This week’s look at a featured Letterboxd List finds us perusing the Top 250 Films of the 1960s where we find Shock Corridor.
Title: Shock Corridor
Director: Samuel Fuller
Released: September 25, 1963 (Theatrical – United States)
Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
Opening with voiceover narration, Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) tells us that he is a reporter with the Daily Globe and this is his story, as far as it went.
He’s sitting in what appears to be a therapist’s office, talking about “getting the feeling” around the age of 10. The urge coming from seeing a girl’s braids.
As the camera pulls back, we see that Johnny is being coached to play the part of an insane person. This was all his idea. He wants to get committed to a mental hospital in order to try and solve a murder. Johnny Barrett is hellbent on winning a Pulitzer Prize and he’s certain that cracking this case is the ticket.
His girlfriend, Cathy (Constance Towers) is very vocal in making her feelings known. She thinks he’s justifiably insane for wanting to go through with this and get locked up. There are so many variables that could lead to the whole plan going sideways. Johnny doesn’t listen, again, focused only on winning a Pulitzer.
Begrudgingly, Cathy agrees to play along in the scheme as Johnny’s sister. She convincingly plays her role and Johnny is soon admitted to a mental hospital.
Now that he’s in, Johnny is confident that the Pulitzer is as good as his.
Shock Corridor does not waste any time. Twenty minutes in and we’re already in the mental hospital, and Samuel Fuller never looks back. Despite the setup feeling a bit rushed, things are allowed to slow down and breathe once Johnny is inside. We spend time with Johnny while he befriends the patients, learning their quirks, and earning their trust. Taking the time to lay this groundwork allows the payoff to land harder.
Peter Breck carries this film on his back. Some of the early voiceover moments are a little shaky, but once he’s in the mental hospital, Breck really settles in. Playing sane and pretending to be insane, all while slowly slipping into something in between is no small task, and he pulls it off while keeping you engaged throughout.
The mental hospital, being the primary location for the majority of the film, does a lot of work on its own. There’s a baked-in tension to every scene, never knowing what someone’s next actions are going to be. Fuller leans into that, while also slipping in a sharp political edge, without ever overplaying it. For instance, a patient mutters that the American diet consists of “bigotry for breakfast and ignorance for supper”. Unfortunately, that’s as true now as it was then.
The nympho subplot is the one element that stood out as not earning all of the scenes it garners. Yes, it’s necessary to the story, but it’s stretched too thin.
Shock Corridor had been on my watchlist for a while. Now I can say that I see why it’s included in the top 250 movies of the 1960s.