Harrison's Reports (1948)

24 HARRISON'S REPORTS February 7, 1948 AMERICAN BROTHERHOOD WEEK With American Brotherhood Week about to be observed from February 22 to February 29, the motion picture industry is being called upon to lend its aid in helping to combat the forces of bigotry and intolerance. The National Conference of Christians and Jews, which sponsors American Brotherhood Week, has done and is doing great work in spreading the gospel of friendship and racial unity, teaching Americans to put into more effective use our bedrock principles of freedom, tolerance and understanding. Basically, the aim of the industry's efforts in behalf of this movement is to help raise the funds needed by the NCCJ to continue their splendid work in promoting good will among men. Harrison's Reports urges every exhibitor to give his fullest support to this drive, for now, more than ever, it is important to our American scheme of things that we work together, play together, crusade together, without distinction as to race, language, or religion. THE "SAVE A LIFE" CAMPAIGN IN LOS ANGELES Charles P. Skouras, head of National Theatres, has taken an active interest in the safety campaign of the City of Los Angeles by showing in all his theatres twenty 30-sccond educational safety trailers aimed at reducing the tragic death toll on streets and highways. Prominent city officials and civic leaders have commended Mr. Skouras highly for his cooperation. Theater owners throughout the country should either start a "Save a Life" campaign themselves, or offer their screens in cooperation whenever such a campaign is started. Thousands of lives are lost every year through carelessness on the part of both pedestrians and automobile drivers. There is no better way for an exhibitor to gain the good will of his community. "The Hunted" with Belita and Preston Foster (Allied Artists, April 7; time. 83 mm.) Good. The story is rather unusual, it is chiefly drama rather than melodrama; it deals with a detective who, although he loves the heroine with all his heart, arrests her for a crime she is supposed to have committed, despite her protests of innocence. Never has Preston Foster done better work; as a character suffering agonies because of his deep love for the heroine, he makes the audience feel his pain. And, what is more, one is in sympathy with him because he is not shown as a cruel person; he had arrested the heroine because he put his duty before love. Belita, too, does excellent work. One is inclined to accept her declaration of innocence and, even though she shoots and wounds Foster while resisting arrest, one does not turn against her. Her work in the ice skating scenes is masterful. The direction is good, and the photography sharp and clear, even in the night scenes: — Out on parole after serving a jail sentence for a jewel theft, of which she claimed to be innocent, Belita returns to the city and goes to the apartment of Foster, her sweetheart, who had arrested her and whose testimony had convicted her. Foster, though still in love with her, thinks of his duty first and orders her to leave, but he permits her to remain when she insists that she cannot find a room in a hotel because of the late hour. He hardly sleeps that night, remembering that she had vowed to kill him upon her release. On the following day, he takes her to a hotel and obtains a position for her as an ice skater. Belita becomes a sensation as a skater, and Foster begins to believe in her insistence that she had not committed the crime. But when Pierre Watkin, a cagy criminal lawyer who had unsuccessfully defended her, is found murdered, the finger of suspicion points at Belita because she had threatened to kill him for failing to gain her release. Foster places her under arrest, but Belita, feeling that she will be unable to prove her innocence, eludes him and runs away. He sets out on her trail, eventually finding her after many chases. Just as he is about to arrest her, she shoots and wounds him in the shoulder. Taken to a hospital, Foster again begins to doubt her guilt; he determines to resign from the police force in order to help her prove her innocence. Meanwhile Paul Guilfoyle, a jewel thief, arrested in connection with a killing, confesses to the murder of Watkin and at the same time gives testimony that establishes Belita's innocence. His testimony shows that Watkin was the "brains" for a gang of jewel thieves, with whom Belita had been falsely implicated, and that his murder was the result of his having double-crossed the gang. Learning of the crook's confession, Foster sets out to find Belita to convince her that he still loves her. The two are reconciled and determine, after their marriage, to go to Paris, a trip they had planned to take previously. Scott R. Dunlap produced it, and Jack Bernhard directed it, from an original story and screen play by Steve Fisher. Unobjectionable morally. "Man of Evil" with James Mason, Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger (United Artists, February: time. 90 mm.) Produced in England about four years ago and released originally under the title, "Fanny by Gaslight," this is a rather slow-paced period melodrama that is only moderately interesting. Its story about the trials and tribulations of the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy nobleman creaks with age, and it is not helped any by the heavy-handed direction and by the choppy editing (18 minutes have been cut from its original 108 minutes running time). The picture's chief selling point to American audiences is the presence of James Mason in the cast, but many of his admirers may feel cheated for, although he is given star billing, he appears on the screen for hardly more than five minutes in what may be described as a supporting role. As the heroine of the piece, Phyllis Calvert does capable work, winning the spectator's sympathy by her nobility of character. The other players, too, are competent, but they cannot overcome the artificiality of their characterizations. Because of the illegitimacy theme, its frank treatment of an illicit love affair, and its depiction of the doings in a clandestine bordello, it is a picture strictly for adults. The production values are first-rate, with London in 1870 as the setting: — Unaware that she was the illegitimate daughter of Stuart Lindsell, a wealthy cabinet minister, Phyllis grows up in the home of John Laurie, her foster father, whom her mother ultimately married. Laurie, operator of a bordello, is killed in a brawl with James Mason, a dissolute English Lord, who patronized his place. Shortly thereafter, Phyllis' mother dies, and the young girl is taken into the household of her real father, as a servant. She soon learns from him the facts of her birth, and a strong though necessarily secret affection develops between them. Ignorant of Phyllis' identity, Margaretta Scott, Lindsell's wife, uses her as a personal maid. Margaretta eventually discovers that Phyllis was her husband's illegitimate child and, in order to marry Mason, with whom she had been carrying on a clandestine affair, she threatens Lindsell with a public scandal unless he grants her a divorce. Faced with ruin of his political career, Lindsell commits suicide. Phyllis leaves the estate to work as a bar-maid in a pub operated by Wilfred Lawson, an old friend. Stewart Granger, in whose hands had been left the settlement of Lindsell's estate, locates Phyllis in the pub, falls madly in love with her, and proposes marriage. This move is opposed by his aristocratic family because of Phyllis' background. Rather than endanger her lover's political career, Phyllis breaks off the romance and disappears. Granger, after a long search, finds her in a public dining room, arriving just as Mason insults her. He thrashes him, takes Phyllis away, and induces her to run away with him to Paris for a holiday. There, they subsequently meet Mason, who challenges Granger to a duel. Granger kills Mason but is badly wounded himself. With Granger lying at death's door, his imperious sister arrives and attempts to force Phyllis out of his life. But Phyllis, realizing that his love for her kept him alive, denounces the sister and returns to the job of nursing him back to health. Doreen Montgomery wrote the screen play from the novel by Michael Sadleir, Edward Black produced it, and Anthony Asquith directed it. The cast includes Jean Kent and other*.