Shock (DVD)

Derek Marbury and Gilroy Hayworth are British soldiers trapped on the Western Front in the darkest days of World War I. Though once the closest of friends, Gilroy resents Derek for marrying Lucy, the woman he loves. Caught in a battlefield bombardment, the two men are separated. Derek now suffers from amnesia, and is given the name John Drake. Gilroy returns to London, where he deceptively tells Lucy that her husband died on the battlefield. "Drake" is back in London as well. But Gilroy, unwilling to lose his chance with the grieving Lucy, is determined to prevent his former friend from regaining his memory, even if it means killing him.

Shock's star, Ralph Forbes, was an English actor who immigrated to America in the mid-1920s. He quickly made a name for himself in his new home with roles in Beau Geste (1926), Lilies of the Field (1930), and Smilin' Through (1932). He was also Sir Hugo Baskerville in the first Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes picture, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939). In an unusual choice for a war melodrama, silent comedians Clyde Cook and Billy Bevan appear as a pair of comic relief soldiers at the beginning of the film.

• drama