Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor was the 19 th release on Criterion's DVD collection, and is certainly worthy of its inclusion. It is a film which is surprisingly powerful from a political standpoint, as well as being an enjoyable pulp picture, which delights in its own excesses.

A reporter has himself committed to a mental hospital in order to investigate an unsolved murder. The calibre of the story will assuredly win him a Pulitzer Prize. However, during his time at the hospital he is surrounded by the mentally unsound, and subjected to the various psychological treatments provided by the hospital. Soon, his own sanity becomes questionable.

It's an interesting concept, which was certainly original at it's time of release. However, we've been subjected to numerous films in recent years which question the sanity of the films protagonist. Yet Shock Corridor is much more successful in it's depiction of a man being driven mad by his surroundings. He is in constant interaction with the insane. His quest for the truth about the murder relies on his ability to convince others that he is also insane. This, in combination with shock therapy and time spent in isolation certainly begins to take its toll on his mental well-being. It is a slow process, yet one that is entirely believable from the standpoint of the viewer.

Throughout all this, Samuel Fuller manages to insert some less than subtle political context into the proceedings. The three men, who witnessed the crime, are all victims of America's ideals, or lack thereof. One was driven mad by his country's reaction to his involvement with Communism, another, by the intolerance toward minorities, and White Supremacy in general. The last witness lost his sanity after his involvement in the development of the Atom Bomb, and the H-Bomb. All were mentally affected by the American system of their time.

There is a sequence in the film that, I believe, accurately depicts the tone of the entire film. It shows us both Fuller's underlying commentary, as well as the excesses on display for our entertainment. A young black inmate after wearing a sign that reads “Integration and democracy don't mix. Go Home, Nigger”, and speaking of the inferiority of the black community, unbuttons his shirt and pulls out a pillow case with two eye holes cut out of it, and a cyclos scrawled into it with black crayon. He dons the mask, and screams of White Supremacy to the inmates and proceeds to instigate a race riot against a lone black inmate. It is a sequence which perfectly displays the context of the entire film.

Shock Corridor is a film which is both enjoyable and undeniably significant in the realm of classic film. It is a film with something to say, and although the message it conveys seems heavy-handed at times, it never diminishes the importance of the film nor it's effect on the viewer.