Rating: 
Summary: Insanity, Incest, Social Responsability, and... Nymphos!
Review: Like many films from the same time period, Shock Treatment intends to showcase serious and dramatic social/political issues that plague mankind, but attempts to do so in a black-and-white alternate reality of mind-numbingly simplicity. The only thing more shocking than the film's depiction of the mentally ill is it's tail-end of the Hayes Code depiction of "strippers". The film is a mixed blessing, however, for despite the inherent and unintended humor in scenes such as the ward full of nymphomaniacs that converge upon a screaming male victim while singing "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", nearly all of the actors involved put forth such a heartfelt and emotionally captivating performance that they make even the most ludicrous dialogue and situations almost believable. Shock Corridor might do for Mental Health what Duck and Cover did for Nuclear Warfare, but it is a film that can be enjoyed on both a serious and camp level with equal success.
Rating: 
Summary: Nymphos!
Review: One of the best and most underrated criticisms of everything wrong about America from clinical treatment, racism, careerism and film pretension, Shock Corridor is Sam Fuller's darkest and most hilarious movie. Another reason why film criticism and genre adherence should go the way of the dinosaur. See it now...
Rating:
Summary: A Great American Original
Review: Perhaps Fuller's most audacious film--the first time I saw it, my jaw was on the ground. Some take it only as a cult item, but when you realize this was made in 1963 as an indictment of Cold War paranoia and homegrown racism, you begin to appreciate exactly how ahead of the curve Sam was. While Sam Fuller's films may not be for everyone (such as the previous reviewer), there's nothing cheesy about this at all. True, Shock Corridor is very low budget. But it also has Stanley Cortez (The Magnificent Ambersons) behind the camera. If it's so inept, why did John Ford often visit the set, saying he might learn something? Why did Jean-Luc Godard pay hommage to Fuller in many of his early films, even using him in Pierrot le Fou to deliver his definition of cinema ("A film is like a battleground--love, hate, action, violence, death...in one word--emotion!")? Why has Martin Scorsese (along with Quentin Tarentino and others) called Shock Corridor is "a masterpiece"? No, when such an array of talented people find so much of worth here, then you know this is far from Ed Wood territory. Experience Sam Fuller's "Kino-Fist" style right between your eyes--he may be one of our most neglected directors.
Rating:
Summary: Shock Corridor
Review: Sam Fuller is an incarnation of cinema: the martyr-philosopher of genre pictures, his films contain all the elements hinted at in his definition of cinema in Godard's legendary, tragic philosophical noir 'Pierrot Le Fou': Hate, love, war, violence, action, death, in one word: emotion. 'Shock Corridor', Fuller's grand social commentary sold as a thrill-ride, is one of those immortal films, like Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' or Ray's 'Rebel Without A Cause' that contain all of cinema in their frames. Watching them is pure exhillaration, a fight against classicalism and anti-classicalism, poetry and prose. In 'Shock Corridor', Fuller constructs a deeply symbolic story of a man who goes too far in his own cynicism: a journalist wanting to do a piece on mental treatment and poses as a threat in order to be committed to a mental institution and is exposed to emotions so powerful that he descends into complete insanity. Fuller's message is that Man fights against his ultimate destiny and believes himself to be more powerful than his emotions because he lives in a repressed society, yet when he is put into a Barbarian environment, his true emotions come through because he does not feel the need to conform to the image that society projects, Fuller is saying that emotions can only be extreme and that society tries to moderate and manipulate them. The great Bertolucci who would later quote 'Shock Corridor' in his beautiful ode to cinema, 'The Dreamers', in one of that film's most electrifying displays of cinephillia as the character compares the experience of seeing a Fuller film to that of being hypnotized. Indeed, in all of Fuller's luridness, it is impossible to love cinema in itself, and not love Sam Fuller, he merges and crashes and celebrates everything about film at the same time with anarchistic glee and with a mixture of love, contempt, and rebellion...but never restraint.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific movie, but not a very good DVD
Review: Samuel Fuller's low-budget masterpiece _Shock Corridor_ is indisputably one of the greatest American films of the 1960s. Although some elements of the plot feel dated today, Fuller's expose of American racism and militarism has force, passion, and true cinematic technique.The DVD of the film features an excellent video transfer with a so-so mono audio mix. Because this is an early effort from Criterion, the only extra you'll find here is a rather shabby theatrical trailer. Nowadays this would be disgraceful, but in 1998 (when the disc was first produced), it was about par for the course. Unless you really, really like this film, consider a rental, not a purchase. Perhaps Criterion could re-issue _Shock Corridor_ with more extensive special features, as they've already done for Truffaut's _The 400 Blows_ and Cocteau's _Beauty and the Beast_.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific movie, but not a very good DVD
Review: Samuel Fuller's low-budget masterpiece _Shock Corridor_ is indisputably one of the greatest American films of the 1960s. Although some elements of the plot feel dated today, Fuller's expose of American racism and militarism has force, passion, and true cinematic technique. The DVD of the film features an excellent video transfer with a so-so mono audio mix. Because this is an early effort from Criterion, the only extra you'll find here is a rather shabby theatrical trailer. Nowadays this would be disgraceful, but in 1998 (when the disc was first produced), it was about par for the course. Unless you really, really like this film, consider a rental, not a purchase. Perhaps Criterion could re-issue _Shock Corridor_ with more extensive special features, as they've already done for Truffaut's _The 400 Blows_ and Cocteau's _Beauty and the Beast_.
Rating:
Summary: "Whom God wishes to destroy, He firsts makes mad."
Review: Shock Corridor (1963), was written and directed by Samuel Fuller, who was also responsible for The Naked Kiss (1964), stars Peter Breck as Johnny Barrett, a reporter with his eye on winning the Pulitzer prize, has himself committed to an insane asylum in order to talk to three inmates who witnessed the murder of another inmate within the asylum. He hopes to learn the identity of murderer, solving a case the police couldn't, and writing the story of a lifetime. With the assistance of a mental health expert and his newspaper editor, Johnny trains for a year on how to be crazy in order to pull off the scheme, and then has his girlfriend Cathy (Constance Towers), an exotic dancer, act as his sister to claim Johnny is in love with her in more than just a 'brotherly' way, which would allow for his committal to the institution to the mental hospital. She is extremely reluctant to do so as she fears for his mental state and what may happen while Johnny is locked away with so much insanity. Once inside, Johnny must keep his act believable, while trying to gather information from the three lunatics who witnessed the murder of a fellow inmate. As the story of the murder begins to unfold, Johnny is subject to treatments and such reserved for the mentally unhinged, and living among these individuals causes problems within Johnny's own mental state. Will he learn the identity of the killer before madness overtakes him? Supporting characters include James Best as Stuart, an inmate who believes he's an officer in the confederate army. Many will probably recognize him as bumbling sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane from the 70's television show The Dukes of Hazzard. He is really a great actor, much better than he let on in that show. Gene Evans play Boden, a once brilliant nuclear scientist now reduced to a childlike state due to pressures from his position. Evans appeared in a ton of movies throughout the 50's and 60's, and then transitioned to mostly television work in the 70's. I mainly remember him in Nevada Smith (1966) with Steve McQueen. This drama was comparable in many ways to me to the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). In both movies, you have a person entering an asylum under false pretenses, acting the part in order to stay within the system, and suffering from the close association with the mentally diseased. The big difference is while One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest had bits of humor nestled throughout the movie, this was a fairly straight up drama with little or no humor (unless you count Johnny's mistakenly entering the room full of nymphomaniacs and barely escaping with his life). Also, I didn't find myself connecting with the characters here so much as I did with 'Cuckoo's Nest', but the performances were pretty believable. The film ended pretty much as I thought it would, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable for me. The film did incorporate a number of socially relevant topics including racism, bigotry, communism, and incest, among other things. I thought the character of Trent (Hari Rhodes), an inmate who was once the first black college student at an all white school but cracked under the pressure, and now spouts racial slogans reserved for members of the clan, was pretty odd. I did laugh a couple of times when Trent, believing his was white, would get the others all worked up, and then chase an older, black inmate around the halls. The poor man...he would step foot out of his room while Trent was in the middle of a diatribe, and Trent would spot him, encouraging the rest to chase him and knock the stuffing out of him. Another unintentionally funny moment was when the one doctor was talking to Johnny about his fetish with his 'sister' and the doctor speaks of puberty, but instead says 'poo-berty'. I don't know why, but it made me laugh...I guess I'm silly like that. The print here is very crisp and clear, but there are flaws at a few points, where the film must have been damaged. The picture is in wide screen, and also includes the original color sequences, which I heard, weren't in some earlier releases. The film itself is in black and white. Special features are lacking, basically only including a trailer, which surprised me a little, as Criterion usually supplies much in this area. There is also a nice insert with plenty of information about the film. Cookieman108
Rating:
Summary: Genius
Review: Shock Corridor is a film that works on so many different levels, all within the confines of a B movie budget, etc. The pointed melodrama knocks you out again and again, with each character contributing to a satirical whollop that left me reeling for days. It's a great film, and Fuller is a master filmmaker.
Rating:
Summary: Fuller
Review: Stark, powerful, riveting, are some descriptions you might hear from others reviewing this film. Ok here's the deal, not as good as Fuller's other works like Naked Kiss or Underworld U.S.A. but hell a movie by Fuller is still better than the [stuff] you're going to get from Speilberg, Zemekis, Stone, etc., etc.
Mental institute, undercover reporter, crazy people, undercover reporter goes crazy. Same old story. Mind blowing forr it's time cliched now. Definately woth seeing though.
Rating:
Summary: Great film, shame about the transfer
Review: This is one of my favourite movies - it improves everytime I watch it - and while it is great to own it on DVD it's a shame the transfer is so poor. The background hiss is unbelievable - it actually makes the film quite difficult to watch - and while the contrast of black and white images looks as startling as it should, there is so much dirt on the film itself that at times you can't quite believe you're watching it on DVD. If I'd known this, I probably still would've bought the disk as it's such a great movie, but it really is a shame that more effort hasn't been made to clean the film up.
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