Harrison's Reports (1954)

18 HARRISON’S REPORTS January 30, 1954 “Beachhead” with Tony Curtis, Frank Lovejoy and Mary Murphy (United Artists, February; time, 90 min.) A fairly good war melodrama, revolving around the ex' ploits of a group of U.S. Marines who are sent to a Pacific island, near Bougainville, during World War II, to investh gate whether an important message received by Marine Headquarters had been sent by a friend or by the Japanese. The action is documentarydike, and the thrills are brought about by the encounters between the Marine group and the Japs. There are the usual acts of individual heroism on the part of the Marines, with kilHngs suffered by both sides. There is also a romance, starting with a sex angle and developing into real love. The story itself, however, is rather weak. The picture was photographed entirely in Hawaii, and an outstanding feature is the flowers, foliage and trees which, in color, are most enchanting. The photography is tops: Several days before a full scale assault on Bougainville, Marine Headquarters receives a radio message from Eduardo Franz, a French planter on an island nearby, giving the layout of the Jap minefields on Bougainville. Frank Lovejoy, a veteran Marine sergeant, is assigned to find out if the message is fact or fiction, and he is accompanied by Tony Curtis, Skip Homeier and Alan Wells. Moving into the jungle, they soon come upon a Japanese tank crew and succeed in destroying their tank, but Wells is killed in the process. In another skirmish, they manage to trick the enemy into believing that they had been killed by exchanging clothes with three dead Japs, but they accomplish this at the cost of Homeier’s hfe. Continuing the mission, Curtis and Lovejoy come upon a wrecked plantation where they capture what they believe to be a Japanese soldier, only to learn that it is Mary Murphy, daughter of Franz. Mary takes the two men to her father's hideout, where he confirms that his message was genuine and shows them a map of the minefields, taken from a Jap soldier he had killed. With Franz as a guide, Lovejoy, Curtis and Mary set out for a radio shack near the coast to send a message confirming the accuracy of Franz's message. En route they have addi' tional skirmishes with the enemy, and their difficulties are complicated by the fact that a bad feeling grows up between Curtis and Lovejoy over Mary. Franz is killed by a Jap sniper, who in turn is located and killed by Lovejoy. The remaining three finally reach the coast after numerous difficulties, only to find a Japanese barge destroying American PT boats left and right. Risking his life, Curtis swims out to the barge and destroys it with a hand grenade. The timely arrival of a detachment of Marines saves all three from further harm, and it all ends with Curtis and Mary declaring their love after Curtis realizes that Lovejoy’s interest in her was that of a father to a daughter. Howard W. Koch produced it for Aubrey Schenck, and Stuart Heisler directed it, from a screenplay by Richard Alan Simmons, based on the novel “I’ve Got Mine,” by Richard B. Hubler. Adult fare. “Highway Dragnet” with Richard Conte, Joan Bennett and Wandra Hendrix (Allied Artists, Feb. 7; time, 70 min.) A good program murder melodrama. It is the story of an innocent man who through pecuhar circumstances becomes embroiled in a murder, from which charge he is finally cleared by the confession of the murderess herself. One’s interest is held tense from start to finish because of the intelligent plot complications, and because of the fact that the identity of the killer does not become known until the final scenes. The direction and acting are competent. There is no comedy relief: — Joan Bennett, a freelance magazine photographer, and Wanda Hendrix, her assistant, are on an assignment to cover resort spots in the west. At Las Vegas, they meet and befriend Richard Conte, who had just been discharged from the Marine Corps and who was hitchhiking to a friend's home near the Salton Sea, in California. Mary Beth Hughes, a flashy blonde known casually by Conte, is found murdered and, because Conte had been seen having a few drinks with her, he is accused of the crime. While riding with Joan and Wanda, he becomes the object of a five-state manhunt directed by Reed Hadley, a Las Vegas police lieutenant. When Conte and the two women finally reach his friend’s home, they find it awash from the rising waters of the Salton Sea .The police close in, and Joan, made suddenly violent by panic, reveals the fact that it had been she who had murdered Mary, whom she considered responsible for driving her husband to suicide. Jack Jungmeyer, Jr. produced it for William F. Broidy, and Nathan Juran directed it, from a screenplay by Herb meadow. Unobjectionable for family audiences. “Killers from Space” with Peter Graves (RKO, January; time, 71 min.) An ordinary science-fiction program melodrama, revolving around a nuclear scientist's success in preventing the conquest of the Earth by invaders from another planet. It may get by with the youngsters at Saturday matinees, and with proper exploitation it may even draw their elders. But those who are the least bit fussy about their screen fare probably will find it tiresome, for the fanciful story has been developed with little imagination, moves along at a slow pace and fails to generate much excitement or suspense. Some of the scenes, particularly those that depict the invaders as weird men with bulging eyes that seem ready to pop out of their heads, will no doubt bring forth derisive laughter from the audience. There is not much that can be said for either the direction or the acting: — While flying over an atomic bomb explosion to take instrument readings, Peter Graves, a nuclear scientist, crashes to earth when a glowing, magnet-like object in the desert immobilizes his plane. James Seay, the commanding officer at the Air Base, presumes that Graves is dead when his body cannot be found, and he so notifies Barbara Bestar, Graves’ wife. Graves staggers into the Air Base on the following day and is found to be in perfect health except for an unexplainable, freshly-made scar over the area of his heart. He is ordered to take an indefinite rest, but he returns within several days, steals top secret atmoic information, and speeds to the test area in the desert, where he hides the information under a rock. The information is retrieved by an FBI agent who had been following him, and in his haste to escape Graves crashes his car. Taken to a hospital, he is given an injection of truth serum and reveals that, after crashing his plane, he found himself in an under^ ground cavern, the captive of weird men who came from a planet called Astron Delta, and who had brought him back to life so that he might gather nuclear information essential to their plan to conquer the Earth. He further relates that in his efforts to escape he had been stopped by giant insects and reptiles, which the Astronians had developed by bombarding them with elements captured by “futuristic” machinery after every atomic explosion. He had been released after being ordered to obtain the exact time and date of the next atomic explosion. The authorities scoff at Graves’ fantastic story and think that he is out of his mind. Making careful calculations. Graves figures out that the Astronians need much electric power to operate their machinery, and that if he could shut off the power in the area for ten seconds he could short their equipment and blow them to bits. He escapes from the hospital and, at gunpoint, invades the area’s power plant and forces the supervisor to pull out the main switch. Within seconds a vast explosion in the desert destroys the Astronians and convinces the authorities that Graves’ story was true. It was produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder, from a screenplay by Bill Raynor, based on a story by Myles Wilder. Suitable for the family.