Harrison's Reports (1952)

178 HARRISON’S REPORTS November 8, 1952 “Million Dollar Mermaid” with Esther Williams, Victor Mature and Walter Pidgeon fMGM, December; time, 115 min.J Based on the career of Annette Kellerman, the oncefamous international swimming star, this lavish Technicolor production is a highly entertaining blend of romance, sentiment and spectacle. The highlights of the picture are the fabulously spectacular water ballet sequences, which for splendor and imaginative staging top any of Esther Williams' acquatic numbers in previous films. The story itself is developed along conventional biographical lines, but its mixture of romance, comedy and human appeal has been skillfully blended to give satisfaction on all counts. Miss Williams is easy on the eyes in her form-fitting bathing suits. Her acting, too, is very good; she makes the Annette Kellerman characterization warm and appealing. Victor Mature is outstanding as a fast-talking promoter who guides her to stardom and wins her love, and Walter Pidgeon is fine as her devoted father. The color photography is superb: — The story opens in Australia in 1892, where the 10-yearold Annette (played by Donna Corcoran), crippled daughter of Walter Pidgeon, a music teacher, regains the use of her legs by swimming. In the years that follow she becomes a champion swimmer and blossoms into a beautiful young lady (now played by Miss Williams). Financial reverses compel her father to sail for London to accept a position in a conservatory of music. Esther accompanies him, planning to study ballet dancing. On board ship they become acquainted with Victor Mature and Jesse White, his sidekick, owners of a boxing kangaroo. Mature, knowing of Esther's swimming prowess, offers to manage her, but her father frowns on professional swimming. Esther and her father are disappointed in London when he finds no job waiting for him, and she is unable to obtain a dancing position. In desperation, she agrees to swim twenty-six miles down the Thames River as an exploitation stunt for Mature’s kangaroo show. Her remarkable feat wins nationwide publicity, and Mature persuades her to go to New York, confident that he could book her into the Hippodrome. When David Brian, the Hippodrome’s managing director, is unable to book her act. Mature takes her to Boston for another Marathon swim, and there engineers her arrest for appearing on the beach in a one-piece bathing suit. The judge acquits her of the charge of indecent exposure, and the attendant publicity enables Mature to build her up as a sensational box-office attraction. Meanwhile Esther and Mature had fallen in love, but they part when they have a disagreement. Matures leaves to promote a flying daredevil, while Esther soars to new heights as the star of a Hippodrome water ballet. In due time Esther accepts a marriage proposal from Brian, but defers the wedding until she completes a movie in Hollywood. On the last day of “shooting," she is injured severely when the glass on the water tank bursts. Both Mature and Brian visit her at the hospital, where Brian, recognizing that she still loved Mature, bows out of their lives. Arthur Hornblow, Jr. produced it, and Mervyn LeRoy directed it, from a screenplay by Everett Freeman. Good for any type of audience. “Outpost in Malaya” with Claudette Colbert and Jack Hawkins C United Artists, November; time, 88 min.J A moderately interesting British-made melodrama, set against the tropical background of bandit-ridden Malaya. Its chief value to the exhibitors in this country is the name of Claudette Colbert, the only American player in the cast. Revolving around the shaky marriage of a rubber plantation owner and his wife, who realize their need for each other after they successfully fight off bandit attacks, the story is dramatically weak and is hampered by incidents that have little or no relation to the plot. The pace is extremely slow in the first half, but it picks up speed in the second half, where the terrorists launch a vicious attack on the plantation only to be repelled by the heroic efforts of the small band of defenders. These later sequences are filled with suspense and excitement, but it is not enough to overcome one’s mild interest in the proceedings as a whole: — The marriage of Jack Hawkins, a rubber planter, and Claudette Colbert, his wife, is at a breaking point because Hawkins, preoccupied with the safety of his plantation against threatened bandit attacks, neglects her. When he insists that she accompany their small son back to school in England, Claudette vows not to return to him. Two days before her departure, bandits raid a neighboring plantation and kill the owner. For the next few days Claudette works furiously to help her husband turn their bungalow in a veritable fortress in preparation for an impending attack. The bandit attack comes as expected, and Claudette and Hawkins, aided by their small house staff, man machine guns and hold off the invaders throughout the night. Just when all seems lost, the local jungle police arrive and beat back the bandits. Their terrifying ordeal bring Claudette and Hawkins together and makes them realize that their love is strong enough to overcome all difficulties. It was produced by John Stafford, and directed by Ken Annakin, from an original story and screenplay by Peter Proud and Guy Elmes. Adults. “Sky Full of Moon” with Carleton Carpenter and Jan Sterling (MGM, December; time, 72 min.J A fair program picture, best suited for the lower half of a double bill. The story is thin and the situations are too patly contrived, but its account of a naive young cowpoke’s first visit to a city — in this case Las Vegas, Nevada — and of his first experience with women and gambling, offers a mixture of dramatic and comic events that holds one’s interest throughout. The actual Las Vegas settings and backgrounds give the action an authentic flavor. Carleton Carpenter is ideally cast as the young cowpoke, as is Jan Sterling, as a change-girl in a slot machine joint, a worldlywise young woman who takes advantage of his naivete but who does not have the heart to hurt him. Keenan Wynn, as Jan’s boss, has relatively little to do: — With $43.80 in his jeans, Carpenter leaves the range and heads for Las Vegas to enter the Helldorado Rodeo. Arriving there, he is disappointed to learn that he hasn’t enough money for the entry fee. Unable to find work in town, he tries his luck in a slot machine club operated by Keenan Wynn and hits the jackpot. He is immediately taken in hand by Jan, a change-girl, who takes him on a tour of the different gambling joints, where his lucky streak continues. He falls in love with Jan and decides to give her half his winnings to enable her to get back home to Kansas. But since his own share would not leave him enough for the entry fee, he decides to gamble some more and loses all the winnings. Desperate, he reluctantly joins Jan in a scheme to win a $150 jackpot from one of Wynn’s slot machines by means of a drill. He wins the jackpot legitimately, but drops the drill as he gathers up the cascade of silver dollars and flees the club in panic. He jumps into Jan’s waiting jalopy and together they start a headlong flight over desert back roads. When he gets out of the car to look for water, Jan speeds away with the money, leaving him stranded and disillusioned. She returns in a little while, however, and begs his forgiveness. He proposes marriage to her and insists that they return to Las Vegas to face the music. Carpenter falls asleep while they wait for a train, and Jan takes this opportunity to get out of his life lest she harm him. Dejected to find Jan gone, Carpenter returns to Las Vegas, where Wynn assures him that he had done nothing wrong. He enters the bucking bronco contest and is thrown quickly. He then heads back to the range, vowing to try his luck again next year. It was written and directed by Norman Foster, and produced by Sidney Franklin, Jr. Adults.