Oh, for the days when a parole officer could date his beautiful murderess parolee. 1949's Shockproof was directed by Douglas Sirk from a screenplay originally by Samuel Fuller. This odd combination produces a sometimes engagingly romantic crime drama.
The film is hampered by two dull stars, Cornel Wilde as the parole officer, Griff, and Patricia Knight--Wilde's real life spouse--as the parolee, Jenny. It's always amazed me that Wilde was a star, though I do appreciate the lengths he went to for artistic credibility later in his career. Knight never did become a star in her own right and it's easy to see why from this picture. She seems like a stand-in for Rita Hayworth with a fourth of Hayworth's personality.
The first two thirds of the movie are the best. I liked scenes where it seemed Jenny was being won over by Griff followed by scenes where we see she wasn't taken in at all--by the police psychiatrist or by Griff taking her home to meet his kid brother and blind mother. Fuller was apparently angry that the end of his screenplay was substantially rewritten and I don't blame him.
Deciding to break the rules and get married, Griff and Jenny go on the run and, of course, every hamburger stand they stop at has a radio broadcasting information about them, every newspaper has their picture on the front. But this isn't as silly as the sappy finale.
Shockproof is available on YouTube.
Twitter Sonnet #1688
Evolving arms were hid beneath a coat.
Advancing mice provoked a grinning cat.
The hardened sugar lumps abandoned boat.
Above, so high, there shone a twink'ling bat.
The ruin time began with kindness forced.
A heavy frosting crushed a normal cake.
And through the brain a phantom honey coursed.
A dream emerged to split the lines of fake.
A moving image 'scaped the reach of eyes.
With flowing streams, we pass the only mall.
An echo rises brief and bright but dies.
If only brains could carry hearts at all.
Parole attains a mythic force at home.
The curtains reign when window panes would roam.
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