There's a world of difference between Cornel Wilde's previous film, Roadhouse, and this one and it's not entirely due to the casting - Roadhouse boasted a great quartet in Wilde, Richard Widmark, Ida Lupino and Celeste Holm, whereas her we get Wilde, period, and Jean Negulesco handled Roadhouse better than Douglas Sirk handles Shockproof (a meaningless title having nothing to do with the story. Considering they'd been married a good decade there's remarkably little chemistry between Wilde and Patricia Knight or indeed between anyone in the cast and anyone else. The protagonists meet in the first minute, she a parolee, he her parole officer and you can bet the farm he's going to fall for her despite his 'tough' attitude. It's all fairly predictable but Sirk was a decent craftsman and is able to salvage something ... not much, but a little. For Sirk completists only.
Review of Shockproof
