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They say it's the journey, not the destination, that usually counts with stories. In the case of Shockproof it's good to just focus on the journey, in all its B-movie-ness and, yes since it is Douglas Sirk, melodrama, because the destination kind of stinks. The film's story concerns a beautiful blonde parolee played by Patricia Knight who is put into the watchful eye and soon enough loving arms of her parole officer, Cornell Wilde. She's been wanting to get back together with her former lover, a gambler-hustler named Harry Wesson, who by the look of the guy is sleazy but perhaps not too bad a shake for a 'dame' like Knight plays. But the parole officer wants a better life for her, and that she knows it too. Soon she does, after some persistence, fall for Griff, but at a price when another character gets (preumably) murdered after a gunshot.

It becomes a lovers-on-the-run story, and, not to quote Harry's own line about the melodrama I mention above, this twist does bring some melodrama with it as the characters try to evade the law, cross into Mexico, go back into the states and Griff becomes an oil-drill worker. But the main problem of being on the lam catches up to them, and finally a decision is made. It's around here, in just the last few minutes, that the film really crumbles into predictability (and, to be fair, it wasn't Fuller's idea as the producer rewrote the script before filming). The acting and the script up until that point, however, does deliver on the promise of a simple premise. There's nothing terribly special about the story, but it works on its own terms as a tale of a love-triangle gone awry. We know the situation might be different if a character did something smarter, or did something more drastic or if, say, Harry went more into an actual criminal role and just ran off with Jenny to start with after she got out of prison.

But as it stands the performances are just fine- even the one-note crooning of the blind mother of Griff's who knows what she knows even without seeing, a real Fuller caricature if I ever saw one- and when it comes off like a real film-noir, with edge and believability, both of the legends Sirk and Fuller can get credit. It's no great shakes, but it passes 80 minutes by with some rich emotions and a, with a few exceptions in some scenes, solid dramatic turns and directions made by the characters.

Shockproof (1949)

Sam Fuller, the writer of this film, is admired for breaking rules and being a little bit edgy. Douglas Sirk, the director, is known for sumptuous, no compromise melodramas with gorgeous dreamy sets and an arch and affecting artificiality. They make an odd mix, and something doesn't quite click here.

The plot is standard fare but good--a parole officer falls for a reluctant parole, who still has a thing for a thug up to no good. The officer is terrific, Cornell Wilde at his regular guy best, a kind of echo of Dana Andrews with a little more warmth. But the main woman, Patricia Wright, is a bit wooden. You can feel her trying too hard too often, and it's just one of those things that cuts the rest of the effort down to size. Not surprisingly, she was only in five feature films, and was the lead in only one other.

But setting aside her presence and its deadening effect, there are some things to really enjoy here. You might find the movie ordinary for awhile, with some nice clichés and a steady development. But then, halfway, there's a huge and really sudden twist. And a believable one, a great scene. Suddenly there is a whole new plot. We aren't quite involved enough with the two leads to get swept away in their love affair (as we certainly do in "Gun Crazy" two years later, or in "They Live by Night" the same year), but it's exciting anyway. There are some scenes at an oil rig and the worker's cabins (I assume it's a set) that are gorgeous.

And then there's a sixty second surprise ending that doesn't do the movie justice and is very unlike Fuller. It's almost like someone took the script from Fuller and said, no Sam, that won't do. And rewrote it. And in fact that's what happened. One of the Columbia producers, Helen Deutsch, stepped in to remove Fuller's violent first intention. In fact, that final scene wasn't even directed by Sirk, who quit Columbia and left the country in anger (only to return and start a string of his famous 1950s masterpieces). A detailed account of all this is at www.tcm.com/this-month/article/208688%7C0/Shockproof.html.

What else? The photography by Charles Lawton Jr. is great (he had just done Welles's vigorous "Lady from Shanghai"), and a lot of the side actors are really good, especially the gambler boyfriend played by John Baragrey. This is one of those films to enjoy in pieces, or to enjoy for how it fits into the chronologies of some of the people who made it. Wilde and Knight, by the way, were still married during the filming (Wilde insisted Knight get the part) but they split up in 1951.

The title is ponderous - There are no "shocks" in this film or anything that would need you to be resistant to them. Just a catchy irrelevant title I guess.

Griff Marat ( Cornell Wilde) is a straight arrow of a parole officer with political ambitions. His latest charge is a woman, Jenny Marsh (Patricia Knight) who has just left prison after five years. Griff gets her a room and a job, but most importantly tells her she cannot see her old friends anymore, in particular, Harry Weeson, the man she killed for. But she is very beholden to Harry because he has waited these five years for her. Griff says that if he has waited that long he can wait awhile longer.

So you have young handsome single Griff, from an ethnic background that marries young, that can't afford any scandal if he wants to go up in the world. You have confused but beautiful Jenny who feels obliged to somebody she did time for. Shouldn't it be the other way around? And Weeson is hard to figure out. He's more of a professional gambler than a mobster, doesn't appear to be cheating on Jenny, and I never could figure out exactly what he wanted from her.

The killing Jenny did is never explained. If she was defending Weeson's life, why was it a crime? If it was her just killing somebody who was a nuisance to him, why is she out in only five years? Actress Patricia Knight is believable in this role, and although she is Wilde's wife at the time, she also looks much like Douglas Sirk favorite, Dorothy Malone, minus Malone's electricity. The reason I bring that up is Sirk directed this film.

The first 60% of the film really has no surprises. It took one of several paths I saw it taking from the start. But then the last third is really out in left field with Griff abandoning everything I thought that made him tick and with him showing himself to be much more wily than I thought him capable.

There is one really shocking scene when one parolee is told he is going back to prison. He begs to differ in a big way. It's definitely a Fuller touch - Sam Fuller wrote the script. But as for that ending, somebody must have locked Fuller in a broom closet and rewrote whatever ending he proposed. I'd recommend this one just because it is so very odd.

A parole officer falls for one of his charges, but is she playing him for a sucker? Not so much a noir as a noir-esque romantic melodrama, and not up to the level of the best from either director Douglas Sirk or writer Sam Fuller. The story could have gone one of two ways, and it chose the less interesting path (from what I've read, this might have been a studio decision). However, Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight (actual spouses at the time) handle their performances quite well, and play off each other with conviction and chemistry. The script has some nice touches, the photography is pretty sharp, and the supporting roles are good. It's certainly a watchable movie, just rather bland... and it wraps up far too easily.

It's difficult to believe, but even by this Early Date of 1949 the Cynicism and Doom Laden Tropes of Film-Noir were becoming unacceptable for the Safe and Conservative Studio Heads. Sam Fuller's Script was stripped of its edginess and coated with a sweetness Ending. Neither Fuller nor Director Douglas Sirk were pleased and voiced Their disapproval loudly.

But the Power of Low-Rung, untested Writers and Directors was Minimal. So what remains is a Soapy Triangle with enough Artistic Insight to be passable and somewhat enjoyable, but hardly Pure Film-Noir and the impact is diluted and disappointing.

Cornel Wilde as the Parole Officer and Patricia Knight have and unexpected collision of Love's vice like grip and its ability to change People drastically. John Barangay as the Ex-Lover is Bland and really doesn't do much to attract audiences to His vile villainy but is good enough.

Wilde, not the best Actor in the World does have a Physical Presence and was Drop Dead Handsome. Knight was as Stiff as They Come and had a limited Career and tries mightily here but was betrayed by Her Talent and got by on Her slightly Off-Beat Beauty.

Overall, Worth a Watch for Sirk and Fuller, but must be Footnoted as mishandled by Studio Interference. Film-Noir Fans and Fuller Cultists might be disappointed. A Film-Noir only in a Wide Definition of the Genre.

Real life husband and wife Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight star as parole officer / parolee in this quasi noirish post-war drama. Wilde, who is assigned as Knight's parole officer, insists that as a condition of her parole she no longer associate with her former boyfriend, unsavory gambler (John Baragrey). Wilde who is smitten almost immediately by Knight, begins to bend the rules as Knight ignores the conditions of her parole and continues to see Baragrey. Because of her parole violations, Wilde being a concerned officer of the court, suggests Knight move into his home that he shares with his blind, widowed mother and younger brother. The situation continues on a downward trend.

Written by hard edged, cigar chomping, World War II vet Samuel Fuller and directed by melodrama master Douglas Sirk, this movie is a contrast of styles between writer and director. In this case the director Sirk called the shots. With the assist of a script revision from Helen Deutsch (I'll Cry Tomorrow, Valley of the Dolls), Sirk plays it out more as a tortured romantic triangle with dribs and drabs of writer Fuller's permeating cynicism occasionally popping through.

Despite a title suggesting more lurid content, 'Shockproof' offers little to actually be shocked by, probably because of the lack of any real criminal intent by the characters beyond parole violations. What tension this movie engenders is more human conflict from the soap opera style re-draft by Deutsch. With a script basically hollowed from Fuller's fatalistic influence, what's left is a sort of a well-crafted but tepid potboiler complete with a contrived populist ending.

'Shockproof' isn't a bad movie just more of a disappointment of what could have been.

Enjoyed this film a great deal because I always liked Cornel Wilde, (Griff Marat) who plays the role as a parole officer and he has to deal with a very attractive gal named Jenny Marsh, (Patricia Knight) who spent five years in prison for taking the rap for murder which she did for her lover Harry Wesson, (John Baragrey). Griff tells Jenny she cannot have anything to do with her boyfriend Harry and he also put many restrictions on her because she is on parole for life. Griff begins to take a liking to Jenny but she fights him off and wants to always go back to her lover. This story takes on many twists and turns which holds your interest and I was very surprised that the hairstyle and clothes that Patricia Knight wore would even look great today, she gave a great performance.

"Shockproof" is a 1949 Douglas Sirk film starring Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight. Wilde is Griff Marat, who gets a paroled prisoner, Jenny Marsh (Knight) on his caseload. She refuses to give up the bad acquaintances that got her into trouble in the first place; this includes her old boyfriend, Harry (John Baragrey) whom she continues to meet secretly. Griff has taken Jenny into his home to care for his blind mother (Esther Minciotti), and over time, they fall in love. Though she's still pulled toward Harry, she balks when Harry wants her to convince Griff to marry her, a clear violation of his job ethics and her parole. Because Griff has political ambitions, they will then have them where they want him. Gradually Harry realizes that Jenny is not going to cooperate, and he ends up gravely injured. Griff and Jenny go on the run to avoid her arrest.

This is a pretty good noir with two heavyweights attached, Sirk, the director, and Sam Fuller, who co-wrote the script. Unfortunately, the characters aren't fleshed out enough so that we understand their sudden turnarounds - a man on the side of the law with political ambitions decides to throw it all out the window, marry a client secretly, and go on the run riding in boxcars and living in shacks because though the shooting was accidental, Griff feels Jenny won't be believed. That's just Griff - in reality, all three of the main characters do complete reversals during the course of this film with little or no justification.

Wilde does a good job here, and Knight, a new actress to me, is beautiful and has good chemistry opposite her then husband Wilde. She didn't work much longer, as after their divorce, her career dried up.

Entertaining.

"Shockproof" gets off to a solid start as a psychological crime drama. Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight (then Wilde's real-life wife) are both attractive and convincing as a straight-arrow, somewhat naive, parole officer and a parolee in whom he takes far too personal an interest, portending trouble for both.

Without giving too much plot away, they end up on the lam, at which point both the action and the pair's decisions become increasingly less plausible, but well within the bounds of most viewers' willingness to suspend disbelief.

Ultimately the film makers seem to have painted themselves into a corner. The protagonists reach a point where any logical continuation can only lead to disaster for them. For whatever reason (studio pressure, perhaps) the last minute or so is the most blatantly improbable and unconvincing tacked-on happy ending in Hollywood history, or at least tied for that distinction.

So be forewarned: a gripping drama most of the way but the ending guaranteed to leave you figuratively scratching your head with a bad taste in your mouth. If you can overlook that, give it a whirl. If you can't, best watch something else.

Patricia Knight has just been paroled. Her parole officer is Cornell Wilde. He reads off the list of restrictions which she has already memorized. She almost immediately breaks them when she sees her former lover, gambler John Baragrey in a bookie shop, but Wilde gives her another chance. She loses her job, so her takes her into his home to take care of his blind mother. Soon they are in love. She goes to Baragrey's apartment to tell him goodbye. He calls Wilde at the office to tell him she's breaking parole and playing him for a sucker, so she shoots him. And she and Wilde go on the run.

Douglas Sirk directs with lots of fine location shooting, including the essential-for-noir Bradbury Building. He agreed to shoot this one after reading Samuel Fuller's original story, even though Columbia put in a cop-out ending that frustrated Wilde's character arc, from a straight-arrow fellow with political ambition to a criminal on the run. His real-life wife, Patricia Knight, gives a fine, guarded performance; you never know what she's really thinking or going to do next. Her movie career did not survive her divorce from Wilde. She died in 2004, age 89.

This strange hybrid of a B-Movie is a cross between a film noir and a 'women's picture', with a screenplay in part written by Samuel Fuller yet directed by Douglas Sirk, two directors whose work you might think couldn't be more different. It's a film that never quite goes the way you expect it to as former prisoner Patricia Knight, (a kind of poor man's Gene Tierney), is released into the custody of parole officer Cornel Wilde who soon finds himself falling for her, despite the fact that her former lover and bad guy John Baragrey is waiting to claim her.

There's hardly a believable moment in the entire picture which still manages to cram an awful lot of plot into its reasonably short running time and it's certainly stylish as befits an early film from the man who went on to make "All That Heaven Allows" and "Written on the Wind". It's harder perhaps to get a handle on Fuller's contribution, except maybe in the total lack of sentimentality in the central relationship while the audacity of the ending is undeniably novel; it's as if they filmed several endings and settled on the one on view.

This movie is pretty flawed and if not for the director and star, it would be a B movie.

The leading lady does an adequate job and she was quite striking. Wilde gives a good performance but the script is pretty weak.

It is still entertaining and worth watching. Sometimes you can catch a good copy on YouTube.

Shockproof seems to be a random title for this promising little film, as I see little connection to it and what actually occurs within. Beyond that slight observation I was optimistic for Shockproof since it was directed by Sirk and starred Wilde, who is usually pretty good. There are quite a few good things happening here, with the best being Sirk's direction. He does the best he can with the material he's been given, of which is a very weak script that sees our female lead character for most of the film conduct herself with severely limited wits about her as she makes one absurdly, and yes, unbelievably bad decision after another. Cornel Wilde though gives a very solid performance as her good and overly patient parole officer and makes the film watchable and made me want to stick around to the end just to see what becomes of his character. The sets and art direction are also quite good, which is why the weak script is all the more disappointing because Shockproof to me could have been so much better with just a few tweaks to the script.

Favorite quote - "Stop being so melodramatic!"

Now here's yet another movie from the apparently chaste 1940s where, even though the strangle-hold of the Hays Code was very much in effect, its story features a man who's in a position of trusted authority (this time it being a handsome (natch) parole officer) who becomes (through deliberate intentions) romantically involved with one of his parolees (this time it being a beautiful (natch) murderess/ex-con).

And, I don't know about you, but, from my point of view, when it comes to issues like moral ethics and a sense of professionalism, I judge any hanky-panky (with one's client, or patient, or whoever) as being pretty damn low, and lousy, and clearly unacceptable. (Yes, even in a movie!)

And it was because of the professionally immoral nature of this movie-romance (and the events that revolved around it) that I purposely reduced Shockproof's star-rating significantly in accordance with my feelings.

Another reason why I rated Shockproof so low was because this unethical parole officer (who was a man in his mid-30s) was also something of a momma's boy, still living at home and very much tied to his clinging mother's strangulating apron-strings. (Like, give me a break, already!)

Anyways - With all of the above-mentioned nonsense aside, Shockproof's "Lovers-On-The-Run" story really wasn't that good to begin with.

From its absurd and contrived story-line, to its wooden performances, to its goofy dialogue and mediocre direction, I found Shockproof's "She's-no-good/He's-no-good" premise, for the most part, much too laughable (unintentionally), far too often. This film really took itself way-way too seriously for its own good.

And, along with all of its other many fluky flaws and annoying inconsistencies, this quickly reduced Shockproof to being one of the most unsatisfactory B-Movie Thrillers that I've seen in a mighty long-long time.

Thank goodness that this utter nonsense-of-a-movie had a running time of only 80 grate-on-your-nerves minutes!

A 1949 film noir starring Cornel Wilde. Wilde is a parole officer who gets a new charge to his roster, Patricia Knight, who was involved w/a shady rich beau, John Baragrey. Bending over backwards to make her parole stay a comfortable one, Wilde gets Knight a job taking care of his blind mother (after she's busted during a booking joint raid w/Baragrey) & soon starts to fall for her while Knight's resolve to remain loyal to Baragrey starts to crumble which ends up w/him getting shot by Knight (in a struggle w/a gun) sending the newly minted lovers on the run ahead of the law before deciding to head back home to meet their fate. An early effort from Douglas Sirk (All That Heaven Allows/Written on the Wind) still makes for an entertaining fit (working from a script co-written by Samuel Fuller) w/its only wrong note being the neat & tidy ending (most likely a studio mandate) but definitely a worthwhile romp for an 80 minute run time.