Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: This is one of the best B-movies I've ever seen. The ideas and thoughts that Fuller was able to convey on such a small budget is astonishing. The supporting characters are great and memorable even if the hero isn't. A great film, and thanks to Criterion for providing a great print with restored sequences. Could have had more features but for 20 or so dollars I'm not complaining.
Rating:
Summary: Shocking!
Review: This is one of those movies where you sit there staring at what's happening with your mouth open - not believing what you're seeing and hearing. The plot concerns a reporter who goes into an asylum in order to get the real story about a murderer. In order to do so, he has to feign his own madness. Director Sam Fuller holds nothing back at all. No such thing as subtlety to this guy. From a jaw-dropping monologue on racism, to a bizarre dream strip tease, to a nymphomaniac ward, then a weird color montage, this movie takes your brain and puts it in a pinball machine. Watch it. And consider yourself forewarned.
Rating:
Summary: Peter Breck Fan
Review: This movie is a camp classic, it is funny, though it is not
meant to be. I was actually laughing out loud. It was done
in 1963 pre BIG VALLEY days for Peter Breck, but is does show
what an incredibly good actor he is! And it has the added
attraction on having the lovely Constance Towers who plays
his stripper girlfriend. Constance Towers can be seen on
General Hospital these days playing the evil Helena Cassidine.
The acting from all the actors in this movie is excellent, and
I think it looked like they had a lot of fun playing it. If
anyone wants an example of those B movies they use to show at
the local Drive In theatre then this is the movie that brings
back that Fiftys feel. ENJOY!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This movie is an absolute ride! Give this one a shot and forget about "The Naked Kiss." I saw "Kiss" first and came into "Shock Corridor" with quite a negative bias, but I love this movie. It's very offbeat and original. I'd recommend this movie for people who desire something wholly original and entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: One of Sam Fuller¿s most powerful pictures
Review: This precursor to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, Written, Produced and Directed by Sam Fuller (THE BIG RED ONE) was originally banned in NZ on its initial release and for some odd reason carries an R18 certificate today (higher than the UK's 15 cert). But even despite the twelve year gap between this and Milos Forman's multi Oscar winning masterpiece, I personally felt that SHOCK CORRIDOR came across as a more subtly unsettling movie.
In this overlooked classic Peter Breck gives a terrific performance as Johnny Barrett, a newspaper reporter who goes undercover as a patient in a mental asylum in order to expose the ill treatment of the inmates. But he soon finds himself fearing for his own sanity when he himself winds up being abused. The situation is not helped when he begins to have disturbing dreams about his stripper girlfriend (Constance Towers) whom he harbours a secret anger against for exposing herself to other men. (The stripping scenes are a special highlight too). However Johnny also gains the unwanted attention of half a dozen attractive-slash-deranged female inmates who want to sexually exploit and degrade him. Who said only women were victims? Unfortunately some of the audio synchronicity in SHOCK CORRIDOR is appalling, especially in this scene and as a result the potential power of this sequence is lessened somewhat. (I viewed the UK videotape so I'll presume this was the work of the Pommie censors and not the intention of Fuller).
As if all this isn't bad enough, among the other inmates is an African American man with a split personality- his alter ego being a white supremacist. This leads to one of the movie's more unnerving moments where he dons a KKK outfit and sets an angry mob upon another Negro patient. This would have been pretty wild stuff for 1963 and the scene still packs a wallop four decades on. It's safe to presume that this wouldn't be allowed in movies today (unless it was being spoofed by the Wayans brothers). It's also of note that several flashback scenes are shot in color- including a brief but effective montage of the movies most powerful incidents during the scene in which Barrett undergoes electroshock therapy.
The combo of b&w photography with a shady atmosphere help to give SHOCK CORRIDOR a chillingly brilliant claustrophobic feel, which is so effective that while watching it you feel that you are incarcerated along with Barrett and suffering with him. Keep your eyes peeled for James Best, later to be better known as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD.
There are also a couple of amusing parts amongst all the despair, most notably the scenes featuring the screaming mad cowboy and a bit where one of the inmates proclaims with pride: "I am impotent and I like it!" Yup, the man is certifiable in my opinion.
SHOCK CORRIDOR is a movie well worth tracking down. Fuller manages to seamlessly blend thriller, psychological drama, social commentary horror, black humor and exploitation into a richly textured and unique viewing experience which retains the power to disturb and challenge viewers today.
Rating:
Summary: an interesting film with some unususal scenes
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection edition of the film.This film first of all has a cery original plot. A journalist has himself commited to a mental hospital to solve an unsolved murder case which occurred there. The film has interesting scenes of mental hospitals and appears to be well with the time period in which the film was made. There are two scenes that some may find humorous. In one the main character takes a wrong turn and ends up in the nymphomaniac ward. The depiction of the result seem pretty tame by today's standards though. In the other scene an black patient suffers from the delusion that he is a member of the Ku Klux Klan. I for one foud the scene somewhat interesting given that this film was made in the early 60's at a time when race relations were beginning to change. I also wonder how they found a black actor willing to do such a scene. The DVD has only a theactrical trailer for a special feature which is somewhat disappointing for a Criterion Collection release. Overall this film is good but not very good.
Rating:
Summary: Something Really Different
Review: To describe SHOCK CORRIDOR as lurid would be an understatment: it plays like something torn from a supermarket tabloid. An ambitious reporter feigns madness and has himself committed to an insane asylum in order to investigate a recent and unsolved murder--and once inside he encounters everything from hateful attendants to a whole ward of crazed nymphos, and all the characters are presented in the most explotational tone possible. But SHOCK CORRIDOR has a lot more going for it than just lurid explotation. Director-writer Sam Fuller was reknowned for his gutsy, no-frills, straight-to-the-point style, and in his hands SHOCK CORRIDOR becomes a vision of America as a society that places so much emphasis on conformity and success that people crack and go mad under the strain. And Fuller's cast is remarkable: even when the story goes ridiculously over the top, they perform with such sincerity, conviction, and realism that you can buy into the story in spite of its improbabilities. SHOCK CORRIDOR will not be to every one's taste, but even those who dislike it will probably find themselves grudingly fascinated by the film, and although the film transcends such labels fans of explotational and cult cinema will also find lots to enjoy. A classic of its kind. Recommended... but don't say I didn't warn you.
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