Shock Corridor (1963)

Director : Samuel Fuller 
Country : United States 

Shot by the great cinematographer Stanley Cortez (The Night of The Hunter, The Magnificent Ambersons) and directed by the legendary Samuel Fuller, Shock Corridor is about a journalist obssesed with winning the Pullitzer, who decides to get himself into a mental institution to investigate a murder committed inside. 

The film begins with a prologue and with Johnny Benett's (the main character) narrating the story in voice off, which adds a noir-style to the film, the editing and set up of the film is unique since the first scene, especially in the color footage combined during the dreams and hallucinations sequences, which add a sense of madness. 

It's curious how the patients hallucinate with sensitive chapters in the American history such as the K.K.K, The Civil War, and the Cold War, maybe Fuller was trying to tell us his perspective about those events, were they crazy and nonsense?, also Pagliacci is a very interesting and disturbed character because Pagliacci is an opera about a murder. 

This movie is never predictable and could have been easily a Twilight Zone special episode, which Rod Serling would have been very proud of without a doubt, due to its twisted and suspensful dramatic plot, excellent camera work, storyline, acting and substance, plus its dark humor and shocking ending. So the question is: Johnny Benett was already insane before entering the hospital? or he turned into one of those freaks hallucinating with the Civil War?. Special mention to Constance Towers (Cathy in the film) who looks gorgeous. A disturbed film and a must-see in the Fuller's filmography.