The Exhibitor (1954)

July 28, 1954 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR Warde, Benny Bartlett, Fred Graham, Harry Landers, Dick Simmons. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Story: James Stewart, a photographer on the staff of a national photo magazine, is confined to his Greenwich Village apartment by a broken leg. His only divertissement is observing happenings in other apartments from his rear window. He sees salesman Raymond Burr and his nagging invalid wife, Irene Winston; young composer Ross Bagdasarian; lonely spinster Judith Evelyn; attractive ballet dancer Georgine Darcy; Sara Berner and husband, Frank Cady; a sculptress with a hearing aid, Jesslyn Fax; and a couple of honeymooners Rand Harper and Havis Davenport. A visitor at the Stewart apart¬ ment, insurance company nurse Thelma Ritter, offers him physical comfort as well as advice to marry Park Avenue beauty Grace Kelly, who is in love with him. He, however, is reductant to get her involved in his roving career. He only has a week to go before his cast is removed. At night, Stewart notices Burr leave the apartment several times carrying an aluminum suit¬ case and later he sees him cleaning it. Later, when Berner’s dog sniffs around the flowers in the "garden, he suspects that part of Winston’s body may be there. Kelly takes his suspicions lightly, but Stewart eventually impresses her and tries to get the cooperation of a friend, detective lieutenant Wendell Corey. The latter does investigate and says Winston seems to have gone to the country. Kelly goes to Burr’s apartment to seek evi¬ dence, but Burr returns and would have killed her except for the intervention of the police, summoned by Stewart. She signals that she has the dead woman’s ring. Burr catches the signal and traces it to Stewart, whom he goes to kill by drop¬ ping out the window. Corey and other officers arrive to wound Burr, but Stewart loses his grip and falls to the ground, several police breaking the fall. Burr is guilty of murdering his wife. Stewart’s fall has broken both legs, so he faces more idleness, but this time with Kelly to keep him company. X-Ray: This entertainment-packed film builds in suspense and plot intensity. Audiences should be kept on edge throughout. There are comedy relief, drama, mystery, romance, and a downto-earth quality that puts the film in the better entertainment category. The cast is okeh with Stewart, Ritter, and Kelly particularly outstanding, while the direc¬ tion by Hitchcock is even better than usual. This looks like a winner. The screen play is by John Michael Hayes, based on a short story by Cornell Woolrich. Maximum aspect ratio: 1.85-1. Tip On Bidding: Higher bracket. Ad Lines: “It Could Happen To Any¬ one Who Has A Rear Window”; “A Sus¬ pense Masterpiece About An Unseen Murder By The Master Of Suspense — Alfred Hitchcock”; “A Man With A Broken Leg Solves A Murder Of Which The Police Are Unaware.” >■ Broken Lance (419) Melod“6mA (Color by DeLuxe) (CinemaScope) Estimate: Well-made melodrama. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, Katy Jurado, Hugh O’Brian, Edward Franz, Earl Holliman, E. G. Marshall, Carl Ben¬ ton Reid, Philip Ober, Robert Burton, Robert Adler, Robert Grandin, Harry Car¬ ter, Nacho Galindo, Julian Rivero, Ed Servisection 3 mund Cobb. Produced by Sol C. Siegel; directed by Edward Dmytryk. Story: When Robert Wagner gets out of a penitentiary in the southwest in the 1880’s, he is taken to the office of Gov¬ ernor E. G. Marshall, who wants him to settle things amicably with his halfbrothers in the next room, Richard Wid¬ mark, Hugh O’Brian, and Earl Holliman. The latter offer him money to go else¬ where, but he turns them down and goes out to the ranch, once owned by his father Spencer Tracy, and finds it neglected. He recalls how things were when Tracy was sole owner of thousands of head of cattle. The son Tracy respected was Wagner, and he loved the boy’s mother, Kay Jurado, an Indian princess he married after his first wife died. Wag¬ ner meets Jean Peters, Marshall’s daugh¬ ter, and they fall in love. A poisoned stream causes the death of some of Tracy’s cattle and he traces it to a copper mine operating upstream. Tracy and the boys get the mine to close down until the water becomes pure, but a fight develops in which some of the miners are wounded and the company goes to the courts for redress. Marshall, who could name a friendly judge to try the case, insists that Tracy keep Wagner away from Peters because of his Indian blood. Tracy tells him off. Before the trial, Tracy turns his land over to his sons to evade possible judgment and later agrees to a settle¬ ment. Wagner, however, is forced to testify and is sentenced to jail. The other brothers refuse to sign an agreement which would have freed him, and Tracy, defeated, becomes ill. Later, he tries to ride to intercept them before they sell some of his land and dies on horseback. The flashback ended, Jurado talks to Wag¬ ner and convinces him to go away to make a fresh start. He finally agrees. Widmark, however, waits for him on tl)£ trail. There is a fight. As Widmark is about to kill him, he is shot by Jndian foreman Edward Franz. Later, Wagner and Peters ride off. X-Ray: A high-rating outdoor action entry, this shapes up as one of the better films of its type, aided and abetted by the characterization of Tracy, ably supported by Wagner, Peters, Widmark, and Jurado. The yarn, though similar to others in some respects, is well-written and wellpresented, and the pace moves at a good clip. It is the kind of film that could catch the imagination and desires of audiences. The screen play is by Richard Murphy, based on a story by Philip Yordan. Tip On Bidding: Better price. Ad Lines: “A Powerful Story Of The Great Southwest And Its Early Settlers”; “He Had A Way With Everyone Except His Own Sons”; “Action . . . Thrills . . . Romance . . . Great Performances.” The Raid (408) Melodrama 83m. (Color by Technicolor) Estimate: Okeh Civil War action meller. Cast: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Rich¬ ard Boone, Lee Marvin, Tommy Rettig, Peter Graves, Douglas Spencer, Paul Cavanagh, Will Wright, James Best, John Dierkes, Helen Ford, Harry Hines, Simon Scott, Claude Akins. Executive producer Leonard Goldstein; produced by Robert L. Jacks; directed by Hugo Fregonese. Story: Toward the end of the Civil War, 11 Confederate officers escape from a Union military prison near Vermont led by Major Van Heflin. Disguised as a Canadian businessman, Heflin stops at the boarding house of Anne Bancroft, attrac¬ tive war widow, and her son, Tommy Rettig. Another boarder is one-armed Union Captain Richard Boone, war-casuality. Heflin plans to take and loot the town with his men and other rebel soldiers who have escaped from other camps and infiltrated behind the lines. In various dis¬ guises the men get ready, but the plan is postponed when a group of Union soldiers arrive for a brief stay. Lee Marvin, hot¬ headed rebel officer, gets drunk and de¬ cides to take matters in his own hands. Heflin kills him in order to preserve the plan. He is acclaimed a hero by the towns¬ people and given some land on which to settle which makes his job all the tougher. It is also complicated by the feelings of Bancroft for him and vice versa, and be¬ cause of the admiration of Rettig, but the plan for the attack is finalized. The rebels loot the town of money and burn it. Rettig is surprised and goes for the cavalry while Heflin becomes a thing despised by all the townspeople. Boone puts up a fight until he runs out of ammunition. As the Union cavalry appears, the rebels get out with Heflin delaying them as much as possible until they get across a wooden bridge which he then proceeds to burn making their escape certain. X-Ray: A highly interesting yarn is to be found in this well-made entry, and the cast, direction, and production are in the better class making the end result a realistic film that should go over well as part of the program. It moves at a good pace and has an unusual theme to commend it. Action, intrigue, and suspense also prove of assistance in putting the film across. The screen play is by Sydney Boehm; screen story by Frances Cock¬ rell; and they are based on “Affair At St. Albans” by Herbert Ravenal Sass. Tip On Bidding: Fair program price. Ad Lines: “A Gripping Story About A Little-known Incident Of The Civil War”; “A Thrilling Tale Qif Action . . . Adven¬ ture And Desperate Men”; “He Couldn't Afford To Be Human ... He Had His Orders.” UNITED ARTISTS The Diamond Wizard Melodrama (Pallos) (English-made) Estimate: Routine programmer will fit ■into the duallers. Cast: Dennis O’Keefe, Margaret Sheri¬ dan, Philip Friend, Allan Wheatley, Francis de Wolff, Eric Berry, Michael Bal¬ four, Ann Gudrun, Paul Hardmuth, Cyril Chamberlain, Seymour Green. Produced by Steven Pallos; directed by Dennis O’Keefe. Story: When a million dollars is stolen from a U. S. Treasury vault and a clue to its whereabouts turns up in England, treasury man Dennis O’Keefe is sent over to investigate as well as to bring over a fake diamond that so closely resembles the real thing that only an expert can tell the difference. It is suspected that the diamond has been hand-made, and its continued fraudulent manufacture could ruin the diamond market the world over. Scotland Yard inspector Philip Friend is assigned to work with him while he con¬ tinues working on the disappearance of atomic scientist Paul Hardmuth, father to Margaret Sheridan who arrives in Lon¬ don and who is an old acquaintance of O’Keefe’s. She tells O’Keefe that her father wrote her he was getting interested in diamonds, and tests on a brooch she is wearing proves it is a similar stone. Clues lead them to Eric Berry, one of the crooks wanted for the currency robbery and a resulting murder. A gunfight en¬ sues, and he is killed and a huge cache of the diamonds are found on him.’ They find that one of the diamond experts, 3795