Fox continues their fine Film Noir series with the release of the Vincent Price starrer Shock. Long before he was the Merchant of Menace he was the sinister psychiatrist in this film.
Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her husband Lt. Paul Stewart (Frank Latimore). He was thought to be dead, but was really a prisoner of war and is now coming home to be with Janet. Janet has checked into a swanky hotel and is nervously waiting for him to arrive.
She falls asleep on the couch and has a surreal dream of Paul calling to her. She awakens and steps to the window only to see a couple arguing. The argument ends abruptly when the man bashes the woman in the head with a silver candlestick. Paul finally arrives only to find Janet catatonic and staring on the couch, obviously suffering from a case of…..(wait for it)….Shock!
The hotel doctor, Dr. Harvey (Charles Trowbridge), is called in and sees that Janet is in shock and thinks that he should call in an expert psychiatrist who happens to also be in the hotel. Dr. Richard Cross (Vincent Price) is called in to examine the patient and we (the audience) immediately recognize him as the wielder of the fatal candlestick. Dr. Cross, in telling Dr. Harvey and Paul about Janet’s condition, recognizes that the place that she was found affords a most advantageous view of the room where he murdered his wife and that Janet was obviously driven into shock by witnessing the crime.
Dr. Cross' nurse is a femme fatale
The ever resourceful Dr. Cross volunteers to have Janet transferred to his sanitarium so that he can treat her. Dr. Cross has been up to some hanky panky with his nurse Elaine (Lynn Bari) and was leaving his wife for her, but with the help of the candlestick his wife was the first to leave. His plan is to get Janet at the sanitarium and to drive her insane so that she can never testify against him.
Shock is a fine little thriller and I do mean little. It was began at Fox as a small B picture, shot in a short time, but when Darryl Zanuck saw the finished product he thought the film had A picture potential and promoted it as such. It ended up making the Fox studios a nice bit of change for the time and promoted producer Aubrey Schenck into a successful independent production career.
The film is a compact 70 minute noir wonder. Price was in somewhat of a career high having come off of 1944’s Laura and Shock would mark the first time that he got top billing. He would continue his run by starring in Dragonwyck (where’s that one Fox? Put it on DVD or get thee to the sanitarium, Dr. Cross has some medicine awaiting you) directly after this film. Label Shock the little movie that could.
Shock is presented in fullscreen. The transfer looks fabulous. Those used to seeing it in cheapjack public domain releases will be most impressed and if you're a fan of the film this new transfer is reason alone to pick it up.
Special feature include a commentary by San Francisco horror host and author John Stanley. If you’re reading Mr. Stanley, I have a copy of one of your Creature Features guides that I read so much it fell apart. Mr. Stanley had the pleasure of interviewing Vincent Price on two occasions and this is why he’s given commentary duties on Shock.
The first interview in 1979 sounded like it went rather badly since Price was in denial of his horror heritage and didn’t want to talk about it. The second interview in 1985 found Price in a more talkative horrific mood and he had come to terms with his horror films. I’ll have to say that I loved the commentary, but Mr. Stanley calls in his horror host persona and tends to get jokey at times How many times does he use shock filled wordplay at the beginning of the film? You may go into it if you try and count them, Fox is not legally responsible if you’re found comatose and staring on the sofa.
This didn’t bother me and is a refreshing change of pace from the occasional film academic, but be ready for it. He does include gobs of interesting information about he film and players, just in his own style. The other special feature is a selection of Fox Noir trailers (but not one for Shock). There’s also a collectible booklet in the DVD case (Remember those?) that has some film facts.
Paul finds Janet in shock
I’ve always thought that Shock is a wonderful little film with solid work from Vincent Price. He’s not in full horror icon mode just yet (wait for 1953’s House of Wax), but he builds his dramatic resume. I thought the commentary was very entertaining and well worth the low purchase price (Price, get it? Wacka, wacka, wacka) that the DVD can be found for online. Fans of Uncle Vinnie definitely will want it in their collections.
Shock is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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