Harrison's Reports (1954)

February 6, 1954 HARRISON’S REPORTS 23 Informed that his brother and father had been murdered by rustlers, Audie Murphy, a railroad surveyor, returns to Santiago seeking justice. Paul Birch, the sheriff, and William Pullen, the town's leading lawyer, try to dissuade him from seeking vengeance, but he refuses to heed their advice and talks Birch into appointing him as a deputy sheriff. Actually, Pullen had murdered Murphy’s father and brother, and Birch was a party to the crime. To rid themselves of Mur' phy, they send him out to bring in Dan Duryea, a notorious gunman with murderous tendencies. He succeeds in out' witting and outdrawing Duryea and brings him back to Santiago, much to the amazement of the sheriff. Duryea, released on a technicality, takes a liking to Murphy and helps to protect him when Birch and Pullen send him out on other dangerous assignments in the hope that he will be killed. Meanwhile Murphy falls in love with Susan Cabot, the sheriff’s niece, whom Pullen hoped to marry. When Susan returns Murphy’s love, Pullen, infuriated, orders Russell Johnson, a henchman, to murder Murphy and then proceed with a gold robbery. But Johnson, in league with Abbe Lane, a saloon entertainer, decides to doublecross his cohorts. He ignores the plan to kill Murphy but commits the robbery and flees with the loot. To get even with Johnson, Birch informs Murphy that he (Johnson) had killed his relatives and sends him after the gunman. Murphy corners Johnson and kills him in a gun battle. Meanwhile Birch and Pullen had followed Murphy, planning to shoot him down during his fight with Johnson. Duryea, becoming aware of their plan, warns Murphy to be on his guard and reveals that Birch and Pullen were the men responsible for killing his father and brother. In a gunfight that follows, Duryea, seeking to protect Murphy, is shot dead by Birch and Pullen, but they in turn are finished by Murphy’s blazing guns. Susan is shocked to learn of her uncle s perfidy, but she marries Murphy and sets out to start a new life with him. It was produced by John D. Rogers, and directed by Jesse Hibbs, from a screenplay by George Zuckerman, based on a story by Ellis Marcus. Unobjectionable morally. “White Fire” with Scott Brady and Mary Castle (Lippert, January 1; time, 87 min.) This English'made melodrama is fair enough for the lower half of a double bill if nothing better is in sight. The picture’s main asset is the chase, occasioned by Scott Brady s efforts to hide from the police until he gets an opportunity to prove his innocence of the murder he had been accused of. He is always ahead of the police by a few steps, thus the spectator is held in suspense. As expected, Brady proves his innocence in the end, and the guilty persons are appre' hended. The direction is fairly good, and the acting so-so. There is no comedy relief. The photography is clear: Scott Brady, first officer of a U.S. merchant ship, learns that Paul Erickson, his brother, had been missing in Eng' land for six months. From Colin Tapley, Erickson s lawyer, Brady learns that his brother had been involved in diamond smuggling, and through Mary Castle, a singer at the Gay Mask” nightclub, he finds out that Erickson was to be executed in three days, having been accused and convicted for the murder of the nightclubs manager. Arrested after Ferdy Mayne, the nightclub’s owner is found stabbed to death, Brady manages to escape. He helps to hide out Mary’s father, a key witness, and in an ensuing chase it is revealed that Tapley, Erickson’s lawyer, had been the leader of the diamond smugglers, and that he used the “Gay Mask” as a depot. Roman O’Casey is proved guilty of the murder for which Brady had been accused of. His innocence established, Brady sails away on his ship, accom' panied by Mary. Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman produced it, and John Gilling directed it, from a screenplay written by him' self and Paul Erickson, based on a story by Stanley Black and Barbara Killalee. Harmless for family audiences. THE STEREOPHONIC SOUND TEMPEST (Continued from bac\ page) “Appeals to Fox and Metro to make their CinemaScope pictures available to small theatres and drive'ins on conven' tional prints or on CinemaScope prints containing conven' tional one'track sound, have been unavailing. The first in' quiry was addressed to Metro early in October and brought the response that since the company had no CinemaScope pictures to off"er, it did not know what the policy would be. Although 'Knights of the Round Table’ is now playing the key runs, it still professes not to have the answer to our question. This forces many exhibitors who have admired and patronized Metro for many years to the unhappy con' elusion that it is going to celebrate its 30th anniversary by dissipating the good will it has built up as 'the friendly company.’ As for Mr. Skouras, he has made it plain that he will employ every procurable means to punish, under' mine, embarrass and harrass all who oppose his 'all or noth' ing’ policy. A day to day reading of the trade papers re' veals the intensity of the campaign that is being waged against all who dare to differ with Skouras on this issue. “There has been an attempt to misrepresent Allied’s attitude as reflected in the convention resolutions as oppos' ing progress in the motion picture business. That propa« ganda is an insult to the intelligence of all to whom it is addressed. There can be no legitimate criticism of any ex' hibitor for installing stereophonic sound if he can afford and feels that it will enhance the entertainment offered his patrons. Our efforts have been directed against the pKjlicy of one company, which may develop into a conspiracy with others, to force exhibitors to install equipment and other' wise operate their theatres as dictated by the film companies. The Courts have said that admission prices shall be estab' lished by the exhibitors (notwithstanding the tendency in some quarters to pare this down); and the principle that running the theatres is the exhibitor’s business is one that no exhibitor organization should ever yield. “If you ask, "What will be the end of all this?’ I can only answer that some policies are so wrong that, given a little time, they must inevitably fail. The grosses of the theatres playing 'The Robe’ and even 'How to Marry a Millionaire’ may have convinced Skouras that he does not need the drive'ins and thousands of small theatres which could not play those pictures. But no one expects all Fox pictures to be that good, and CinemaScope will gradually lose some of its novelty appeal, and the company will be interested in expanding its accounts instead of restricting them. If the movies have, in fact, reached the turning point and are headed for gradual improvement, then Fox and Metro will again be interested in circulation. Columbia and Universal in the past have always depended largely on volume and it is hard to believe that they will follow Fox and Metro in a restrictive policy. “Warner Bros, has declared its independence of the new ’trust’ and now I am wondering about a silent giant whose plans are still a mystery. Paramount cannot be expected to lag in any procession and certain it is not accustomed to latch on to anybody else’s coattails. Had it fallen under the Skouras thumb its CinemaScope pictures, four'track sound and all, would now be on the screens. When Paramount’s announcement comes let us hope that it will offer something more elastic in operation and policy than the FoX'Metro version of CinemaScope, that stereophonic sound will be optional and that the whole gismo will be a lot cheaper.” A review of the arguments set forth by those who are either for or against stereophonic sound leaves one with the impression that there is considerable merit on both sides but that the dispute has become a troublesome and vexatious one because of unyielding attitudes. The issue is not beyond compromise, and unless the divided groups get together soon and work out a solution all concerned will suffer un' necessary losses.