Harrison's Reports (1945)

118 HARRISON'S REPORTS July 28, 1945 "Jealousy" with John Loder and Jane Randolph (Republic, July 23; time, 71 min.) Good acting by the players makes this drama fairly interesting, but it is not a cheerful entertainment, for throughout the characters arc shown as being unhappy. Particularly unpleasant is the character of the heroine's husband, who is unbelievably selfish and cruel. The plot revolves around their unhappy marriage, and around her falling in love with a kindly doctor, whose female assistant becomes insanely jealous of their love. There is a touch of murder-mystery in connection with the husband's death. The story has some human interest, but there is no comedy relief. Sympathy is felt for Jane Randolph, the wife, because of her sincere efforts to save her marriage despite her husband's ill-treatment. The doctor, too, is a sympathetic character, for, though Jane is convicted of her husband's murder, he marries her and determines to prove her innocence: — Because of his inability to obtain gainful employment in the United States, Nils Asthcr, an impoverished refugee, who had been a renowned writer in Europe, becomes embittered and taunts his wife for driving a taxi to help support him. He tries to commit suicide, but Jane prevents him and hides the revolver. Sometime later, Jane becomes friendly with John Loder, a doctor, whom she had met as a passenger in her taxi. Their friendship soon turns to love, and Jane, realizing that Asthcr would not agree to a divorce, meets Loder secretly. Karen Morlcy, Lodcr's assistant, inwardly resented Jane because she loved Loder herself, but she pretended friendship to gain Joan's confidence. Asthcr, suspecting that Jane had fallen in love with someone else, decides to take her to Mexico. Jane revolts and leaves the house, placing the hidden revolver in her purse to protect herself from his wrath. Later, while shopping with Karen, she loses the purse. She returns home and discovers Asther dead, shot through the head. The police list him as a suicide, but Karen, communicating with Hugo Hass, Asther's close friend, cleverly builds up a case against Jane and goads him into reporting her to the police. Jane is arrested and convicted of the crime. Loder, believing in Jane, marries her before she goes to prison, then sets out to clear her. Through a clever ruse, he unmasks Karen as the killer, compelling her to admit that she tried to get Jane out of the way because she wanted him for herself. Jane, absolved of the killing, rejoins her happy husband. Arnold Phillips and Gustav Machaty wrote the screen play. Mr. Machaty produced and directed it. Unobjectionable morally. "The Hidden Eye" with Edward Arnold and Frances Rafferty (MGM, no release date set; time, 69 min.) An interesting program murder-mystery melodrama, in which Edward Arnold re-enacts the role of a blind detective, the part he played in MGM's "Eyes in the Night," a 1942 release. One's attention is held throughout, for the story has been worked out logically. Since one knows early in the proceedings just who committed the murders, the interest lies in the manner in which Arnold tricks the guilty person into making an incriminating move. The closing scenes, where Arnold, though blind, subdues the killer, are exciting. Friday, the detective's "seeing-eye" dog, is very good. There is a good sprinkling of comedy to relieve the tension : — Raymond Largay, wealthy owner of a tin mine in Sumatra, fears for his life; two of his relatives had been murdered mysteriously, and in both cases the killer had left a cryptic note, heavily perfumed, relating to treachery in Sumatra. Ray Collins, Largay's lawyer, insists that the murders had some connection with his client's dealings in Sumatra. A third relative is murdered under circumstances that cause the police to suspect Paul Langton, whose deceased father had lost a fortune in Sumatra as Largay's partner. Frances Rafferty, Langton's fiancee and Largay's niece, believes her sweetheart innocent and calls Arnold into the case. She gives him a doily, on which one of the cryptic notes had been placed, and which had been impregnated with the heavy perfume. Working on this slim clue, Arnold, aided by William Phillips, his bodyguard, succeeds in learning the ingredients of the perfume and, through this information, discovers circumstantial evidence that leads him to suspect Collins, the lawyer, of the murders. Lacking positive proof, Arnold deliberately arranges for Collins to become aware of his suspicions in the hope that he would make an incriminating move. Collins, fearing Arnold, kidnaps his "seeingeye" dog and lures both the detective and his bodyguard to a hideout. There, he imprisons both men and admits to them that he had committed the murders as part of a scheme to gain control of Largay's wealth. Promising to dispose of them later, Collins leaves for Largay's estate to carry out a plan that would, not only mark Frances' boy-friend as the killer, but also result in his death. The plan is foiled, however, when Arnold and Phillips succeed in escaping from the hideout and in arriving at the estate in time to expose Collins to the police. George Harmon Coxe and Harry Ruskin wrote the screen play, Robert Sisk produced it, and Richard Whorf directed it. Unobjectionable morally. "Guest Wife" with Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche (United Artists, July 27; time. 88 min.) A fairly amusing farce. It is due mostly to the good performance given by Claudette Colbert that one remains interested in the proceedings. The story itself is. thin and familiar; it revolves around a war correspondent who, having deceived his publisher into believing that he was a married man, finds it necessary to borrow the wife of his best friend in order to carry on the deception. The complications that arise lead into the usual farcical situations, some of them of the bedroom variety. Much of the comedy is nonsensical, but for the most part it manages to be mirth-provoking. At times, the dialogue is quite witty: — Preparing to depart from their home town for a belated honeymoon in New York, Richard Foran, a bank executive, and Claudette Colbert, his wife, find their plans upset by the unexpected arrival of Don Ameche, Foran's best friend, a war correspondent en route to New York from the Orient. Ameche informs them that, while in the Orient, he had perpetrated a hoax on his sentimental publisher (Charles Dingle) by pretending that he had married, and to further the hoax he had sent Dingle a picture of Claudette as his "wife." Now he found himself in trouble because Dingle had arranged a spectacular homecoming party for both himself and his "wife." Foran, amused, persuades Claudette to pose temporarily as Ameche's spouse to help him out of his predicament. Matters become complicated when news photos of Ameche and his "bride" appear in the country's newspapers, threatening to create a scandal in Foran's home town. Lest there be a run on the bank, Foran is compelled to return home while Claudette unwillingly continues the masquerade. Thoroughly disturbed by her predicament, Claudette's distractions are multiplied when Dingle establishes Ameche and herself in a hotel bridal suite, and when he blocks her escape with Foran upon his arrival. Angered, she determines to "out-hoax" Ameche. She leads him to believe that she had fallen in love with him, causing him no end of embarrassment. He tries desperately to dissuade her, but she pursues him relentlessly. Her "infatuation" becomes so realistic that even Foran misunderstands. His ire raised, Foran calls a halt to the "affair" by knocking Ameche unconscious and by "rescuing" his wife. A note left behind by Claudette reveals to Ameche that he had been "out-hoaxed." To save face with his publisher, who tries to console him, Ameche burns the note dramatically, and assumes the martyred attitude of the husband who had been deserted by an unappreciative wife. Bruce Manning wrote the screen play, Jack H. Skirball produced it, and Sam Wood directed it. The cast includes Grant Mitchell and others. Adult entertainment.