Many will not succumb to the incredulous plot twists and matter-of-fact dramaturgy that Alfred L. Werker's 1946 Shock exports. On the good side it gives us the essence of Film Noir - generally normal people doing horrible things to get what they want - for the love of money or a woman. The plot is promising - Dr. Cross (Vincent Price), a psychiatrist, is treating a young woman, Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw), who is in a coma-state, brought on when she heard loud arguing, went to her window and saw a man strike his wife with a candlestick and kill her. This becomes star-crossed with the momentary reunion of her husband - a 2-year prisoner of war. As she comes out of her shock, she recognizes that Dr. Cross is the killer. At his sanitarium and urged by his nurse/lover, and predator femme fatale, Elaine Jordan (Lynn Bari), contemplates the moral consequences of giving Janet and overdose of insulin - removing her as witness to his wife's murder.

The unfortunate part of the film is that it really doesn't work well - its greatest attribute are the noir atmosphere and plot base. I enjoyed it, as I often do with weak, but interesting, cinema, but don't expect the great writing and momentum-building pace of many of the 'dark cinema' of this era.

Gary W. Tooze