Main Title
Patricia Knight
Knight and Wilde
Knight (as Laura?)
On the run
With some writing credit due to Samuel Fuller and direction by Douglas Sirk, the nonsensically titled Shockproof will always receive more than its fair share of attention from film buffs. However, this oft-told tale of the parole officer who falls for the beautiful parolee doesn’t cry out for attention and barely rates as a film noir.
Shockproof stars Cornell Wilde as parole officer and aspiring politician Griff Marat. Wilde plays Marat as a decent guy and a square, though one smart enough to avoid being an easy dupe. I couldn’t keep myself from imagining how much better this film could have been with an actor like John Garfield in Wilde’s part. The role of the damaged goods is filled by Wilde’s real life wife Patricia Knight. It is hard to fathom whether or not Wilde’s namesake in the film is meant to be symbolic, but if it is Knight falls well short of making Jenny Marsh into a film noir Charlotte Corday. Instead she looks like a vamped-up Katharine Hepburn, but with the acting chops of Jeanne Crain.
The most interesting aspect of Shockproof, though not surprising considering the Fuller / Sirk collaboration, is how the lion’s share of internal conflict is centered on the female. While Marat’s self assuredness is antithetical to the typical noir anti-hero, Jenny Marsh undergoes a steady transformation through the course of the film, that while primarily internal eventually manifests itself outwardly in terms of her appearance. As opposed to the typical noir formula of a good man who is corrupted by a bad woman, Shockproof gives us a bad woman who is achieves grace through her relationship with a good man. And while he is certainly drawn through the mud, his circumstances pale in comparison to those of Henry Fonda in The Wrong Man. Marat's heart may have been in the proper place, but he asked for this.
Furthermore, the world view of Shockproof isn’t bleak — examples of goodness abound, and love eventually wins out courtesy of an absurdly contrived Hollywood ending. Marat’s downfall, superficial as it is, isn’t a result of his lustful obsession with a manipulative femme fatale. Instead he’s motivated by love, and his love is eventually returned by a woman who we come to realize that while not perfect, was at least doggedly loyal. Circumstance is the culprit in Shockproof, and while Griff Marat and Jenny Marsh make poor decisions, none of them are selfish enough for viewers to feel that the fates are being just.
Still though, it’s good fun to see Wilde and Knight “corrode” as they are forced to take it on the lam in the final third of the film. The simple act of parole violation that their marriage represents brings about a cataclysm of circumstance that eventually strains their relationship to the breaking point. As Jenny’s old life tries to wrest her from domesticity and marriage with Marat, the new Jenny acts decisively — resulting in the couple being forced to make for the border, eventually to steal cars, hop freight trains, shoplift sandwiches, and finally the ultimate in social upheaval: littering. It’s only against the final backdrop of endless oil derricks (and the only truly noirish set piece in the film) that the newlyweds realize they can only end the corrosion by giving themselves up to the authorities.
Shockproof stars Cornell Wilde as parole officer and aspiring politician Griff Marat. Wilde plays Marat as a decent guy and a square, though one smart enough to avoid being an easy dupe. I couldn’t keep myself from imagining how much better this film could have been with an actor like John Garfield in Wilde’s part. The role of the damaged goods is filled by Wilde’s real life wife Patricia Knight. It is hard to fathom whether or not Wilde’s namesake in the film is meant to be symbolic, but if it is Knight falls well short of making Jenny Marsh into a film noir Charlotte Corday. Instead she looks like a vamped-up Katharine Hepburn, but with the acting chops of Jeanne Crain.
The most interesting aspect of Shockproof, though not surprising considering the Fuller / Sirk collaboration, is how the lion’s share of internal conflict is centered on the female. While Marat’s self assuredness is antithetical to the typical noir anti-hero, Jenny Marsh undergoes a steady transformation through the course of the film, that while primarily internal eventually manifests itself outwardly in terms of her appearance. As opposed to the typical noir formula of a good man who is corrupted by a bad woman, Shockproof gives us a bad woman who is achieves grace through her relationship with a good man. And while he is certainly drawn through the mud, his circumstances pale in comparison to those of Henry Fonda in The Wrong Man. Marat's heart may have been in the proper place, but he asked for this.
Furthermore, the world view of Shockproof isn’t bleak — examples of goodness abound, and love eventually wins out courtesy of an absurdly contrived Hollywood ending. Marat’s downfall, superficial as it is, isn’t a result of his lustful obsession with a manipulative femme fatale. Instead he’s motivated by love, and his love is eventually returned by a woman who we come to realize that while not perfect, was at least doggedly loyal. Circumstance is the culprit in Shockproof, and while Griff Marat and Jenny Marsh make poor decisions, none of them are selfish enough for viewers to feel that the fates are being just.
Still though, it’s good fun to see Wilde and Knight “corrode” as they are forced to take it on the lam in the final third of the film. The simple act of parole violation that their marriage represents brings about a cataclysm of circumstance that eventually strains their relationship to the breaking point. As Jenny’s old life tries to wrest her from domesticity and marriage with Marat, the new Jenny acts decisively — resulting in the couple being forced to make for the border, eventually to steal cars, hop freight trains, shoplift sandwiches, and finally the ultimate in social upheaval: littering. It’s only against the final backdrop of endless oil derricks (and the only truly noirish set piece in the film) that the newlyweds realize they can only end the corrosion by giving themselves up to the authorities.
Shockproof (1949)
Director: Douglas Sirk Screenplay: Helen Deutsch and Samuel FullerStarring: Cornell Wilde and Patricia KnightReleased by: Columbia PicturesRunning time: 79 minutes
Mark, I just read about your blogsite at LAMB, and I must say I'm impressed by the quality of your writing. In this post, you make a good case that "Shockproof" does not fit the strict definition of film noir. I would say, however, that it does at least have noirish elements. And noir is a pretty broad category, with some arguing that it is more a question of style and sensibility than of specific characteristics (although I'm not sure that even on this basis it would qualify as noir). I saw this film not too long ago, and what surprised me most was that such a movie was directed by Sirk. Your interesting point about the Marsh character being so different from the typical noir femme fatale and being such a focus of internal conflict makes me think that the film might make more sense if considered as a darker variation of Sirk's women's pictures of the 50s. In either case, you're sure right about that ending being so inconsistent with the rest of the movie. I'm also leaving a comment on your post on "Plunder Road."
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