''Shockproof'' is a 1949 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

directed by

Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. However, he also directed comedies, westerns, and war f ...

and starring Patricia Knight and

Cornel Wilde Cornel Wilde (born Kornél Lajos Weisz; October 13, 1912 – October 16, 1989) was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker. Wilde's acting career began in 1935, when he made his debut on Broadway. In 1936 he began making small, uncredited ap ...

. Wilde and Knight were husband and wife during filming. They divorced in 1951.

Plot

Griff Marat (

), is a parole officer who falls in love with a parolee, Jenny Marsh ( Patricia Knight). Marsh had gone to prison in order to protect Harry Wesson (

John Baragrey John Baragrey (April 15, 1918 – August 4, 1975) was an American film, television, and stage actor who appeared in virtually every dramatic television series of the 1950s and early 1960s. Early years Baragrey was born in Haleyville, Alabama ...

) a gambler with whom she was having an affair. Warned to steer clear of Harry permanently, Jenny disobeys, still feeling loyal to him. A raid on Harry's bookie joint while Jenny is there costs her the job Griff has found for her. Out of concern for her welfare, Griff hires Jenny as a caretaker for his blind mother (Esther Minciotti). Griff has political ambitions that Harry would like to ruin, so, knowing it is against regulations for the parolee and parole officer to be involved, Harry encourages Jenny to accept Griff's romantic advances. Jenny knows the regulations too, but realizes she loves Griff and they get married; she makes one more trip to speak to Harry, to tell him that she truly loves Griff. During their conversation, Harry threatens to reveal letters she had written him, in which she expressed her love. Jenny points Harry's own gun at him and, after a brief struggle, he ends up shot and seriously wounded. Griff and Jenny attempt to flee to Mexico. This fails but, willing to do anything to keep his wife from going back to jail, Griff takes a job in an oil refinery. Their photographs regularly appear in newspapers, but the last straw for Jenny is when a paper which includes their pictures is delivered to every neighbor in their refinery community. The couple decide to go back and turn themselves in. When the police take them to Harry in the hospital, he clears Jenny's name by swearing that the shooting was an accident.

Cast

as Griff Marat * Patricia Knight as Jenny Marsh *

as Harry Wesson * Esther Minciotti as Mrs. Marat * Howard St. John as Sam Brooks * Russell Collins as Frederick Bauer * Charles Bates as Tommy Marat *

Arthur Space Charles Arthur Space (October 12, 1908 – January 13, 1983) was an American film, television and stage actor. Today's audiences know him as the eccentric inventor opposite Laurel and Hardy in '' The Big Noise'' (1944), and as veterinarian Doc W ...

as police inspector at hospital (uncredited) * Gilbert Barnett as Barry (uncredited)

Background

The director of ''Shockproof'',

, said he took the assignment because the film dealt with one of his favorite themes: the price of flouting taboos. In Samuel Fuller's original script, the film ended with a violent rebellion by Marat against the system that kept him and Marsh apart. The studio had '' National Velvet'' scriptwriter Helen Deutsch step in to pen a soft-suds rewrite. A number of Fuller's screenplays, including '' The Naked Kiss'', '' The Baron of Arizona'', '' House of Bamboo'', '' Forty Guns'', '' The Big Red One'' and this film, featured a lead character called Griff.

Reception

E. Gonzalez wrote in ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'': "Sirk’s direction is disenchanted at times, and the script, a labyrinthine tale of emotional manipulation, feels tamed of its archness." A ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' writer, Matt Zoller Seitz, discussed the significance of ''Shockproof'' in 2007 when the film received its first theatrical showing in New York City:

...while ''Shockproof'' will inspire more groans than gasps, it's essential viewing for fans of Mr. Fuller and Mr. Sirk—and that's why the Two Boots Pioneer Theater and an online film discussion group teamed up to give this critically and financially unsuccessful movie its first New York run. The lurid setup and obsessive-loner-versus-the-system mechanics are pure Samuel Fuller. Mr. Sirk's personality is expressed in the film's affection for its screwed-up characters, in the poetic deployment of mirrors, windows and stairways, and in the low-angled wide shots of Griff's house, a space that seems both nurturing and oppressive."

Trivia

The British serial killer John Straffen committed a murder on the way to see ''Shockproof'' at the cinema in 1951. ''Shockproof'' includes brief interior scenes of the Bradbury Building, where the parole bureau's offices and doctor's office are supposed to be located, but the in-office scenes, which include unimpaired views of the Hall of Justice and the demolished Hall of Records, appear to have been filmed in offices of Los Angeles City Hall facing west onto N. Spring Street, several blocks north of the Bradbury.

References

External links

* * * * https://www.archive.org/details/shockproof1949 {{Douglas Sirk 1949 films 1949 crime drama films American black-and-white films American crime drama films Columbia Pictures films Film noir Films scored by George Duning Films directed by Douglas Sirk Films with screenplays by Samuel Fuller 1940s English-language films 1940s American films English-language crime drama films