Shock
Director: Alfred
Werker
Year: 1946
Rating: 6.0
I
was angry. And in love with another woman. You taunted me. Ridiculed me.
Threatened me. What was I to do. And the candlestick was right there. But
I should have closed the curtains first, before I killed you. Vincent Price
is wonderfully smooth and professional as the unpremeditated murderer of
his wife. He is a doctor and doctors don't kill. They heal. But he did and
his mistress was there. She knows and she encourages him to cover it up.
Now we can be happy. Now we can be together. Lynn Bari is quietly malevolent
as the femme fatale in this low budget noir suspense tale from Fox. How far
will he go in trying to cover it up and Bari says as she pushes her supple
body into his - as far as we have to.
The angelic Janet (Anabel Shaw) checks into
a hotel to wait for her husband (Frank Latimore) who has just been released
as a prisoner of war. She is fragile and nervous that he is really dead and
won't come. She has one of those noir dreams of desperation and wakes up
to walk out on the balcony. Across from her she sees and hears a man arguing
with his wife and in a sudden rage he kills her. She goes into a complete
shock, unable to respond when her husband finally shows up. A doctor is called.
With a smooth bedside manner and assuring words. I will take her to my sanitorium
in the country for lots of rest and care. She will be in good hands. As he
looks around the hotel room, he realizes what shocked her. His killing his
wife.
His nurse comes to help take her. She is
his mistress and the one with a truly black heart. We can't let her talk
can we? It has a rushed ending as if they had reached their budget but at
70-minutes it holds your attention. It is still early Price, but hints of
the mad scientist are firmly planted. Bari steals the show though in one
chilling monologue as Price listens in the dark - remember when I first came
here she purrs, remember how happy we were - we can't let her take that away.
It will just take a shot to kill her. No one will know.
