Harrison's Reports (1946)

10 HARRISON'S REPORTS January 19, 1946 "Breakfast in Hollywood" with Tom Breneman and Bonita Granville (United Artists, Feb. 22; time, 93 min.) Good entertainment! The story is simple, yet charming, and it has plentiful human appeal, romantic interest, and comedy; it is certain to entertain all those who will see it, for it comes as a welcome relief from the heavy type of pictures some of the other companies are producing. Based on the popular audience-participation radio show of the same title, the action revolves around Tom Breneman, the show's genial master of ceremonies, and it depicts a day in his life, during which time his activities include everything from staging his radio show to playing cupid to a young couple and humoring gentle old ladies. Breneman, who plays himself, has a fine screen personality; his naturalness and good humor endear him to the audience. Considering the fact that the story is light, much credit is due Robert S. Golden, the producer, and Harold Schuster, the director, for its consistently entertaining and refreshing quality. Worked into the proceedings to good effect are a number of musical highlights, featuring Spike Jones and His City Slickers, the King Cole Trio, and Andy Russell, the popular "crooner." The story opens with a re-enactment of Breneman's radio show, during which he meets Bonita Granville, a Minneapolis girl, who had come to Hollywood to meet her sailor sweetheart; Edward Ryan, an honorably discharged sailor not yet out of uniform; Zazu Pitts, a middle-aged spinster, whose secret ambition was to win the radio show's "screwy" hat contest and be kissed by Breneman; Bculah Bondi, a gentle, elderly widow, who sought to win an orchid as the show's oldest guest; and Billie Burke, a drab, timid housewife, whose husband, Raymond Walburn, was a philanderer. Outside his radio work, Breneman concerns himself chiefly with patching up the broken romance between Bonita and Ryan, who had fallen in love after she discovered that her boy-friend had jilted her. He participates also in other good deeds, such as instilling Miss Bondi with a desire to live after she had been injured seriously in an accident; indirectly helping Miss Burke to win her straying husband back into the fold; and satisfying Miss Pitts by trying on her hat and kissing her. On the whole, the picture gives one a pleasant feeling throughout, and since human interest is what most people want in their entertainment "Breakfast in Hollywood" is destined to make a success. Earl W. Baldwin wrote the original story and screenplay. "Behind Green Lights" with Carole Landis and William Gargan (20th Century-Fox, Feb.; time, 64 min.) This mixture of crooked politics, blackmail, and murder mystery is a fair program entertainment. In spite of the fact that the story is far-fetched and quite involved, it should satisfy the undiscriminating followers of this type of melodrama, for it has a fair share of suspense, and the murderer's identity is concealed until the end. Most patrons, however, will have little trouble identifying the killer after the first few reels. The action, most of which takes place within twelve hours at police headquarters, is fast, and in a few situations exciting. There is some slight comedy relief, but the romantic interest is unimportant: — The murder of a blackmailer, whose body is found in front of police headquarters, convinces Lieutenant William Gargan that, with the mayoralty election only a few days away, some one was trying to discredit the police and the city officials. Searching through the dead man's effects, Gargan discovers that Carole Landis, daughter of the reform candidate, had visited the dead man's apartment that night. He questions Carole and, though she admits having gone to the apartment to recover some important documents, she denies the commission of the murder. Roy Roberts, an opposition political boss, brings pressure on Gargan to book Carole for murder in order to discredit her father, hinting that it would help him to become chief of police. But Gargan refuses. Through Mary Anderson, the dead man's estranged wife, and Charles Russell, her attorney and sweetheart, Gargan uncovers evidence proving that the blackmailer had been poisoned and shot after death. The discovery leads him to suspect Don Bcddoe, his medical examiner, who had failed to note this information on his report. After a series of incidents, in which Roberts unsuccessfully tries to have the blackmailer's body removed from headquarters, Gargan, through Mabel Paige, an old flower woman, discovers that Beddoe had visited the dead man's apartment that night. The information enables him to reconstruct the crime and to prove that Beddoe had committed the murder under Roberts' orders. W. Scott Darling and Charles G. Booth wrote the screen play, Robert Bassler produced it, and Otto Brower directed it. Unobjectionable morally. "Scarlet Street" with Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea (Universal. Dec. 28; time, 102 min.) The advance publicity this picture has received as a result of the censorship ban against it in New York State and in Minneapolis will, no doubt, cause it to draw large crowds, but it will prove a disgrace to the industry. It is strictly adult entertainment, and definitely not for the family trade. From an artistic point of view, the screen play, production, direction, and acting are of the highest order. Those who can stand strong melodrama should find it extremely fascinating, for its tale about a mild-mannered, middle-aged cashier, whose naive involvement with an unscrupulous prostitute and her vile procurer drive him to robbery and murder, is a masterful piece of story construction, charged with suspense and filled with intriguing situations from beginning to end. But for sordidness, brutality, and a display of man's basest passions, it is unsurpassed. As a matter of fact, it flouts openly the principles of objective morality and the boundaries of good taste as established by the Production Code. In the development of the story, Edward G. Robinson, a timid casher, makes the acquaintance of Joan Bennett when he encounters her on the street struggling with a bully (Dan Duryea), whom he chases away. Without revealing that Duryea was her boy-friend, Joan, a woman of questionable morals, accepts Robinson's offer to see her home safely and leads him to believe that she was an unemployed actress. She mistakenly believes him to be a wealthy artist when he tells her that he painted for a hobby. On the following day, Duryea, upon learning about Robinson from Joan, conspires with her to make the timid man fall in love with her in a plot to milk him of his money and to induce him to install her in a swanky apartment. Robinson, tired of his shrewish wife (Rosalind Ivan), who objected to his painting, falls easy prey to Joan's wiles and steals money from his firm to rent an apartment. He moves all his paintings there, and continues to steal to satisfy her demands, unaware that she was giving the money to Duryea and using the apartment to carry on her affair with him. When Duryea presses Joan for more money, she lets him sell a few of Robinson's unsigned paintings. They create a sensation in the art world, and through Duryea's shrewd manipulations Joan is credited as the artist. Robinson, pleased that his work had been recognized, allows her to take the credit. One night, after Robinson discovers that his wife's former husband, believed dead, was alive, he rushes to the apartment to tell Joan the good news only to find her in Duryea's arms. Dejected, he leaves the apartment but returns later and stabs her to death. Duryea is arrested for the crime and, through Robinson's false testimony, is convicted and electrocuted. Meanwhile Robinson loses his job when his thievery is discovered. He goes to pieces, mentally and physically, and tries to commit suicide, but the attempt is thwarted. Years later, he is shown as a derelict, known to the police as a mental degenerate who was trying to give himself up for a crime he did not commit. Dudley Nichols wrote the screen play, and Fritz Lang produced and directed it. The cast includes Margaret Lindsay, Samuel S. Hinds, Jess Barker, Vladimir Sokoloff and others. *See pages 1 6 and 20.