Shockproof (1949)

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

Director – Douglas Sirk

Writers – Helen Deutsch, Samuel Fuller

Cast –
Cornel Wilde as Griff Marat
Patricia Knight as Jenny Marsh
John Baragrey as Harry Wesson
Esther Minciotti as Mrs. Marat
Howard St. John as Sam Brooks
Russell Collins as Frederick Bauer
Charles Bates as Tommy Marat
Gilbert Barnett as Barry (uncredited)

Watch “Shockproof” (1949)

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.