Focus: A Film Review (1950-1951)

273 contagion in a matter of hours. It is here that I think the film sidesteps real life. The medical officer, a man of dynamic personality, played by Richard Widmark, persuades the authorities to adopt an unlikely procedure, and then in a highly individualistic way tracks down the murderers. The film ends with a typical hunt of the murderers along the water front. I recommend the film. It is well worth seeing. T. WATERFRONT Starring: Robert Newton, Kathleen Harrison and Susan Shaw. Producer: Paul Soskin. Director: Michael Anderson. Certificate : A. Category-. A. Running time : 80 minutes. This film is at best mediocre. The brilliant acting of Robert Newton and the able support of the other members of the cast deserve a better story and a more pleasing production. Having seen the film, I left the cinema feeling miserable and glad of one thing, that being that it was over. The story is quite sordid, presumably true to life, but that need not necessarily be a favourable characteristic. It is a sad and familiar tale of a family thrust into poverty and tragedy by the vicious neglect of a faithless father, a tragedy which culminates in the violent crime of murder. The settings, whether interiors or exteriors, are dull and depressing. One has to pass alternately from the fogbound wintry dockside and slummy streets of Liverpool to the equally squalorsome rooms of the flats where the characters live. There are one or two heartrending scenes which are worthy of the acting, but the storystarts on a dreary note, continues to grow drearier and ends on a sad note of doubt, as though the life of a sailor must needs be one of faithlessness. The film’s one romantic element, namely the love of the upright daughter for a young ship’s engineer, a love almost thwarted bv the added distress of this keen young man’s two years of unemployment, is crowned by their marriage on his finding a ship. Even this is ill-fated, because it happens to be the ship on which the father served. At their parting when he sails, the girl recalls her mother’s sufferings and ponders over the possibility of a repetition in her own life, so that the film ends on a note of dread and doubt. Fans of Robert Newton will want to see the film for the excellence of his performance. It seems out of place, however, that the Cockney accent should predominate rather than that of Merseyside. To sum up : there is not much in this film to please you if you are out for an evening’s entertainment. Above all, young people should be dissuaded from seeing it, for it contains nothing to enlighten or entertain them. There is quite enough that is sordid in real life without its being served up on the screen and piesented as entertainment for the public. J. R. C. A TICKET TO TOMAHAWK Starring: Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter, Rory Calhoun, Walter Brennan. Director: Richard Sale. Producer: Robert Bassler. Colour by Technicolor. Certificate-. A. Category : B. Running time: 89 minutes. This is the first time I have seen Dan Dailey — after all, I am only a small time critic — yes, I insist, that is all. However, the point is that it was a happy surprise to discover that he is a genuine comedian. He has personality, acting ability and a fine sense of the ridiculous. It is a preposterous story of course. A train has to make its first run on a newly-built railway to Tomahawk within a given time else the concession will lapse. It gets through, despite villainous rivals, whooping redskins and the absence of about forty miles of track. Anne Baxter renders assistance a.s the quick-shooting deputy sheriff. The film is lighthearted and interest is well sustained. In part it is a skit on current Westerns. There is very occasionally a tendency to allow one of the lesser characters to raise a cheap laugh. T.