Harrison's Reports (1944)

172 HARRISON'S REPORTS October 21, 1944 "And Now Tomorrow" with Alan Ladd and Loretta Young (Paramount, no release date set; time, 85 min.) Despite its rather routine story, this romantic drama is a fairly good entertainment, with a particular appeal to women. Unlike his previous pictures, in which he has been cast in "tough guy" roles, this time Alan Ladd plays the part of a rising young doctor, an ear specialist, who, not only effects a cure for the deaf heroine, but also clears up the romantic complications in her life, caused by her affliction. As a doctor, Ladd is hardly believable, but he does make his characteriza' tion a likeable one, as does Loretta Young, as the deaf heiress. The story lacks action, but this is made up for by its emotional qualities. It has been given a good production: — Loretta Young, whose wealthy New England family owned all the textile mills in Blairstown, is stricken with meningitis while celebrating her engagement to Barry Sullivan. As a result of her illness, Loretta becomes deaf. Dr. Cecil Kellaway, family physician and friend, sends her to many specialists, all of whom consider her affliction incurable. Meanwhile Susan Hayward, her sister, falls in love with Sullivan, but both keep their attachment secret because of a guilty sense of loyalty to Loretta. Kellaway, determined to cure Loretta, asks Alan Ladd, a promising young surgeon, who had been brought up in the poor section of town, to study her case. Though bitter against her family because of wrongs that had been done to his father, Ladd agrees to treat her. Friction springs up between the two; he considered her a hopeless snob, and she looked upon him as an upstart. But both are drawn closer together when she aids him while he performs an emergency mastoidectomy on a poor mill worker's child. Meanwhile Ladd learns of the secret love between Susan and Sullivan. He tries subtly to get Loretta to break her engagement to Sullivan, but she resents his interference and sets a date for her marriage. On the eve of her wedding, Loretta learns that Ladd had developed a scrum that had been tried successfully on deaf rabbits. She pleads with him to use the serum treatment on her, but he hesitates lest it prove fatal to a human. He finally consents and, though she almost dies, the treatment proves successful. Before she can appraise the family of her cure, she overhears Susan and Sullivan reveal their love for each other, a love both had agreed to sacrifice for her sake. Loretta gives them her blessing and, realizing her own love for Ladd, rushes to him. Frank Partos and Raymond Chandler wrote the screen play from the novel by Rachel Field. Fred Kohlmar produced it, and Irving Pichel directed it. The cast includes Beulah Bondi, Grant Mitchell, Helen Mack and others. Unobjectionable morally. "Ministry of Fear" with Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds (Paramount, no release date set; time 84 min.) A thrilling spy melodrama. It holds one's attention throughout because of the mystery surrounding the identities of the spies, and because of the danger to Ray Milland, who, following his release from an insane asylum, where he had been confined for the mercy killing of his incurable wife, becomes innocently involved in a series of strange events that set him on the trail of the spies. The story is so cleverly contrived that one does not guess the head spy's identity until the closing scenes. And his identity comes as a surprise, for he is the one least suspected. The fact that Milland, in trailing the spies, is compelled to dodge Scotland Yard because of his past record, adds considerably to the suspense. The action takes place in England : — Waiting for a train to take him to London, Milland visits a charity bazaar, sponsored by the Mothers of Free Nations, where he wins a cake in a raffle. He is followed into his train compartment by an apparently blind man, who knocks him unconscious and flees with the cake. Milland chases the "blind" man to a deserted shack, but before he can reach him a bomb from a Nazi plane demolishes the building. Convinced that the man was a spy, Milland de termines to get to the bottom of the mystery. He visits the London office of the Mothers of Free Nations, where he meets Carl Esmond, and his 6ister, Marjorie Reynolds, Austrian refugees, who headed the organization. They offer to help him. With Esmond's aid, Milland traces the spies to the apartment of Hillary Brooke, a spiritualist, where he becomes involved in a mysterious murder during a seance. Circumstances point to him as the murderer, and Esmond helps him to escape before the police arrive. Dodging the police because of his past record, Milland continues his hunt for the spies. The spies trick him into carrying a package containing a bomb, and he barely escapes with his life when it explodes. Questioned in the hospital by Inspector Percy Waram of Scotland Yard, Milland informs him of the strange happenings since his release from the asylum. The inspector joins him on the hunt and, together, they discover that the spies had hidden in the cake a roll of microfilm on which had been photographed vital British defense plans. They discover also that the spies had staged the murder at the seance to terrorize Milland and frighten him off. Milland eventually tracks down the ring and uncovers Esmond as its chief. Esmond tries to shoot Milland, but he is himself killed by Marjorie, who had been completely ignorant of his activities. Seton I. Miller wrote the screen play and produced it. Fritz Lang directed it. The cast includes Dan Duryea, Alan Napier and others. Unobjectionable morally. "One Body Too Many" with Jack Haley, Jean Parker and Bela Lugosi (Paramount, no release date set; time, 75 min.) Mildly amusing program fare. It is a ridiculous conglomeration of comedy, romance and murder-rnystery melodrama, which may get by with undiscriminating audiences; others will certainly be bored. For laughs, it depends with little success on all the stock tricks to create an eerie atmosphere — an isolated mansion, hidden passages, a storm, a leering butler, shadows, and several mysterious murders. Despite reasonably fair performances, the actors are handicapped by the mediocre material; for that reason they fail to make their respective roles impressive. Its seventy-five minutes running time is much too long for a picture of its type:— Jack Haley, an insurance salesman, leaves for the home of an eccentric millionaire to close a deal for a large insurance policy. Unknown to Haley, the millionaire had died on the previous day, and his will stipulated that his heirs were not to leave his isolated mansion until after his body had been entombed in a glass-domed vault, which had not yet been built. Those who left the estate would automatically lose their share of the inheritance, and in the event the body was buried underground, instead of in the tomb, the heir granted the largest bequest would receive the smallest share, and the heir with the smallest bequest would receive the larger share. The heirs, having no trust in one another, telephone a detective agency to guard the body. Haley, arriving at the mansion, is mistaken for a detective and put on guard. Frightened, he tries to leave, but he agrees to remain when Jean Parker, one of the heirs, informs him that her life was in danger. After a succession of events, in which he is knocked unconscious, and the millionaire's body is stolen, Haley determines to find the body and expose the guilty heir. He gets himself into all sorts of complications as he wanders through secret passages that lead to the different rooms, and is even suspected of murder when a few of the heirs mysteriously lose their lives. He eventually proves his innocence, locates the missing body, and exposes the murderer, winning Jean's love as a reward. Winston Miller and Maxwell Shane wrote the screen play, and Frank McDonald directed it. It is a Pine-Thomas production. The cast includes Bernard Bedell, Blanche Yurka, Douglas Fowley, Lyle Talbot, Lucien Littlefield and others. Unobjectionable morally.