Shock Corridor Details

The characters talk in slogans, the idea verges on the outrageous, but Sam Fuller's direction barrels us through discrepancies in this film's plot with a gut-punching style that flattens objections. The stylish photography is by Stanley Cortez, whose approach worked more elegantly on The Magnificent Ambersons. Journalist Peter Breck has himself committed to a mental hospital to find a killer and discovers more than he bargained for. Pitting himself against many ideas of good taste, Fuller's film still has the stifling grip of a straitjacket.

Sensational melodrama, a cinematic equivalent of the yellow press, and on that level quite lively.