Shockproof

Last updated
Shockproof
Shockproof Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Written byHelen Deutsch
Samuel Fuller
Starring Cornel Wilde
CinematographyCharles Lawton, Jr.
Edited by Gene Havlick
Music by George Duning
Color process Black and white
Production
company
Columbia Pictures
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • January 20, 1949 (1949-01-20)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Shockproof is a 1949 American crime film noir directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Patricia Knight and Cornel Wilde. [1] Wilde and Knight were husband and wife during filming. They divorced in 1951.

Contents

Plot

Griff Marat (Cornel Wilde), 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) 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

Background

The director of Shockproof, Douglas Sirk, said he took the assignment because the film dealt with one of his favorite themes: the price of flouting taboos. [2]

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

A New York Times 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." [3]

Trivia

The British serial killer John Straffen committed a murder on the way to see Shockproof at the cinema [4] 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.

Has been shown on the Turner Classic Movies show 'Noir Alley' with Eddie Muller.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Picture of Dorian Gray</i> 1890 novel by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. The novel-length version was published in April 1891.

<i>The Greatest Show on Earth</i> (film) 1952 film by Cecil B. DeMille

The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 American drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in Technicolor and released by Paramount Pictures. Set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring and Charlton Heston as the circus manager. James Stewart also stars as a mysterious clown who never removes his makeup, and Dorothy Lamour and Gloria Grahame also play supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornel Wilde</span> Hungarian-American actor and film director (1912–1989)

Cornel Wilde was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Fuller</span> American screenwriter, novelist and director (1912–1997)

Samuel Michael Fuller was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, actor, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made outside the conventional studio system. Fuller wrote his first screenplay for Hats Off in 1936, and made his directorial debut with the Western I Shot Jesse James (1949). He would continue to direct several other Westerns and war thrillers throughout the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Vidor</span> American film director

Charles Vidor was a Hungarian film director. Among his film successes are The Bridge (1929), The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942), The Desperadoes (1943), Cover Girl (1944), Together Again (1944), A Song to Remember (1945), Over 21 (1945), Gilda (1946), The Loves of Carmen (1948), Rhapsody (1954), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), The Swan (1956), The Joker Is Wild (1957), and A Farewell to Arms (1957).

<i>House of Bamboo</i> 1955 film by Samuel Fuller

House of Bamboo is a 1955 American film noir shot in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color, directed and co-written by Samuel Fuller, and starring Robert Ryan. The other co-screenwriter was Harry Kleiner. The cinematographer was Joseph MacDonald.

<i>Road House</i> (1948 film) 1948 film by Jean Negulesco

Road House is a 1948 American film noir drama film directed by Jean Negulesco, with cinematography by Joseph LaShelle. The picture features Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Celeste Holm and Richard Widmark.

<i>They Only Kill Their Masters</i> 1972 film by James Goldstone

They Only Kill Their Masters is a 1972 American mystery film directed by James Goldstone, written by Lane Slate, and starring James Garner and Katharine Ross, with a supporting cast featuring Hal Holbrook, June Allyson, Tom Ewell, Peter Lawford, Edmond O'Brien, and Arthur O'Connell. The title refers to Doberman dogs that might have been responsible for a woman's murder currently under investigation by the local police chief (Garner).

<i>Forty Guns</i> 1957 film by Samuel Fuller

Forty Guns is a 1957 American Western film written and directed by Samuel Fuller, filmed in black-and-white CinemaScope and released by the 20th Century Fox studio. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Gene Barry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian Marsh</span> Trinidad-American actress (1913–2006)

Marian Marsh was a Trinidad-born American film actress and later an environmentalist.

<i>No Reservations</i> (film) 2007 American film

No Reservations is a 2007 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Scott Hicks and starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, and Abigail Breslin. The screenplay by Carol Fuchs is an adaptation of an original script by Sandra Nettelbeck, which served as the basis for the 2001 German film Mostly Martha, and revolves around a hard-edged chef whose life is turned upside down when she decides to take in her young niece following a tragic accident that killed her sister. Patricia Clarkson, Bob Balaban, and Jenny Wade co-star, with Brían F. O'Byrne, Lily Rabe, and Zoë Kravitz—appearing in her first feature film—playing supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Knight</span> American actress

Patricia Knight was an American actress who appeared in a few movies in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

<i>Forever Amber</i> (film) 1947 film

Forever Amber is a 1947 American adventure drama romance film starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. It was based on the book of the same title by Kathleen Winsor. It also starred Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, and Jessica Tandy.

<i>Maleficent</i> (film) 2014 American fantasy film by Robert Stromberg

Maleficent is a 2014 American fantasy film directed by Robert Stromberg from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton. Co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Roth Films, the film is a live-action retelling of Walt Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, itself an adaptation of Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale of the same title, but tells the story from the perspective of the evil fairy Maleficent, played by Angelina Jolie. Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville have supporting roles.

<i>Endless Love</i> (2014 American film) 2014 American film

Endless Love is a 2014 American romantic drama film directed by Shana Feste and co-written by Feste with Joshua Safran. A second adaptation of Scott Spencer's novel, the film stars Alex Pettyfer, Gabriella Wilde, Bruce Greenwood, Joely Richardson and Robert Patrick.

<i>It Felt Like Love</i> 2013 film by Eliza Hittman

It Felt Like Love is a 2013 independent drama film, the first feature film directed by Eliza Hittman. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was later acquired by Variance Films, receiving a limited theatrical release in March 2014. The film follows the coming-of-age of teenager Lila as she riskily courts the attentions of an older boy.

<i>The Perfect Snob</i> 1941 film by Ray McCarey

The Perfect Snob is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Ray McCarey and written by Lee Loeb and Harold Buchman. The film stars Charlie Ruggles, Charlotte Greenwood, Lynn Bari, Cornel Wilde, Anthony Quinn and Alan Mowbray. The film was released on December 19, 1941, by 20th Century Fox.

<i>The Inner Life of Martin Frost</i> 2007 American film

The Inner Life of Martin Frost is a 2007 American romantic-mystery drama film written and directed by Paul Auster and starring David Thewlis, Irène Jacob, and Michael Imperioli. The film is about an author who having just completed his fourth novel travels to his friends' vacant country house to spend a few weeks alone. There he meets a beautiful and mysterious woman who inspires him to write a new story. Filmed in Azenhas do Mar in Sintra, Portugal in the spring of 2006, The Inner Life of Martin Frost is Auster's fourth film as director and writer. The film premiered at the New Directors/New Films Festival on March 21, 2007, and was released in the United States on September 7, 2007.

Jimmy Lloyd was an American actor who played Tex in the 1947 film serial The Sea Hound.

References

  1. Shockproof at the American Film Institute Catalog .
  2. Seitz, Matt Zoller (24 January 2007). "A Maleficent Obsession? Could be More Than Heaven Allows". The New York Times.
  3. Zoller Seitz, Matt. The New York Times , film review, "A Maleficent Obsession? Could Be More Than Heaven Allows", January 24, 2007. Accessed: July 12, 2013.
  4. "Escape from Broadmoor: The Trials and Strangulations of John Thomas Straffen". Eve White Literary Agency. Retrieved 2020-06-15.