don't say I didn't warn you.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I have watched hundreds and hundreds of movies in my life ranging from mainstream Hollywood to highbrow arthouse favourites to schlocky cult classics but I can honestly say I have never experienced anything quite like 'Shock Corridor' before! In fact the only other movie off the top of my head that mixes b-grade melodrama, subversive social comment, hysterical camp dialogue, and genuinely inspired shots and scenes is 'The Naked Kiss', Sam Fuller's next movie. Fuller was an oddball original, and if you want to see why he is worshipped by Godard, Wenders, Scorsese, Tarantino and Jarmusch look no further than this astonishing movie which has to be seen to believed! Peter Breck (best known for his role on TV's 'Maverick') plays an ambitious reporter who fakes a mental illness so that he can solve a murder, gain fame, respect and (hopefully) a Pulitzer prize. His girlfriend (Constance Towers, star of 'The Naked Kiss', also essential viewing) warns him against it, but is convinced to aid his plan by posing as his sister and getting him committed. Once inside he becomes involved with all kinds of crazies including the larger than life Opera loving nutcase Pagliacci (writer Larry Tucker in an absolutely unforgettable performance), wardens both kind and sadistic, and in one sensational scene a bunch of raving nymphos! ( "oh no! nymphos!"). However describing the basic plot of this movie gives you only half the picture. You really have to watch it for yourself to fully appreciate just how strange it is. For my money it ranks with 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' and 'The Ninth Configuration' as the most memorable movie dealing with madness, and on top of that it is one of the greatest b-grade movies of any genre ever made. Arguably Fuller's single greatest achievement and a movie not to be missed by any film buff. Highly recommended!

The striking thing about this film is just how unnervingly barmy the characters are, and even more amazing is just how they seem so apt with Sam Fuller's sledgehammer direction. Written, directed and produced by Fuller it weaves a cautionary tale of how faking madness just might bring about the downfall of ones own sanity, and here it begs the question of if the price of fame has no boundaries to those who clamour for glory ?. The film cleverly manages to make the viewer think about the thin line between sanity and insanity and this is shot with such style it lingers long in the memory after the credits role. Some great sequences allied with clever switches to {almost surreal} color make this more than a curiosity piece because of the directors "American Primitive" reputation.

Interestingly dark 8/10.

How we should read this movie?

Is it really important to know why a famous psychiatrist could have helped the journalist to get into the asylum? Is it really important to have a realistic, tied up scenario in this movie?

I don't think so, and what really comes out of it is a wild political message that ultimately depicts the madness of the outside, normal society, and how it deals with everything that is different. To me, the director's intent is to tell us how sick our society is (at least, "was", at his time) and, for that, he chose the metaphor of madness, and very specific characters to tell us the message. The main characters are the mad guys, and the journalist and the crime are only excuses to lead us into this outside world of rejected people. The scenario structure seems to be rather simple and rounded as any political speech, so after we enter the asylum, we are presented to the mad characters (the war veteran, the black guy, the physicist), one by one. The only exception to this straightforward scenario line is the journalist girlfriend, but her appearance shouldn't have a different direction (in the critical, political sense), and she gives us a really funny, sexy, and ridiculous scene where the hollywoodean love is ridiculized (she is performing her daily striptease, at the same time we know she's suffering from love, note how the scene is shown in a cold, distant and downward camera).

Definitely, it is a political-pulp-fiction. As such, a good movie.

Just don't try to see it as a standard Hollywood movie.