Harrison's Reports (1945)

62 April 21, 1945 "Those Endearing Young Charms" with Robert Young and Laraine Day (RKO, no release date set; time. 82 min.) Although the performances by Robert Young and Laraine Day are good, this is just a fair drama, revolving around a war-time romance. The chief fault lies in the characterization of Young, whose actions will displease most spectators. He is shown as a smug, deceitful Army pilot, who stoops to every conceivable trick to win Laraine's love, his intentions being far from honorable. Of course, he eventually falls in love with her and sees the error of his ways, but by that time the spectator finds it difficult to feel kindly towards him. The fact that one's interest is held to a fair degree is due to the assembled players, whose performances are far superior to the material given them: — In love with Laraine Day, a department store clerk, Bill Williams, an Air Corps mechanic, boasts about her beauty when he meets Lieut. Robert Young, whose reputation for jilting girls was well known to his friends. Young talks Williams into taking him along to Laraine's home to meet her. There, Young uses his natural charm on both Laraine and her mother (Ann Harding), and makes a highly favorable impression with Laraine by suggesting that her mother accompany them to a night club. The end of the evening finds Laraine thoroughly fascinated by Young. Two days later, he goes to the department store where she worked and uses his charm on the woman floor manager, persuading her to let Laraine spend the afternoon with him. He takes her to his flying field, where he pretends that he had been ordered overseas immediately, and bids her farewell. Laraine, deeply in love with him, goes home heartbroken. Later, Young telephones her, saying that bad weather had forced him back. She impulsively confesses her love for him, and agrees to a date that night. Laraine's mother, fearful of Young's intentions, contacts Williams and asks him to see Young. Williams visits Young and pleads with him to stay away from Laraine, but Young tells him to mind his own affairs. Impressed by Williams' argument, Young meets Laraine and confesses that he had lied to her. Laraine, disillusioned, leaves him. Awakening to the fact that he had fallen in love with her, Young tries desperately to see Laraine, but she refuses to talk to him. Laraine's mother, convinced that his love was true, and remembering that a similar occurrence in her own life years previously had caused her untold misery, brings the two together. Jerome Chodorov wrote the screen play, Bert Granet produced it, and Lewis Allen directed it. Unobjectionable morally. "Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion" with Chester Morris (Columbia, May 10; time, 67 min.) This latest of the "Boston Blackie" crook melodramas is a routine program filler, no better and no worse than the previous pictures in the series. The story is highly implausible, and it follows the usual pattern of Chester Morris being suspected of the crime, with additional evidence piling up against him as he goes through the process of clearing himself. It has some comedy and suspense. As entertainment, it is strictly for those who have not yet tired of the series : — To protect Lloyd Corrigan's investment in a rare book shop, Chester Morris disguises himself as a famous autioneer and sells a rare edition of Dicken's "Pickwick Papers" for $62,000. On the following day, the purchaser visits Police Inspector Richard Lane and demands an investigation on the grounds that the book was a counterfeit. Morris, lest he be suspected, starts a search for the man who had sold the book to Corrigan. His search takes him to an empty warehouse, where he stumbles over the body of the murdered counter feiter, and finds an envelope containing the $62,000 lying on the floor. As he tries to reconstruct the crime, Lane arrives and arrests him on suspicion of murder. Morris manages to escape and, later, learns that Lynn Merrick, an employee at the book shop, had been in league with the counterfeiter in order to raise money to flee the country with her husband, an escaped convict. He learns also that it was she who had committed the murder. Lynn, aware that Morris had found her out, enlists the aid of her husband to dispose of him. After a series of incidents in which Morris foils Lynn's plans and manages to elude the police, he traps Lynn and her husband in their apartment and, at the point of a gun, tricks her into signing a confession just as the police arrive to arrest him. Paul Yawitz wrote the screen play, Michel Kraike produced it, and Arthur Dreifuss directed it. The cast includes Frank Sully, Steve Cochran, George E. Stone and others. Unobjectionable morally. "China Sky" with Randolph Scott, Ruth Warrick and Ellen Drew (RJCO, no release date set; time, 78 mm.) A fairly good war melodrama; it should satisfy the rank and file. The motivating force behind the development of the plot is a strong romantic triangle, revolving around an American doctor, his bride, and his loyal woman assistant. The treatment of the story is not particularly novel, but it holds one's interest well because of the sympathy one feels for the doctor and his assistant, whose lives arc made miserable by his scheming, jealous wife. The story takes place in a constantly bombed Chinese village, and there is considerable exciting action, particularly in the closing scenes, where the doctor and the villagers put up a stiff battle against Jap paratroopers until saved by Chinese guerilla fighters. The human interest element is strong throughout: — While waiting for Randolph Scott to return from a trip to America for money and medical supplies, Ruth Warrick, his assistant, heroically attends to the sick and wounded, aided by Chinese doctors and nurses. Ruth, who loved Scott secretly, is shocked considerably when he returns with a bride, Ellen Drew. She regains her composure and tries to make Ellen as comfortable as possible, but the young bride, sensing Ruth's love for her husband, becomes hostile towards her. The continuous air raids on the village unnerve Ellen, and she determines to compel Scott to return to the United States with her. Scott, however, informs her that they could not leave because they were hemmed in by the Japs. Meanwhile, Richard Doo, a Japanese colonel, wounded and captured by Anthony Quinn, a Chinese guerrilla leader, learns that Dr. Philip Ahn, under whose care he had been entrusted, had a Japanese father. Aware of Ellen's desire to leave the village, the Jap colonel contrives a plot whereby he compels Ahn, under threat of exposing his ancestry, to persuade Ellen to send a telegram in her husband's name to a Chinese in another city, asking for a passenger plane. Ellen, eager to leave the village and to separate Ruth and Scott, sends the telegram, unaware that it was, in reality, a code message for the Japs to attack the village. A few days later, Jap paratroopers descend on the village and, in the ensuing battle, in which Quinn's guerrillas wipe them out, Ellen is killed as she tries to run for shelter. Scott, having realized his love for Ruth, joins her in tending to the wounded. Brenda Weisberg and Joseph Hoffman wrote the screen play, Maurice Geraghty produced it, and Ray Enright directed it. Jack J. Gross was executive producer. The cast includes Carol Thurston, "Duckie" Louie, Benson Fong and others. Unobjectionable morally.