Shock Corridor

1963 movie

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Johnny the journalist really really wants to win a Pulitzer Prize. He concocts a plan to have himself committed to an asylum to get to the bottom of a murder that took place there. Once there, he begins to lose his mind.

Shock Corridor doesn't connect, and that's its biggest problem. It doesn't work as a psychological thriller because it isn't thrilling. There are moments that look like they're intended to be scary, but it doesn't work as horror. It's almost funny at times, but I'm not sure it's ever supposed to be intentionally funny. It's too unrealistic to be realism, not hopeless enough to be noir. There's a bit of a mystery, but once you meet all the characters, it's obvious who done it so there's very little suspense there. Not much style makes this story, an interesting enough story that could use a remake, pretty dull. The acting and the characters' disorders were so comical (a black guy who thinks he's a KKK member, a brilliant scientist suddenly with the mind of a child, and a veteran who thinks he's a Civil War general) that it almost seemed like every single inmate was supposed to be a journalist pretending to be insane. Far too much acting, and none of it was really very good. The main character's mantra ("Who killed Sloan in the kitchen?") almost makes it look like he's playing a game of Clue. Attempts at social commentary fall flat. The movie also loses a point because of a few strip teases that emphasized the teasing, but it gained that point right back with an appearance by none other than Roscoe P. Coltrane.

Jacques Pompadour: