Harrison's Reports (1951)

50 HARRISON’S REPORTS March 31, 1951 “I Was An American Spy” with Ann Dvorak and Gene Evans (Allied Artists, April 15, time, 85 min.) A very good war melodrama, well directed and acted. There are times when the spectator is held in tense suspense. The most exciting situation is where Gene Evans raids the Japanese prison in Manila and rescues Ann Dvorak. The scenes where Miss Dvorak mingles with Japanese officials and obtains valuable information are, of course, suspensive, for her life is in constant danger. Leon Lontoc, as Pacio, wins the audience’s sympathy by his devotion to the cause and by his risking his life to serve the heroine. The photography is clear, but the mood is somber: — With Manila about to fall to the Japanese, Ann, a cabaret singer, anxiously awaits the arrival of Douglas Kennedy, her sweetheart. Kennedy, a sergeant, arrives to tell her that the army is falling back. With Nadene Ashdown, her little daughter, and Chabing, her maid, in attendance, Ann marries Kennedy in a hurried ceremony, after which he joins his buddies for the defense of Corregidor. Manila falls, and Ann, her daughter and her maid hide out in the woods. There she meets Gene Evans, a corporal who had become separated from his outfit and who had become a guerilla fighter. The two become witnesses to the Bataan death march and see Kennedy die when he and other American soldiers are shot down by the Japs while trying to obtain a drink of water. Embittered, Ann decides to return to Manila at the risk of her life so as to send Evans and his guerillas food, medicine and a radio transmitter. She resumes her job as a cabaret singer and escapes arrest by using the wardrobe and identification papers of another entertainer who had been killed in an air raid. By getting chummy with Richard Loo and other important Japanese officers, Ann manages to furnish Evans with the needed supplies and with valuable information that enables him to destroy Jap installations and to help bring about the sinking of a Japanese battleship. Ann’s activities are eventually discovered by Loo. He puts her to torture and, failing to make her talk, decides to shoot her. Evans, learning of her arrest, organizes a group of brave guerillas, raids the prison and, after killing many guards as well as Loo, rescues Ann. Shortly thereafter, the Americans recapture Manila. It was produced by David Diamond, with Ben Schwalb acting as associate producer, and directed by Lesley Selander from a screen play by Sam Roeca, based on the story, “I Was An American Spy,” published in Reader’s Digest, and on the novel, “Manila Espionage,” by Claire Phillips, and Myron B. Goldsmith. Suitable for action-loving patrons. “Golden Salamander” with an all-British cast (Eagle Lion Classics, Dec. 1; time, 96 min.) A fairly good British-made melodrama of high adventure, set against interesting, authentic Tunisian backgrounds. Its appeal, however, will be directed more to class audiences than to the rank-and-file, who will probably find the story’s development too slow and episodic to suit their tastes. The action does have its moments of tense excitement, particularly in the chase scenes towards the finish, but on the whole the suspense does not cumulate. The direction and acting are good, but the players mean little at the American boxoffice: — Trevor Howard, a British archaeologist, is sent to a town in North Africa to supervise the shipment of a valuable collection of antiques salvaged from a mined British ship and housed in the home of Walter Rilla, the town’s leading citizen. Upon his arrival, Howard witnesses a gun-running incident on the outskirts of the town. He secures a room at an inn operated by Anouk, a French girl, and in the course of his stay he falls in love with her and learns that her brother was involved with the smugglers. He keeps this knowledge to himself, however, and goes about the business of cataloging the antiques. Discovering a Golden Salamander in the collection, Howard sees inscribed on its base the following proverb: “Not by ignoring evil does one overcome it, but by going to meet it." The proverb troubles his conscience and spurs him into taking steps to break up the gun-smuggling ring and to help Anouk’s brother get out of the gang's clutches. He immediately communicates with the local police chief and instructs him to obtain the aid of higher authorities, but that officer, involved in the smuggling himself, notifies Rilla, the secret leader of the gang. Before long, Howard learns of the corrupt set-up, but before he can do anything about it he falls into the hands of Rilla's henchmen, who had been ordered to kill him. He manages to escape and becomes the object of a manhunt in a wild chase through the mountains, but with Anouk’s help he succeeds in overcoming numerous obstacles and finally rounds up Rilla and his gang. It is a J. Arthur Rank presentation, produced by Alexander Galperson and directed by Ronald Neame. The screenplay was written by Lesley Storm, Victor Canning and the director, based on a novel by Mr. Canning. Unobjectionable morally. Title is THE GOLDEN SALAMANDER. “The Fat Man” with J. Scott Smart ( Univ.-Int’l , no release date set; time, 77 min.) A fairly good program murder mystery melodrama, with some comedy. The film introduces to movie audiences J. Scott Smart, as “The Fat Man,” a private detective whose rotund physique aptly fits his nickname. Mr. Smart has a pleasant personality, a good sense of humor and acts well. The story, which unfolds through a series of flashbacks, is rather farfetched and somewhat complicated, what with flashbacks within flashbacks, but it moves along at a steady pace and holds one's interest well, for the identity of the murderer is not revealed until the end. The closing scenes, where the murderer is trapped on a high wire in a circus tent, are exciting. The popularity of “The Fat Man” radio program should be of considerable help to the picture at the box-office : — When the mysterious murder of a dentist is dismissed by the police as an accident, Jayne Meadows, the dead man’s secretary, appeals to Smart. The private detective, intrigued by her story, investigates and learns that, shortly before his death, the dentist had made x-ray plates on Rock Hudson, who had disappeared. Smart traces Hudson’s last whereabouts to the home of John Russell, a notorious mobster, and through an underworld source he learns that Hudson had married Julie London, a cabaret singer, just before his disappearance. Further clues enable Smart to learn that Hudson had served a prison term for taking part in a $500,000 armored car robbery with two partners who had escaped. He learns also that Emmett Kelly, a former circus clown, had been Hudson’s cellmate. An unidentified body that had been burned beyond recognition in a truck fire leads Smart to believe that it was Hudson, and other deductions bring him to the conclusion that Russell and Harry Lewis, a crony, had been Hudson's partners in the holdup, and that they had murdered him in order to cheat him out of his share of the loot. But in tracing the truck that had been destroyed, Smart discovers that it had been carrying theatrical trunks owned by Kelly. Probing this new clue, he rightly concludes that Kelly had made a deal with Russell to kill Hudson for a smaller share of the loot, and that he had killed the dentist lest he be able to identify Hudson’s body from his dental work. Together with Clint Sundberg, his assistant, Smart attempts to take Kelly into custody only to become involved in a gunfight with Russell and Lewis, who had come to Kelly's aid. Smart shoots down Russell and Lewis and, with the arrival of the police, helps him to trap Kelly in a huge circus tent. It was produced by Aubrey Schenck and directed by William Castle from a story by Leonard Lee, who wrote the screen play in collaboration with Harry Essex. Unobjectionable morally, but questionable for children because of the several murders.