Harrison's Reports (1945)

10 HARRISON'S REPORTS "The Great Flamarion" with Erich Von Stroheim and Mary Beth Hughes (Republic, no release date set; time, 78 min.) Those who enjoy lurid, heavy-handed melodramas should find "The Great Flamarion" to their liking. It is strictly adult entertainment; the story is too unpleasant and sordid for children. The heroine is shown as an immoral, double-dealing woman, who makes love to her employer and persuades him to kill her husband, an inveterate drunkard, so that she could run off with another lover. Not one of these characters do anything to arouse the spectator's sympathy. The performances are good and the production values arc better than average, but the picture does not rise above the level of program fare: — Erich Von Stroheim, expert pistol shot in a vaudeville act, falls madly in love with Mary Beth Hughes, who, together with Dan Duryea, her husband, worked with Von Stroheim in the act. Infatuated with a fcllow-vaudevillian, and unable to secure a divorce from her husband, Mary sees in Von Stroheim's love a means of solving her problem. She persuades him to murder Duryea during a performance, making it appear as if the shooting had been an unavoidable accident. The scheme works according to plan when the coroner exonerates Von Stroheim of responsibility. To avoid suspicion, Mary and Von Stroheim go their separate ways, agreeing to meet in Chicago on a specified date to be married. When Mary fails to show up on the appointed day, Von Stroheim realizes that she had double-crossed him. Determined to find her, Von Stroheim searches in vain for a clue to her whereabouts and, after many months, penniless and broken in spirit, he finds Mary and her new husband performing in a small Mexico City theatre. Cornered in her dressing room, Mary tries to vamp Von Stroheim, but when she senses his intentions, she snatches his gun and shoots him. He strangles her to death and, later, dies himself. Anne Wigton, Heinz Herald, and Richard Weil wrote the screen play, William Wilder produced it, and Anthony Mann directed it. "Hangover Square" with Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell and George Sanders (20th Century-Fox; February; time, 77 min.) A strong murder melodrama, capably directed and acted; it holds one's attention throughout, in spite of the fact that there is no mystery attached to the crimes. The action revolves around a mild-mannered London composer, whose split personality drives him to murder whenever he suffers a lapse of memory. The late Laird Cregar, as the composer, makes a very tragic figure, and one cannot help but feel sympathetic towards him. It is indeed ironical that in this, his last picture, Cregar dies in the final scene. One sequence that may prove too strong for sensitive stomachs is the one in which Cregar, maddened by the infidelity of Linda Darnell, a hard-boiled cabaret entertainer, murders her and then burns her body. London's gas-light era, which serves as the setting, gives the proceedings an effective eerie atmosphere. The picture's gruesomeness makes it unsuitable for children : — Cregar, after killing a store merchant during one of his mental lapses, does not regain his memory until he returns to his apartment. Noticing blood on his coat sleeve, Cregar becomes disturbed when he learns of the merchant's death. He visits George Sanders, a Scotland Yard psychiatrist, and expresses his fears that he might have killed the man unknowingly. After an investigation, Sanders exonerates Cregar, proving that the blood on his sleeve was his own. Delighted, Cregar goes to a pub for a drink. There he meets Linda Darnell, a sultry cabaret singer. In a gay mood, Cregar plays a melodius tune that catches Linda's fancy. Linda, realizing that Cregar's music would be helpful in the furtherance of her career, craftily entices him. He becomes so infatuated with her that he neglects to work on his Concerto, which he was writing for Faye Marlowe, his fiancee, whose father, Alan Napier, was a famed conductor. Eventually, Cregar realizes that Linda was playing him for a fool. Aggravated and suffering another one of his mental lapses, he murders her and throws her body on a huge fire celebrating Guy Fawkes Day. His mind back to normal, Cregar, unaware of his second murder, works earnestly on the completion of his Concerto. Meanwhile Sanders, investigating Linda's disappearance, discovers evidence proving Cregar's guilt. Cregar accepts the evidence as conclusive, but eludes Sanders in order to hear Napier conduct his Concerto. When Sanders appears at the concert, Cregar, emotionally upset, overturns an oil lamp and starts a fire. He fights off efforts to save him, perishing in the blaze. Barre Lyndon wrote the screen play, Robert Bassler produced it, and John Brahm directed it. "The Big Show-off" with Arthur Lake and Dale Evans (Republic, Jan. 22; time, 70 min.) Just a moderately entertaining romantic comedy with some music, suitable as the second half of a double feature program. Based on the deception theme, the story is a far-fetched and at times silly affair, which is developed in so obvious a fashion that one becomes weary by the time the picture is half finished. In its favor are a few pleasant production numbers and Dale Evans' singing, but these musical interludes are not strong enough to carry the picture. Arthur Lake, as Miss Dale's befuddled suitor, is cast in a role suited to his particular talents. His antics, however, are quite familiar. The wrestling sequences, in which the combatants poke fun at the art, are quite amusing. Anson Weeks and his Orchestra furnish the music : — Lake, a pianist, in Lionel Standar's night-club, is too bashful to declare his love for Dale Evans, the club's singer, and too gentle to fight with George Meeker, his obtrusive rival for her love. Stander, to help Lake, tells Dale that the young man was really the Devil (Paul Hurst), a masked wrestler. Pleased to learn that Lake was not really a "Casper Milquetoast," Dale becomes interested in him, but she dislikes "his" vicious disposition as a wrestler and pleads with him to abandon the ring. Lake, however, finds himself compeled to continue the deception as long as the Devil appears in the ring. At the arena one night, Dale, believing that she was watching Lake, hears the Devil announce his engagement to another girl. Lake, realizing that the hoax had gone too far, tries to explain, but Dale refuses to listen. Matters become complicated