Harrison's Reports (1954)

82 HARRISON’S REPORTS May 22, 1954 “Hell Below Zero” with Alan Ladd and Joan Tetzel (Columbia, July; time, 90 min.) A very good adventure thriller, photographed in Technicolor. This time Alan Ladd is supported by an interesting story, which is also unusual in that it unfolds in the Antarctic and presents sights that have not been seen in other pictures. There are several bloody scraps between Ladd, as the hero, and Stanley Baker, as the villain, with the encounters taking place aboard the ships of a whaling fleet, fishing in Ant' arctic waters. The depiction of the methods used to harpoon whales, and the scenes that show the operation of a whaling factory ship, are highly fascinating and should interest every one. As an American adventurer who poses as a first mate of a whaling vessel in order to help a charming English girl solve the mystery of her father’s death, Ladd is cast in a tailormade part that gives him ample opportunity to slug his way out of trouble in a way that has always pleased his fans. The closing scenes, where the crews of two of the ships are marooned on an ice pack and where Ladd and Baker engage in a fight to the death with Baker drowning beneath the ice floes are highly exciting. The color photography is tops: — Suspecting that his partner in a mining venture is crooked, Ladd boards a plane bound for Capetown to investigate. En route he becomes acquainted with Joan Tetzel, who tells him that she is on her way to investigate the mysterious death of her father, coowner with Basil Sydney in a whaling company. Sydned maintained that it was suicide, but Joan suspected foul play. Ladd is attracted to Joan and, after settling accounts with his partner, signs up as a first mate on the ice-breaker Kista Dan, which was taking Joan and Sydney to the whaling fleet, operating somewhere in the Antarctic. When the captain of the ship is injured seriously during a gale, Ladd assumes command. He compels Niall MacGinnis, the ship’s doctor, to stop drinking so that he might operate on the captain. Meanwhile Ladd learns that Joan is engaged to Stanley Baker, Sydney’s son, who is in charge of the fleet, and he keeps away from her. Ladd’s efforts to get Baker to investigate the circumstances of the death of Joan’s father are unavailing, and none of the whalers, dominated by Baker, is willing to give him any information. He eventually obtains enough information from one of the whalers to convince him that Baker had murdered Joan’s father. Baker, however, murders Ladd’s informant, who was the only witness to the crime. Baker is appointed as captain of the Kista Dan, replacing Ladd, who is made first mate of the Southern Truce. Joan and MacGinnis join Ladd on the Southern Truce, which gets stuck in the ice and asks for help. Baker intercepts a message to the Capetown police as to his guilt, and he decides to ram the Southern Truce to eliminate all who would testify against him. But MacGinnis, guessing what Baker intended to do, manages to set the Kista Dan on fire. This causes an explosion that sinks both ships and leaves their crews marooned on the ice. In a showdown fight with Ladd, Baker slips from the floating ice and drowns. It ends with Ladd and Joan embracing after being rescued. Made in England, the picture was produced by Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli, and directed by Mark Robson, from a screenplay by Alec Coppel and Max Trell, based on the novel “The White South,’’ by Hammond Innes. Suitable for the family. “Black Horse Canyon” with Joel McCrea, Mari Blanchard and Race Gentry (Univ.'Int’l, June; time 81 min.) Replete with action and enhanced by Technicolor photography, “Black Horse Canyon’’ emerges as one of Universal’s better outdoor melodromas. Its simple but human story should please everybody, particularly the lovers of horses, for one of the principal characters is a wild black stallion who roams the hills and cleverly unlatches the corral gates on ranches to add to his “family” of mares. How the sleek horse, the property of the heroine, is eventually captured by her with the aid of two friendly cowpokes, despite the machinations of a crooked neighboring rancher and his henchmen, unfolds with considerable excitement, good touches of comedy, and a triangle romantic interest that plays an important part in the plot. Joel McCrea delivers a likeable characterization as one of the cowpokes, and so does Race Gentry, a newcomer, as his youthful partner. Mari Blanchard is both charming and spirited as the heroine who falls in love with McCrea but is faced with the problem of overcoming Gentry’s infatuation for her without hurting his feelings. Their combined efforts to capture the stallion make for a number of exciting and picturesque shots: — Living with Irving Bacon, her uncle, on a stockbreeding ranch, Mari looks forward to recapturing “Outlaw,” her black stallion, who had run away to live in the hills and who was needed to improve the brood stock on the ranch. Murvyn Vye, a neighboring rancher, entertains similar plans. Meanwhile “Outlaw” roams at will, making occasional forays on different ranches and stealing the mares. McCrea and Gentry, trying to start a breeding ranch of their own, capture a number of wild horses among which are some branded stock “set free” by the black stallion. Vye and John Pickard, his henchman, catch McCrea and Gentry in the act of corraling their catch and, at gunpoint, start to town with them to try them as horse thieves. Mari saves both men by declaring that she had seen the stolen mares turned loose by “Outlaw.” The black stallion kills one of Vye’s henchmen while evading capture, and Vye, claiming that the horse had made an unprovoked attack on his man, demands that the sheriff kill him. Mari protests, and the sheriff grants her one week in which to capture the horse and break him. Mari, McCrea and Gentry spend the next few days in a hazardous pursuit of the animal, during which time Mari and McCrea fall in love but cannot find a suitable way to convey this to Gentry, who had fallen in love with her himself. They finally succeed in capturing “Outlaw” and find themselves with only two days to break him. Complications arise when Gentry, seeing Mari in McCrea’s arms, leaves the ranch in a huff. McCrea undertakes to break “Outlaw” himself and, just as he mounts the horse, Vye and Pickard show up and stampede the animal by firing their guns. Hearing the shots. Gentry rushes back to the ranch and helps McCrea to beat up the two culprits, while “Outlaw,” by this time fully tamed, is taken in tow by Mari. It was produced by John W. Rogers, and directed by Jesse Hibbs, from a screenplay by Geoffrey Homes, based on the novel “The Wild Horse,” by Les Savage, Jr. Family.