Shock Corridor (1963)

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writer:

Samuel Fuller (written by)

Release Date:

11 September 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

The Medical Jungle Doctors Don't Talk About!

Plot:

Bent on winning a Pulitzer Prize, a journalist commits himself to a mental institution to solve a strange and unclear murder.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Psychiatrist | Police | Fetishist | African American

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins

Cast

Peter Breck	...	Johnny Barrett
Constance Towers	...	Cathy
Gene Evans	...	Boden
James Best	...	Stuart
Hari Rhodes	...	Trent
Larry Tucker	...	Pagliacci
Paul Dubov	...	Dr. J.L. Menkin
Chuck Roberson	...	Wilkes
Neyle Morrow	...	Psycho
John Matthews	...	Dr. L.G. Cristo
Bill Zuckert	...	'Swanee' Swanson
John Craig	...	Lloyd
Philip Ahn	...	Dr. Fong
Frank Gerstle	...	Lt. Kane
Rachel Romen	...	Singing nympho
Barbara Perry
Marlene Manners
Linda Randolph	...	Dance teacher in therapy class
Lucille Curtis
Jeanette Dana
Marie Devereux	...	Nympho
Karen Conrad
Allison Daniell
Chuck Hicks	...	Tough attendant
Wally Campo
Ray Baxter
Linda Barrett
Harry Fleer

Directed by
Samuel Fuller

Writing credits
Samuel Fuller		(written by)

Produced by
Samuel Fuller	....	producer
Sam Firks	....	executive producer (uncredited)
Leon Fromkess	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Paul Dunlap

Cinematography by
Stanley Cortez
Samuel Fuller		(dream sequence) (uncredited)

Film Editing by
Jerome Thoms

Art Direction by
Eugène Lourié		(as Eugene Lourie)

Set Decoration by
Charles S. Thompson		(as Charles Thompson)

Costume Design by
Einar Bourman		(as Einar H. Bourman)

Makeup Department
Dan Greenway	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
Rudolph C. Flothow	....	production manager (as Rudolph Flothow)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Floyd Joyer	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Philip Mitchell	....	recording supervisor (as Phil Mitchell)
Josef von Stroheim	....	sound effects editor
Gordon Zahler	....	sound effects supervisor

Special Effects by
Charles Duncan	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Linwood G. Dunn	....	special optical effects (as Lynn Dunn)

Music Department
Jack Lowry	....	music editor
Gordon Zahler	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Mary Chaffee	....	script supervisor (as Mary Chaffe)
Jon Gregory	....	choreographer
Herbert G. Luft	....	assistant: Leon Fromkess

Production Companies

• Leon Fromkess-Sam Firks Productions (as F & F Productions)

Distributors

• Allied Artists Pictures (1963) (USA) (theatrical)
• Parafrance Films (1963) (France) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (1998) (USA) (DVD) (widescreen)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Amanda Films
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2011) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Divisa Home Video (2006) (Spain) (DVD)
• Home Vision Cinema (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Metrodome Distribution (2006) (UK) (DVD)
• Punto Zero (2007) (Italy) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Ray Mercer & Company  titles (as Ray Mercer)
• Ryder Sound Services  sound recording

Also Known As:

"Chockkorridoren" - Finland (Swedish title) (imdb display title)
"Chok korridor" - Denmark
"Corredor sin retorno" - Spain
"Il corridoio della paura" - Italy
"Paixões Que Alucinam" - Brazil
"Schock-Korridor" - West Germany (TV title)
"Shock Corridor" - France
"Shokkikäytävä" - Finland

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:12 | Sweden:(Banned) (1964) | Portugal:(Banned) | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Norway:16 (1964) | UK:(Banned) (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) (1990) | USA:Approved (certificate #20495)

Company:

Leon Fromkess-Sam Firks Productions

Trivia:

According to Samuel Fuller, the film was shot in 10 days, on one set, with no exteriors.

Goofs:

Continuity: When talking to the police near the beginning of the movie, when shot from the back, Cathy's coat collar is up, but when we see her from the front, her collar is down.

Quotes:

Johnny Barrett:My yen for you goes up and down like a fever chart. I love you, Cathy.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 10 (2007) (V)

Bigotry for breakfast, ignorance for dinner

This is one experience I'm not likely ever to forget, it is truly unsettling. One of the most ferocious, savage and disturbing films I have ever seen, and brilliant cinematic art on top of it.

Ambitious reporter has himself admitted to a mental hospital in order to solve a murder there. He poses as an incestuous brother to his 'sister' and real-life stripper girlfriend, and once inside gets to talk to all three witnesses to the murder. Gradually, though, his own mind starts to disintegrate ...

Was there ever an asylum like Samuel Fuller's? Hope not. One of the inmates is singing the Factotum Aria from 'Barber of Seville' around the clock, another savours the words "I am impotent and I like it", but they are the sanest ones. Of the three witnesses one imagines himself to be a general at Gettysburg but suddenly shifts and claims to be a Communist in reaction to "my folks (that) fed my bigotry for breakfast and ignorance for dinner" in a long pathetic virtuoso solo by actor James Best. One, a young black man, dresses as a Ku Klux Klan member, advocating white supremacy, expressing his loathing for blacks ("Oh, they're alright as entertainers, but ..."), and the third, a Nobel prize winner, has retreated into infantilism.

'Shock Corridor', which obviously turned out to be a cult favourite, directed by maverick independent filmmaker and former journalist Samuel Fuller, makes no excuses for itself, and its style is swaggeringly confident, blending pulp and downright tawdriness with high melodrama and noir, in unforgettable, dramatically lit images. Sometimes it's plain silly in its excessive irony, at other times searing in its empathy, and probably the most funny moments are those when the reporter (a wonderful Peter Breck) once more asks his increasingly absurd and irrelevant question, "Who killed Sloane in the kitchen?", and when he finally learns who, he forgets about it immediately! I cannot recommend this film enough, it is one of the great works of art of American cinema. No less.