The Film Daily (1947)

^ Wednesday, December 3, 1947 MILY i^ film DfllLV REVIEUIS Of DEUI FEATURES ^ "Tycoon" with John Wayne, Laraine Day RKO 128 Mins. LENGTHY TECHNICOLOR ADVENTURE YARN: BIDS FAIR FOR GOOD BOX OFFICE RESULTS. Elongated to the overlong length of two hours and eight minutes, here is a minor story of romance, adventure, excitement, marriage and big business inflated beyond all expectation. Containing scattered punctuation to touch off the excitement content, the production has considerable visual value. In the dramatic sense it is merely another exercise along familiar lines. It has a good assortment of first rate players. James Gleason, Judith Anderson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Anthony Quinn and Grant Withers all deliver what is required of them with taste, skill and dynamism normally associated with their talents. Story unfolds leisurely, and in Technicolor, against the background setting of a Latin American country. Basic motivation in the script is the construction of a tunnel through a mountain for a railroad. Good deal of spectacle is worked into the yarn when blasting charges are set off which is frequently. Fulfilling their contract with Sir Cedric, John Wayne and James Gleason run into trouble when their tunnel proves to have a faulty rock formation which is constantly caving in and consequently delaying progress, endangering life. They want to put up a concrete lining. This, however was not in the contract. However, Hardwicke leans toward its approval. But encountering Laraine Day, Wayne provokes Hardwicke, who is her father. The Latins, it seems, don't go for the forward American romantic approach. Wayne and Miss Day meet secretively. This pastime leads them to spend the night together, quite innocently, when Wayne's jeep runs out of gas in the jungle. They are found. Hardwicke immediately arranges their marriage after which they go to live near the tunnel diggings. The Wayne-Day merger is only the start of their troubles. The tunnel being Wayne's pre-occupation, he spends more time at it than he does with his wife. The peril at the excavation increases and after a serious accident Wayne decides to blow it sky high and proceed with a plan to build a bridge. He figures by stopping tunnel work he can apply remaining funds to the span. His old crew leaves him. He hires a new gang and ruthlessly goes ahead operating with a minimum of safety. Specifications for the bridge call for a safe factor when the river rises during the rainy season. A flash flood occurs up the valley. The uncomplete project is threatened. Wayne, unable to induce his men to complete it in the emergency, attempts it himself. His old crew shows up to lend aid. The bridge is shaky. Wayne runs a train over it to make it more stable. The flood hits. The train is lost but the best part of the span holds and there is some sort of triumph for its builder. Concluding, Hardwicke has a change of heart and reconciles himself to Wayne, Miss Day. He departs for a holiday in New England leaving his empire in the hands of Gleason, Quinn and Withers. Miss Anderson accompanies him. CAST: John Woyne, Laraine Day, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Judith Anderson, James Gleoson, Anthony Quinn, Grant Withers, Paul Fix, Fernando "The Tender Years" with Joe E. Brown, Richard Lyon Alson-20th-Fox 81 Mins. BETTER GRADE PRODUCTION: HAS FINE POSSIBILITIES AS DRAMA OFFERING. Smart know how in production and keen understanding of what will capture the attention of the audience insofar as story values are involved, lifts "The Tender Years" at once into the sphere of better grade product. What the audience will expect in this appearance of Joe E. Brown after a long absence is one thing. They'll get no raucous comedy. He acquits himself of a fine, human performance replete with dignity and good taste. He does it with such skill that he will stop the spectator cold. As he builds his role he creates a warmth that will make itself immediately felt. Young Richard Lyon gives his juvenile part the full dramatic treatment. "The Tender Years" is not only boy and dog stuff, it is also a neatly packaged drama with intelligent appeal to adult audiences. Almost certain to attract wide custom, boy and dog elements are given new treatment. Production talents responsible for the film demonstrated fine showmanship traits when they also injected a treatise on the abuse of animals in such long abolished pastimes as pitfights in which dogs tear each other to pieces, urged on by their masters. Brown is a smalltown pastor in the 1880's. His son, young Lyon, befriends a boxer, "Dusty," which had run off from the "pit." They heal its wounds. An aura of happiness pervades the domicile. However, the owner, James Millican, offers a reward for the dog and this leads to ultimate return of the animal. Young Lyon, however, won't expose "Dusty" to the pit again. He and Brown make off with the animal. Later the dog proves instrumental in saving Millican's son from drowning. Meanwhile Brown was about to stand trial for larceny. Millican, when he learns how Lyon and "Dusty" saved his child, calls off his charges. A petition by the townspeople later rules out dogfighting. Millican departs. As a final gesture he gives "Dusty" to Lyon. In directing, Harold Shuster got every last value from the script. This ope has fine possibilities. CAST: Joe E. Brown, Richard Lyon, Norcen Nash, Charles Drake, Josephine Hutchinson, James Millican, Griff Barnetf, Jeanne Gail, Harry V. Cheshire, Blayney Lewis, Jimmie Dodd. CREDITS: Presented by Edward L. Alperson; Director, Harold Shuster; Associote producer. Jack Jungmeyer, Jr.; Screenplay, Jack Jungmeyer, Jr., Arnold Belgard; Story, Jack Jungmeyer, Jr.; Adapted by Abem Finkel; Photography, Henry Freulich; Art direction, Arthur Lonergan; Music composed and directed by Dr. Edward Kilenyi; Film editor, Richard Farrell; Set dresser, Robert Priestley; Sound, John Carter. DIRECTION, Skillful. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine. "Captain Boycott" with Stewart Granger, Kathleen Ryan JAR-U.-I. 92 Mins. COMPELLING DRAMA OF IRISH AGRARIAN REFORM: SUSTAINS INTEREST: SHOULD FIT IN WHERE UK PIX ARE GENERALLY IN DEMAND. This drama of Irish agrarian reform in 1880 is based on a novel by Philip Rooney bu!^ it might also have been taken from any good dictionary. It is an intelligently set forth discourse on the plight of tenant farmers who, when they cannot pay rent to the land agent face eviction, destruction of their homes or re-occupancy by others who can meet the payments and in doing so take over the result of years of labor. With creditable fidelity to the period and showing evidence of careful research into the subject what transpires in this story is a sound dramatic treatment which after the initial problem is laid bare gives light on how the term "boycott" came about. There was such a person as Boycott and he did provoke the agricultural folk to such lengths that, on the advice of Parnell, briefly played herein by Robert Donat, they gave him what was then the Coventry treatment, later to be called the boycott. They made his life so uncomfortable by diverting imported farmhands, and in other ways increasing the cost of operating farm properties, that he faced ruin and was forced to call quits. Involved in the narration of this story is a great deal of scenic spectacle captured by the lens. In black and white the countryside is revealed handsomely in fine photogrsphy. The lengthy cast does very well by their parts. Stewart Granger manages conviction with ease as a rebellious farmer who joins the conservative segment of resistance. Alastair Sim has a good role as a village priest who prevents the radical element from performing an act of violence which would bode them no good. It is heavy on dialect and brogue which tends to make for realism. The story is well dotted with movement and what dramatic action as can be concocted from basic significances. CAST: Stewart Granger, Kathleen Ryan, Cecil Parker, Mervyn Jons, Alastair Sim, Niall McGinnis, Noel Percell, Maureen Delaney, Eddie Byrne, Liam Reimond, Liam Gaffney, Bernadette O'Farrell, Edward Lexy, Joe Linhane, Robert Donat. CREDITS: An Individual Picture; Produced by Frank Launder, Frank Gilliatt; Director, Frank Launder; Screenplay, Frank Launder, Wolfgang Wilhelm; From the novel by Philip Rooney; Art director, Edward Carrick; Photography, Wilkie Cooper; Film editor, Thelma Myers; Production manager, M. Smedley-Aston; Sound, Charles Knott; Irish advisor, Cecil Ford; Music by William Alwyh, played by the Philharmonio Orchestra, directed by Muir Mathieson. DIRECTION, Good. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine. 'Bush Christmas' u it! Alvarado, Harry Woods, Michael Harvey, Charles Trowbridge, Martin Garralaga. CREDITS: Producer, Stephen Ames; Director, Richard Wallace; Screenplay, Borden Chase, John Twist; Based on the novel by C. E. Scoggins; Photography, Harry J. Wilde, W. Howard Greene; Music, Leigh Harline; Musical director, C. Bakaleinikoff; Orchestral arrangements, Gil Grau; Art decorators, Albert S. D'Agostino, Carroll Clark; Special effects, Vernon L. Walker; Set decorations, Darrell Silvera, Hurley Miller; Film editor, Frank Doyle; Sound, John L. Cass, Clem Portman. DIRECTION, Effective. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine. Ambassador Books "Volpone" Siritzky Int'l. will premiere "Volpone" at the Ambassador Theater on Dec. 36. Anonymous Call Halts "Open City" in B. A. Buenos Aires (By Cable) — Following an anonymous telephone call from a Government agency, "Open City," Italian film showing the partisan resistance against Nazis and Fascists, was withdravoi. It was in its 12th, highly successful week. Ban also applied to a few suburban theaters. Italian Ambassador Giustino Arpesani, made it a personal matter, took it up with Foreign Minister Juan Bramuglia. This was three weeks ago. Nothing has been done to date. with Chips Rafferty, Pat Penny. i Prestige Pictures 76 Mins.l JUST THE TICKET FOR YOUNGSTERS:, irei FINE ADVENTURE STORY IN THE JUVE-' ^ NILE VEIN. — ,; Australian pictures are rarities.'^.^ ere ' , haven't been enough of them around^these i*' parts. Generally they have good, sound er J dramatic themes given over to war action ^^^^ or, as in the most recent case of "The Overlanders" they have dealt with the problem" of driving herds of cattle to safe areas' ^^ when the Japanese threatened invasion. Fr But "Bush Christmas" is altogether dif ^ ferent and delightful. It is a child's story. . , It is so well conceived and projected that ^ adults can also do well by taking it in. It iii has humor, adventure, action, comedy. It id is smartly handled in all departments to itep rate with the general audience. Additionally.! mi it is a fine bet for Christmas holiday shows, iisk Not only is it a pleasant diversion but also tr a display of the innocence of children andpsti their unconcern for anything in the nature of racial prejudice. The quintet of young g srers all get along together and mutually depend upon one another in getting out lit; of a serious scrape that concludes on a fine jtl note of achievement. Four of the children fgj are white. The fifth, Neza, is the son of a native Australian, blacks they are called, not disrespectfully, for they are among the finest trackers in the world, but because jgi that is the language of the country. For youngsters and adults alike, "Bush Christmas" is a lesson in the flora and fauna of Australia, and a display of semantics peculiar to the region. One of its best moments occurs when the children, on a camping trip during a school holiday, are out of food. Neza shows them how to cook and eat snakes. For dessert he gulps down a couple of caterpillars. Horse thieves make off with a prize mare. The children locate them while out campitsg just before Christmas. Via ingenious procedure they trail the culprits and make life hazardous for them. Finally the situation resolves itself in a deserted town. The kids are apprehended by the men they have been tormenting but at the right moment ^ their father shows up with the police. The latter had followed a blazed trail left by the youngsters. All are reunited at Christmastime. It is pleasant, exciting. CAST: Chips Rafferty, John Fernside, Stan Tolhurst, Pat Penny, Thelma Grigg, Clyde Combe, John McCallum, Helen Grieve, Nicky Yordley, Morris Unicomb, Michael Yardley, Neza Saunders. CREDITS: Produced and directed by Ralph Smart; Screenplay by Ralph Smart; Photography, George Heath. DIRECTION, Keen. PHOTOGRAPHY, Fine. FSC In Pact with Mexican Co. For U. K. Pix Release ti( Foreign Screen Corp. has closed ' a deal with Compania Mexicana de Peliculas, for distribution of FSC British product in Mexico for four years. Deal calls for release of 12 pix yearly. Mexican firm is headed by Max Gomez, former RKO manager in the territory. FSC has also opened a fourth branch in Santiago, Chile, it was disclosed by H. Alban-Mestanza, president. Jose Miguel Eguez is in charge. Gomez returns to Mexico City next week. Carlos Jiminez, FSC South American sales head, left earlier this week for Buenos Aires.