Anyone have less money in their account today than they had before
Anyone have less money in their account today than they had before
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San Francisco in 1946 and a young woman is entering a hotel she has booked a room by wire as she is to meet her husband there tonight. He has been a prisoner of war for two years and this will be the first time she's seen him in all that time having thought he was dead. Waiting in her hotel room she has a nightmare only to wake up to shouting coming from the room next door. She goes to the balcony from which she can see in through the other rooms window and witnesses a murder. Her husband arrives to find her in a state of shock. Unable to move or speak, she appears to be completely distant. They call the doctor but the doctor turns out to be the murderer played by Vincent Price. He keys onto why she is in shock and doesn't know what to do. He doesn't want anybody to find out the truth, his mistress wants rid of the girl and the girl's husband keeps on insisting on another doctor's opinion.
Made in 1946 this film was directed by Alfred Werker who made a fair amount of films including The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes and Laurel and Hardy's A Haunting We Will Go. It was an alright film with a fairly engaging story, which was driven very much by Vincent Price's acting more than anything else. After committing a murder he didn't want to commit he is torn between different options. In one ear his conscience is wanting him to hand himself in whilst in the other Lynn Bari wants to keep their affair secret and will do anything to maintain it. He really is fantastic in this film as is Lynn Bari, however, the rest of the cast aren't so good. The shocked girl's husband Lt. Stewart wears the same uniform throughout the film, which is maybe what they do when they're in the army and he has this really annoying way of speaking. He speaks in these short bursts that sound as if he is about to burst out crying. Looking at his IMDb profile he seems to have played a lot of soldier roles as well as playing Zorro in a few films, I just found him really annoying. The shocked girl Janet Stewart wasn't a very good actress either, her performance was generally over the top and her stupid face whilst stunned was laughable. In a dream sequence that was generally well directed and did have a believable dreamy aspect to it she is meant to be running very fast and getting no where but it is quite clear that she is just running on the spot very badly. How can some one mess up running on the spot.
The film was well directed despite some of the weak cast. You were interested in where the story was going to go and a lot of the film was visually very good. Especially the bit were the psycho breaks loose, this all looked very sinister and was pretty much all the horror that was in this film. This film is a film-noir thriller it should be noted and not a horror film as Ciao as it down as. The "special effects" weren't great, but take into account it is a 1946 film. Such things generally don't bother me but noticeable things were the fact the rain really didn't look like real rain as it was coming in almost horizontally and very much as if from a hose. The murder scene was dealt with very cheaply but the effect in the dream sequence as said were laudable. However, if they cut the odd corner here and there the sets and locations looked amazing. Price lives in a massive big mansion of a house, the sanatorium is quite big and old and the hotel room was very grand. One thing that did bother me was the really over dramatic music that was really loud now and again. This was too much I thought.
Overall a good film with a few flaws. Vincent Price is amazing and is the salvation of this film and I could imagine it being really terrible without him it. For those who don't know Vincent Price starred in a lot of horror films in the 50s and 60s in such films as House of Wax , House on Haunted Hill etc. and his last role was as the inventor who created Edward Scissorhands in Edward Scissorhands . I actually have an uncle who is also called Vincent Price and he always tells the story of how during The Troubles in Northern Ireland him and a man he worked with called Richard Burton were driving through an army checkpoint outside Newry and were asked for their names and weren't believed by the soldiers. Anyway the story was interesting and was quite a sinister idea and made you think what it would be like for everyone to treat you as if you were mad when you were telling the truth. I'd recommend it a bit, obviously not for everyone.
Certification
PG.
Pictures of Shock (DVD)
Title ..........
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Great review. Saw this a while back and found it a bit so-so, but I always love seeing Vincent Price As you say, he can carry an otherwise poor film. Loved the story about your uncle - years ago an ex-boyfriend had an opposite experience once, when he and a friend were stopped by a policeman when they were walking home late one night and apparently must have looked suspicious for some reason. They were asked their names and fictitiously gave their names as Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, and the policemen didn't bat an eyelid as he took their 'names' down, cautioned them and sent them on their way!
![Shock [1946] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78496290.jpg "Shock [1946] [DVD]")
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