Shock Reviews

In his first starring role, Vincent Price plays Dr. Cross, a prominent psychiatrist who, along with his nurse/mistress (Bari), murders his wife. The slaying is witnessed by Janet Stewart (Shaw), a woman who is already in a nervous state because her husband Paul (Latimore) is returning home after being held in a Japanese POW camp. When Paul finally arrives home, Janet attempts to tell him what she has seen, but Dr. Cross is able to convince Paul that what his wife really needs is some good psychiatric care at the local sanitarium. An occasionally creepy thriller, SHOCK was directed in a workmanlike fashion by veteran Alfred Werker, whose best film, HE WALKED BY NIGHT, was most likely directed by the uncredited Anthony Mann. When SHOCK was first released, psychiatry was still somewhat feared and misunderstood by the general public, and some critics found the film irresponsible for its portrayal of the profession and condemned the producers for exploiting public misgivings about psychiatry.