Harrison's Reports (1939)

January 7, 1939 HARRISON'S REPORTS 3 "Gambling Ship" with Robert Wilcox and Helen Mack (Universal, January 20; time, 61 min.) A good program melodrama. Although the story is not novel, it holds one's attention well for the action is fast and, for the most part, exciting. It has some comedy, too, caused by wisecracking. Both hero and heroine win the spectator's sympathy, for they show courage in the face of danger. The closing scenes are thrilling. The romance is pleasant: — Heartbroken at her father's death, Helen Mack decides to continue in his business, that of operating an honest gambling ship, in order to keep an orphans' home supplied with money in accordance with her father's wishes. Furthermore, from what she could learn from her father's assistant (Joseph Sawyer), Miss Mack feels certain that her father had been killed by Irving Pichel, a racketeer, who had tried unsuccessfully to buy the ship. Pichel engages Robert Wilcox, who had come to him highly recommended, as one of his henchmen. He assigns Wilcox to Miss Mack's ship. Wilcox, acting in accordance with instructions, assists Pichel's men in fixing the gambling tables so that they would win and thus break Miss Mack. When Sawyer and Miss Alack find out what he had done, they order him off the ship. Wilcox, on the pretense of attempting to blackmail Pichel, gets him to call at his hotel room. Wilcox had planted a motion picture camera in the radio so as to make a record of everything that Pichel would do and say. Pichel finds out that Wilcox was a federal investigator ; assisted by his henchmen, he takes Wilcox to his quarters, where he keeps him a prisoner. But Wilcox, knowing that Pichel's men had placed a bomb on Miss Mack's ship, where that very day she was entertaining the children from the orphanage, manages to escape and get to the ship just in time to prevent the explosion. Miss Mack and Sawyer apologize for having mistrusted him. Miss Mack confesses her love for him. G. Carleton Brown and Emanuel Manheim wrote the story, and Alex Gottlieb, the screen play ; Aubrey Scotto directed it, and Irving Starr produced it. In the cast are Ed Brophy, Selmer Jackson, Sam McDaniel, and others. Not for children. Class B. "Paris Honeymoon" with Bing Crosby, Akim Tamiroff, Franciska Gaal, Shirley Ross and Edward Everett Horton (Paramount, January 27 ; time, 85 min.) Just fair. It has been given a lavish production ; and the individual performances are good. But not much can be said for the story, which is extremely silly and at times tiresome. Supposedly a comedy, the gags fall flat, that is with the exception of one comical idea — this has to do with a certain liquor that makes those who drink it act in a peculiar way. Bing Crosby puts over the musical numbers in his customary competent style; but the songs are not outstanding. The romantic mixups are developed according to formula, and fail to hold one's interest : — Crosby, a millionaire cowboy, learns, on the day of his intended marriage to Shirley Ross, that her divorce from a French Count to whom she had been married, had never gone through. Both he and Miss Ross go to Paris, there to complete the divorce proceedings. Crosby leaves Miss Ross in Paris in order to look over a castle in the mountains that he wanted to buy. Franciska Gaal, who worked as a drudge in Akim Tamiroff's tavern, spies Crosby and falls in love with him. She is overjoyed when she is chosen as the Rose Queen for the annual festival. One of the customs required her to live, for one week, in the castle occupied by Crosby. She tries in many ways to win his affections but he considers her a nuisance. Crosby drives to the station to meet Miss Ross; he is annoyed to find Miss Gaal hidden in his car. She interferes with his driving, causing the car to be wrecked. Since it was raining, they are forced to take shelter in an unoccupied cabin. In the meantime, Miss Ross is enraged when Crosby does not show up. The only available vehicle is an open cab; she is drenched when she arrives at the castle. Being alone with Miss Gaal makes Crosby notice her charms ; he falls in love with her. Nevertheless he decides to go through with his marriage to Miss Ross. They go back to Paris. But he cannot go through with it ; he returns to the small village in time to stop Miss Gaal's marriage to Tamiroff, who wanted to marry her only to get the expensive ring Crosby had given her. She is overjoyed at his arrival. Angela Sherwood wrote the story, and Frank Butler and Don Hartman, the screen play; Frank Tuttle directed it, and Harlan Thompson produced it. In the cast arc Ben Blue, Rafaela Ottiano, Gregory Gayc, Victor Kilian, and others. Suitability, Class A. "Tom Sawyer, Detective" with Billy Cook and Donald O'Connor (Paramount, December 23 ; time, 67 min.) A fair program picture, suitable mostly for young folk. Billy Cook, as Tom Sawyer, and Donald O'Connor, as Huckleberry Finn, give good performances ; their actions at times provoke laughter. One is held in suspense in the second half, when an innocent man is held for a murder he did not commit. A mildly pleasant romance is worked into the plot. Because of the fact that the United Artists picture recently released was called "Adventures of Tom Sawyer," exhibitors will have to impress upon their patrons the fact that this is not a remake but an entirely new story ; otherwise, they may not want to see it. While on the steamboat bound for Arkansas, where they were to spend the summer with an aunt (Elisabeth Risdon) and uncle (Porter Hall), Tom and Huckleberry meet Jake Dunlap (William Haade) who, they believed, was a jewel thief. They discover that Jake was the long-missing twin brother of Jupiter Dunlap (also played by Haade), who worked as a hired man on their uncle's farm. Jake convinces them that he was not a crook but that the two men following him were crooks ; the boys help him escape. During an argument with Jupiter, Uncle Silas (Hall) strikes him; thinking that he had killed him, he runs away. While walking in the woods, Tom and Huckleberry see Jake attacked and murdered by the two men from the boat ; they run away. Jupiter and his brother Brace find their murdered brother ; noticing that he wore whiskers as a disguise, Brace removes them and tells Jupiter to wear them and pose as Jake. They take the diamonds. When Jake's body is found and identified as Jupiter's, Uncle Silas gives himself up. Tom and Huckleberry decide to investigate for themselves ; they examine the body and discover it was really Jake's. On the day of the trial, they rush to court and divulge their findings. Jupiter admits his identity and tells the court that Brace forced him into the mess. Brace had been angry at Uncle Silas because he would not permit his daughter, who was engaged to a young lawyer, to marry Brace. Uncle Silas is freed, and the boys are congratulated for their good work. The plot was adapted from the novel by Mark Twain ; Lewis Eoster, Robert Yost, and Stuart Anthony wrote the screen play ; Louis King directed it. In the cast are Philip Warren, Janet Waldo, Raymond Hatton, and others. Suitability, Class A. "Kentucky" with Loretta Young, Richard Greene and Walter Brennan (20th Century-Fox, December 30; time, 95 min.) Very good mass entertainment. It is not just an ordinary horse-racing picture ; rather, it shows, in a human way, what the breeding and racing of thoroughbreds means to those who carry on the family tradition of racing and who have a natural love for the animal. In addition, the production is lavish and is enhanced by the technicolor photography, particularly in the outdoor scenes during the races. There is delightful comedy contributed mostly by Walter Brennan, a charming romance, and plentiful thrills to hold the spectator in suspense. The race in the closing scenes is so exciting that it leaves one limp. In the development of the plot, Richard Greene, whose family had been feuding with Loretta Young's family since Civil War days, assumes another name and applies at Miss Young's farm for a job as horse trainer. The only one who knows him is an old negro man who had formerly worked for his family, but Greene silences him with gifts. Miss Young, who had found a note in her father's belongings after his death, signed by Greene's father (Moroni Olsen), wealthy banker and owner of thoroughbreds, which entitled him to one of Olsen's two-year old horses, goes with her uncle (Brennan) to get the horse. To her disappointment he picks one that does not look like a winner to her. But after careful training by Greene, the horse begins to show possibilities. On the day of the important Kentucky Derby race. Miss Young discovers Greene's identity and is beset by doubts as to his honesty in training the horse ; she thinks that he might have had some trick up his sleeve so that his father's horse would win. But she decides to follow his advice anyway. And her horse wins. Her delight is marred by the death of Brennan, whose heart could not stand the excitement. The feud is finally declared over when Greene and Miss Young plan to marry. John T. Foote wrote the story, and he and Lamar Trotti, the screen play ; David Butler directed it, and Gene Markcy produced it. In the cast are Douglas Dumbrille, Karen Morley, Willard Robertson, and others. Suitability, Class A.