Harrison's Reports (1946)

44 HARRISON'S REPORTS March 16, 1946 "Our Hearts Were Growing Up" with Gail Russell, Diana Lynn and Brian Donlevy (Paramount, no release date set; time, 82 min.) An agreeable light comedy, of program grade. It is a sequel to "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay," and as in that picture the action takes place in the early 1920's, and it revolves around the adolescent adventures of Diana Lynn and Gail Russell, as Emily Kimbrough and Cornelia Otis Skinner, respectively. The story is light but pleasant, and throughout it is studded with amusing mix-ups that stem from the girls becoming involved with a tough but wellmeaning bootlegger. The prohibition era depicted gives the film a nostalgic quality, and the styles and mannerisms of the day arc burlesqued subtly. Brian Donlevy, as the bootlegger, and William Demarest, as his henchmen, measure up to the demands of their roles, but it is Billy De Wolfe, as a resourceful Bohemian, who practically steals the picture with his comedy antics: — Diana and Gail, pupils at a fashionable finishing school, arc in love with James Brown, a Princeton football hero, and Bill Edwards, a young doctor, their respective boy-friends. In order to attend the Harvard-Princeton football game unchaperoned, the girls arrange with Edwards to pose as Diana's elderly uncle. At the last moment, however, Edwards is unable to meet them at the railroad station to keep his part in the scheme. To satisfy Sara Haden, their suspicious head-mistress, the girls decide to pick an uncle from the passing crowd. They appeal to Brian Donlevy, who grasps the opportunity so that they would unwittingly help him to smuggle two suitcases with champagne aboard the train. At Princeton, Donlevy loses the girls in the crowd at the station, and the suitcases with champagne are delivered to their hotel room. Horrified at finding the champagne, Diana spills it down the sink. Later, at a gay party, Gail, unaware that Diana had disposed of the champagne, offers it to her hostess. The girls overcome their problem by filling the bottles with a wine tonic bought at a drug store. Meanwhile Donlevy, having learned from his agent that the champagne was poisonous, traces the girls to the party and informs the guests that they had been poisoned. Edwards and Brown take charge of the hysterical guests and compel them to take an emetic at once. The girls end the confusion by revealing that wine tonic and not the poisonous champagne had been drunk. Angered because they had been permitted to make fools of themselves, Edwards and Brown break with the girls. To win back their love, the girls decide to seek stage careers and to become figures in the public eye. They rent an apartment in New York's Greenwich Village and, after a series of mix-ups, in which Donlevy assumes the role of their protector, they straighten out their social and romantic difficulties. Norman Panama and Melvin Frank wrote the screen play, Daniel Dare produced it, and William D. Russell directed it. The cast includes Mikhail Rasumny, Frank Fay len and others. Unobjectionable morally. "Hot Cargo" with William Gargan, Philip Reed and Jean Rogers (Paramount, no release date set; time, 55 min.) An ordinary program melodrama, suitable for the undiscriminating action fans. The story is hackneyed, and its treatment follows a familiar pattern, but since the action moves at a fairly brisk pace it manages to hold one's attention to a degree. The most exciting scenes are those in the end where the hero and his pal overcome the villain and his henchman, but it has little effect on the spectator since he guesses in advance just how the action will unfold. A little comedy and a formula romance have been worked into the plot: — Returning from the South Pacific, ex-servicemen William Gargan and Philip Reed stop off in the redwood country of California to deliver a last message to the parents (Will Wright and Virginia Brissac) and brother (David Holt) of a dead buddy, as well as to Jean Rogers, his sweetheart, owner of a lumber mill. When they learn that Wright's trucking business was failing because of the machinations of Larry Young and Harry Cording, rival truckmen, Gargan and Reed decide to stay awhile to help the old man. Young and Cording throw many obstacles in their way to discourage Gargan and Reed, but the two veterans hold their ground and manage to obtain a hauling contract from Jean to sustain the business. Meanwhile Reed falls in love with Jean, much to the chagrin of Young, who, too, sought her hand. Matters come to a head when Holt, the brother, is killed in an accident caused by Cording. Gargan and Reed trace the killing to Young and Cording, who, learning that Jean had obtained evidence that would convict them of the murder, kidnap and take her to a mountain cabin. By the time that Gargan and Reed reach the cabin, Cording kills Young in an argument and barricades himself with Jean. Using a bulldozer, Gargan crashes into the cabin while Reed and the sheriff capture Cording and rescue Jean. Reed remains behind to marry Jean, while Gargan continues his homeward journey. Geoffrey Homes wrote the screenplay, and Lew Landers directed it. Pine and Thomas produced it. Unobjectionable morally. "The Spider Woman Strikes Back" with Gale Sondergaard, Brenda Joyce and Kirby Grant ( Universal, March 22; time, 59 min.) An indifferent program picture. Although it is supposed to be a horror melodrama, it is doubtful if it will have a frightening effect on any one. So far-fetched and ordinary is the story, and so slow-moving the action, that patrons will find it more tedious than exciting. Moreover, the performances are totally unconvincing. The usual tricks of the trade have been used to create an air of mystery and suspense, but they fail to impress one. There is no comedy, and the romantic interest is of no importance. It belongs on the lower-half of a mid-week double bill: — Arriving in Domingo to work as a companion to Gale Sondergaard, a kindly, blind woman, Brenda Joyce meets Kirby Grant, an old college sweetheart, who drives her to Gale's mansion. There she is frightened by the sight of Rondo Hatton, a deformed, mute servant, but Gale reassures her. Unknown to Brenda, Gale's blindness was a sham to cover up a scheme to drive the local farmers away from what was formerly her lands. She was methodically accomplishing this by drugging Joyce and drawing blood from her while she slept to feed a carnivorous plant, from which she distilled a deadly cattle-poison. Her servant then used the poison to destroy the farmer's cattle. Grant and Milburn Stone, a Federal agent, investigate the cattle deaths and conclude that they were caused by weed-poisoning, but their inability to find any poisonous weeds in the area confuses them. In the course of events, Joyce becomes suspicious of Gale and discovers that she was not blind, but, before she can escape from the house, the servant captures her. Gale decides to kill her lest she reveal her secret. Meanwhile Grant and Stone, who, too, had found reason to become suspicious of Gale, go to her mansion. Gale, panicky, decides to destroy the evidence of her crimes and orders her servant to set fire to the plants. In the confusion that follows, Gale and the servant perish in the flames, while Kirby rescues Joyce. Eric Taylor wrote the screen play, Howard Welsch produced it, and Arthur Lubin directed it. Adult entertainment.