Shock Corridor (1963)

Samuel Fuller was a director who incorporated the Italian neo realistic cinema into the world of Hollywood Noir.  His, “Pickup on South Street”, was a great example of gritty Noir cinema.   After directing some interesting but commercially failed projects in the late 50’s, Fuller lost his support with the Hollywood producers and took to directing cheap B grade films and TV dramas.  “Shock Corridor”, is one of these films with its lurid storyline, aimed at luring the morbid curious into the cinema.  It tells the tale of a Journalist, Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) who goes undercover at an insane asylum in order to solve a recently unsolved murder committed at the asylum.  All of the cast in this film are third rate and they go about overacting their roles to the extreme.  What was interesting is that the overacting and over the top scenes did not deter Fuller from making his film a shockingly realistic view into the mentally ill mind.   First of all the story Barrett makes up in order to convince the doctors he is mentally ill revolves around his incestuous relationship with his sister.  Since he does not really have a sister, his current stripper girl friend agrees to play the part.  Her vocation as a stripper and actual relationship with Barrett helps her give a very convincing performance to the asylum doctors and Barrett gets committed.  From there we follow his investigation while at the same time seeing how his present surroundings affect his own mind.   .   The movie makes use of a neat trick by allowing the viewing audience to hear the inner voice of Barrett as he goes through his various transformations that transpire in the movie.    Fuller succeeds in installing a lot of exterior meaning to his film, as all three of the patients that Barrett has to interview represent controversial social topics that existed in the sixties.  From Ultra right wing patriotism to racism and the dangers of the atom age, Fuller’s gritty in your face style of direction hits home on all of these topics like a sledgehammer, using the auspice of insanity as its source of social commentary.  The majority of the movie takes place inside the claustrophobic asylum and its hallway between rooms, called the corridor.  Using sharp close up angles fuller’s camera expands on the feeling of being in a mad house. There is a gang rape scene that turns the table on the sexes as Barrett gets attacked by a gang of female nymphomaniacs.  He screams in absolute terror while being attacked, piquing my interest as I watched, instead of shocking me to turn away as I would certainly have done if the roles were reversed and a gang of men was assaulting a helpless woman.    There is a clear connection being shown between sexual deviation and sanity.  With an ending that would fit perfectly in one of Rod Sterling’s, “Twilight Zone” episodes, “Shock Corridor”, is a powerful movie that lingers in the mind well after the final credits.