Shock Corridor (1963)

 Samuel Fuller's "Shock Corridor"


Described by American film critic Andrew Sarris as a "Baroque B-picture," Samuel Fuller's "Shock Corridor" manages to contain the aesthetic of older Hollywood films. Released in 1963, this psychological drama exemplifies Fuller's edgy and oft controversial style. There are plenty of taboo subject matters littered throughout the film that would cause some to feel it was meant for its B-picture status.

The film centers on Johnny Barrett, an ambitious journalist bent on winning a Pulitzer Prize. To achieve this feat, he concocts a plan to fake insanity to get into a mental hospital so that he can solve an unsolved murder. In doing so, he surrounds himself with chaotic insanity that only disintegrates any semblance of stability he initially had.

The mental institution (and the film itself) is allegorical of America in 1963. The reason for many of the patients' insanity derives from external pressures from social fallout. From the red scare to race wars to cold war anxieties, there was a vast array of insane mechanisms driving Americans to the brink of insanity. The film reflects the boiling pot of fears and terror facing a contemporary American landscape.



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