Shock Corridor - Criterion Collection
by Samuel Fuller
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Constance Towers, Gene Evans, Hari Rhodes, James Best, Peter BreckDirector: Samuel Fuller
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-08-26
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Shock Corridor - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Not nearly as good as I was led to believe.
Summary: 2 Stars
Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963)
With all the hefty heaps of praise that have been lavished on Shock Corridor during the past decade, as Sam Fuller's films have been rediscovered by critics, I admit I went into it thinking it was going to be on a par with the second coming of Christ. Ah, the perils of reading too many reviews before actually seeing the film, which in this case is a B-grade melodrama, a cautionary tale that reminds me in many ways of Reefer Madness or the like, but about the perils of ambition. Perhaps another part of my problem is that I've watched two other classic hubris tales this year, both of them superior, Alexander MacKendrick's Sweet Smell of Success and Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole; compared to those, Shock Corridor comes up desperately short.
Like MacKendrick's Sidney Falco or Wilder's Chuck Tatum, Fuller's Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) is a newspaperman looking to make a name for himself; over the vehement objections of his girlfriend Cathy (Constance Towers), he hatches a plan with his editor to have himself committed to a mental institution to solve the murder of an inmate the previous year. The only witnesses to the crime were three other inmates, and the police can't get anything out of them; Barrett figures that if he pretends to be one of them, he can get more information out of them. He's right, but as Cathy suspected, being in the nuthatch seems to be rubbing off on Johnny Barrett in the worst way.
And, you know, it's the idiocy of that central premise, that insanity is contagious, that really bugged me about this movie. It probably wouldn't have bugged me so much were it not the central premise of the movie (and it wouldn't have made itself known as the central premise of the movie had it not been hammered home so hard in the opening scene). There is a lot to enjoy about this flick, as long as you take it in that same campy way in which you'd watch something like Night of the Lepus; it's got a streak of black comedy a mile wide, some really amusing characters, and all the weepy fifties melodrama you can shake a stick at, even though it was made in the early sixties. But oh, the neanderthal-level stupid that sits at the core just gets to me, and keeps me from being able to look at it in the lighthearted manner I'd need to to really just sit back and enjoy it. **
Summary of Shock Corridor - Criterion Collection
Maverick film director Samuel Fuller was doing some of his best work in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and in the years since its release in 1963, Shock Corridor has become a B-movie classic and a prime example of Fuller's gritty tabloid style. Never hesitant to explore the darkened corners of contemporary life, Fuller depicts the chambers of an insane asylum as a microcosm of American society, telling the story of a cynical, ambitious journalist (Peter Breck) whose obsessive quest for a Pulitzer Prize leads him into the depths of madness. To investigate a murder, the reporter goes undercover in a mental hospital, having convinced a psychiatrist that he needs treatment. Once inside the asylum, he pieces together clues to the murder, but his own mind begins to deteriorate until he's trapped in a downward spiral towards insanity. Fuller heightens the melodrama with his aggressive style of filmmaking (his next film, The Naked Kiss, proved even more effective), and his imaginative use of black-and-white cinematography (by noted cameraman Stanley Cortez) fills the movie with raw, emotional power. It's the kind of film one would expect from a rebellious director on the Hollywood fringe, and that's why Shock Corridor remains an enduring low-budget examination of the "rat race" and the consequences of pursuing success at any cost. The Criterion Collection DVD presents the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and a rarely seen color dream sequence has been fully restored. --Jeff ShannonSeeking a Pulitzer Prize, a reporter has himself committed to a mental hospital to investigate a murder. As he closes in on the killer, madness closes in on him. Writer/director/producer Samuel Fuller masterfully charts the uneasy terrain between sanity and dementia. Criterion is proud to present Shock Corridor in a gorgeous, black and white widescreen transfer with its rarely-seen color sequences.
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