Harrison's Reports (1951)

58 HARRISON’S REPORTS April 14, 1951 “Goodby, My Fancy” with Joan Crawford, Robert Young and Frank Lovejoy (Warner Bros., May 19; time, 107 min.) Based on the Broadway stage play of the same title, “Goodbye, My Fancy" is a fairly good though overlong mixture of comedy, romance and drama. Its chief appeal, however, will be to mature audiences who appreciate meaningful dialogue that gives one food for thought. It may not fare so well in small-town and neighborhood theatres where long drawn out and talky scenes cause the general run of audiences to become restless. The picture is at its best in its humorous moments, but it sags considerably when it becomes dramatic and the players go into long dissertations on freedom of speech and the throttling of education. Joan Crawford is good as a chic congresswoman who returns to the college from which she graduated for an honorary degree and tries to rekindle a romance with an old beau, played by Robert Young, now the president of the college. Frank Lovejoy, as a news photographer who pursues Miss Crawford, and Eve Arden, as her glib, sardonic secretary, lend able support: — Joan, a busy Congresswoman, is thrilled when she is invited to accept an honorary degree from Good Hope College, from which she had been expelled twenty years previously for staying out all night. She particularly looks fors ward to rekindling a romance with Young, the college president, whose name she had protected by her sudden departure from Good Hope because, as a promising young professor, it would have ruined his career. As she prepares to depart for Good Hope, Joan is visited by Frank Lovejoy, a magazine photographer just returned from Europe, with whom she had had a short-lived romance. He refuses to believe her when she tells him that the affair is over, and to be near her he arranges to cover for his magazine her return to the college for the honorary degree. Arriving at Good Hope, Joan learns that Young is now a widower, and that Janice Rule, his ’teen-age daughter, was a student at the college. Joan and Young find a mutual attraction once again, but complications develop when she learns that he is no longer a fighting liberal educator, and that he was under the thumb of Howard St. John, wealthy chairman of the board of trustees. A crisis in their relationship results when Young is compelled by St. John to cancel a film dealing with the throttling of education in dictator countries, which Joan had sponsored and which she had brought to Good Hope for showing to the students. Joan, angered, determines to make Young take a stand against St. John by threatening to give Lovejoy the secret story of the events that led to her expulsion from Good Hope. This threat, coupled with the possible chance that he will lose Joan’s love, gives Young real moral courage. He defiies St. John by ordering that the film be shown to the students, then resigns as president. His resignation, however, is not accepted. Meanwhile Lovejoy had continued his efforts to win Joan’s love and, at the finish, she decides that he is really the man she should marry. It was produced by Henry Blanke and directed by Vincent Sherman from a screen play by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, based on the play by Fay Kanin. Best suited for mature audiences. “They Were Not Divided” with an all-British cast (Eagle Lion Classics, Feb. 8; time, 91 min.) Where war pictures are popular, this British-made production may get by as part of a double bill. There is hardly any story to speak of, even though the idea of an American fighting in the British Army is novel. The inclusion of actual war clips in the footage makes the action realistic, but on the whole it is lacking in suspense and the pace is slow. Moreover, the human interest is not very strong. The photography is “spotty” — clear in some scenes, somber in others : — After Dunkirk, Ralph Clanton, an American, enlists in the British Army and becomes close friends with two other recruits, Edward Underdown, an Englishman, and Michael Brennan, an Irishman. Clanton spends his leave with Underdown and meets Helen Cherry, his wife, and their two chil dren. He meets also Stella Andrews, who lived nearby, and falls in love with her. With the approach of D?Day, the three comrades head for France and, as members of the Guards Armored Division, they join the battle and emerge as victors. Granted 48 hours leave, Clanton and Underdown smuggle themselves aboard an England-bound plane. Clanton proposes to Stella, now a nurse, and she accepts him. They get married at once and go on a brief honeymoon. At Christmas, the Guards are moved up in support of the Americans in a breakthrough in the Ardennes, and just before leaving on a reconnaissance of the snow-covered mountains with his two pals, Clanton learns that his wife is going to have a baby. He decides to name the child after Underdown’s wife, and insists that Brennan shall be its godfather. The reconnaissance party is detected by the enemy hidden in the forest, and is shot at. Clanton is wounded seriously. Underdown attempts to rescue him, but a second shot kills them both. It is a J. Arthur Rank presentation, produced by J. Elder Wills and written and directed by Terence Young. Unobjectionable morally. “The Great Caruso” with Mario Lanza and Ann Blyth Very good mass entertainment! Biographical of the life of Enrico Caruso, the great Italian tenor, this Technicolor production should go over in a big way, not only with the music lovers, but also with the rank and file. The reception given the picture by a typical neighborhood crowd at a New York sneak preview was highly enthusiastic, and it will no doubt benefit greatly from favorable word-of-mouth recommendations. Mario Lanza, as Caruso, is excellent. He reaches new heights as an actor, and as a singer his glorious voice is nothing short of thrilling. Of the twenty-eight popular operatic arias that are presented, Lanza projects his beautiful voice in no less than twenty-two of these, either as a soloist or with such noted singers as Dorothy Kirsten, Blanche Thebom, Lucine Amara and other operatic stars. For exhibitors who may be inclined to shy away from pictures with operatic music, it should be pointed out that all the arias sung are of the type that are popular, and that most of these have been worked into the proceedings in so infor* mal a manner that at no time does the picture assume the form of an operatic concert. As to the story, it is apparent that some liberties have been taken with Caruso’s biography, but this is not serious from the entertainment point of view, for it offers a charming mixture of comedy and romance, as well as several effective dramatic moments. All in all, the production is a delight to the eye, the ear and the heart. Briefly, the story opens with Caruso’s birth in Naples to poor parents. As a young boy, he is depicted as having a gifted voice and singing in a church choir. Grown into manhood, he sings in cabarets for whatever money is thrown to him. His voice eventually comes to the attention of two opera singers who launch him on a singing career by getting him a job in an operatic chorus. His rise in the operatic world is swift, and before long he makes a triumphant concert tour of Europe and is acclaimed as the world’s greatest tenor. Now wealthy, he returns to Naples to marry the girl he loved, only to learn that she had not waited for him. He then heads for the United States with a retinue of friends who had helped him with his career. There, his operatic debut is marred by the powerful influence of a wealthy patron of the arts, whom he had innocently offended. Despite this man’s opposition, however, Caruso not only becomes the idol of the music lovers but even wins the love of his daughter (Ann Blyth), whom he eventually marries over the objections of her father. In due time the marriage is blessed with a child, making Caruso’s happiness complete, but tragedy strikes when he becomes ill with a throat ailment. He refuses to listen to the pleadings of his wife and friends that he stop singing. He eventually collapses on the stage, and dies at the age of forty-seven. It was produced by Joe Pasternak and directed by Richard Thorpe from a screen play by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig, based on Dorothy Caruso’s biography of her husband. Excellent for the family.