TheBigSnack Shock is a superlative 1946 film noir that could not be named more appropriately for a highly appraised production.Janet Stewart checks in alone at a large city central hotel called the Belmont Arms. She experiences a terrible nightmare and is soon-after a witness to an absolutely mind shattering murder surrounding a divorce argument in an adjoining hotel room window.Thereafter she acquires a profound state of nervous mental collapse and medical help is immediately summoned to her bedside by her returning husband Lt. Paul Stewart.Dr. Cross is a nationally recognized psychiatrist coincidentally staying at the hotel and makes an emergency discovery of Janet.After learning more, Dr. Cross takes careful charge of Janet indicating she will be given a best chance of recovery from nervous shock using repeated insulin shock therapies.Janet is then managed by Dr. Cross's co-conspirator and lover nurse Elaine Jordan who helps to remove Janet to the outlying country private sanitarium of Dr. Cross for extended therapy.Janet receives injections on arrival and Dr. Cross then attempts hypnotherapy to induce Janet to regain and confess to any memories. Dr. Cross then confides in Elaine that Janet has seen everything.Elaine meets with Dr. Cross in private and he reveals that he murdered his wife at the hotel before arranging for his wife's corpse to be shipped to his country lodge labelled as personal property, but he stresses that no one saw her enter the hotel and the murder was not premeditated.Dr. Cross repeats hypnotherapy to induce Janet to forget all her bad memories. He tells Elaine the delivery of his wife's corpse will be dropped off at his lodge.Janet is reported as hallucinating about having witnessed a murder. The body of Mrs. Cross is now recovered dashed against some mountain rocks in an apparent accident.At this time Janet regains awareness when Paul visits, and she emotionally confesses the observed murderer is Dr. Cross. Dr. Cross shows Janet the news of his wife's death, implying the dates between Janet's incident and recovery of Mrs. Cross's corpse do not coincide, and encourages Janet to accept she is mentally incompetent.District Attorney O'Neill now wants to exhume Mrs. Cross for expert examination pending a murder is ruled out as a cause of death.D.A. O'Neill brings a coroner's inquest appeal for the murder of Mrs. Cross, and is looking for a waxed silver candlestick to match as the murder weapon. He is trying to fix the exact time of death.Dr. Cross premeditates four injections for Janet with a last being a planned overdose. He then reassures Paul the treatment is her last chance at a recovery. Janet gets 60, 80, and 100 units and then a fourth treatment.Paul brings suspicious news to the attention of Dr. Harvey and they agree to pay Dr. Cross a visit in person. Janet is experiencing trauma and Dr. Cross is reluctant to do anything more.Dr. Cross re-actively murders desperate nurse Elaine during an off chance argument over refusing to administer a major overdose. Paul and Dr. Harvey get to Janet in time for a rescue.O'Neill arrives in the office of Dr. Cross when he instinctively considers his case for a small moment and very casually volunteers himself into protective custody.

udar55 Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) arrives in San Francisco to meet her recently freed POW husband Paul (Frank Latimore). With his arrival delayed, Janet spends the night alone in the hotel and is woken up around 1am by a dream. In the apartment adjacent to hers she hears arguing between Dr. Richard Cross (Vincent Price) and his wife. She watches as he murders her and it puts her in a state of shock, so she is unresponsive when her husband finally arrives. The doc examining her recommends a preeminent psychiatrist who just happens to be...Dr. Cross! With Janet housed at his institute, Dr. Cross conspires with his lover/nurse Elaine (Lynn Bari) on how to be get rid of this witness.A excursion into video roulette led me to this fun little horror- thriller that might be one of the first REAR WINDOW-type stories for the screen. Director Alfred L. Werker does a good job of moving things along quickly (the film only runs 70 minutes) and scores best in terms of atmosphere on a rainy night at the sanitarium. The cast is fine all around. Price is very good in his role as the doctor who is very conflicted on what he has done/is doing and seems to be helpless against the will of femme fatal Elaine. It is funny to me to see a time where a doc will suggest all sorts of crazy things to try on a patient and the husband is full blown "whatever you need to do, doc!" The story was completely ripped off for an entry titled "Mute Witness to Murder" in William Gaines' "The Crypt of Terror" in 1950; it was later adapted for HBO's TALES FROM THE CRYPT with Patricia Clarkson in the lead female role and Richard Thomas as the crazed doc. John Boy, how could you!

daviddaphneredding This 1946 movie from 20th Century Fox was one of those suspense thrillers which continued to keep you wondering until almost to the very last second what would the ending be. Was the crime going to be another "perfect crime"? Truthfully, I did begin to wonder. I was "locked" to the screen while watching it. Vincent Price, with his tall, imposing physique and his deep, cold voice performed excellently the part of the cold doctor. And who could feel sympathy for the cold, evil, sinister nurse played to perfection by Lynn Bari? Though Isabel Shaw virtually never acted, even if the story was partly centered around her, I felt for her all the way. Frank Latimore, though his role too was minor, did a fair acting job as the soldier husband. It was a well-produced movie and was definitely a noir classic.

Chase_Witherspoon A young wife (Shaw) anxiously awaiting the return of her POW husband (Latimore) in a hotel witnesses a murder and goes into a catatonic shock. Transferred to a specialist hospice for treatment, her concerned husband begins to suspect that neither Price nor his scheming mistress Bari (also a doctor at the facility) are acting for her welfare.Latimore seemed a bit overly melodramatic in his perpetually glum, hang dog expression while Anabel Shaw had little to do but act hysterically or comatose depending on the scene. Price is convincing however as the conflicted psychiatrist torn between self preservation and the Hippocratic oath, his mistress Bari a seductive minx perhaps more sinister in her callous manner to tie up the loose ends. Seventy minutes short there's still plenty of mystery in the tale with a couple of plot twists conspiring to bring Price's crime and subsequent cover up undone. Entertaining B-grade thriller is a competent mystery and though not as shocking as the title might imply, still acquits well and always worth a watch.