Harrison's Reports (1946)

January 5, 1946 HARRISON'S REPORTS 3 mind, sends for Maris Wrixon, his fiancee. When Maris arrives, the housekeeper resents her presence in the belief that she would interfere with her mistress' attempts to win Shayne's love. She devises a plan to kill Maris by suffocation, but murders Claudia by mistake. Carradine and Shayne restore Claudia to life but, deranged and under the influence of the housekeeper, she kills her husband. By the time the police arrive, the housekeeper commits suicide, and the "undead" Claudia walks into the ocean, drawing herself. Michel Jacoby wrote the screen play, Jeffrey Bernard produced it, and William Beaudine directed it. The cast includes Willie Best, Thomas E. Jackson and others. Too horrifying for children. "Up Goes Maisie" with Ann Sothern and George Murphy (MGM, no release date set; time, 89 min.) One of the best in the "Maisie" series of program comedies. Ann Sothern, as "Maisie," again predom' inates, and despite a few dull lapses it is good mass entertainment, able to keep an audience amused throughout. This time "Maisie" finds romance and adventure when she secures employment as secretary to George Murphy, handsome young inventor of a helicopter with automatic controls. The closing scenes in particular are both hilarious and exciting; they show "Maisie" recovering the helicopter from a gang of thieves and piloting it through the downtown section of a large city, narrowly missing a crack-up with numerous tall office buildings. It is a new twist on "cliff -hanging" sequences, and should draw gales of laughter from your patrons: — Shortly after Ann becomes his secretary, Murphy learns that she was accustomed to working around planes because of her experience in a defense plant. He swears her to secrecy and takes her to his small plant, where he and his buddies (Murray Alper, Lewis Howard, and Horace McNally) were building the helicopter. Ann takes a hand in its construction, and learns that Paul Harvey was financing the project in return for a share of the profits. Unknown to the others, McNally was working with Harvey and his daughter (Hillary Brooke) in a scheme to steal the invention from Murphy. The plane is built in four weeks, during which time Ann and Murphy fall in love. While Murphy goes to Seattle to arrange for Ray Collins, an industrialist, to come to Los Angeles to see the helicopter in action, Hillary tricks Ann into disgracing herself at a party. Ann runs away lest Murphy's career be endangered by her behaviour. Meanwhile McNally, who had secretly built a duplicate of the helicopter for Harvey, exchanges it with the original and sets fire to Murphy's plant. Ann, learning of the fire, rushes to the plant only to find the helicopter in ruins. Having found reason to suspect McNally, Ann follows him to Harvey's warehouse, where she discovers the original helicopter. While Alper and Howard fight off Harvey's henchmen, Ann takes off in the helicopter and succeeds in landing it at the Rose Bowl, where the industrialist, waiting with Murphy to see it demonstrated, is so impressed with its maneuverability that he agrees to back it. Thelma Robinson wrote the story and screen play, George Haight produced it, and Harry Beaumont directed it. Unobjectionable morally. "The Harvey Girls" with Judy Garland and John Hodiak (MGM, no release date set; time, 101 min.) Good entertainment. It is an elaborately staged musical, photographed in Technicolor, with all the elements that endow it with mass appeal. Unlike the general run of musicals, which are of the backstage variety, this one has a Western setting in the 1890's, and it revolves around a troupe of Eastern waitresses who help to establish a Fred Harvey restaurant in a New Mexico frontier town. The story itself follows a familiar pattern, but it holds one's interest throughout because of the engaging performances, the comedy, and the delightful musical sequences. As a matter of fact, the music and dancing provide the film with its most charming moments. Best known of the tunes is the popular "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe." Judy Garland, as one of the waitresses, and John Hodiak, as a tough but square-shooting gambling house proprietor, make an effective romantic team. Ray Bolger's dancing, Virginia O'Brien's singing, and Marjone Main's comedy antics are not the least of the picture's assets. Towards the finish there is a rousing fight between Hodiak and the villains in a burning building: — En route to Sandrock to marry a cowboy whom she had never met (their courtship was by correspondence), Judy Garland meets on the train a group of waitresses who were going to Sandrock to open a new Harvey restaurant. Arriving in the town, Judy learns that the love letters sent her were a hoax perpetrated by Hodiak in the name of Chill Wills, an elderly, illiterate drunkard. Judy gives Hodiak a piece of her mind and secures employment with the Harvey girls. Lest the waitresses' integrity and pristine manners bring respectability to the town, thus reducing the profits he made from Hodiak's gambling house, Judge Preston Foster starts a campaign to force the girls to leave. His henchmen resort to many mean tricks to frighten them, but Hodiak, himself not pleased about having the girls in town, insists on fighting fair and opposes Foster's tactics. Meanwhile Hodiak and Judy find themselves falling in love, much to the chagrin of Angela Lansbury, the saloon queen. The Harvey girls combat Foster by providing the town with wholesome entertainment, and before long Hodiak decides to move his establishment to another town. Foster, peeved, sets fire to the Harvey restaurant. Hodiak gives him a terrific beating, but the fire razes the eating place. On the following day, he arranges for the saloon to be converted into a temporary Harvey restaurant, and prepares to leave town. But Angela, realizing that Hodiak had lost his heart to Judy, sees to it that he remains behind, while she and hei saloon girls head further West. Edmund Beloin, Nathaniel Curtis, Harry Crane, James O'Hanlon and Samson Raphaelson wrote the screen play, Arthur Freed produced it, and George Sidney directed it. The cast includes Kenny Baker, Selena Royale, Ben Carter and others. Unobjectionable morally.