Review of Shock Corridor (1963) by Ryan M — 07 Apr 2009

Cracked men wandering around a mental hospital like exploded shells of history. One fellow loses it over Korea, another over Brown v Board, and another still over atomic weaponry and the possibility of nuclear holocaust. Meanwhile the journalist we're supposed to care about has inserted himself into this milieu and is also losing his head.

Fuller juggles quite a bit of material here, and I sympathize a bit with some of the reviewers who think the film is consequently imbalanced, but I found 'Shock Corridor' so wonderfully riveting that I really wouldn't dream of asking Fuller to smoothe over the edges and angles on display. The scenario here is brilliantly exploited: dialogue-driven "social critique" is threaded into a paint-by-numbers mystery conveniently set in a state institution, as if to assert (correctly I think) that personal pathologies are often rooted in greater sociopolitical realities. One look at the black patient carrying his "Democracy and integration don't mix. Go home nigger!" sign and you'll be wondering how anyone could have found 'To Kill a Mockingbird' bold back in 1962. This is NOT a sensitive study of mental illness, and it's certainly not noir either, but it IS a heady brew of politics and spectacle, and if you can get acclimated to Fuller's unique approach then it's a hell of a ride that I strongly recommend.