Harrison's Reports (1954)

January 2, 1954 HARRISON’S REPORTS of movement and dramatic punch. Its chief asset, as said, is the beautiful color photography : — Mel Ferrer, a French doctor, dedicates himself to looking after the ills of the somewhat backward people of Anahout, ruled by kindly Cornel Wilde, a progressive and educated young man, who felt a strong attachment for Ferrer. When Ferrer’s attention is called to the deathly ill condition of Rita Gam, a native girl who had fallen under the spell of Wanda Rotha, a sorceress, he performs an emergency operation and saves her life. Grateful, Rita becomes an aide to Ferrer in his hospital work, despite the wrath of the sorceress, who threatens to destroy the doctor through witchcraft. In the course of events, the people are stricken with the plague, and Ferrer, aided by Rita and Wilde, battles heroically to stamp out the disease. Complications arise when a shipment of badly needed serum is hijacked by desert bandits, whose leader was at odds with the military forces guarding the area. Risking her life, Rita visits the bandit leader in his mountain hideout, permits him to assume that he can take liberties with her, and stabs him to death in an unguarded moment. She then succeeds in recovering the serum and escaping with it, despite a chase in which she is wounded by the bandits. Rita’s heroism helps Ferrer to bring the plague under control. Meanwhile both Wilde and Ferrer fall in love with Rita, and she in turn is torn between the gratitude she feels for Ferrer and her love for Wilde. The young ruler, however, keeps his feelings to himself in deference to Ferrer. Shortly thereafter Wilde is injured seriously in an attack by the bandits and, as he hovers between life and death, the sorceress leads the people to believe that her witchcraft had rendered the doctor impotent in his efforts to save Wilde. An elderly priest, however, persuades the people to ignore the rantings of the sorceress and to pray for their ruler. This power of faith gives Ferrer new strength and enables him to save Wilde. It all ends with Rita becoming Wilde’s bride in a colorful native ceremony while Ferrer smiles his approval. It was produced and directed by Albert Lewin from his own screenplay, based on the French novel “Echec au Destin,” by Francis D’Autheville. Unobjectionable morally. “His Majesty CyKeefe” with Burt Lancaster and Joan Rice (Warner Bros., Jan. 16; time, 92 min.) A highly entertaining picture of its type. Set against an actual idyllic South Pacific island background, and photographed in Technicolor, it is a rousing swashbuckling adventure melodrama in which Burt Lancaster is again given ample opportunity to display his agility and strength as a dashing and fearless hero. The action moves swiftly and excitingly from one climax to another as Lancaster goes through a series of hair-raising adventures that bring him romance, riches and the gratitude of a tribe of island natives, who make him their king after he risks his life to save them from a life of slavery. It is all “hokum,” of course, but it is zestful and picturesque and is sure to strike a responsive chord in audiences who enjoy so-called “escapist” screen fare, particularly the action fans. Lancaster turns in a first-rate performance as the adventurous Yankee sea captain, and Joan Rice is sweet and charming as the Polynesian girl who wins his heart. The direction is expert, cind the color photography of the best: — Thrown overboard by his mutinous crew, Lancaster manages to reach Yap, a small South Pacific island, where the happy-go-lucky natives and Andre Morell, a German trader, nurse him back to health. Lancaster sees in the island’s heavily laden cocoanut palms a fortune in copra for export, but Morell explains that it was not possible to cash in on it because the natives refused to work. Lancaster tries to bribe the natives with trinkets to get them to work, but they laugh at his efi^orts and refuse. He finally leaves the island in a German boat that had stopped to pick up the small copra crop, and he parts with the natives on most friendly terms. In Hong Kong, Lancaster meets many rebuffs as he tries to finance a new ship but finally makes a deal with Philip Ahn for the use of his junk. Setting out to seek a fortune, Lancaster and his crew are attacked by fierce warriors when they come to an island in ^e Solomons. Lancaster is wounded, but he and his crew manage to escape and head for ""another island. There he is welcomed and nursed back to health by Alexander Archdale, an AustraHan trader, and Joan Rice, his beautiful half-caste daughter. Lancaster falls in love with Joan, and she agrees to accompany him to Hong Kong to marry him. Before they sail, however, Lancaster encounters a group of Yak natives on the island and learns that they had come there to quarry certain round stones, which they considered sacred. Thinking quickly, Lancaster uses dynamite to obtain a great load of the stones, which he transports to Yak on his junk. There, the delighted natives quickly agree to fill his ship with copra in exchange for the stones. He then heads for Hong Kong, where the copra nets him a handsome fortune and where he marries Joan. Returning to Yap to obtain more of the copra, Lancaster finds the village devastated by Charles Horvath, a notorious slave trader, who had put the natives in chains. Organizing his crew, Lancaster drives Horvath and his men off the island and frees the natives. Grateful, they make him their king. In the events that follow, several ruthless German traders join forces with a dissident faction of the natives and bring civil war to the island in a scheme to force Lancaster out and to seize control of the copra supply. Realizing that a people divided cannot exist, Lancaster decides to sacrifice his position and riches to bring an end to the conflict. This move brings the natives to a realization of his worth. Merging as one, the warring factions force the Germans to leave and induce Lancaster to remain as their king. It was produced by Harold Hecht, and directed by Byron Haskin, from a screenplay by Borden Chase and James Hill, suggested by a novel by Lawrence Klingman and Gerald Green. Suitable for the family. SEND FOR YOUR MISSING COPIES During the Christmas rush the copy of one or more isues of your Harrison’s Reports may have been lost in the mails. 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