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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Saturday, May 25, 2019

Shock (1946)

Starring Vincent Price, Lynn Bari, Frank Latimore, Anabel Shaw, Michael Dunne
Directed by Alfred Werker
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A young wife waiting for the return of her husband in a hotel room, witnesses a murder and falls into shock, but is sent for treatment to the sanitarium run by the murderer she witnessed.

A young Vincent Price is showcased in this suspense thriller, playing the murderer but giving a sympathetic performance as a man pushed too far by his less scrupulous lover (Bari, in an unusual role).  The film has some interesting camerawork, particularly a dream sequence where Shaw struggles to open an oversized-door with a tremendous knob to reunite with her husband, and a very creepy sequence in the middle of a thunderstorm where Shaw's room at the sanitarium is invaded by another patient, (chillingly portrayed by a mute but scary John Davidson).  The script, while setting up a nefarious scheme by Price & Bari to keep Shaw silent, throws various wrenches in their path as you might expect, leading to a somewhat predictable ending, but Price is ever watchable, adding another memorable characterization to his filmography.

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