Harrison's Reports (1951)

70 HARRISON’S REPORTS May 5, 1951 “New Mexico” with Lew Ayres, Marilyn Maxwell and Andy Devine (United Artists, May 18; time, 78 min.) Not a bad story, as glorified western stories go; there is fast action and plentiful heroics, with some of the char* acters sympathetic and some unpleasant. But the color, which is of the Ansco brand, is atrocious, with the exception of some exterior scenes; the faces and hands of the players are ceramic — that is, in terra cotta color. If patrons who like action melodramas will not pay much attention to the color defects, they should enjoy the picture. The action takes place in the old days when the Indians and the whites did not get along so well. In this instance, the fault lies mostly with the whites — the Army men and the Indian Affairs Commissioner : — Lew Ayres, a captain in the U.8. Cavalry, heads a patrol of fifteen men, among whom are Robert Hutton, Andy Devine, Raymond Burr and Jeff Corey. He leads his patrol to intercept Ted de Corsia, an Indian chief, and thus head off a full-scale Indian rebellion, caused by the mistreatment of the Indians by Lloyd Corrigan, the Indian Affairs Commissioner. Short of water, rations and even ammunition, Ayres and his patrol eventually gain the heights of Acoma Rock, where they find themselves cornered. Here they stand and fight after rescuing Marilyn Maxwell, an entertainer, Verna Felton, her chaperone, and Corrigan from a stagecoach pursued by the Indians. The chief calls for a truce and promises to let the patrol depart unmolested if Ayres will abandon Acoma Rock and hand Corrigan over to him. Ayres refuses, and he and his patrol fight desperately against overwhelming odds. Hutton and Corey slip off the rock in an attempt to bring reinforcements from the fort, but both fall to their deaths. The patrol discovers two Indian youths on the Rock and one is killed in cold blood by Anderson. The other, Peter Price, a ten-year-old boy, is held as hostage when Ayres guesses that he is the chief’s son. Shortly afterwards the lad leads Marilyn to an underground arsenal. Ayres, mortally wounded, realizes that the chief needed the huge store of rifles and ammunition to stage the fullscale rebellion. Corrigan takes the Indian boy and escapes down the Rock to deliver him to the chief, hoping to gain his own freedom, but the chief has him shot. At a new parley, Ayres again refuses to yield, knowing that all is lost, for he knew that even in defeat he can defeat also the Indians. He accomplishes this by blowing up the arsenal, thus destroying the chief’s hope of staging the rebellion. The only ones to escape alive after the blast are Marilyn and the Indian boy. Irving Allen produced it, and Irving Reis directed it, from an original story and screenplay by Max Trell. Family entertainment. “Jungle Headhunters” (RKO, no re l. date set; time, 66 min.) Photographed in color, with prints by Technicolor, this is a fairly interesting camera record of the Lewis Cotlow Third Amazon Expedition into the South American jungles, climaxed by a visit with the Jivaros, a tribe of headhunters. It should make a suitable supporting feature wherever films of this type are enjoyed. Like most jungle documentary pictures, this one, too, has the usual quota of wild life scenes, some of which are extraordinary, such as shots of the pithanas, savage little fishes that attack and strip their victims to the bone in a matter of minutes. A number of the animal scenes, however, are obvious library clips that have been seen in other pictures. Shown also in the footage are scenes of different native tribes with the usual barebosomed women, their individual primitive habits, and the customary tribal dances. In depicting the hazards of such an expedition, particularly the encounters with savage tribes, considerable hokum has been resorted to and it will be recognized as such by discriminating picture-goers. In this hokum category, for instance, are the sequences depicting the macabre headhunting practice of the Jivaros. These sequncees show a witch doctor working up the natives into a war dance of hate frenzy, which is followed by an attack on a rival tribe, with one of the warriors beheading an enemy and then shrinking the head for a trophy. The staging of the attack is so obvious that it lacks excitement. Moreover, many pessons may find the detailed depiction of the head-shrinking methods too revolting to watch. Julian Lesser produced it, and Joseph Ansen and Larry Lansburgh wrote the narration. Women and children may find parts of it repulsive. “Along the Great Divide” with Kirk Douglas, Virginia Mayo and Walter Brennan (Warner Bros., June 2; time, 88 min.) A fairly good Western melodrama. It is somewhat different from most pictures of this type in that to a large extent it sacrifices robust action to concentrate on the mental fixations of the hero and of one of the villains. This serves to slow up the action, but it has little effect on the suspense, which stems from the determination of the hero, a Marshal, to bring an accused man in for trial, despite the efforts of others to take the law into their own hands. There is considerable excitement in the situations where the hero and his party are attacked by a band of lynchers, and where the hero tries desperately to stay awake when one of his own deputies turns against him. The direction and acting are competent, and the outdoor photography, particularly the desert shots, impressive: — Kirk Douglas, a U.S. Marshal, accompanied by John Agar and Ray Teal, his deputies, comes across a group of cattlemen headed by Morris Ankrum and James Anderson, his son, just as they are about to lynch Walter Brennan. Ankrum explains that Brennan had just killed his other son while attempting to rustle some cattle, but Douglas, despite Ankrum's protests, decides to take Brennan to the jail at Santa Loma to be held for trial. As Ankrum rides off with his son’s body, Douglas finds a watch nearby. Douglas decides to stop for the night at Brennan’s cabin, where he meets Virginia Mayo, Brennan’s spirited daughter. Learning that Ankrum was organizing his ranch hands in a determined effort to stop him from taking Brennan to Santa Lamo, Douglas sets off at once, taking a shortcut across the blazing desert. Virginia insists upon going along. They are intercepted by Ankrum's men, and in the ensuing fight Agar is killed while Douglas captures Anderson, Ankrum’s son. The trek across the desert is resumed, and in the events that follow Douglas falls in love with Virginia only to be deceived by her when she attempts to free her father. The party runs short of water and Teal, crazed with thirst and offered a bribe by Anderson, tries to kill Douglas, but Brennan saves the situation by shooting Teal first lest he fall into Anderson’s clutches. Douglas finally brings the weary party into Santa Loma and, after a speedy trial, Brennan is convicted and sentenced to hang, despite Douglas’ plea that he believed him to be innocent of murder. Just as the sentence is about to carried out, Douglas discovers that the watch he had found belonged to Anderson. He drags Anderson from the jail and forces him to confess that he had killed his brother because he had been favored by their father. Anderson grabs a gun and tries to escape, using Virginia as a shield, but Douglas shoots him down. With her father cleared, Virginia looks forward to an earnest romance with Douglas. It was produced by Anthony Veiller and directed by Raoul Walsh from a screen play by Walter Doniger and Lewis Meltzer. Unobjectionable morally. “The Lion Hunters” with Johnny Sheffield (Monogram, March 25; time, 72 min.) A passable program adventure melodrama, of the same quality as most of the other pictures in the “Bomba” series. The animal scenes will undoubtedly thrill children, as well as adults. Most of the outdoor scenery is beautiful, and the spectator is held in pretty tense suspense by several of the situations. The action should teach children, without preachment, to be kind to animals. The photography is good: — Johnny Sheffield, a boy living in the African jungle, loves wild animals and they in turn obey his commands. When a group of hunters come to his region and capture several lions, Johnny contrives to liberate them from their cages. He comes upon Ann Todd and persaudes her to plead with Morris Ankrum, her father, and Douglas Kennedy, his partner, not to trap the lions, but both men think that the jungle boy is a figment of her imagination. When Kennedy learns that the captured lions had been freed, he goes in search of Johnny to shoot and kill him. On the edge of the jungle, Kennedy sees Robert Davis, son of a tribal chief, seeking to kill a lion to prove his right to sit at the council table. When the lad comes in combat with a lion, Kennedy shoots and kills both of them. He then takes the lad's body to the chief and tells him that a lion had killed his son. Kennedy persuades the chief to give him enough natives to trap all the lions in the area and thus free the natives from danger. Johnny, however, tells the chief that Kennedy, not a lion, had killed his son. Learning of Johnny’s revelation, Kennedy goes after him. During the chase, a crocodile capsizes Kennedy’s boat. Johnny jumps into the river, kills the crocodile, and saves Kennedy’s life. He then cages Kennedy