Review of Shock Corridor (1963) by Kevin N — 01 May 2009

A bitter tragedy which faithfully follows in an almost cruelly optimistic manner a newspaper reporter on a mission to find a murderer in a mental hospital by faking looney. As it turns out, three patients have three key pieces of information, but the real suspense comes as Johnny starts cracking up for real.

Sam Fuller structures his narratively expertly, and with every few minutes our perception becomes tipsy and unreliable along with our protagonist's. It takes guts to film some of these scenes- a sequence where a black man thinks he's a Klan leader is particularly daring and upsetting- but the harsh memoirs and recollections of thepatients begin to look more and more truthful and organic as everything Johnny knows as sane begins to crumble.

Fuller's technical aptitude is headstrong, and a shocking scene toward the end in which an internal storm transforms the "shock corridor" into a racing river is exhilerating.