Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 16, 1949)

Tucker’s No. 1 man. THE PICK OF THE PICTURES a : VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS Vol. 14, No. 7 The Plunderers with Rod Cameron, Ilona Massey, Adrian Booth, Forrest Tucker. 87 Mins. EXPERT HAND OF JOE KANE MAKES THIS A WESTERN THAT THE AUDIENCE SHOULD GO FOR COMPLETELY. FINE VALUES IN EVERY CATEGORY. ONE FOR THE MONEY. Producer and director credits on this one list Joe Kane in both divisions. The exhibitor by this time should know that when Kane is at the helm of a western the end product has. veteran know-how and there is a flurry of wild action every few minvites which this time culminates in a rousing assault by Sioux Indians on a frontier fort back in 1870. That the audience goes for romance, action, blood and thunder and a Slickly developed plot is a foregone conclusion. Empire-Universal (Trucolor) There are quality performances in this one, too. Cameron, the Misses Massey and Booth and Forrest Tucker emote smoothly and give the story many fine values in this respect. There is sound support in the minor roles with Paul Fix assigned a number of good lines at smart intervals. Operating under cover, Rod Cameron is an US Army officer who is assigned to track down Forrest Tucker & Co., desperadoes. He arrives at his scene of operations, makes his contacts, is thought a criminal and forthwith heads for the hills where he meets up with his man. His plan is to locate the hideout, capture the whole kit-caboodle. There are complications introduced by the girls. Cameron grows to like Tucker. A scheming banker tips Cameron’s plan to Tucker. But the sheriff, George Cleveland, shows up in time and takes Tucker, the girls, and Paul Fix, They are en route to military justice, narrowly avert a lynch party and then the Indians attack. Fix and Tucker die in the fight, heroically. So does Miss Booth, Cameron and Miss Massey when the smoke clears, head for his ranch in Texas. They finally understand each other after many vicissitudes. CAST: Rod Cameron, Ilona Massey, Adrian Booth, Forrest Tucker, George Cleveland, Paul Fix, Grant Withers, Taylor Holmes. CREDITS: Associate producer-director, Joe Kane; Screenplay, Gerald Geraghty, Gerald Adams; Original story, James Edward Grant; Photography, Jack Marta. DIRECTION: Fine. PHOTOGRAPHY: Good. REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK Command Decision with Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Yan Johnson, Brian Donlevy, Charles Bickford. MGM 112 Mins. STIRRING, STRONGLY FLAVORED AUTHORITATIVE TRIBUTE TO MEN AT WAR AND AERIAL BOMBARDMENT. TELLINGLY PLAYED BY TOP LINE PERFORMERS. A MAN’S PICTURE. MUCH NAME VALUE. A more than frequently stirring exhibit of men at war without recourse to delineation of the filth, blood and physical pain but with much attention centred on the emotional reactions of the base echelon planning staff, this film version based on the novel and play by Owen Wister Haines is a pungent, strongly flavored and authoritative tribute to aerial bombardment deployed where it did the most good, expended considerable life and aircraft yet stalled a counter move that would have caused widespread havoc against inferior arms. This is a man’s picture. There is net even the swish of a WAC’s skirt. It is tellingly played by a topline selection of the right performers, ‘Their attention to the dramatic pattern is basic, argumentative, low pitched and intense in the male business of warfare. They make it known that they are doing a job of destruction that must be done and come hell and high water they do it with maximum effort. Credit for an able production task is due Sidney Franklin. Sam Wood expanded the stage version somewhat and the fluidity of the film medium again enhances a potent theatre vehicle. It runs long but is compact with visual and mental alertness on the spectator’s part, rarely, if at all, straying from story development. Story is set in England, 1943, and grows from an intelligence report concerning the development of new jet fighters by the Luftwaffe. Clark Gable, as a brigadier general, launches ‘Operation Stitch” like Poor Richard’s ‘Stitch In Time.” He is in conflict with higher brass—/Walter Pidgeon—over the cost in men and planes. Gable is as close to his men as rank will permit and he knows their backgrounds and in some cases immediate families, which troubles his operational decisions. There are squadron problems, one concerning’ dereliction of duty by a flight officer. Van Johnson is Gable’s sergeant, flitting in and about the proceedings with an air of enlisted man omnipotence. Charles Bickford is a newspaperman lurking on the field and poking about where he is restricted. He gets the wind up when a Congressional party of mixed mentality and intelligence comes visiting as an operation is about to be set in movement. There are personal conflicts between Gable and Pidgeon and much argument about the value of “Stitch” to the end that later Gable is relieved of his command with Brian Donley taking over. Gable thinks he is about to return to the States to a training command. Just before taking off he is handed orders to proceed to the Pacific Theatre to assume command of a B-29 ovitfit. Johnson goes with him. Donlevy decides to complete ‘Stitch’? and Schweinhaufen gets a going over. CAST: Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, Charles Bickford, John Hodiak, Edward Arnold, Marshall Thompson, Richard Quine, Cameron Mitchell, Clinton Sundberg, Ray Collins, Warner Anderson, John Mclintire, Moroni O!sen, John Ridgely, Michael Steele, Edward Earle, Mack Williams, James Millican. CREDITS: Producer, Sydney Franklin; Director, Sam Wood; Screenplay, William R. Laidlaw, George Froeschel; Based on the play by Owen Wister Haines; Produced on the stage by Kermit Bloomgarden; Photography, Harold Rosson; Musical Score, Miklos Rozsa; Art, Cedric Gibbons, Urie McLeary; Editor, Harold F. Kress; Sound, Douglas Shearer; Sets, Edwin B. Willis, Jack D. Moore; Special effects, A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe. , : DIRECTION: Pungent. PHOTOGRAPHY: Excellent. MGM To Film ‘Kim' MGM will bring Rudyard Kip Warners Buys Story Warners has bought Richard Ivar’s original, “Unfair ling’s famed classic, “Kim,” to. Weather,” as a starring vehicle for Jack Carson and Patricia Neal. "Border Incident’ “Border Incident,” starring George Murphy and_ Ricardo Montalban has gone into production at MGM with Anthony Mann directing and Nicholas Nayfack producing. the screen with Dean Stockwell in the starring role. Leon Gordon will produce the film in London and India. "The Great Lover' “The Great Lover” will be the release title for Paramount’s Bob Hope-Rhonda Fleming starrer formerly titled “Easy Does nh.” $2.00 Per Annum Every Girl Should Be Married with Cary Grant, Franchot Tone, Betsy Drake. RKO 85 Mins. GIRL CHASES MAN COMEDY TENDS TO BE ON THE WEAK SIDE. BEST AUDIENCE DRAW ELEMENT IS GRANTTONE NAME VALUES. SOUND PRODUCTION DETAILS. Brand of comedy purveyed here for the better part of an hour and a half is rather on the weak side. Once, or maybe twice, Cary Grant gets off a bit that will send the viewers into gales of the well known stuff. For the most part, there are intervals of silence in which Betsy Drake rants and raves, schemes and connives. Her goal is to marry Grant. An assist of sorts is provided by Diana Lynn, her shopgirl confederate. Ultimately they succeed but they are not fooling anybody, not even Grant, who is quite aware of the last ruse Seems “Old Joe,” played briefly by Eddie Albert, shows up. Albert, it turns out, is a radio actor hired for the occasion by the Misses Lynn and Drake to bamboozle the Grant-Tone combination. As trite as they come and laboring for laughs “Every Girl” has a pair of names to sell tickets. It is a smartly produced job that gets around a department store, into and out of Grant’s office—he’s a pediatrician, circulates in a restaurant called Pierre’s, and here and there. The telephone rings frequently. Tone chases Miss Drake, generally falls victim to her scatterbrained antics. In good time Grant, who is not inclined to relinquish the freedom of bachelorhood, is smitten, falls for Miss Drake’s machinations—but with his eyes open. CAST: Cary Grant, Franchot Tone, Diana Lynn, Betsy Drake, Alan Mowbray, Elisabeth Risdon, Richard Gaines, Harry Hayden. CREDITS: A Dore Schary Presentation; Produced, directed and co-written by Don Hartman; Screenplay, Stephen Morehouse Avery; Based on a story by Eleanor Harris; Photography, George E. Diskant. DIRECTION: Adequate. PHOTOGRAPHY, Good. To Produce ‘Victim’ Jerry Wald will produce Warners’ “The Victim.” Richard Conte Cast Richard Conte will star in 20th-Century Fox’ Ernest Hemingway yarn, “Snows of Kilimanjaro,” which Darryl Zanuck will produce.