Canadian Film Weekly (May 4, 1949)

THE PICK OF THE PICTURES Vol. 14, No. 18 a —it VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INOUSTRY REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS $2.00 Per Annum The Set-Up with Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter. RKO 72 Mins. STRONGLY FLAVORED DRAMA ABOUT THE SORDID SIDE OF THE PRIZEFIGHT GAME. GOOD JOB OF STORYTELLING, WELL PLAYED. FORTHRIGHT. UNDERSTANDING DIRECTION. Joseph Moncure March’s narrative poem about a prizefighter who retused to take a dive and _ then suitered the brutal conse" quences when the fixers caught up with him in an alley and gave him a going over, is translated into screen drama that is at once vicious, sordid, strongly flavored and forthright in its depictions of a raw game. Here there is no glamor. The pug in this case is a man old for the sport. He plays the tank town circuit. His wife moves about with him. She wants him to give it up before he is badly injured. He is very much in love with her but the money derived from his ring appearances is another factor — that and the lure of perhaps making the big time. As it details the fix, the story circulates around the boxing world, inspects characters. Young hopefuls are there for their first bout, the defeated are carted off to hospitals, the sure winners are nervous. Behind the scenes the woman waits. Robert Ryan is set in a four round go which has been paid for. He is not told of this fix until the bout is well under way. In the four vividly filmed rounds he takes a bad mauling but then fairly obliterates his man. He is the winner but a man left alone. The fixers close in on him. When they leave him lying on the street he is permanently injured and will never fight again. Audrey Totter, playing his wife, can see the light of triumph through her tears as she holds Ryan in her arms awaiting an ambulance. There is expert storytelling here. The performances are played in the right key. Robert Wise contributed much fine understanding in directing the story. CAST: Robert Ryan, George Tobias, Alan Baxter, Wallace Ford, Percy Helton, Hal _ Fieberling, Darryl Hickman. CREDITS: Producer Richard Goldstone; Director, Robert Wise; Screenplay, Art Cohen; From the poem by Joseph Moncure March; Photography, Milton Krasner. : DIRECTION: Good. PHOTOGRAPHY: Good. Mono Star Renewed Roddy McDowall has _ been signed to a new long-term contract by Lindsley Parsons, Monogram producer, Audrey Totter, Outpost In Morocco with George Raft, Marie Windsor, Akim Tamiroff. United Artists 92 Mins. ADVENTURING WITH THE FOREIGN LEGION. SOUND DRAMA HAS MUCH IN SPECTACLE, EXCITEMENT VALUES. WILL BENEFIT FROM STRONG EXPLOITATION. GOOD PRODUCTION. There is a certain amount of refreshment in the way of adventure themes to serve up to the audience in this drama of The Foreign Legion. It is aptly written for the talents of George Raft and the other players in the lead positions. Fictional content aims at providing diversion to the viewer and easily achieves that end. It is a smart blending of heroics, romance, the colorful backgrounds of a desert outpost in North Africa and spectacular military action. This last element is real locale stuff with a regiment of Spahis going into action, Portroyals are handled well by a thoroughly competent cast. A captain in La Legion Etrangere, George Raft is assigned to escort Marie Windsor, daughter of an Emir, to her father’s desert home. He gets her there safely enough but they are in love on arrival. Miss Windsor’s parent has no particular love for the French and is plotting an uprising. It comes off in proper time. The nearby garrison is wiped out. Raft returns with a punitive force and the stage is set for a large scale operation. There is a raid at night which Tamiroff leads. He brings Miss Windsor back with him as a hostage. This irks Raft but he learns Miss Windsor still loves him. She is returned unharmed but her father launches his attack. In trying to get to Raft ahead of the Arabs Miss Windsor is killed. At the finish the tribes friendly to the French have shown their hand in erasing the rebels. Robert Florey has done well in his direction. There are many first rate bits inserted to provide suspense and color the gaps. Picture will benefit from a strong exploitation campaign. Much of the action was shot on location in Morocco. CAST: George Raft, Marie Windsor, Akim Tamiroff, John Litel, Eduard Franz, Erno Verebes, Crane Whitley, Damion O'Flynn. CREDITS: Produced by Samuel Bis choff, Joseph N. Ermolieff; Director, Robert Florey; Screenplay, Charles Grayson, Paul de Sainte-Colombe; Original story, Joseph N. Ermolieff; Photography, Lucien Andriot. DIRECTION: Good. PHOTOGRAPHY: Fine. The Red Pony with Myrna Loy, Robert Mitchum, Louis Calhern, Shepperd Strudwick, Peter Miles. Empire-Universal (Technicolor) 89 Mins. EARNEST DRAMATIC STUDY IN CHILD PSYCHOLOGY, FAMILY RELATIONS. HAS MOMENTS OF GENUINE FEELING. ADROITLY PERFORMED. GOOD PRODUCTION. Coming from the early pen of John Steinbeck who is more noted for his novels of migrant workers and the winebibbers of ‘ the Monterrey Peninsula, The Red Pony is an earnest and urgent dramatic study of child psychology told in simple coherent terms. The script concerns the family of Shepperd Strudwick living on a ranch in California. Father to Peter Miles and husband to Myrna Loy, Strudwick was formerly a schoolteacher in San Jose. In the small community near the Gabilan Mountains, Strudwick is too much the object of local respect. He would rather the citizenry call him “Fred” than “Mr. Tiflin.” In simply stated terms the narrative develops when young Miles receives a pony from his father. He devotes himself to the animal, supervised by Robert Mitchum. The time comes for the animal to be trained. Miles is enthusiastic as only a child can be at this point and is taken considerably aback when the pony becomes sick. He blames Mitchum who he thinks let it out in the rain. The pony gets critical and wanders out cone morning, dies. Miles locates it via buzzards. In a fit of mad anger he tries to kill a. buzzard, is severely clawed. Meanwhile Mitchum’s mare is about to foal and to make up to Miles for his less he promises the colt which is of thoroughbred lineage. Miles doesn’t want it at first. He has lost faith both in Mitchum and his father. Mitchum, fearing for an unnatural foaling, states he will kill his mare in order to save the foal for Miles, who tries to prevent it. While they haggle the foal is born, normally. It ends on a happy note with warm congeniality once again the domestic order. CAST: Myrna Loy, Robert Mitchum, Louis Calhern, Shepperd Strudwick, Peter Miles, Margaret Hamilton, Patty King. CREDITS: Charles K. Feldman Presentation; Produced and directed by Lewis Milestone; Screenplay, John Steinbeck; Photography, Tony Gaudio, DIRECTION: Good PHOTOGRAPHY: Good. Virginia Mayo Cast Virginia Mayo has been cast opposite James Cagney in Warners’ White Heat. Canadian Pacific with Randolph Scott, Jane Wyatt, Nancy Olson. 20th-Fox (Cinecolor) 95 Mins. WILD ADVENTURE STUFF, NOISY RIP SNORTIN’ RAILROAD STORY. HAS HIGH HUMOROUS RELIEF. STANDS TO REWARD THE CUSTOMER SHOPPING FOR ANOTHER RANDOLPH SCOTT ROUGH, TOUGH ROLE. WILL DO THE TRICK. In no time flat after the plot groundwork is indicated, this wild, adventurous, noisy, bloody and rip snortin’ action tale gets going places as it details how the transcontinental Canadian railroad was put through theabove-the-border Rockies. Anybody out shopping for Randolph Scott playing out another rough, tough brawling role with plenty in the way of fisticuffs and gunplay, plus an Indian ambush and with a couple of girls involved in the telling of the story, will be well rewarded. The trouble ahead of the railroad comes from the big talk of Victor Jory who is stirring up the trappers who live in the mountains. Nancy Olson, a looker and also a vivacious newcomer, has a strong yen for Scott, surveyor and trouble shooter for the road. Jory is out to halt the line before it can be laid through a pass. Miss Olson’s father sides with Jory and wants her to forget Scott. J. Carrol Naish is an old teller of tall tales, pal to Scott. His forte is Alfred Nobel’s well known product which he hauls around. One of the best comic pieces of business fall to Naish when things get hot and wild as the Indians attack the railhead. He is captured, makes like he is smoking a stick of dynamite. The Indians want to do the same, He obligingly lights a stick for the braves and they smoke their heads off while he beats it for reinforcements. Miss Olson rebels against her father to inform Scott of the Indian uprising. Jane Wyatt is a lady medico who falls in love with Scott, too, but fails to get enthusiastic for his blood and thunder activities. However, she nurses him through a severe accident but at the finish she leaves him to Miss Olson, who is more his type. CAST: Randolph Scott, Jane Wyatt, J. Carrol Naish, Victor Jory, Nancy Olson, Robert Barrat, Walter Sande, Don Haggerty, Grandon Rhodes, Mary Kent. CREDITS: Producer, Nat Holt; Director, Edwin L. Marin; Screenplay, Jack DeWitt, Kenneth Gamet; Original Jack DeWitt; Photography, Fred Jackman, Jr. DIRECTION: Rip Snortin’‘, PHOTOGRAPHY: Good,