Harrison's Reports (1951)

68 -• lj HARRISON’S REPORTS April 28, 1951 business. Your offense, it seems to us, was aggravated by the fact that in this instance you were attacking an industry that competes with your own. “We cannot believe that responsible business men such as you would be consciously guilty of such a breach of advertising ethics, and can only conclude that the program was produced without a full realization of its injurious nature, If we are correct in this assumption, we hope you will instruct your television producers to exercise greater care hereafter and observe the decencies of business practices.” It is to be hoped that the protest made by Arthur Mayer will bring the television people to the realization that the motion picture industry is in no mood to accept unfair indictments. They should, in fact, be made to realize that our industry, too, is a powerful medium that reaches many millions of people and that it would be a relatively simple matter for us to depict all phases of the television industry, from the selling and servicing of sets to the telecasts themselves, in a way that would be far from flattering. Perhaps a little eye-for-an-eye treatment of that sort is what is needed. A LAUDABLE SERVICE Our contemporary. The Film Daily, is to be commended for the unselfish way in which it is lending a helping hand to the hundreds of Eagle Lion Classics employees who suddenly find themselves without jobs as a result of the sale of ELC to United Artists. In a one-half page notice that appeared in the April 25 issue under the heading, “Experienced Manpower,” Film Daily points out that it is not in the employment agency business but that it does feel that, in assisting these ELC employees, it is providing a service to the entire motion picture industry in calling to its attention the availability of several hundred experienced and competent help in every branch of home office and exchange activity. Listed as available are executives, salesmen, branch managers, advertising executives, stenographers, secretaries, typists, bookkeepers, clerks, film bookers, cashiers, mailroom help, publicity men and women, ad copy writers and comptometer operators. As can be seen from the list, it includes people that can be employed by theatre operators, too. If you contact Film Daily “Placement” by telephone, letter, or wire, that paper wil be happy to put you in touch with the type of employees needed. The address is 1501 Broadway, New York, N. Y., and the telephone number BRyant 9-7117. “Best of the Badmen” with Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor, Jack Buetel, Robert Preston and Walter Brennan (RKO, no release date set; time, 84 min.) A satisfactory big-scale western, photographed in Technicolor and boasting a better-than-average cast. Set in the post-Civil War days, the story is another version of the exploits of such famous outlaws as Frank and Jesse James and the Younger Brothers, this time led by a former Union officer who had been forced into a life of outlawry. Plot-wise, it offers little that is novel, but it should more than satisfy those who favor this type of entertainment, for it is fast and exciting throughout, with plentiful fisticuffs, gunfights, chases and hard riding. The direction and acting are competent, and the color photography, although somewhat hazy in spots, of good quality: — Finding life unbearable under the carpet-bagging politicians, Bruce Cabot, Jack Beutel, Walter Brennan, John Archer, Lawrence Tierney and Tom Tyler, former members of Quantrell’s raiders, take to outlawry. They are trapped by a Union Army detachment led by Robert Ryan, who offers them the government’s official terms of amnesty — freedom if they surrender, prove that they were duly enlisted in the Confederate forces, and take the new oath of allegiance to the Union. They accompany Ryan back to the Army post at Breckenridge, Kansas, where Ryan learns that he had been made a civilian two weeks previously. Robert Preston, an unscrupulous politician and head of a detective agency, demands that Ryan turn the outlaws over to him for the rewards that had been offered for them, but Ryan, concealing his civilian status, refuses. He defends the outlaws from a riot staged by Preston’s men, administers the oath to them, and sees to it that they ride off in safety. Shortly thereafter, Preston learns of Ryan’s civilian status and has him arrested for killing one of his men during the riot. A crooked judge and a fixed jury sentence Ryan to hang, but Claire Trevor, Preston’s wife, who hated her ruthless husband, helps Ryan to escape. Pursued by Barton MacLane, Preston’s chief aide, Ryan, wounded and exhausted, is finally captured only to be rescued by Brennan and Buetel, who take him to Quinto in the lawless Cherokee Strip, where the bandits now made their headquarters. Since Ryan had administered the oath to them as a civilian, their outlaw status had not changed. There, Ryan is surprised to find Claire, who had fled from her husband. The bandits ask Ryan to become their leader, and he, aware that he was now a hunted fugitive, agrees. To even his score with Preston, Ryan sees to it that only the places protected by Preston’s agency are raided. Preston soon finds his busines being ruined. Claire, now in love with Ryan, prevails on him to quit after one more raid. Archer, jealous of her interest in Ryan, quarrels with him and secretly tips off Preston regarding the next raid. As a result, the bandits are ambushed and have to flee for their lives. Preston, however, recaptures Claire and takes her back to Breckenridge. Ryan, accompanied by Brennan and Buetel, goes to the town and in a daring maneuver rescues Claire after an exciting battle in which Preston and MacLane are killed. It ends with Ryan deciding to surrender to the authorities to clear his name, and with Claire promising to wait for him. It was produced by Herman Schlom and directed by William D. Russell, from a story by Robert Hardy Andrews, who wrote the screenplay with John Twist. Suitable for the family. 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