Harrison's Reports (1954)

March 27, 1954 HARRISON’S REPORTS 51 “The Mad Magician” with Vincent Price, Mary Murphy and Eva Gabor (Columbia, no rel. date set; time, 73 min.) Those who like gruesome melodramas should enjoy this one to their heart's content. In certain respects it is even more gruesome than “House of Wax,” which was made by the same producer, Bryan Foy. There is considerable suspense in the story, which revolves around a distraught magician, who kills the man who had stolen his inventions, as well as his wife, and the tension is heightened by the fact that he finds it necessary to follow up the first killing with additional murders to do away with those who might betray him. In the end, of course, he is trapped and killed in a device of his own making. 'Vincent Price gives his usual skillful performance as the mad magician, and the manner in which he impersonates several of the other characters is believable. The picture is being made available to the exhibitors in either 3-D or 2-D. The photography is good: — After years of working for Don Randolph, a manufacturer of magical illusions, Vincent Price decides to launch his own career as a magician, assisted by Mary Murphy, who is engaged to Pat O'Neal, a New York detective. Price scores a success in his initial appearance, but his career is cut short when Randolph obtains a court order that prohibits him from using the tricks he had invented because they were owned by Randolph. Already incensed at Randolph because Eva Gabor, his wife, had divorced him to marry the wealthy manufacturer. Price becomes furious over this latest action and murders him. Being a master at makeup. Price makes himself look like Randolph and dis-. poses of his body by throwing it into a bonfire built by college students to celebrate a football victory. Still masquerading as Randolph, Price rents a room in the home of Jay Novello, whose wife, Lenita Lane, was a mystery story writer. There, Price's masquerade is discovered by his former wife, and he kills her to save himself from exposure. O'Neal, assigned to the case, suspects that the missing Randolph had murdered Eva, but other clues lead him to suspect also Price, against whom he can find no conclusive evidence. John Emory, another magician, discovers that Price is the murderer and seeks to take over his magical illusions in a blackmail attempt. Price kills him and, through a perfect masquerade, succeeds in impersonating him so that his disappearance will not be noticed. In the events that follow, O'Neal, Miss Murphy and Miss Lane come to the conclusion that Price had committed the murders and that he had covered up his crimes by masquerading as his victims. Price, aware that he had been found out, traps all three in his studio and plans to get rid of them in a fiery furnace he had invented as a magical illusion. But in a struggle with his intended victims he accidentally falls on a conveyor that wheels him into the burning inferno and cremates him. Bryan Foy produced it, and John Brahm directed it, from a story and screenplay by Crane Wilbur. Adults. “The Iron Glove” with Robert Stack and Ursula Thiess (Columbia, April; time, 77 min.) Photographed in Technicolor, this swashbuckling adventure melodrama is a fairly good picture of its kind. Set in the 18th Century and revolving around the exploits of an adventurous Irish nobleman who supports the efforts of a Scottish prince to wrest away the throne from England's George I, the story itself follows a familiar pattern, but it provides enough intrigue, action, swordplay and excitement to satisfy the undiscriminating picture-goers. The picture is weak in marquee names, but the players are competent, with Robert Stack properly dashing as the Irish swordsman who risks his life to support and defend the Prince, played by Richard Stapley. The color photography is a definite asset: — Stack, an Irish nobleman, is a strong supporter of Stapley, son of James II of Scotland, who had not given up hope of wresting the throne from George I of England. One night, in a London tavern. Stack hears Leslie Bradley, a Duke, loudly bespeaking the cause of Stapley and insulting the name of the King, despite warnings that any one talking treason will be arrested. When guards come to arrest Bradley, Stack promptly springs to his defense, but both are subdued and thrown into a cell. Bradley, apparently dying from wounds inflicted by the guards, begs Stack to take a bag of gold hidden in the lining of his coat and to use it to escort Ursula Theiss, his wife, to France, where Stapley had been given sanctuary by the French King. Stack obtains the gold, manages to escape, and within hours is en route to France with Ursula. Stack does not guess, however, that all this has been a plot against him and Stapley. The tavern fight and Bradley’s death were pure theatrics, and as for Ursula, she was an unmarried woman in Bradley’s employ. In France, a French count secretly working for Bradley and collaborating with Ursula, makes several attempts to assassinate Stapley, but each time is thwarted by Stack’s quick thinking. The climax to the intrigue comes when the Royalists, headed by Bradley, attempt to kidnap a princess Stapley intends to marry so as to keep him from having an heir. Ursula, now genuinely in love with Stack, comes over to his side and enables him to kill Bradley and to deliver the princess safely to Stapley. It was produced by Sam Katzman, and directed by William Castle, from a screenplay by Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., DeVallon Scott and Douglas Heyes, based on a story by Robert E. Kent and Samuel J. Jacoby. Family. “The Siege of Red River” with Van Johnson and Joanne Dru (20th Century 'Fox, April; time, 85 rnin.) A good outdoor melodrama, photographed in Technicolor. Set in the days of the Civil War and revolving around the efforts of two Confederate spies to smuggle to the South a shipment of new Gatling guns stolen from the Union forces, the story holds one’s attention from start to finish and the action is packed with considerable excitement. Worked into the proceedings in logical fashion is a rousing battle with warring Indians who attack a Union fort with the Gatling guns, which they had obtained from a renegade white. The romantic interest is pleasing, and there are some good comedy touches to relieve the tension. The direction and acting are competent, and the color photography tops: — Aided by a group of Southern raiders. Van Johnson and Milburn Stone, Confederate spies, steal a shipment of newlya invented Gatling guns from a Union troop train. Both then pose as operators of a medicine show wagon, in which they had concealed the guns, and they casually head for the Southern lines, performing along the way. En route they pick up Joanne Dru, a Union nurse, whose wagon had broken down, and they take her to her home in Baxter Springs, Kansas. A romance springs up between Johnson and Joanne, but she turns cool to him when he is questioned by Jeff Morrow, a Pinkerton detective searching for the stolen guns, and reveals that he is a conscientious objector from Boston who had bought his way out of the Confederate conscription. Morrow, still suspicious, wires his Boston office to check on Johnson’s story. He then searches Johnson’s medicine wagon, but Johnson, having anticipated such a move, had hidden the guns in Joanne’s home without her knowledge. Meanwhile Johnson is approached by Richard Boone, a cattle foreman in the area, who reveals himself to be a contact hired to guide him through the Union fines. In a series of complicated events, Johnson manages to stow the guns in Joanne’s hospital wagon, which is taken over by Stone and Boone on the outskirts of town. As they head for a rendezvous with Johnson, Boone murders Stone and, with Joanne and a sick Indian woman as hostages, heads for a Shawnee village where he sells the Gatling guns to the hostile Indians to help them in an attack on Fort Smith, a Union stronghold. By this time Johnson finds Stone’s body and goes in pursuit of Boone, unaware that he himself had been discovered as a spy and was being trailed by a troop of cavalry. The soldiers catch up with Johnson at the same time that they learn of the impending Indian attack on Fort Smith. Johnson, though under arrest, distinguishes himself in helping the Union troops to capture the Gatling guns from the Indians and to turn it on them to beat back the attack. During the battle, Boone is killed. With Fort Smith saved, and with the Civil War in its last days, the commanding officer of the cavalry troop permits Johnson to escape. Joanne promises to wait for his return. It was produced by Leonard Goldstein, and directed by Rudolph Mate, from a screenplay by Sidney Boehm, based on a story by J. Robert Bren and Gladys Atwater. Suitable for all.