Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

"The Ceremony" Scuinete fcatUf O plus Muddled melodrama intended as indictment of capital punishment is wholly unconvincing. Laurence Harvey provides mild marquee value. Although it will find little favor with audiences, the mild marquee value of Laurence Harvey's name may enable this United Artists release to get by as a supporting dualler in the general markets. Harvey not only stars, but serves as producer, director, and contributing writer for this disastrous LHP production. Dealing with a man awaiting execution, the muddled story has been dressed up with a pompous Orson Welles-style production that unintentionally verges on travesty. Ben Barzman's screenplay (with additional dialogue by Harvey), from Frederick Grendel's novel, serves as a sounding board for mawkish anti-violence philosophies and for tasteless religiosity. It is wholly unconvincing. Harvey is seen as an atheistic convict about to be executed for a crime he tried to prevent. At times hysterical, he becomes tight-lipped whenever interrogator John Ireland tries to draw the identity of the actual criminals from him, and turns cynical when confronted by a priest (Jack McGowan) who wants to save his soul. While preparations for the execution "ceremony" are going on, the prisoner muses on the injustices of capital punishment. Finally, in the closing minutes of the picture, the story comes to life as Harvey's younger brother, Robert Walker, steals into the prison and effects an escape for the condemned man. Taken to the home of his girl (Sarah Miles), Harvey learns that his brother has been paramouring the fickle lassie and becomes so distraught that he loses the will to live. At the last minute, however, Walker sacrifices himself in his brother's place. Realizing that such courage must be heaven-sent, Harvey, at peace with himself, returns to the prison. United Artists. 105 minutes. Laurence Harvey, Sarah Miles, Robert Walker, John Ireland. Produced and directed by Laurence Harvey. "The Sound of Laughter" Compilation of clips from old comedies is weak. Since most of the material in this awkward compilation of comedy clips from early talkies has been seen with frequency on kiddie tv programs, it will have difficulty in securing even second-feature bookings. There's precious little laughter in the fleeting glimpses one gets of Imogene Coca, Joan Davis, Edgar Kennedy, Billy Gilbert, Andy Clyde, Will Mahoney, and Joe Gilbert. Milton Berle's appearance is funny, because it wasn't intended that way. It appears that Uncle Miltie once was groomed to follow in the footsteps of the crooning Dick Powell! Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon get a poor break in the excerpts from their shorts, and the Ritz Brothers are dragged in for a long, unfunny routine snitched from an early feature. On the plus side, there are some mildly comic moments by a singing Bob Hope, a youthful Danny Kaye, a be-wigged Bert Lahr, and a coy Shirley Temple. Ironically, two scenes evidently inserted only to stretch the film to feature-length proportions — a blues song by the Pickens Sisters and a rendering of "Please" by Bing Crosby — provide the most rewarding moments of nostalgia. Ed Wynn appears briefly and supplies the witless narration (written by Fred Saidy for the Barry B. Yellen and Irvin S. Dorfman production. Union Films. 75 minutes. Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Shirley Temple, Bert Lahr, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby. Produced by Barry B. Yellen and Irvin S. Dortman . "Tiara Tahiti" &U4CHt44 ^OttKf O PIUS James Mason, John Mills, colorful scenic backgrounds give this British entry fair second feature value. James Mason and John Mills merely serve as topping for a scenic Eastman colored tour of Tahiti in this indifferent J. Arthur Rank presentation. The Zenith International release might serve as an adequate supporting feature in class and general market dual bills. Performing like a pair of relaxed hams, the stars are given little to do except sip cocktails against the travel-brochure backdrops. Thrown in almost as an afterthought is sarong-clad Rosenda Monteros, who garners a fair share of footage simply by swimming through lagoons, frolicking in the sand and bathing, a la Dorothy Lamour, 'neath a waterfall. Claude Dauphin contributes his Gallic charm to a few scenes and Herbert Lorn is also around briefly, disguised as an Oriental merchant. The direction by William T. Kotcheff is as placid and innocuous as the screenplay by Geoffrey Cotterell and Foxwell. Mason portrays a millionaire playboy industrialist and Mills, one of his impoverished clerks. Years pass. Mills rises to wealth and power, while Mason, betrayed by an associate, is disgraced for his involvement in smuggling. When Mills journeys to Tahiti to convert it into a tourists' paradise, he comes upon the exiled Mason who recognizes his old employee as an overbearing prude in need of deflating. The opportunity comes when Lorn, jealous of Mason's mistress Miss Monteros, attempts to assassinate him. Suspicion falls on Mills when it is learned that he had been responsible (unknown to Mason) for the intended victim's downfall. Mason refuses to press charges and is regarded as a hero when he allows Mills to "escape" the island, his reputation and self-esteem forever destroyed. Zenith International. 100 minutes. James Mason, John Mills, Rosenda Monteros. Produced by Ivan Foxwell. Directed by Wiliam T. Kotcheff. viewpoints (Continued from Page 5) two industires both of which are seeking control of a profitable source of income. Inherent in such fights which are commonplace in the halls of legislative bodies, is the possibility, and in many instances even the probability, that one group or the other will get hurl by the arguments that are made. In this particular instance, each group appears to have utilized all the political powers it could muster in an attempt to bring about the passage of laws that would help it or injure the other. But the contest itself appears to have been conducted along lines normally accepted in our political system, except to the extent that each group has deliberately deceived the public and public officials. And that deception, reprehensible as it is, can be of no consequence so far as the Sherman Act is concerned. That Act was not violated by either the railroads or the truckers in their respective campaigns to influence legislation and law enforcement. Since the railroads have acquiesced in the dismissal of their counterclaim by not challenging the Court of Appeals' affirmance of that order in their petition for certiorari, we are here concerned only with those parts of the judgments below holding the railroads and Byoir liable for violations of the Sherman Act. And it follows from what we have said that those parts of the judgments below are wrong. They must be and are Reversed." Page 12 Film BULLETIN December 23, 1963