Shockproof

Douglas Sirk's 1949 film is about the relationship between a parole officer and the woman he is assigned to supervise. Jenny has just been released after serving time for killing a man; Griff finds her work and places her in his own home to look after his ailing mother. The closeness between them puts his professional position and her freedom at risk at the same time, and a man from her past has not disappeared. Samuel Fuller wrote the screenplay, and the resolution at the end was imposed by the studio against his intentions, a break still noticeable now. It is one of Sirk's early American films, and the formal attention he would develop in his later melodramas is already visible. Who it's for: viewers who like classic noir and early Sirk. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a consistent ending; the film's close openly contradicts the rest of it.