Harrison's Reports (1951)

162 HARRISON’S REPORTS October 13, 1951 “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman” with Ava Gardner and James Mason (MGM, November; time, ’123 min. A beautiful Technicolor production, magnificently mounted, superbly photographed, and distinguished by several outstanding sequences. As entertainment, however, its appeal will be limited, for its story, which is a curious mixture of modern romance and the Flying Dutchman legend, and which delves into the~supematur.<il> is not only uneven but is also weighted down by a preponderance of talk and mysticism that will leave most movie patrons confused. It may go over with the art house trade, but even there its acceptance is doubtful. For sheer thrills, the picture offers two highly exciting sequences. One depicts a breathtaking attempt to break the world’s motor speed record on a beach run, and the other is a tense, realistic bullfight in which the matador is gored to death. Also on the credit side are the beautiful natural backgrounds of the Spanish Riviera against which the story is set, as well as the exquisite clothes worn by Ava Gardner, as the heartless heroine, but all this production polish is not enough to overcome the story's deficiencies. Set in 1930, the story depicts Ava as a beautiful but selfish American girl, living with a colony of wealthy people in a fashionable fishing village on the coast of Spain. A restless girl who fascinated men but *ho could not find true love, Ava, after causing one man to poison himself because she refused her love, becomes engaged to Nigel Patrick, a racing motorist, who, to prove his love, had complied with her request to hurl his racing car from a cliff into the sea. Soon afterwards, she impulsively swims out to a sleek yacht anchored in the bay and finds that the only person aboard is James Mason, a mysterious Dutchman, who was completing a painting of her although they had never met. They fall in love with each other, and in the course of events it comes out that Mason is the fabled Flying Dutchman who, cen< turies before, because of the murder of his wife and blaspheming the powers of God, had been doomed to an everlasting life as a “ghost,” permitted to set foot on ground only once every seven years. According to the curse, he could not die in peace until he could find a woman willing to sacrifice her life for him out of love. Although she is engaged to Patrick, Ava's association with Mason arouses the jealousy of Mario Cabre, a famous bullfighter, who wanted to make her his wife. He stabs Mason in a frenzy of jealousy and believes him to be dead. But later, when Mason appears at a bullfight, Cabre is so shocked that he is caught off guard by a bull and gored to death. Ava then decides to leave Patrick and sail away with Mason, but he tells her that he does not love her lest she sacrifice her life for him. She swims out to his ship as he weighs anchor, and as soon as she steps aboard a hurricane springs up and wrecks the vessel. On the following day both are found dead on the beach, clasped in each other’s arms. The story and screenplay was written and directed by Albert Lewin, who co-produced it with Joseph Kaufman. Adult fare. stealing a million pounds in gold bars, his only problem being how to dispose of it. Guinness sees a solution to the problem when Stanley Holloway, owner of a foundry that manufactured souvenir articles for tourists, moves into the boarding house where he lived. He induces Holloway to join the conspiracy, and together they hit upon a plan to transport the gold to France in the shape of innocuous-looking Eiffel Tower paperweights. They get two professional crooks to join the scheme, form the Lavender Hill mob, and, after much difficulty, succeed in stealing the gold without arousing suspicion against Guinness. When the solid gold paperweights pass through the customs unnoticed, Guinness and Holloway set out for Paris to collect their booty and sell it in the black market. The plan hits a snag, however, when six of the towers are sold to a party of visiting English schoolgirls by mistake. Guinness and Holloway rush back to London to retrieve the towers and manage to get all but one, which had been given to an officer in charge of a police exhibition. They grab this tower off the officer's desk and soon find themselves pursued through the exhibit by scores of policemen, but they manage to make a getaway in a stolen patrol car. A wild chase through London’s streets ends with Holloway's capture, but Guinness succeeds in escaping to South America, where he lives lavishly until the authorities finally catch up with him. It is a J. Arthur Rank presentation, produced by Michael Balcon, and directed by Charles Crichton, from a screenplay by T. E. B. Clarke. Unobjectionable for the family. “The Lavender Hill Mob” with an all-British cast (Univ.-Int’l, October; time, 82 min.) Discriminating movie-goers who look for something different in screen fare should have themselves a chuckling good time with this crime melodrama. Cleverly written, directed and acted, it is a sly burlesque on crime pictures in general, revolving around a quiet, middle-aged clerk in a gold refinery who carefully builds up a reputation for honesty and efficiency while planning a perfect crime involving the robbery of one million pounds in gold bars. How he executes the crime with the aid of three accomplices, and the manner in which he gets the gold out of the country, make for a series of comical misadventures that are frequently hilarious. The fun poked at the British police toward the finish, where there is a wild chase with the thieves in a stolen patrol car, is particularly funny. Alec Guinness is excellent as the trusted clerk who masterminds the crime. Although the picture’s humor seems best suited for class audiences, it should get by also with the rank-and-file moviegoers, for it has plenty of suspense and excitement: — Guinness, a highly respected but modestly paid employee who supervised gold deliveries from the refinery to the Bank of England, had, after twenty years of service, won a fine reputation. No one suspects that he had a foolproof plan for “Slaughter Trail” with Brian Donlevy, Gig Young and Virgi (RKO, no rel. date set; ti A pretty goood western-type melodrama, phSfographed in Cinecolor. The plot itself is not unusual, but what makes it an above-average picture of its kind is the novel and entertaining manner in which a catchy ballad is sung throughout as background music, with the story of the ballad unfolding on the screen. Because of this novel treatment, the picture should be of interest to movie patrons who normally are not partial to pictures of this type. The action fans should find it more than satisfying, for it has plenty of hard-riding and gunfights, as well as several rousing Cavalry-versus-Indians battles. The direction and acting are competent, and the color photography, particularly the outdoor scenes, good: — Gig Young and two henchmen, wearing masks, hold up a stagecoach and rob a package of jewels from a mail pouch. Virginia Grey, actually Young’s accomplice but posing as a frightened passenger, takes the jewels secretly and promises to meet Young in San Francisco. The three bandits ride off, and later, when their mounts break down, they shoot three Indians and steal their horses, but one of the victims survives and reports the incident to the Navajo chief. Meanwhile the coach arrives at a nearby fort commanded by Brian Donlevy, who orders it detained while a patrol headed by Robert Hutton and Andy Devine is dispatched to search for the bandits. Anxious to push west, Virginia uses her charms to persuade Donlevy to permit the stagecoach to proceed. The Navajos launch an attack on the party, but they are repulsed by the patrol, which guides the coach back to the fort. Donlevy meets the Navajo chief and asks for a truce, promising to try and punish the bandits when they are caught, but the chief insists on a life for a life. Young, learning that Virginia had been restricted to the fort until the Indian uprising subsides, fixes a rendezvous with his henchmen and then goes to the fort and passes himself off as a cattleman seeking shelter. By this time Virginia had become attached to Robin Fletcher, Donlevy's motherless nine-year-old daughter. During the Saturday night social, the stolen jewels fall to the floor while Virginia is dancing. Young snatches them, draws his gun and, using Robin as a shield, mades his escape. Virginia refuses to accompany him. Young rides out and meets his henchmen, but the Indians spot them and force them to ride back into the fort. The Navajo chief offers peace if Donlevy will deliver the bandits to him, but Donlevy is compelled to refuse. The Indians then launch a furious attack on the fort, and it is not until the three bandits are killed in battle that the Navajos retire and peace is resumed. Virginia, having distinguished herself during the battle, is set free. It was produced and directed by Irving Allen, from a screenplay by Sid Kuller. Suitable for the family.