Shock (1946) Vincent Price, Lynn Bari, Frank Latimore

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Shock (1946)

Shock is a 1946 American film noir directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Vincent Price, Lynn Bari and Frank Latimore. The film was originally to be directed by Henry Hathaway.

Above and beyond the typical characteristics of the horror film genre, reviewer Bosley Crowther of The New York Times took particular offense to the film's treatment of psychiatry. Coming in the wake of World War II, in which so many people had suffered shock and could benefit from treatment of their anxieties, Crowther asked the "critical observer to protest in no uncertain tones" the movie's "social disservice" in its fostering "apprehension against the treatment of nervous disorders", deploring the lack of consideration for those in need of treatment evidenced by producer Aubrey Schenck and distributor Twentieth Century-Fox. Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times took no such offense, calling the film a "nominal 'B' feature", which screenplay author "Eugene Ling and Director Alfred Werker have imbued... with a grade-A suspense". Jonathan Malcolm Lampley wrote in Women in the Horror Films of Vincent Price that his role in this film "foreshadows the mad doctors and scientists Price would frequently portray in his later career".

Cast

Vincent Price as Dr. Richard Cross
Lynn Bari as Elaine Jordan
Frank Latimore as Lt. Paul Stewart
Anabel Shaw as Janet Stewart
Stephen Dunne as Dr. Stevens
Reed Hadley as O'Neill
Renee Carson as Mrs. Hatfield
Ruth Clifford As Mrs. Margaret Cross
Charles Trowbridge as Dr. Franklin Harvey