Harrison's Reports (1951)

92 HARRISON’S REPORTS June 9, 1951 “Kentucky Jubilee” with James Ellison, Jean Porter and Jerry Colonna ( Lippert , May 18; time, 67 min.) Children should like it, but adults may find it too silly, except, perhaps, those who enjoy comedy, no matter how nonsensical. There are enough ingredients in the action to have made a better program picture, but no advantage was taken of the opportunity. Worked into the proceedings are a variety of specialty numbers featuring performers in sixteen different acts. It must be noted that advertising plugs are given to such products as Morton Salt, Mobile Oil, Coca Cola, Miller’s High Life Beer and Cadillac cars: — While en route to Hickory, Kentucky, in search of talent at the Kentucky Jubilee, Fritz Feld, a Hollywood director, is kidnapped by gangsters, who were headed for the same town to join Archie Twitchell, a big-time racketeer. Twitchell, by threatening to expose Chester Clute, the town’s mayor, on some misdeed, had managed to take charge of the jubilee. His idea was to abscond with the receipts. James Ellison, a New York reporter, arrives in town with Jerry Colonna, graduate of a correspondence school for entertainers, on his first job as master of ceremonies at the jubilee. With them is Jean Porter, whom they had met in a town nearby, where she was stranded after her show had closed. Ellison attempts to see Feld at his hotel, but is refused admittance by the gangsters, who pose as his servants. Ellison calls on Raymond Hatton, editor of the local newspaper, and learns that he suspected that something crooked was going on in the management of the jubilee. Both set out to obtain evidence against Twitchell and his gang. Meanwhile Colonna is taken prisoner by the gangsters when he discovers them sneaking Feld out of the hotel. Both are taken to a smoke house on the edge of town and placed under guard. With Colonna “missing,” Twitchell takes over as master of ceremonies. Shortly thereafter, Ellison rescues Colonna and Feld and, while he compells the mayor to confess all he knows, the gangsters chase Colonna through the crowd at the jubilee. Hatton, however, summons the corns stable and his deputies in time to thwart the gangsters from robbing the local bank and holding up the jubilee’s cashier. Colonna takes over as master of ceremonies, and Feld, impressed with him and with Jean, signs them for his next picture, based on a story by Ellison. It ends with Jean in Ellison's arms. Ron Ormond produced and directed it, from a screen play by Maurice Tombragel and the producer-director himself. Appearing in the specialty numbers are the McQaig Twins, Les “Carrot Top,” Fred Kirby, Chris Randall, Penny McGiggan, Donna Kaye Anderson, Broome Brothers, Bobby Clark, Y-Knot Twirlers, Claude Casey, Slim Andrews, Frankie Vincent, John Braislin, Buck & Chickie Eddy and Edna and Gracia Dreon. Unobjectionable for family audiences. “China Corsair” with Jon Hall and Lisa Ferraday ( Columbia , June; time, 68 min.) Suitable for the lower half of a double bill. It is a melodrama, with murders and double-crossings and stealing of priceless jade antiques, in which Lisa Ferraday turns from a villainess into a heroine, and in which John Hall is given ample opportunities for heroics. The action unfolds somewhere on a small island off the coast of China, where the hero finds himself broke and without a job. The direction, acting and photography are so-so; — Hall, an engineer down on his luck because of drink, meets Lisa, an Eurasian girl, in a gambling house. He wins at roulette, but because Lisa had knocked his chip off the winning number, the proprietor refuses to pay him. Penni< less, he drifts around town until he lands a job on the Sally Ann, a chartered boat bound for the port of Tan Hai. Meanwhile Lisa and Ron Randall, her boy-friend, arrange to buy a collection of antiques from Philip Ahn, her uncle. Randall murders Ahn after he delivers the antiques, then charters the Sally Ann and leaves with the antiques without informing Lisa. Learning of Randall's perfidy from Hu Chang, the gambling house owner, Lisa becomes infuriated. She charters a fast boat, overtakes the Sally Ann, and orders her crew to take Randall prisoner. She then transfers the antiques into her own boat and orders Hall to come along with her. Randall grabs a pistol from Lisa’s hand and attempts to shoot her, but Lisa’s maid knifes him to death in the nick of time. When Lisa learns that John Dehner, Chang’s lieutenant, plans to tseal the antiques from her, she appeals to Hall for help. In the course of events, Hall and Lisa, alone on her boat, find themselves pursued by another boat manned by Chang and his henchmen. Their ship stalls and Lisa is wounded, but Hall’s gunfire manages to keep the pursuers at bay until they find safety in the darkness of night. Knowing that Chang and his men will return at daybreak, Hall manages to get Lisa ashore in a skiff, but he first rigs up a bomb that would explode with the opening of the cabin door. As they reach the shore, Chang and his men board the boat and are blown to bits. Hall’s plan to make Lisa happy by marrying her fades when she dies in his arms. It was produced by Rudolph C. Flothow and directed by Ray Nazarro from a screenplay by Harold R. Greene. Unobjectionable morally. “Sirocco” with Humphrey Bogart, Marta Toren and Lee J. Cobb (Columbia, July; time, 98 min.) A fair melodrama. Revolving around the exploits of a black marketeer in Damascus during the French-Syrian War of 1925, the story is somewhat complicated and contrived, and the development of the plot draggy in spots, but it should get by with undiscriminating audiences who like exciting incidents and melodramatic situations. Humphrey Bogart, as the hardened black marketeer and gun-runner, is cast in the type of role he plays well, but neither he nor any of the other principal characters win the spectator’s sympathy because of their sordid actions. The picture is impressive from the production point of view, with the settings and low-key photography catching the war-like atmosphere of Damascus realistically: — Bogart plies a profitable trade in Damascus running guns and ammunition through the French occupation troops to the ragged Syrian army headed by Onslow Stevens. When Lee J. Cobb, the colonel in charge of French intelligence, hampers his operations, Bogart gets partial revenge on him by making a play for Marta Toren, a playgirl kept by Cobb. She becomes interested in Bogart, particularly when he offers to take her back to Cairo, and tells Cobb that she is through with him. But Cobb, who controlled the military passes out of the city, refuses to issue one to her. In the course of events, Bogart learns that the French military had obtained proof of his gunrunning activities. He tries to flee the city with Marta, but is blocked by the watchful Cobb. Eager to negotiate a truce with Stevens, the Syrian leader, whose sniping activities took many French lives, Cobb visits Bogart and arrests him, then offers to let him go free with a pass to Cairo if he will arrange a meeting with Stevens. Moreover, he offers to issue a pass to Marta, too. Bogart agrees, but warns Cobb that the meeting may result in his (Cobb’s) death. After arranging the meeting, Bogart applies for his pass at military headquarters. Everett Sloane, Cobb's superior officer, informs Bogart that Cobb had gone on his mission without authority, and that he feared for his safety. He asks Bogart to lead the French to the Syrian leader’s hideout. Bogart declines, but despite his refusal is issued the pass promised to him by Cobb. This act of honor touches Bogart, and he offers to obtain Cobb's release by means of ransom money. The Syrian leader accepts the ransom and sets Cobb free, but he sees to it that Bogart is killed for disclosing his hideout to the French. With Bogart dead and with Cobb having no further desire for her, Marta heads for Cairo alone. It was produced by Robert Lord and directed by Curtis Bernhardt from a screen play by A. I. Bezzerides and Hans Jacoby, based on the novel “Coup de Grace,” by Joseph Kessel. The cast includes Zero Mostel, Gerald Mohr and others. Adult fare.