Modern Screen (Jan-Jun 1945)

MOVIE REVIEWS (Continued from page 6) into Fort de France. It would have been all right if the patrol boat hadn't come along. As it is, there's some shooting, and while Morgan gets away with it, the eyes of the police are upon him. Furthermore, "Slim" hasn't taken the plane home. She cashed in the ticket and is waiting at the hotel when Morgan gets back. "Did you want me to go?" she asks. She and Cricket, the piano player, are writing a song together. She sings it the night the police captain and his men come for Morgan. The night Morgan really goes into action in the old Bogart manner. In addition to everything else, "To Have and Have Not" can boast one of the best supporting performances of all time. Walter Brennan, as old Eddie, Morgan's rum-soaked pal, is something. Excuse me while I go back to see it again. — War. P. S. The water front of Fort de France, capital of Martinique, was duplicated on the Warner Brothers back lot as a major setting for this production, as much of the action takes place at sea. . . . The thirtyfoot cabin cruiser is almost an identical duplicate of Bogart's own boat, the Sluggy. It was chartered and brought to the studio to cruise the tank sets with Bogey at the wheel. . . . Hoagy "Stardust" Carmichael makes his debut as a screen actor. He plays a piano in the Fort de France cafe and introduces his own new composition "How Little We Know." Mercer did the lyrics, and Hoagy and Lauren Bacall sing. FRENCHMAN'S CREEK In swashbuckling elegance, this story of handsome pirate and lovely lady wends its leisurely, romantic course. Technicolor gives the scenes on the coast of Cornwall a spectacular beauty, and red hair does the same for Joan Fontaine. Arturo De Cordova is properly dashing as the pirate. This Dona St. Columb, beautiful as she is, cannot be commended on the score either of virtue or prudence. She breaks her marriage vows, is a traitor to her country and murders a man. Yet there is a gay, reckless courage and gallantry about her that makes it easy to forget all this. Her husband, Harry (Ralph Forbes), is a fat gambler, too stupid to see that his friend, Rockingham (Basil Rathbone), is determined to seduce Dona. To escape from them both for a while, Dona takes her children to their country place in Cornwall. She finds the house practically closed up, the regular servants gone, and in their place one William (Cecil Kellaway), a sly, disconcerting old fellow who seems to know far too much about her. The first night, Dona discovers tobacco and a book of French essays in the stand by her bed. She sees William hasten off to answer a low whistle from the dark wood nearby. So when, the next day, she hears that a French pirate is terrorizing the coast and is thought to hide in that neighborhood, she puts two and two together and gets five. It turns out to be the right answer, and the pirate turns out to be the right man for Dona. Their romance is passionate, tempestuous and dangerous beyond belief. Dona accompanies her lover on a pirate raid and gets back just in time to avoid discovery by Harry and Rockingham, who arrive from London. Rockingham takes one look at Dona's glowing eyes and knows that another man has succeeded where he has failed. He in his turn adds two and two and gets five. "Frenchman's Creek" is Joan Fontaine's picture throughout. — Par. P. S. Nearly six months in the making, this Technicolor film nicked the company exchequer for a sum of $3,600,000. . . . One of the reasons for this tremendous figure was the long location trip necessary. Only available stretch of California seacoast resembling the coast of Cornwall was found in Mendocino County, 600 miles north of Hollywood. An inlet of the sea called Little River was chosen, and the location troupe of 250 persons set up headquarters on the site of the abandoned lumber town of Albion. ... A second unit, working under the direction of Hal Walker, remained another four weeks shooting background material. THE RRIGHTON STRANGLER Do actors really live the parts they play on the stage? Here is the story of one who lived it h. 1 too well. Reginald Parker (John Loder) is a charming, popular actor who has achieved a terrific success in a play written by his fiancee. The play is called "The Strangler." It has been running for a year in blacked-out London to packed houses, but now Parker insists that he'll play it no longer. "I'm tired of strangling people," he says. "I've been doing it too long." The play's last performance is given on New Year's Eve. Afterward, at midnight, the theater is hit by a bomb. No one knows what happened to Parker, and when his fiancee hears nothing from him, he is presumed dead. Actually, he was only hit on the head and stunned. When he comes to, he has forgotten that he is Reginald Parker. He remembers only the character of Edward Grey, the "strangler" in the play. He knows that Grey went to Brighton and strangled the Lord Mayor and the Chief of Detectives. So, obeying a terrible inner compulsion, Parker entrains for Brighton. He talks with apparent normality to a pretty WAAF who happens to sit beside him. Her name is April Manby (June Duprez) , and she's going home to visit her mother and father. She finds this handsome stranger pleasant and considerate and introduces him to her family when they arrive. He tells them his name is Edward Grey and that he is "on business." A weird, grisly business it is. For Parker's subconscious mind tells him he must strangle the Lord Mayor and the Chief of Detectives. He has the silk cord he used in the play in his pocket, and he fingers it from time to time with a mad, unholy eagerness. He makes his plans carefully, and everything goes according to schedule. The Lord Mayor is an old man. Too old to fight off this terrible stranger who wishes him to die. The next murder is equally easy. Chief Inspector Allison is walking alone on a dark street when the silk cord tightens around his throat. But now the strangler is haunted by fear. Does April Manby suspect him? If she does, she too must die. John Loder gives a brilliant performance as the mad strangler. Rose Hobart, Michael St. Angel and Miles Mander are among the cast. — RKO. P. S. This picture was adapted to the screen by Arnold Phillips and Max Nosseck from an original story they had planned for publication us a novel. . . . The wellknown European director, Max Nosseck, brings to its production the continental (Continued on page 10)