Well, I have to say that I'm really surprised at this film. After reading up about it and seeing all the high ratings, I was really hoping that it would be something special. Unfortunately, however, Shock Corridor is only a faintly interesting little film with some good ideas that mostly aren't capitalised upon. In 1946, Mark Robson made a film about a sane man in a mental asylum called "Bedlam", and Shock Corridor is not a patch on that superior film! The plot takes in similar themes to your classic 'selling your soul to the devil' kind of story, as at the centre there is man prepared to put himself on the line for hope of winning some glory. Johnny Barrett is a reporter working for a top newspaper. There's been a murder in the local nuthouse and all attempts to get information out of the prisoners have been unsuccessful, so Johnny decides that he will fool the psychologists into thinking that he's insane so he can gain access to the asylum, talk to the residents and hopefully manage to solve the mystery
all hopefully leading him to the Pulitzer prize.
The film gets off to a good start as we see the details of the plan unfolding and the way that the lead character's girlfriend slots into the plan and her problems with it...but once the plan has played out, the film really take a turn for the worse when he's finally committed to the insane asylum. It would seem that director Samuel Fuller (who had a varied career, which was topped by the fantastic White Dog) didn't really know what he wanted to do with the film. There's not a great deal of investigation going on and the film focuses more on the insanity of the inmates, which doesn't work well if you ask me. It would seem that the director wanted it to be 'trippy', but I found it boring - there's plenty of fights and things, but I was really hoping for some sort of murder investigation and that's not what I got once he enters the asylum, the only real point of interest is a scene that's in colour! The acting is not very good either, Peter Breck never impresses in the lead role and constantly looks awkward, and his support is not of the high class variety either. Overall, Shock Corridor is a film that could have been good but unfortunately it isn't!
The film gets off to a good start as we see the details of the plan unfolding and the way that the lead character's girlfriend slots into the plan and her problems with it...but once the plan has played out, the film really take a turn for the worse when he's finally committed to the insane asylum. It would seem that director Samuel Fuller (who had a varied career, which was topped by the fantastic White Dog) didn't really know what he wanted to do with the film. There's not a great deal of investigation going on and the film focuses more on the insanity of the inmates, which doesn't work well if you ask me. It would seem that the director wanted it to be 'trippy', but I found it boring - there's plenty of fights and things, but I was really hoping for some sort of murder investigation and that's not what I got once he enters the asylum, the only real point of interest is a scene that's in colour! The acting is not very good either, Peter Breck never impresses in the lead role and constantly looks awkward, and his support is not of the high class variety either. Overall, Shock Corridor is a film that could have been good but unfortunately it isn't!