Harrison's Reports (1948)

HARRISON'S REPORTS 3 sign up a singing trio. When her plane makes a forced landing in the backwoods of Tennessee, Virginia spends the night at a farm house, where she hears Susan sing folk songs and play the zither. Deciding that the girl would be a sensation on records, Virginia forgets about the trio and heads back to New York with Susan. Watkin, furious because Virginia had not carried out his orders, dismisses her and refuses to hear Susan sing. Michael Duane and Jimmy Lloyd quit Watkin because of his treatment of Virginia and all three form a record company of their own. Needing a "big name" for their initial record, Virginia induces Jack Leonard, her ex-husband, to arrange for Susan to sing in a night-club where he and Gene Krupa were starred. She proves to be a sensation, and it all ends with Virginia and Leonard becoming recon' ciled, while Susan and Duane fall in love. M. Coates Webster and Lee Gold wrote the screen play, Sam Katzman produced it, and Arthur Driefus directed it. Unobjectionable morally. "Secret Beyond the Door" with Joan Bennett and Michael Redgrave (Univ. -Intl., no rel. date set; time, 98J/2 win.) A heavy, brooding psychological melodrama, one that strives so hard to be arty that it is doubtful if many picture-goers of the rank and file will find it to their taste. Through handsome settings, unusual camera angles, and effective background music, producer-director Fritz Lang has succeeded in creating an air of impending doom throughout the proceedings, but he has not been successful in making the drama come through on the screen with any sense of either motivation or emotional impact. As a matter of fact, most picture-goers will probably find it difficult to understand the motivations of the principal characters, because of the cryptic dialogue spoken by them. The closing scenes, where the hero and heroine are trapped by a spectacular fire, are exciting, but it is not enough to offset the tediousness of the picture as a whole : — Joan Bennett, an American heiress, meets Michael Redgrave, a New York architect, while both vacation in Mexico, and marries him after a whirlwind courtship. Their idyllic honeymoon is suddenly disrupted when Redgrave, after being barred from her bedroom by a playful trick, announces that he had received a telegram calling him to New York immediately on business. Miserable at being left alone, Joan is tortured also by the discovery that no telegram had been delivered to him. She cheers up, however, when word comes for her to meet him at his ancestral home in New England. There she meets Anne Revere, his older sister, who dominated him, and learns that he was a widower with a 12-year-old son, Mark Dennis, a moody, truculent boy, who believed that his father had killed his mother. She meets also Barbara O'Neill, Redgrave's secretary, who had hoped to marry him herself. Redgrave, who had a hobby of collecting rooms in which murders had been committed, shows them all to Joan except one, which he refuses to open. Determined to learn the secret of the closed room, Joan manages to enter it and discovers it to be an exact duplicate of the bedroom she occupied. She then realizes that Redgrave is a dangerous schizophrenic, and that he meant to murder her. She flees in terror, but her great love for him draws her back to the house. As he advances upon her to kill her, Joan, through psychoanalysis, probes his mental complexities and succeeds in freeing him from the quirks that tortured him. Meanwhile Barbara, seeking to destroy Joan, had set fire to the house. Redgrave saves Joan, after which both return to Mexico for a second honeymoon. Silvia Richards wrote the screen play, based on the story by Rufus King. It is a Walter Wanger presentation. Adult fare. "The Paradine Case" with Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Valli, Charles Coburn, Charles Laughton and Ethel Barrymore (Selznic\ Rel. Org., no rel. date set; time, 132 min.) Alfred Hitchcock's superb directorial skill, the powerful dramatic material, and the superior performances by the entire cast, make "The Paradine Case" one of the most fascinating murder trial melodramas ever produced. It should turn out to be a foremost box-office attraction, not only because of the players' drawing power, but also because it is a gripping entertainment from start to finish. Its story about the misguided love of a famous English barrister for a beautiful but worthless woman he was defending on a murder charge, intriguingly blends mystery, drama, and steadily-mounting suspense in a way that builds up audience interest to a high pitch. The court room sequences are highly dramatic. Gregory Peck is excellent as the barrister, and Ann Todd, as his winsome wife, is just right. The film introduces two newcomers to the American screen — Valli, an Italian actress, as the woman charged with murder, and Louis Jourdan, a French actor, as her secret lover; both are fine artists, and their diction is very good. Charles Laughton, as the presiding judge, is first-rate. Ethel Barrymore, Leo G. Carroll, Charles Coburn, and Isobel Elsom are among the others who contribute fine characterizations. David O. Selznick, the producer, has given the picture his customary production polish : — Peck, considered England's greatest barrister, undertakes to defend Valli, accused of poisoning her husband, a blind nobleman. Though happily married, he falls madly in love with Valli, despite her admission of a sordid past. He personally investigates the crime to prove her innocence to himself, and comes to the conclusion that the murder could have been committed by Jourdan, her husband's man-servant. When he suggests that possibility to Valli, she loses her composure and defends Jourdan. This puzzles Peck because Jourdan had expressed himself derogatorily against her. At the trial, when Jourdan is placed on the witness stand by the prosecution, Peck so confuses him on cross-examination that he gives damaging testimony against himself. Later, Valli upbraids Peck for his tactics and confesses that she loved Jourdan and that he had been her lover. But Peck, driven by his mad love, determines to set her free, even if it meant wrecking his own home, for he and his wife had already become partly estranged because of his obvious interest in Valli. As Valli takes the witness stand on the third day of the trial, word comes that Jourdan had committed suicide. Heartbroken, Valli shatters Peck's defense by frankly admitting that she had killed her husband in order to be alone with Jourdan, whom she had forced into a love affair. Valli is sentenced to hang, and Peck, broken up by the turn of events, decides to retire from law practice. His wife, however, offers him encouragement, and Peck, realizing that he had been a fool, starts life with her anew. Mr. Selznick wrote the screen play from the novel by Robert Hichens. Adult fare.