Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1951)

DETECTIVE STORY' PUNCH-PACKED MELODRAMA Rates • • • generally, more where exploited Paramount 103 minutes Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell, George Macready, Horace McMahon, Gladys George, Joseph Wiseman, Lee Grant, Gerald Mohr, Frank Feylen, Craig Hill, Michael Strong, Luis Van Rooten, Bert Freed, Warner Anderson, Grandon Rhodes, William "Bill" Phillips, Russell Evans. Directed by William Wyler As transcribed for the screen by producerdirector William Wyler, "Detective Story" is a smashing, hard-hitting adaptation of Sydney Kingsley's hit play that will stand high among the year's screen melodramas. Still played within the confines of a New York police precinct, Wyler's terse, taut direction and brilliant supervision of the players reads pace and action into the piece to a point where absence of physical movement is indiscernable. Dialogue and characterizations are cunningly employed to make "Detective Story" vital and affecting celluloid drama. It's a good story — real, authentic, vigorous, frequently touching. The • POOR • • FAIR • • • GOOD • • • • TOPS star players of Hollywood are given superb support by a featured group, smartly recruited from the original Broadway play. Their charactaerization, as fresh as an opening night, fill out "Detective Story" admirably, contributing much to the overall validity that distinguishes the picture. Except for family houses and rural areas, "Detective Story" looms as a boxoffice natural, fast, slick entertainment with appeal for a wide variety of filmgoers. STORY: Making almost no digressions from the original, the tale is an account of a psychopathic detective whose hatred of crinre pursues his relentlessly — so much so that he turns on his own wife when he discovers she had, prior to their marriage, visited a doctor to bear the child that resulted from her romance with a shady underworld character. The disclosure is induced by his superior's insistence on getting at the bottom of the reason for the detec tive's brutal beating of the doctor in a policej van. The detective, driven to near insanity] sacrifices his life in a shooting foray involv-J ing a four time loser, thus ending his! torment. This is the fabric of the central plot — the effectiveness of "Detective Story'j is derived from the sub-plots, all told in. terms of the various people who come to thq precinct in the course of a single day. Under the firm direction of Wyler, Kirk* Douglas and Eleanor Parker form aj dynamic romantic team as the detective an* wife. William Bendix creates a sympathetic portrait of an old time cop, and Cathjl O'Donnell is charming as the socialite gir! who comes to the rescue of her sister's bo>| friend arrested on an embezzlement charge George Macready is quietly sinister as the: abortionist, and Horace McMahon plays thffl inspector with conviction and authority Gladys George figures briefly but stringing^ as a bought-off witness against the doctor I Lee Grant grabs a lion's share of laugh^l with her brilliant playing of a girl picked un on her first shoplifting charge. The N. Y| actors fill out the large supporting cast tcj excellent effect. HANNA (Hollywood) ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN FABIAN' TRITE PERIOD MELODRAMA Rates • • on name value only Republic 100 minutes Errol Flynn, Micheline Prelle, Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Victor Francen, Jim Gerald, Helena Manson, Howard Vernon, Roger Blio, Valentine Camax, Georges Flateau, Zanie Campan, Reggie Nalder, Charles Fawcett, Aubrey Bower. Directed by William Marshall "Adventures Of Captain Fabian," with a script credited to Errol Flynn, proves beyond shadow of a doubt that the actor is far better equipped for performing swahsbuckling make-believe than for writing it. Flynn's saga of sinister doings in New < )rleans in the last Century is a story that might have been culled directly from the ten-twent-thirt melodramas that played on the old-time Mississippi Show Boats. The situations are old-fashioned — amusing, actually, in their attempts to be taken seriously. The dialogue is stilted, and as for acting, it hardly seems possible that perfermances by Micheline Prelle, Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead, and the rest of the cast, which incidentally, boasts not a single sympathetic character, could be as bad as they are under the direction of William Marshall. The director is also credited with the production of "Captain Fabian." The Republic release will have to depend solely on Flynn's name value for its boxoffice appeal. STORY: Vincent Price, scion of a prom THE MAGIC CARPET' ARABIAN NIGHTS FANTASY MISSES Rates • • as a dualler Columbia 90 minutes Lucille Ball, John Agar, Patricia Medina, Gorge Tobias, Raymond Burr, Rick Vallin, Joe Gilbert, William Fawcett, Doretta Johnson, Linda Williams, Perry Sheehan, Eilean Howe, Mina Zorka, Winona Smith. Directed by Lew Landers This Supercinecolor production by Sam Katzman permits the Arabian Nights formula te get way out of hand with a story that pursues a fantastic course involving a magic carpet, a treacherous Caliph and a royal child who is spirited away only to return in his maturity to fight for and claim his rights. The screenplay is a trashily written affair filled with silly, unconvincing dialogue. Katzman's physical production is more gilt than gossammer. The two stellar players, Lucille Ball and John Agar, fail to meet the requirements necessary to get away with this sort of nonsense — their performances are woefully inadequate, frequently ludicrous. Lew Landers' direction misses its mark in every respect. Except in locations where this formula has been particularly successful. "The Magic Carpet" must he relegated to the dualler category. STORY: Lucille Ball, outrageously gotten up in golden veils that display her midriff has the part of a Princess in the palace where John Agar has succeeded in ingrati inent and influential New Orleans famil) commits a murder and pins the crime on hi; paramour, Micheline Prelle — standing tria and about to be convicted, Errol Flynn, i sea-captain succeeds in getting her acquitted sets her up in the bar business. Price plan; to carry a social equal. After his bachelor's dinner, Miss Prelle accompanies him home goads him into a fight with his uncle. An other murder takes place. The price of he? silence is marriage to Price. Price, in turn tries to pin the crime on Flynn. In a las minute and hasty solution of the mudd waters surrounding the prinicipals, Flynn script permits actor Flynn to battle his wa from prison and enclose Miss Prelle in h arms while "the end" makes its welcom appearance. HANNA (Hollywood) ating himself as a young man of amazing powers in the realm of medicine. Agar i the youth who has grown up as the child 0 simple people but who is really the rightfu heir to the throne. When his foster-fathe is killed he learns of the existence of magic carpet and utilizes it as an instrumen in overthrowing the corrupt rulers of hi country. The magic carpet sequences hav some humor to them and are probably th most effective interludes in the drama. Miss Ball's performance is about as con vincing as Gypsy Rose Lee's might be I "Camille." John Agar is far beyond hi depth as the gallant fighter for freedom Best <>f the principals is Patricia Medina playing a dancing girl. JAMES FILM BULL FT I