Modern Screen (Dec 1949 - Nov 1950)

Miriam (Olive Deering), who gets on her nerves (I think Miriam's a De Mille invention, too) and in the end, Delilah just doesn't trust the man to be faithful to her. So she turns him over to the authorities. She feels awful when Samson's blinded, though, and she helps him make the walls come tumbling down (once his hair's long again, his strength is restored) and all the Philistines are killed, killed, killed. So are Samson and Delilah. In case I sounded carping about C. B.'s inventing a bit of plot here and there. I didn't mean it that way. To make a full-length spectacle out of a couple of pages in the Bible requires some doing, and he did it. THE FALLEN IDOL Cast: Ralph Richardson, Michele Morgan. Bobby Henrey, Sonia Dresdel. Denis O'Dea. Selznick Here's an. excellent British thriller, based on a short story by Graham Greene. Ralph Richardson and Sonia Dresdel play Mr. and Mrs. Baines, butler and housekeeper for a foreign ambassador to England. The ambassador goes away for a while, leaving his small son and his large embassy in the care of the Baines'. Small son (Bobby Henrey) adores Mr. Baines. but hates Mrs. Baines. She's a cold woman, and autocratic. She kills the boy's pet snake because she thinks it's horrid and dirty. (She thinks almost everything is horrid and dirty.) Mr. Baines. who's fallen in love with a girl named Julie (Michele Morgan) is miserable, but he hasn't the heart to ask his wife for his freedom. He's such a gentle man he pities mean people because their meanness makes them unhappy. Mrs. Baines traps little Bobby into admitting Mr. Baines met a girl on a certain afternoon, and then she plans a revenge. She says she's going out of town for a few days, but she doesn't go. She allows enough time for Mr. Baines and Julie to get themselves in a compromising position, then she starts raising the roof. In the excitement which follows, she falls to the bottom of a flight of stairs, and is killed. Bobby, who's crept out of his room, sees only the body hurtling through the air. and Baines standing The Fallen Idol: Ralph Richardson and his wife, Sonia Dresdel, come to blows when she 18 discovers he's in love with another woman. at the top of the stairs. He believes Baines is the murderer, and that starts the real trouble. Bobby makes up fantastic lies to tell the police, in the belief that he's protecting Baines. The police assume the boy is hiding something. Then, when Julie and Baines insist that he tell the truth, you're scared half silly, because you know that what the child thinks is true isn't true at all. There's suspense the way only the British build suspense. There's a romance which is as sweet and as sad as springtime, and the cast is perfection, down to the smallest bit player. By all means go to see The Fallen Idol. It's one of the most gripping movies ever made. A KISS FOR CORLISS Cast: Shirley Temple. David Niven. Tom Tully. Virginia Welles. United Artists. Adolescent Corliss Archer comes to lile once more, with Shirley Temple playing her. Story begins with Corliss' father. Mr. Archer (Tom Tully) representing a gold-digging blonde in a divorce case. Blonde is divorcing rich, attractive David Niven, and Archer is making blonde out to be a regular little Red Riding Hood — so sweet, so young, so innocent. The divorce is granted, David is assessed a vast sum for alimony, and he's bitter. He wants to get even with Archer. Fate plays right into his hands because Corliss, in an effort to make her boyfriend Dexter (Darryl Hickman) jealous, phonies up a whole diary of passionate love-making between her and David. After all. David's the man of the hour — Dexter will be plenty impressed. Next thing that happens is that Corliss and Dexter get locked in the basement of a night-club where they're not supposed to be, and Corliss doesn't get home until six A. M. She decides she'd better have amnesia, and she reverts to the age of nine. Her parents study her torn clothes, her vacant look, with dismay. Corliss, delighted with the effect she's creating, continues to act like a halfwit. Her parents ask her questions, Corliss answers with baby-talk. When she's told to go up to bed, she turns wistfully. A Kiss for Corliss: Much-married David Niven goes along with Shirley Temple's fib of torrid love between them to get even with her father. "Daddy," she whimpers, "I want you to carry me — " "What do you think I am, a horse?" roars her father. (That's my favorite line in the picture: It's so tender and paternal.) The next day, the elder Archers read Corliss' diary, in the hopes of finding something to snap her back to herself, and of course they discover the mad romance between their daughter and Tommy Manville Niven. David gets dragged into the situation, and he's delighted. Intends to play up to Corliss, admit everything. What a lovely way to get even with Archer! This is worrisome to Corliss. She doesn't like her family thinking she's a fallen woman, but Niven refuses to back up her story that the diary's a parade of lies. Niven's running around calling Archer "Dad," and sending Corliss silk underwear. I won't tell what happens, but it's fun. Shirley is cute, and David is delightful. As for Tom Tully. he's on the scene so constantly, and he's so earnestly and loudly un-subtle, you could say his performance was as broad as it was long. ADAM'S RIB Cast: Spencer Tracy. Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday. Tom Ewell. Jean Hagen. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer This must be MGM's year. Adam's Rib is delicious, delightful, delovely. Adam (Spencer Tracy) is assistant district attorney, his wife (Katharine Hepburn) is likewise a lawyer. They live an idyllic existence — apartment in the city, farm in Connecticut, pretty clothes, mixed drinks before dinner, lots of wit and affection between them. Until the day Katie reads about a lady (Judy Holliday) taking several shots at her husband and his girlfriend in their love nest. Men, Katie declares, are always getting away with things because of the "unwritten law." When they shoot somebody for destroying the "sanctity of the home," the world applauds. But let some poor female try to murder an errant spouse, and wham! Spencer tries to explain to her that she's crazy. Just because a man gets away with an oc(Continued on page 87) Adam's Rib: District Attorney Spencer Tracy and lawyer Katharine Hepburn, find their ideal marriage flagging when they're rivals in court.