Cornel Wilde in "Shockproof" (1949) - Sam Fuller's first screenplay

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.
A 1949 American film-noir crime film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by S. Sylvan Simon and Helen Deutsch, written by Helen Deutsch & Samuel Fuller, cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr., starring Cornel Wilde, Patricia Knight, John Baragrey, Esther Minciotti, Russell Collins, Charles Bates, Arthur Space, and Gilbert Barnett. Screen debut appearance of Howard St. John.
Wilde and Knight were husband and wife during filming. They divorced in 1951.
First screenplay sold by Samuel Fuller after his service in World War 2. He was with the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division (The Big Red One) that saw action in Africa, Sicily and on D-Day in Normandy. He was awarded the Silver Star, the military's third-highest decoration for valor in combat.
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" (1944) screenwriter Helen Deutsch step in to pen a soft-suds rewrite. Neither Fuller nor Director Douglas Sirk were pleased and voiced Their disapproval loudly.
A number of Fuller's screenplays, including "The Naked Kiss" (1964), "The Baron of Arizona" (1950), "House of Bamboo" (1955), "Forty Guns" (1957), "The Big Red One" (1980) and this film, featured a lead character called Griff. Griff was the name of a soldier Fuller served with in the U.S. Army and who was killed overseas during World War 2.
The British serial killer, John Straffen, committed a murder on the way to see this film at the cinema in 1951.
This film features the iconic Bradbury Building at 304 S. Broadway as the location of Griff Marat's office. Out of his office window can be seen the old Hall of Records Building at 220 N. Broadway (demolished 1973), which is about 0.4 miles away.
The reaction of the two youngsters to meeting a real live 'bleached' blonde was fairly typical. Peroxide blonde hair had usually been relegated to film stars and celebrities, the stuff of pin up girls and movie magazines...or of fast (bad) girls. And it was a difficult, often risky process to do. The mid century would bring new style innovation in hairstyles, as well, with hair coloring becoming easier and less costly to obtain. A popular ad line from Clairol at the time even asked, is it true blondes have more fun.
The WW2 years imposed austerity in all things to most Americans, including fashion, as fabric goods were needed for the war effort. But the post war era brought back big things, including Dior's sumptuous New Look of full skirted ladies' garments, launched in 1947. Costume Designer Jean Louis used that trend to his advantage in the clothes he designed for this film.
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 ... 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."
An interesting noir for Sam Fuller completists.