Harrison's Reports (1951)

22 HARRISON’S REPORTS February 10, 1951 “My Brother, the Outlaw” with Mickey Rooney, Robert Preston and Wanda Hendrix (Eagle Lion Classics, Feb. 7; time, 82 min.) Ordinary program fare. The chief value of this melodrama depends almost entirely on the presence of Mickey Rooney, helped by whatever popularity Robert Preston and Wanda Hendrix possess. As to the story, it is synthetic and hardly believable. It is evident that Gene Fowler, Jr., the screenplay writer, had to change the leading characters, making them Americans instead of Mexicans, so as to avoid wound' ing the sensibilities of the Mexican Nationals. But his efforts were wasted. The direction is nothing to brag about, and not much more can be said of the acting. The photography is dark. The action takes place at the turn of the century: — On his way to a Mexican border town to pay a surprise visit to Robert Stack, his brother, Mickey Rooney witnesses a bloody bank holdup by a gang of marauders, headed by El Tigre, a fabled Mexican bandit. Rooney meets Robert Preston, a Texas Ranger, who suspected that Mickey's brother was involved in El Tigre "s unlawful activities. He decides to accompany Rooney to San Clemente. Learning of Preston’s trip. Stack sends several of his henchman out to waylay the Ranger and kill him and his companion, unaware that the companion is his brother. At San Clemente, Mickey comes upon Stack who gruffly orders him away; he then agrees with Preston that Stack is a top lieutenant in El Tigre’s organisation. Preston and Mickey are captured by the bandits but manage to escape. Enrique Cansino, a blacksmith, whose son had been murdered by El Tigre, aids them, and through him Rooney learns that Stack is in love with Wanda Hendrix, a local senorita. He appeals to her to help him stop Stack’s criminal career, but she informs Rooney that she despises his brother. Stack, confronted by Rooney once again, tells him that he is helplessly in El Tigre’s power. Rooney denounces Stack and is promptly imprisoned. Preston and Cansino come to his aid and the three manage to escape, taking Wanda along with them. The bandits, headed by El Tigre himself, surround the escapees and order them to either surrender or die. Through a clever maneuver, however, Preston manages to shoot and kill El Tigre just as the Mexican Cavalry arrives and finishes off the other bandits. Rooney then discovers that El Tigre, wearing a mask and wig, is none other than Stack himself. Preston and Rooney ride off toward home, and Wanda, having made up her mind to marry Rooney, follows them. It was produced by Benedict Bogeaus and directed by Eliott Nugent from a screen play by Gene Fowler, Jr., based on “South of the Rio Grande,” by Max Brand. Best suited for men and boys. “The Groom Wore Spurs” with Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson and Joan Davis (Univ.-Int’l, no rel. date set; time, 80 min.) This satirical romantic comedy has its amusing moments, but on the whole it misses fire because of choppy editing, an ordinary screen play and unimaginative direction. Yet it does manage to offer enough laughs to give fair satisfaction to audiences that are not too exacting in their demands. The idea behind the characterization portrayed by Jack Carson is good; he plays the part of a movie cowboy hero who, off the screen, is the direct opposite of what a cowboy hero should be in that he drinks, gambles, chases after women, is afraid of horses, and cannot sing or play the guitar as depicted in his films, but the humor inherent in the characterization is not brought out fully by the weak screen play. Ginger Rogers, a lady lawyer who marries Carson after a one-night romance, only to discover that he is a ne'er-do-well, handles her role in acceptable fashion. Joan Davis, as her roommate, has little to do : — In an effort to square a gambling debt owed to Stanley Ridges, a racketeer, Carson engages Ginger to effect a settlement. Ginger, completely captivated by Carson, accompanies him to Las Vegas, where a 2 A.M. conference is arranged with Ridges. To kill time before the meeting, Carson takes Ginger for a moonlight drive and proposes marriage. She agrees, and they are married by a justice-of-the-peace before returning for the appointment. When Ridges learns of the marriage, he cancels the gambling debt, explaining that he had done this because Ginger’s late father had been his close friend. Ginger, learning that Carson knew about her father’s friendship with Ridges, decides that he had married her to get out of the debt. She leaves him in a huff, but Joan, her roommate, induces her to return to Carson and “make a man of him.” Her affections for him are weakened, however, when she finds him to be a fraud, completely unlike the brave character he portrayed on the screen. On the day she plans to leave Carson for good, Ridges is murdered by a henchman under circumstances that lead to the arrest and indictment of Carson. Ginger rushes to his side and secures his release by promising to produce the real killer within four hours. She then learns the identify of the killer from one of her father’s underworld contacts, and discovers that he planned to fly to Mexico City. She and Carson rush to the airport, where they trap the killer in a plane that taxies crazily around the field before it crashes to a stop. The killer bolts bolts from the plane, but Carson, much to his own surprise, lassoes him, thus winning back Ginger’s favor. It is a Fidelity Pictures Production, produced by Howard Welsch and directed by Richard Whorf from a screen play by Robert Carson, Robert Libbott and Frank Burt, based on the story “Legal Bridge,” by Robert Carson. Harmless for the family. ‘‘Lucky Nick Cain” with George Raft and Coleen Gray (20th Century-Fox, March; time, 85 mm.) In spite of the fact that the story is cut from a familiar pattern and is rather far-fetched, this chase melodrama is a fairly good picture of its kind although it does not rise much above the level of program fare. The plot, which revolves around an American gambler in Italy who is victimized by an international counterfeit ring, moves along at a fast pace and generates considerable suspense because of the gambler’s efforts to clear himself of a phony murder rap that had been pinned on him by the ring. George Raft, as the gambler, does well in a role that is suited to his talents. The picture, which was shot entirely in Italy, provides interesting background shots of the Italian Riviera: — Arriving in a Mediterranean coastal town for a restful holiday, Raft, a well-known American gambler, finds himself wined and dined by the management of the local gambling casino, which, with the unwitting aid of Coleen Gray, an American tourist, frames Raft for the murder of Donald Stewart, a