Harrison's Reports (1952)

6 HARRISON’S REPORTS January 12, 1952 I “Meet Danny Wilson” with Frank Sinatra, Shelley Winters and Alex Nicol ( Univ.'lnt l, February; time, 86 min.) The box-office chances of this melodrama with music will depend mainly on the popularity of the players. As entertainment it is no more than^ fair, its chief handicap bemg a rambling, synthetic story about the rise of a cocky young crooner, of his romantic disappointments, and of his involvement with a murderous gangster. It should, however, get by with the bobby-soxers and the action fans, for it moves along at a steady pace, has comedy, a thrilling gun battle in a darkened ball park, and about nine nostalgic songs. Frank Sinatra does well enough as the swellheaded singer, a role that gives him ample opportumty to act as well as sing. Shelley Winters is effective as a night-club singer with whom Sinatra falls in love only to lose her to his buddy: Sinatra, a quick-tempered crooner, finds it hard to secure engagements and is constantly saved from trouble by Alex Nicol, his rugged pal and pianist. They get a break when they meet Shelley and she arranges an audition with Raymond Burr, her boss. Burr, a racketeer, offers them a six-week engagement on condition that he be cut in on half of Sinatra’s future earnings. The boys reluctantly agree. Sinatra becomes an immediate sensation, and he falls in love with Shelley, but though she does not discourage him she indicates her love for Nicol. But Nicol restrains his feelings out of loyalty to Sinatra. Meanwhile Burr, who had an eye on Shelley himself, continues to collect his share of Sinatra’s fabulous earnings and refuses a lump-sum settlement. Burr becomes mvolved in a murder and goes into hiding. Convinced that she cannot have Nicol, Shelley accepts an engagement ring from Sinatra. This move awakens Nicol’s love. He and Shelley are caught by Sinatra in a warm embrace and he violently orders them out of his life. When Sinatra and Nicol meet to legally terminate their relationship, Burr shows up for his money and starts to beat Sinatra. Nicol jumps to his defense and is shot. Burr leaves, ordering Sinatra to bring the money to him that night at a ball park. With Nicol fighting for his fife in the hospital, Sinatra, aided by the police, keeps the rendezvous with Burr and brings him to justice after a gun battle. Nicol recovers and marries Shelley, and both accompany Sinatra to London for a triumphal engagement at the Palladium. It was produced by Leonard Goldstein, and directed by Joseph Pevney, from a story and screenplay by Don McGuire. Unobjectionable morally. “Room for One More’ with Cary Grant and Betsy Drake fWarner Bros., Jan. 26; time, 98 min.) Excellent! It is a thoroughly delightful comedydrama of family life, the kind that will appeal to all classes of movie-goers. It will undoubtedly prove to be a top box-office grosser by virtue of the favorable word-of-mouth advertising it is sure to enjoy. Revolving around a young couple who, with three children of their own to raise, find it in their hearts to adopt two other lonely children, despite their limited income, the story is so wholesome and heartwarming that one truly will have to be made of steel to resist its appeal. Its humor is rich and often hilarious, and it has just enough pathos to tug at one’s heartstrings without becoming maudlin. Cary Grant and Betsy Drake are just perfect and loveable as the parents, whose patience and understanding succeed in rehabilitating the two adopted children, one a sullen adolescent girl and the other a crippled boy. Worked mto the story is some sophisticated romantic by-play between Grant and Miss Drake, but it is in the best of taste and decidedly charming. The acting of the children in the cast is excellent, and the family scenes are delightful. Particular mention should be made of little George Winslow, an extremely comical youngster, whose comments in a deep-throated voice will provoke audiences mto gales of laughter. The story depicts Grant as a city engineer whose modest income just about covers the needs of his wife and three children, and whose happy household is always overrun with stray pets because of Betsy’s compassion for homeless animals. Grant becomes concerned when a welfare worker induces Betsy to take into her home Ins Mann, a thirteen-year-old homeless girl. He objects weakly but finally agrees to keep Ins for at least two weeks. Ins, the cymcal product of divorced parents who did not want her, proves to be sullen, hard and difficult to get along with, but she softens under Betsy’s patience and becomes one of the family. She is heartbroken when the welfare worker comes m two weeks to take her back to the orphanage, but Grant saves the situation by inviting her to remain permanently. Just as Grant prepares to take the family to the beach for a vacation, Betsy gently informs him that she had taken another child from the orphanage. He fumes and frets until he sees the child — Clifford Tatum, Jr., a cripple with leg braces. Clifford, too, proves to be a problem child because of his handicap, refusing to play with the other children and fighting with them. But Grant and Betsy again resort to patience and understanding, helping the boy to become self-sufficient. He joins the Boy Scouts and is eventually made an Eagle Scout at a special ceremony, much to the pride of his adopted parents. It ends with Grant and Betsy feeling amply rewarded for their efforts by the devotion felt for them by their adopted children as well as their own youngsters. It was produced by Henry Blanke, and directed by Norman Taurog, from a screenplay by Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose, based upon the book by Anna Perrott Rose. Excellent for everyone. “Scandal Sheet” with Broderick Crawford, John Derek and Donna Reed ( Columbia, February; time, 82 min.) A fairly interesting murder melodrama with a newspaper background, but it does not rise above the level of program fare. The plot itself is too contrived to be convincing, but those who are not too fussy about story material should find it acceptable, for several of the situations generate considerable suspense. Since the identity of the murderer is known to the audience from the start, one’s interest lies in the methods employed to track him down. The players do well enough in their respective roles, but their characterizations are stereotyped. An incongrous phase of the story, typically Hollywood in treatment, has John Derek, as an enterprising reporter, uncovering important clues far ahead of the police: Broderick Crawford, dynamic editor of a New York newspaper, skyrockets its circulation through a series of sensational stunts. Derek, Crawford's star reporter and a convert to his editor’s belief in brash journalism, loves Donna Reed, a feature writer on the paper, but Donna resents Crawford’s blatant technique and the way he dominates Derek. Craw