Review of Shockproof

This movie is a romance, of a harmonious popular 'classicalness, of which Sirk has been an (acknowledged) craftsman, and who could define the ease, the ineffable charm of the characters and of the storytelling, the deftness, the craft, the zest, art-wise the direct opposite of the noir, being about love, trust, redemption, serene or translucent things (but being, maybe equally, about patronizing, manipulation, lack of respect …, things which Sirk obviously didn't endorse at all and needed to expose here); now, things written about Sirk's movies are often condescending, but unfairly so. The officer and the paroled woman have very good scenes, as when he explains love (what he feels love should be), or when they talk about the invented cousins, initially she seems a decent girl (more than a paroled jailbird), a bland character, then a submissive and very meek woman, being patronized by each of the two guys, allowing each to try dictating her what to think about the other, a rather unlikely behavior, I felt that Sirk cared about this aspect, this domination, he showed its inequity, its wrongness; 'Shockproof' is enormously enjoyable, heartfelt, with gusto, suspenseful when needed, made as a romance, I liked the score, the sets, the awesome cinematography, Sirk's trademark sentimentality (the naivety, the idealization) (meeting Fuller's script, and Wilde's acting)-to use a rather dull word. Marat was shown as a modest everyman, sentimentally inexperienced and mild (his first scenes are different), and politically ambitious (this is told, not shown), with the idea that a political career fits a nice guy's way of life, befits him, so in Sirk's cinema there's also this side of idealization, of delivering the conventional idealizations, but keep also in mind that he subverts the tropes of lying, deceiving, cheating, and he does this magisterially, as with the parolee's story about how she shot the persecutor of her newfound peace, so Sirk handles conventions with ease, for the joy of handling them so well and getting a one might say even lyrical effect, as you can see in the scene with the oilman's newspaper. The parolee was very patronized, each of the two guys wishing to tell her what to think …; this is one of the things I found striking in this movie, the other being the harmonious, exciting, lively form. And from both things one is left with an honest appreciation for Sirk, his craft and world-view.