Shock

(1946) ***


While eagerly awaiting the return of her POW husband in a San Francisco hotel, Janet steps out onto her hotel balcony to suck in the view. This idyllic moment is shattered when an escalating argument between a man (an impossibly young Vincent Price) and his wife in an adjacent building diverts Janet’s attention. The argument concerns the man’s desire to obtain a divorce so he can be with another woman, a tarty nurse. In a pre-Rear Window moment, Janet sees the man strike his wife dead with a candlestick (she kind of deserved it if I do say so myself, and I do). In a phenomenon that only occurs in old Hollywood movies, Janet goes into shock and stops speaking. After the hotel doctor looks her over and diagnoses her with “shock”, he phones world-renown psychiatrist, Dr. Cross, who happens to be in the same hotel for a convention. Dr. Cross arrives and, yep, you guessed it, it’s Vincent Price!

As Janet comes out of her shock/coma, she spies Dr. Cross and screams, “Murderer!” Dr. Cross chuckles and notes that she is delusional and has her committed to the local sanitarium. Meanwhile a pesky D.A. starts sniffing around Dr. Cross. Against Dr. Cross' wishes he exhumes the dead wife in order to re-examine the case. Time begins to run short for Dr. Cross and realizing that Janet is the only person able to link him with the murder, he concocts a plan with his chippy nurse to murder Janet via insulin shots.

This is a fun little movie. Vincent Price is great here as the murderous doctor with the soothing voice. Some of the best scenes involve Dr. Cross and the D.A., which serve to ratchet up the tension as the D.A. gets closer to the truth. Delicious.

You can actually watch the entire movie here, http://www.myufo.com/2007/09/ufo_theater_shock_1946.html