Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

RUBY GENTRY' STRONG, GRI Rates • • • or better generally 20th Century-Fox 82 minutes Jennifer Jones, Charlton Heston, Karl Maiden, Tom Tully, Bernard Phillips, James Anderson, Josephine Hutchinson, Phyllis Avery, Herbert Heyes, Myra Marsh, Charles Cane, Sam Flint, Frank Wilcox Directed by King Vidor A morbidly fascinating and often shocking drama, "Ruby Gentry" is a highly charged adult film dealing in sex and violence. The story of a woman's fight against the social prejudices of a small town, this Joseph Bernhardt production follows the hyperemotional pattern reminiscent of a past Jennifer Jones starrer, "Duel in the Sun". The action is tense throughout and moves in low key, with the Silvia Richards screenplay and Miss Jones hammering out a forceful characterization of an intriguing woman. While the Legion of Decency may look askance at some aspects of the film — especially the violent climax which, like "Duel", wallows in frenzied passions — "Ruby PPING DRAMA Gentry" should be a much-talked-about picture and a big grosser. The strong sex implications may make this questionable for small-town family spots. Gearing all elements to achieve the maximum in emotional excitement, director King Vidor has fashioned a compact, fast-moving film with all those little touches that are the hallmarks of a craftsman. Jennifer Jones, in the title role, is the kingpin on which the drama turns, and she provides a memorable portrayal of a woman guided only by her passions. Heading an excellent supporting cast, Charlton Heston, on a smaller scale, matches Jones' performance in the role of the man who motivates Ruby into running the gamut of sin. STORY: Living in a North Carolinian coastal town, Jennifer Jones is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks in love with Charlton Heston, a member of the town's snobbish society. Her father, Tom Tulley, owns a farm outside of town, which some of the local bigwigs use for hunting. Jones usually accompanies the men on their hunt ing parties, and although she is something of a spitfire, is considered "one of the boys". On one of these trips, Heston tries to seduce her, but she repels and threatens to kill him. Her father, knowing she loves Heston, encourages her pursue to the romance, but her psalm-shouting brother condemns her for leading a sinful life. Jones believes Heston will marry her, despite the fact she is from the wrong side of the tracks. He marries one of his own class, however. In despair, Jones marries the richest man in town, Karl Maiden, who is old enough to be her father. Maiden is killed in an accident, but the town, learning of a fight between Maiden and Heston, thinks Jones murdered him. Jones on finding that she now holds mortgages on half the businessmen in town, sets out to ruin them and regain Heston for herself. She succeeds, but on a hunting trip with Heston, they are ambushed by Jones' fanatical brother who wants to shoot them both because of their sins. The end comes with Heston being killed and Jones killing her brother. NEIL MEMBER OF THE WEDDING' LONG-HAIR OFFERING Rates • • as dualler generally; more for Columbia 91 minutes) Ethel Waters, Julie Harris, Brandon de Wilde, Arthur Franz, Nancy Gates. Directed by Fred Zinnemann Somewhere in the translation from stage to screen this Broadway hit has changed from a sensitive study of a motherless girl's adolescence into an unsympathetic exhibition of juvenile tantrums. Nor are the entertainment values of this Columbia release advanced by Stanley Kramer's production. It is almost a photographed stage play, with long, tedious sequences offering no change in scenery. Neither does Fred Zinnemann's direction contribute much to quicken the film's pace. The characters go through their motions, nearly always in semi-close-up, as though they are still playing "live" and waiting for the applause. "Member of the Wed art and class houses ding" is strictly "long-hair" and will have tough sledding boxofficewise in most general situations. It should pick up nice returns in the art and class houses, however. The original Broadway cast gives all it's got, but doesn't overcome the deficiencies. Ethel Waters, around whom the story revolves, comes out of the job well, but Julie Harris' stage technique isn't . right for movies. The youngster, Brandon de Wilde, is almost equally unreal. STORY: Twelve year-old Julie Harris lives in the deep south with her father and his wise, warm-hearted colored maid, Ethel Waters. Julie has only one playmate, her young cousin, Brandon de Wilde, who lives next door. The neighborhood kids dislike her. When Julie's brother Arthur Franz is engaged to Nancy Gates, the youngster suffers an emotional tidal-wave and plans to run away from home and live with the young couple, where she feels she can "belong". After the marriage ceremony she finds the newlyweds don't want her to share their honeymoon. Julie runs away into the night. At home, unaware of her disappearance, Ethel Waters learns that her no-good half-brother, James Edwards, has just killed a man with a stolen automobile. In the thick of these troubles little Brandon is taken ill. Julie is also in trouble. In a cheap cafe a drunken soldier tries to kiss her. Despairing, miserably unhappy, she goes home. Two days later Brandon dies, but the shock of Miss Water's problem, the death of her own playmate and the affair in the Blue Moon cafe have helped straightened the girl out. She quickly makes friends and begins a new kind of life. And as she does so Ethel Waters, her half-brother in jail, Brandon dead, and Julie growing up at last, sobs out her heart as, no longer needed in the house, she waits for the truck to take her and her belongings away. COULTER TROPIC ZONE' ACTION, ROMANCE & BANANAS IN TECHNICOLOR Rates • • + for action houses and as dualler generally is more talk than is desirable, particularly Paramount (Pine-Thomas) 94 minutes Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming, Estelita, Noah Beery, Grant Withers, John Wengraf, Directed by Lewis R. Foster The tropics, a pair of pretty girls and how to run a banana plantation vie with occasional bursts of furious action in this PineThomas Technicolor melodrama. While there isn't much to attract the discriminating moviegoers in the trite and obvious story, several bang-up action sequences in the latter half of the picture should give the action fans a run for their money. The backgrounds, graced by Rhonda Fleming in various costumes that are easy on the eyes, and Estelita in periodic song-and-dance sinuousities, won't be hard to take, either. There in the fore portion of the film, but after that it settles down to some rugged displays of slugging action as an entire native colony rebels against a monopolistic exporter and lugs thousands of stems of bananas to make a deadline on the dock. With proper exploitation, ' Tropic Zone" should make an adequate dualler generally and could stand alone in the action spots with satisfactory results. Ronald Reagan handles his chores as a fugitive beachcomber, who takes over and saves ravishing Rhonda's banana plantation in his rehabilitation process, with a likeable nonchalance. STORY: Following her father's death, Rhonda Fleming takes over the banana plantation in Puerto Barranccs, not knowing that her imbibing foreman, Grant Withers, is in league with John Wengraf, chief exporter, to run down the farm so that he can take control. Fleming hires Ronald Reagan, who had run, a plantation in a country overthrown by revolution, to run the farm. When his efforts increase production, Wengraf forces Reagan, who is attracted to Fleming, to attempt sabotage at the plantation under threat of deportation. Reagan, however, learns that he is no longer endangered by return to the country, rallies all the local growers and their crews and, in a heroic effort, manages to bring in the quota of bananas to an incoming ship to insure a contract with a reliable exporter, and remove Wengraf's domination. Reagan and Fleming are free to marry, leaving Estelita, who had been carrying a torch for Reagan, to be taken care of by his pal, Noah Beery. BARN *eg« 4 FILM BULLETIN D»r.«mbor 29, I9S2