Moviecut—Shockproof

source: Shockproof

Shockproof

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.

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.

There's a world of difference between Cornel Wilde's previous film, Roadhouse, and this one and it's not entirely due to the casting - Roadhouse boasted a great quartet in Wilde, Richard Widmark, Ida Lupino and Celeste Holm, whereas her we get Wilde, period, and Jean Negulesco handled Roadhouse better than Douglas Sirk handles Shockproof (a meaningless title having nothing to do with the story. Considering they'd been married a good decade there's remarkably little chemistry between Wilde and Patricia Knight or indeed between anyone in the cast and anyone else. The protagonists meet in the first minute, she a parolee, he her parole officer and you can bet the farm he's going to fall for her despite his 'tough' attitude. It's all fairly predictable but Sirk was a decent craftsman and is able to salvage something ... not much, but a little. For Sirk completists only.