Other Titles • Shock Corridor • Chok korridor (1967) • Corredor sin retorno (1967) • Paixões Que Alucinam • Shokkikäytävä (1975) • Il Corridoio della paura (1963)
Synopses for Shock Corridor (1963)
1.
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 Shannon
2.
Samuel Fuller's honest, visionary pulp film uses an insane asylum as a metaphor for American society. The inmates include a black man who thinks he's a white supremacist, a Korean War Vet who thinks he's a Civil War Confederate general, and a nuclear physicist who has reverted to childhood. This microcosm, which Fuller created in 1963, has lost none of its force over time. In addition, the film's treatment of journalistic hubris foreshadows the contemporary problem of media becoming corrupted by its compliant association with governmental elites. In SHOCK CORRIDOR, a journalist (Peter Breck) hoping to get a scoop on a murder suspect has himself committed to a mental institution where the inmates have information on the culprit. As the film unfolds, the purity of the hero's mission is undercut by his own monomaniacal ego. Things go terribly awry, and although he gets his story, he pays a high price for his success.
3.
Seeking a Pulitzer, 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 Sam Fuller masterfully charts the uneasy terrain between sanity and dementia. Criterion is proud to present Shock Corridor in a gorgeous widescreen transfer, in black and white with its rarely-seen color sequences.
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