Shock (1946)
A woman waiting in a hotel room for her long-missing husband witnesses a man murder his wife in the room across the courtyard, a shock so severe it leaves her catatonic. She is placed under the care of a psychiatrist who turns out to be the killer himself, desperate to keep her from ever regaining her memory.
Shock gave Vincent Price one of his first roles as an outright villain rather than a leading man, casting him as a psychiatrist willing to commit murder to protect his secret — a rehearsal for the murderous authority figures that would define much of Price’s later horror career.
Background
Shock was directed by Alfred L. Werker and stars Vincent Price, with Lynn Bari, Frank Latimore and Anabel Shaw in supporting roles. Released by 20th Century Fox in 1946, it is a psychological thriller built around a woman who witnesses a murder across a hotel courtyard and is left catatonic by the shock. Price plays the psychiatrist assigned to her care, who turns out to be the killer. The film is one of Price’s early leading roles in a thriller, and it belongs to a wave of mid-1940s Hollywood films that used psychiatry as a plot device.
What to watch for
Pay attention to Price’s performance, which moves from a calm, professional manner to something more menacing as the film’s secret comes out. The hotel courtyard lets the film stage the murder across the way and keep the witness at a distance from the crime. Werker’s direction relies on framing and on the limited view the witness has, so the audience shares her uncertainty. The central idea is that the woman’s trauma is the only evidence against the killer, which makes her treatment a source of suspense. Notice how the psychiatric setting gives the doctor authority over the story and over her.
