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 Shock Corridor
(1963)
Director:
Samuel Fuller
Stars: Peter Breck, Constance Towers
Release Company:
The Criterion Collection
MPAA Rating: NR
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"Whom God wishes to destroy, he first turns mad."
Euripides (425 BC)
Strongly independent film auteur Samuel Fuller bookends Shock Corridor with this ancient quote, so the ultimate plot results are no major surprise—the journey is worth viewing even without the extras that a Criterion DVD usually provides. A 1963 B-movie filmed in mostly black and white—with a few bizarre color sequences shot in different film stock to represent dream sequences—Fuller's film can be an English professor's delight, and more accessible than Kubrick's work can be for discussion starters. A simple story, it can be broken down and discussed at various levels—literal, psychological, sociological, symbolic.
To discuss each of these in detail would do a disservice to the film, as much of the fun will evolve out of discussions after viewing or re-viewing. Shock Corridor may contain some cheesy lines and some gross overacting (mostly by lead actor Peter Breck as Johnny Barrett), but the story remains compelling and intense with unusual surprises along the way, much like The Manchurian Candidate.
Newspaper reporter Barrett is so obsessed with winning the Pulitzer Prize that he plans to get himself committed to the state hospital as a sexual pervert. Once there he plans to solve a murder by gaining the trust of three inmates who witnessed the murder, and finding out the truth that eluded the police. To achieve his mission he enlists the help of his girlfriend Cathy (Constance Towers), a stripper, and a couple of psychologist to prepare him for the inevitable questions. Cathy is to pretend to be his sister and an incest victim.
Cathy isn't keen on the idea—she fears the inevitable results of Johnny immersing himself into the asylum. She throws out every literary reference she can muster to convince him to give up his loony idea:
"Mark Twain didn't psychoanalyze Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer; Dickens didn't put Oliver Twist on the couch because he was hungry. Good copy comes out of people, Johnny. Not out of a lot of explanatory medical terms."
Despite her final literary plea of "Hamlet was mad for Freud—not you," she eventually acquiesces because she needs the money and feels that she'll lose Johnny otherwise. What else is she to do? After all, she hangs around a circle of whores.
Johnny convinces the psychiatrist that he has deep underlying sexual conflicts about his "sister," especially after his "acute schizophrenic" episode that occurs when discussing Cathy (imagine Jack Nicolson's "crazy" act in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as far more controlled). Johnny is thrilled that he has fooled the doctor into believing his borderline psychosis, for now he will have access to the three witnesses. The eventual outcome is hardly in doubt, but that's not as important as the details we pick up along the way.
The central hallway becomes the main locale of the film—the place for the inmates to socialize and the scene of the most dazzling special effects of the low budget film near the end with a complete electrical thunderstorm along the corridor. If you're looking for symbolism, see what you can make out of this central meeting place—its lifeless and bland nature where the inmates congregate anonymously and conform to asylum protocol.
It's not until Johnny can get a more private place and some private time with each witness before he can piece the puzzle together. Each witness has a distinct and unusual nature that is worth looking further into—in fact, had Johnny chosen to explore any of these characters more in depth, he could have written a Pulitzer Prize winning article on any of them (and Fuller could have developed a whole movie about each of them). Instead, he chooses to pump them to get the answer to the murder story. But examine each of these fascinating witnesses by themselves:
1. Stuart (James Best) a Southerner, raised on hatred by his racist parents and easily brainwashed by anyone, and was so used during the Korean War against other captured Americans. Disgraced, he has retreated to the Civil War, psychologically condemned to pose as Confederate General Jeb Stuart to study Civil War maps and plan campaigns to kill the Yankees.
2. Dr. Boden (Gene Evans) an even more blatant representative of American lunacy is this genius, who was formerly involved in developing the atomic bomb. He has now reverted to the life of a six-year old, who is content to play hide and seek and color with crayons.
3. Trent (Hari Rhodes) is the character that caused my mouth drop wide open. What the hell? A black man who now thinks that he is a white supremacist and steals pillow cases to transform into hoods to complete his fantasy of being a Grand Wizard of the KKK. It turns out that Trent was the first black student to ever be admitted to an all-white southern university, but the pressure turned him into his enemy. He spends a great deal of time trying to lynch the only other black patient on the floor.
While these patients can most easily be discussed in sociological or political terms, Fuller's work contains sufficient material for psychological discussions as well. One interesting concept comes to mind with an inmate, who declares, "I am impotent, and I like it!" Take a look at Johnny's dilemma as well on this matter. He sets up the psychological situation of having his girlfriend pretend to be his sister, and later in the hospital begins to treat her like she really IS his sister. Note his reaction when she attempts a full mouth kiss. Just how thin is the line between sanity and insanity?
Besides the fascinating themes explored in Shock Corridor, the stark black and white cinematography is well worth examining. In fact, much of the credit for maintaining our interest in the story has to go to cinematographer Stanley Cortez (The Magnificent Ambersons), who may well have picked up a few pointers from working with Orson Welles. He certainly varies his camera shots, giving us some unique angles and daring to allow close-ups to show the reactions of the characters.
Nowhere nearly as polished as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which also explores some of the same ideas as far as portraying "crazy" people as metaphors for society, Fuller's low-budgeted masterpiece screams for more recognition. Although I generally prefer DVD editions that allow directors to discuss some of the thoughts they had during the shoot, I'm almost glad that Fuller doesn't reveal his thinking here. That means that we can view Shock Corridor a number of times and gain new insights to discuss with other film addicts. And that's to the film's credit.
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