SHOCK CORRIDOR must be applauded for having a wholly original plot. While you could draw some parallels to movies like THE SNAKE PIT and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST, these films still don't have a plot like this exposée on the mental health system.

Johnny Barrett is a reporter who has a hair-brained idea. There was a recent murder in a mental hospital but the police have been unable to solve it. So, he wants to get himself committed to the hospital and investigate it from the inside--talking with patients who might have witnessed the crime. Instead of just faking it, however, he hires a psychologist to coach him on an illness and how to fake it. Times sure have changed, as the "illness" he feigned was incest--with a very strong Freudian attitude. Yes, apparently back in the 1960s, you could get institutionalized for this--particularly if you seemed to be "fixated" or have a fetish.

So far, so good--the plan worked. However, perhaps the plan is working too well, as Johnny fits in just fine in the ward. Plus, over time, he becomes more and more like the other patients until his own sanity becomes a serious question. Some shock treatment, hydrotherapy, pills and a whole lotta time in straight-jackets later, and Johnny has trouble even remembering why he was there in the first place. Will Johnny be able to regain his senses and finish his investigation (thus, hopefully, earning the Pulitzer Prize) or will he live in his own filth and get a special group rate for all his charming new personalities? Tune in for yourself to see.

What I loved about this film, other than its originality, is the director (Sam Fuller) absolutely refusing to play this with any subtlety. Over time, Johnny and the rest make all the inmates of other mental hospital flicks seem like pansies!! Loud, crazed and shocking--this film dares to go where no film has gone before or since. For example, see a Black patient make his own KKK hood and lead an anti-Black race riot! See a morbidly obese man sing opera as he appears ready to sodomize Johnny! This film is simply amazing--combining the craziest of the crazies with a realistic portrayal of the "therapeutic" atmosphere of state mental hospitals. Tough to watch at times, but always exciting and entertaining.

The ambitious journalist of the Daily Globe Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) aims to win the Pulitzer Prize solving the murder of the inmate Slone, stabbed in the kitchen of a mental hospital with a butcher knife and witnessed by three insane interns. With the support of his boss and manager of the newspaper Swanson (Bill Zuckert) and the orientation of the psychiatrist Dr. Fong (Philip Ahn),Johnny simulates an incestuous situation with his stripper girlfriend Cathy (Constance Towers),who is totally against the idea, and is sent to the institution. While being submitted to a mental treatment along the weeks, he approaches to the three witnesses, waiting for a moment of sanity to interview them. The former soldier Stuart (James Best) tells him that the killer wore white pants; the former university black student Trent (Hari Rhodes) tells him that it was an attendant; and the former physicist Dr. Boden (Gene Evans) tells him the name of the killer. However, Johnny finds the price he pays for his award.

"Shock Corridor" is a naive story with many flaws. I could list some of them: How could a prominent psychiatrist accept to participate in such a fraud without anticipating the consequences of a long mental treatment to Johnny? How could the policeman accept the complaint of Cathy without the basic investigation that they were not siblings? The confession of the killer under aggression would never be accepted in a court. However, the story is not bad and Stanley Kubrick used elements of this film in his masterpiece "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest". The mental hospital metaphorically shows samples of the American society in the end of the 50's and beginning of the 60's, with the consequences of the cold war and racism. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Paixões Que Alucinam" ("Passions That Hallucinate")

What some people won't give up to get the big story. When that story involves murder, it can lead to madness. This film gives the tagline, "Whom God intends to destroy, he first drives mad". I am not sure I agree with that analogy, but some being is definitely out to drive reporter Peter Breck mad as well as the sad creatures he ends up surrounded by when he enters a mental institution to discover the truth about this unsolved crime. This is the type of film that at times appears to be one giant metaphor, and in the case of this low-budget psychological thriller that took film noir into a new direction, that metaphor leaves you with a lot of head scratching. In spite of all that, you can't take your eyes off of the screen.

For example, just what is the relationship between Breck and the beautiful exotic dancer (Constance Towers) who may or may not be his sister? He claims to psychiatrist Phillip Ahn that they are indeed siblings, but their relationship is definitely not brother and sisterly. Enough clues are revealed to tell the truth, but the fact that this key plot point was utilized in the first place puts a rather creepy feeling into the story.

This was a change of pace for the gorgeous Ms. Towers who had played only corseted heroines and was moving into the Broadway musical stage at this point. To see the very sophisticated Mrs. John Gavin in almost next to nothing is shocking in itself, especially if you first remember her, as I did, as the sweet Clarissa McCandless on the daytime soap "Capitol". Of course, I went into complete shock years after that when she began her long-running role as the throat-slicing Helena Cassadine on "General Hospital", so this shows how, as a young actress, she wanted to explore a variety of parts, no matter how racy or crazy the characters were. See her other Samuel Fuller directed film noir, the steamy "The Naked Kiss" for another side of this gorgeous lady.

While the plot takes a while to unfold, it is filled with details of the various types of characters one might encounter in an old fashioned mental institution. Most shocking is the grossly overweight killer who can't get enough to eat, and somewhat controversial is the black patient who has somehow come to believe that he is white and a supremacist to boot. When the black patient starts a chase of another black inmate, obviously planning a lynching, you might find yourself open-mouthed in shock because it truly is unbelievable.

This isn't a film that I think I could watch over and over again. It is definitely extremely spooky to watch, and in this day and age where mental institutions pretty much no longer exist (except for the criminally insane),it makes you look at how times haven't helped people with mental issues, only left them lacking in the type of care they need. Of course, we'll never be back to the type of institutions which film audiences got to explore through "Bedlam", "The Snake Pit" and "The Caretakers" (although this one makes those films look tame in comparison),but these films remind us of how our society has gone from one extreme to another where nothing is done, even if the evil of past treatments no longer exist as well.