The ambitious journalist of the Daily Globe Johnny Barrett 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 and the orientation of the psychiatrist Dr. Fong, Johnny simulates an incestuous situation with his stripper girlfriend Cathy, 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 tells him that the killer wore white pants; the former university black student Trent tells him that it was an attendant; and the former physicist Dr. Boden tells him the name of the killer. However, Johnny finds the price he pays for his award.

Shock Corridor (1963)
  • Rating: (3,916 votes)
  • Tagline:The Medical Jungle Doctors Don't Talk About! »
  • Runtime:101 minutes
  • Director: Samuel Fuller
  • Country:USA
  • Actors:
    Johnny Barrett
    Peter Breck
    Cathy
    Constance Towers
    Boden
    Gene Evans
    Stuart
    James Best
    Trent
    Hari Rhodes
    Pagliacci
    Larry Tucker
    Dr. J.L. Menkin
    Paul Dubov
    Wilkes
    Chuck Roberson
    Psycho
    Neyle Morrow
    Dr. L.G. Cristo
    John Matthews
  • Genres:Drama, Mystery
  • Producers:
    Samuel Fuller
    producer  
    Sam Firks
    executive producer (uncredited)  
    Leon Fromkess
    executive producer (uncredited)  
  • Plots: Johnny Barrett, an ambitious journalist, is determined to win a Pulitzer Prize by solving a murder committed in a lunatic asylum and witnessed only by three inmates, from whom the police have been unable to extract the information. With the connivance of a psychiatrist, and the reluctant help of his girlfriend, he succeeds in having himself declared insane and sent to the asylum. There he slowly tracks down and interviews the witnesses - but things are stranger than they seem ... Written by David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk>
Shock Corridor
  • User's comment:Schlock Corridor by mutty_mcflea

    Reporter Pete Breck fakes insanity in order to solve a murder committed in a mental hospital and unsurprisingly goes round the twist for real in this heavy-handed lump from Samuel Fuller. The annoying and malnourished plot has Breck slowly solving the crime by waiting until the three mad witnesses have a moment of clarity and then shouting "WHO KILLED SLOANE?!" at them. Brilliant bit of detective work. The rest of the dialogue is pretentious psychobabble which renders the movie nigh on soporific, but there are a few powerful moments – the operatic inmate, the scary riot kicked off by a black patient who believes he's in the KKK – between the chin-stroking opening quotes and the foregone conclusion.


  • Quotes: Johnny Barrett: Who killed Sloan in the kitchen? Johnny Barrett: Nymphos! Trent: There's one of 'em now! Let's get 'im before he marries my daughter!
  • Also known as: Chockkorridoren (Finland - imdb display title, Swedish title), Chok korridor (Denmark), Corredor sin retorno (Spain), Il corridoio della paura (Italy), O Corredor do Silêncio (Portugal - pre-release title), Paixões Que Alucinam (Brazil), Schock-Korridor (West Germany - TV title), Shock Corridor (France), Shokkikäytävä (Finland),

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