Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

"The Wheeler Dealers" SutiHtM 'Rati*? O O O Sock laugh bonanza far city sophisticates and folks in the sticks. Handsome Ransohoff Panavision-color production. Looks like big boxoffice in all markets. If M-G-M and exhibitors cooperate to give it strong promotion push, this screwball comedy from Martin Ransohoff-Filmways will be a real boxoffice winner. There hasn't been such a bonanza, laughwise, in homespun humor since Ma and Pa Kettle first set up housekeeping nearly 20 years ago, and blase city slickers will be quick to welcome a fresh satirical approach that doesn't begin and end with bedroom pseudo-sophistication. Ransohoff has given the film a handsome Panavision-Metrocolor production that adds much visual value to the very lively proceedings. James Garner, temporarily abandoning his imitation of a straight romantic leading man, turns in one whale of a performance as the Texas rube who takes Wall Street for a ride. Pretty Lee Remick, scrubbed and wholesome, is the gal who thinks she's showing him the city ropes. Adding zest to the whacky proceedings are Jim Backus in one of his Magoo-type roles, Phil Harris, Chill Wills and Charles Watts, as Garner's country cousins in the investment field, and, in a cameo role as a practical artist, tv's Louis Nye. Throw these characters together on the New York Stock Exchange and it's a field day of unsophisticated fun. It doesn't take long for the George Goodman-Ira Wallach screenplay, from Goodman's novel, to move into high gear and remain there, most of the way. Arthur Hiller's direction is unpretentious and thoroughly appropriate. A "wheeler dealer" is somebody who creates a stampede on Wall Street and then uses money just for keeping score. That's Garner. Miss Remick is the broker whose bumbling boss (Backus) gives her an impossible assignment — selling Widget stock — -to use as an excuse for firing her. However, cowboy Garner takes a hankering to the lady and pretends an interest in Widgets. Since neither of them knows what a Widget is, they take a trip to New England where company president Percy Kelton explains that although Widget's became obsolete after the Civil War, the company has remained in business as a convenient tax liability for its multi-millionaire ow ners. None of it makes much sense, especially after Garner and his Texas cronies (Harris, Wills, Watts) turn Widgets into a major appropriation for national defense, but it provides the framework for some broad barbs at politics and high finance. By the time Miss Remick discovers that Garner went to Yale (she hates all Ivy League men), she is hopelessly in love with him and abandons her career to settle down to a life of connubial globe trotting, with home offices in Texas. M-G-M. 104 minutes. James Garner, Lee Remick. Produced by Martin Ransohoff Directed by Arthur Hiller. "Twilight of Honor" Sudcne44. 1R*U*f O O Plus Good boxoffice elements for the mass market. Courtroom melodrama stars tv's popular young Dr. Kildaire, good support. Despite its overly-pretentious title this M-G-M offering should be a better-than-average grosser. The major fault of the William Perlberg-George Seaton production is its reliance on familiar formulas, but "Twilight of Honor" obviously was not intended for the sophisticated trade. For the mass audience it has solid boxoffice elements. Boyish heart-throb Richard Chamberlain, tv's Doctor Kildare, makes his big-screen debut in this courtroom melodrama, and gals of all ages will be towing their swains to get a big-screen view of the popular young medic. Chamberlain acquits himself well enough (in the role of / a medically-oriented attorney) to indicate a future in motion pictures. Firm support is given by another tv personality Nick Adams ("The Rebel ') and buxom Joey Heatherton, while Claude Rains adds a bit of class to the role of Chamberlain's crippled mentor — a sort of legal-minded Dr. Gillespie. Henry Denker's screenplay from a novel by Al Dewlen, and Boris Sagal's direction build tension in a couple of well-staged flashbacks, and Johnny Green's rocking, jazzy background score will have strong appeal to teenagers. Inexperienced attorney Chamberlain is forced by court appointment to defend Adams, a near-illiterate vagabond, accused of murdering the town's most prominent citizen. The obstacles against our hero seem overwhelming. Adams has confessed to the killing; the state has appointed a special prosecutor, gubernatorial candidate James Gregory; the jury is made up of the dead man's friends; the judge is prejudiced; and Adams' wife (Miss Heatherton) is a witness for the prosecution. Under Rains' guidance, Chamberlain gradually ferrets out the truth. Adams had killed the man when he found his wife in bed with him, but kept quiet to protect his wife's name — more tarnished than he realized. An obscure section of the state's criminal code says that a husband is innocent of murder if he finds his wife in the act of adultery, so Chamberlain wins the case and finds time for romance with pretty secretary (and Rains' daughter) Joan Blackman. M-G-M. 115 minutes. Richard Chamberlain, Nick Adams, Claude Rains, Joan Blackman, James Gregory, Joey Heatherton. Produced by William Perlberg and George Seaton. Directed by Boris Sagal. "My Son, The Hero" %u4i*ete teatou? O Plus Italian-made spectacle so bad, UA has tried to jazz it up as comic satire. Exploitable, but dubious b.o. entry. This Italian-made spectacle, originally known as "The Titans," wasn't intended as a comedy, but United Artists is hoping that audiences will mistake its ineptitudes for satire. To sell this idea, UA has devised a campaign spoofing the muscle-bound epic, one phase being a screwball trailer, narrated by recording star Mel Brooks ("The 2,000 Year-Old Man"). These gimmicks may get "My Son, The Hero" off to a start in saturation bookings, especially for drive-ins and action houses, but boxoffice receipts will dip sharply once word of the hoax gets around. As straight adventure, it would make a passable Saturday afternoon kiddie booking. The late Pedro Armendariz, the only performer familiar to American audiences, is relegated to a subsidiary role. The hero, Giuliano Gemma, was apparently cast for acrobatic abilities, but his frail, puckish appearance makes his deeds of derring-do appear ridiculous, if not particularly funny. Direction, by Duccio Tessari, is seldom evident in this Alexander Mnouchkine production, filmed on a fairly lavish scale in Technicolor. Ennio de Concini's infantile screenplay has been augmented by the intended comic touches of popular American tunes in the background. The mythical yarn depicts Crios (Gemma), youngest and brainiest of the Titans, being given a chance to free his brothers from their imprisonment in Hades (for insubordination to Jove) by replacing them with evil king, and self-proclaimed God, Cadmus (Armendariz), and his even more wicked spouse, Hermoine (Antonella Lualdi). With the help of Pluto's helmet which renders him invisible, Jupiter's thunderbolts, a friendly Cyclops, and assorted strongmen, he overcomes sirens, an ugly Gorgon and several death traps. He has a little trouble with the king's troops since they have been made invulnerable by dragon's blood, but our wily hero manages to wash away their immortality. After banishing Cadmus and wife to the infernal regions, he rescues a drowning princess (Jacqueline Sassard), who has never before seen a man, and makes her his bride. United Artists. I I I minutes. Pedro Armendarii, Jacqueline Sassard, Antonella Lualdi, Giuliano Gemma. Produced by Alenander Mnouchkine. Directed by Duccio Tessari. Film BULLETIN September 30. 1 963 Page 15