Shock Corridor | Blu-ray

Ever the master of B-cinema noir, Samuel Fuller takes a crack at one of my favorite micro-genres of cinema: The Loser Detective. Movies about everyday joes who get in way over their head trying to solve mysteries they have no real business getting involved in.

In this case, the mystery at hand is that of an unsolved murder at a psychiatric hospital where Johnny Barrett, intrepid journalist, has had himself committed under false pretense of insanity. If that sounds like a terrible way to solve a murder, then this movie will only confirm your suspicions.

Fuller’s eye for unknown actors, unique dramas, and classic movie tropes come together perfectly in this strange mystery thriller. A relatively late entry in Fuller’s remarkable career, but no less brilliant than the director’s best known earlier works.

Special Features (via criterion.com)

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker Charles Dennis
• The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera, Adam Simon’s 1996 documentary on director Samuel Fuller
• Original theatrical trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: Illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes and a new essay by critic and poet Robert Polito and excerpts from Fuller’s autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking