Harrison's Reports (1951)

Aprli 28, 1951 HARRISON’S REPORTS 67 “Dear Brat” with Mona Freeman, Billy De Wolfe and Edward Arnold ( Paramount , May; time, 82 min.) This third sequel to “Dear Ruth” (the second was “Dear Wife”) shapes up as a mildly amusing family comedy of program grade. That it does not match the entertainment values of the previous pictures is due mainly to the fact that most of the comedy is forced. This time the family's troubles are brought about by the social consciousness of the 'teen-aged daughter, played by Mona Freeman, who joins a movement for the rehabilitation of criminals and brings home a kidnapper to work as the family gardener. The story idea is good, but the writing is weak. Some of the complications that arise are genuinely funny, but many of the situations that were meant to be funny fall flat. William Holden and Joan Caulfield, who appeared in the previous pictures, are missing from the cast in this one. The other principal roles, however, are filled by the same players: — Having interested herself in the rehabilitation of criminals, and having learned that the family needed a new gardener, Mona meets Lyle Bettger as he is released from prison and offers him the job. Bettger, recalling that Edward Arnold, Mona’s father, had sentenced him for kidnapping his own daughter, quickly accepts the offer. Arnold, now a State Senator, demands that Bettger be fired at once, but Mona shrewdly fixes matters in a way that compels him to retain Bettger lest unfavorable publicity hurt his chances of re-election. Complications arise when as a result of Mona’s efforts to rehabilitate Bettger, William Regnolds, her boyfriend, and her parents, assume that she had fallen in love with him. To dispel her parents' fears, and to make Reg-, nolds jealous, Mona pretends to be in love with Billy De Wolfe, her married sister’s former sweetheart. Meanwhile Mona learns that Bettger and Irene Winston, his wife, were still very much in love and that their estrangement had been a misunderstanding. To further Bettger’s rehabilitation, she enlists De Wolfe’s aid to play cupid between Bettger and his wife. In the meantime, Natalie Wood, his daughter, visits Bettger, and he decides to phone his wife and suggest a reunion. When De Wolfe answers the phone, Bettger misconstrues the situation and sets out to protect his wife. He departs just before Mary Philips, Mona’s mother, returns home and discovers that her twin grandsons, left in her care, are missing. Unaware that the children had been picked up by their parents, Miss Philips assumes that Bettger had kidnapped them and notifies the police. This results in a series of misunderstandings that get every one into hot water, but it all ends on a happy note, with Bettger and his wife reconciled, and with Mona resuming her romance with Regnolds. It was produced by Mel Epstein and directed by William Seiter from a screen play by Devery Freeman. Suitable for the family. “Five” with William Phipps and Susan Douglas (Columbia, no rel. date set; time, 93 min.) A highly fanciful but intriguing drama, revolving around five persons who miraculously escape death when an atom bomb destroys all other living things on earth. The picture was obviously produced on a limited budget, but through skillful and imaginative handling Arch Oboler, who wrote, produced and directed it, has captured in a most realistic way all the terror, horror and desolation of such a catastrophe. As entertainment, the picture seems more suited to the classes than to the masses, first, because the pace is extremely slow, and secondly, because Oboler has employed a somewhat arty approach in dealing with the personal conflicts and opposing ideologies of the five survivors. In any case, the picture will require extensive exploitation, for the players, though good, are unknown. After establishing that the atom blast had rendered the world almost completely dead and empty, the picture opens with Susan Douglas, a young, pregnant woman, wandering about the countryside in a state of shock, saved from death by a wall of steel in an X-ray room. She finds refuge in a mountain cabin occupied by William Phipps, a philosophical young man, who, too, had been miraculously spared. Phipps nurses her back to health, and shortly thereafter they are joined by Earl Lee, an elderly bank cashier, and Charles Lampkin, a Negro bank attendant, who had been saved as a result of having been locked up in a bank vault. Lee becomes ill and dies, just as the others locate a fifth survivor, James Anderson, an aristocratic European mountain climber, who had been saved because he was atop Mt. Everest. Phipps and Lampkin eagerly start building a new life, but Anderson, a bigoted, arrogant fellow, not only refuses to help them but actually destroys their work. He could see no point in struggling when the lifeless cities in the area were filled with all the things they needed. Meanwhile Susan has her baby. She loves Phipps, but clings to the hope that her husband, too, had escaped the holocaust. Anderson, wanting Susan for himself, talks her into going to a city nearby to search for her husband, and slays Lampkin when he tries to interfere with his scheme. In the city, Susan finds her husband dead. Anderson tries to stop her from returning to Phipps, but he abandons her and her child when he discovers that he had contracted radiation poisoning. Susan makes her way back to the mountain lodge, and her baby dies during the torturous climb. When her grief subsides, she joins Phipps and, being the only man and woman on earth, they plan to build a better world. Best suited for mature audience. “Sealed Cargo” with Dana Andrews, Claude Rains and Carla Balenda (RKO, no rel. date set; time, 90 min.) “Sealed Cargo" should prove to be an exciting and intriguing wartime sea melodrama to adventure-loving fans who are willing to accept a far-fetched story. Revolving around the skipper of a Gloucester fishing boat who becomes involved with a Nazi torpedo supply ship disguised as a Danish square-rigger, the action keeps one tense throughout even though the heroics are fanciful. A maximum of suspense has been garnered from the melodramatic situations, particularly at the finish where the hero plants a time-bomb that destroys the torpedo ship along with several U-Boats. The direction and acting are fine, but the low-key pho* tography throughout most of the action is distracting: — Heading for the Grand Banks on his fishing boat, Dana Andrews takes along as a passenger Carla Balenda, a Canadian nurse, who wanted to visit her wounded father in the Newfoundland village of Trabo. The ship's radio is wrecked mysteriously during the voyage, and Eric Feldray, a crew member, throws suspicion on Philip Dorn, a newlysigned sailor. Near Trabo, Andrews comes across a dismasted, shell-ridden Danish square-rigger. He boards the vessel, and Claude Rains, her captain, informs him that his crew had abandoned the ship in a panic when attacked by a Nazi submarine. He accepts Andrews' offer to tow him to Tarbo. After arriving in the harbor, Andrews, suspicious of Rains, inspects the square-rigger that night and finds Dorn on the same errand. They discover that its cargo of rum camouflaged a secret hold crammed with torpedoes, and rightly conclude that it is a mother-ship for U-boats. They watch undetected as Feldray comes aboard and sends a coded radio message to waiting U-boats. On the following day, Rains’ crew shows up. Since Trabo had no communication with the outside world, Andrews evolves a daring plan to capture the enemy ship that evening. He bids Rains goods bye, telling him that he is leaving for the fishing grounds, but once around the point he goes ashore with his crew and makes his way back to the village. Rains’ crew, armed, tries to take control of the village, but they are beaten back by Andrews' crew and the local fishermen. Returning to their ship, the Nazis take Carla as a hostage, but Andrews and his men clamber aboard and, after a fierce battle, wipe out all the Nazis, including Rains, and rescue Carla. They then get the vessel under way out of the harbor and set a time-bomb in her hold. The ship explodes, and the blast also sinks several U-boats that had drawn alongside. It was produced by Warren Duff, from a screen play by Dale Van Every, Oliver H. P. Garrett and Roy Huggins, based on the novel “The Gaunt Woman,” by Edmund Gilligan. Unobjectionable morally.