Harrison's Reports (1948)

February 14, 1948 HARRISON'S REPORTS 27 out in pursuit of the young couple, with Sande trying to pin the murder on them, and with Sawyer trying to protect them. The chase reels through Chinatown, where Taylor had numerous friends and, after numerous escapades and complications, involving several more murders, Sawyer, aided by Taylor, traps Kosleek and wrings a confession from him. With Peggy cleared, Taylor prepares for marital troubles. Arnold Belgard wrote the original screen play, Sol M. Wurtzel produced it, and William F. Claxton directed it. The cast includes Mabel Paige, Gil Stratton, Jr., Tom Dugan and others. Adult entertainment. "Take My Life" with Hugh Williams and Greta Gynt (Eagle-Lion, February 28; time, 79 mm.) A fair British-made murder mystery melodrama. Since the cast is mostly unknown to American audiences, the picture presents a selling problem to the exhibitors, but it should make a suitable supporting feature in double-billing situations. The action is rather slow, and it unfolds with a minimum of excitement, yet the suspense is fairly well sustained and the uncovering of the murderer is worked out logically, although the solution, as a matter of fact the entire story, depends heavily on coincidents that are hard to believe. Since the murderer's identity becomes known to the spectator early in the picture, one's interest lies in the manner in which he is trapped by the heroine, whose husband had been convicted of the crime on circumstantial evidence. The flashback technique has been used to fairly good advantage :— When she comes upon her husband, Hugh Williams, speaking to Rosalie Crutchley, a concert violinist who had once been his girl-friend, Greta Gynt, an opera singer, becomes jealous. She tauntshim about the girl and, in a fit of temper, hurls a perfume bottle at him, cutting him over the eye. He goes out for a walk to cool off. During his absence, Rosalie is murdered by Marius Goring, a schoolmaster, to whom she was married secretly, cutting him over the eye during their quarrel. As Goring hurries away from the murder scene, he is seen holding a handkerchief to his head but is not recognized. A silver pencil with Williams' initials is found among Rosalie's effects, leading the police to him. Both he and Greta, ashamed of their quarrel, relate conflicting stories about how he received the cut over his eye, causing him to be held for the murder. The prosecuting attorney, Francis L. Sullivan, learns of the past relationship between Rosalie and Williams, and weaves a tightlyknit net of circumstantial evidence that brings about Williams' conviction. Greta, her faith in Williams unshaken, traces Rosalie's life and, through a school song composed by Rosalie, the trail leads to Goring, whom she discovers had been married to the dead woman. Additional clues found by Greta give her reason to suspect Goring of the killing. She heads back to London to report her findings to Scotland Yard, but Goring, aware of her intentions, boards the same train and attempts to kill her. She is saved by the timely intervention of a Yard detective, who had been following her movements. Goring dies in a leap from the train, and Williams, on the strength of the evidence gathered by his wife, gains his freedom. Winston Graham and Valerie Taylor wrote the original screen play, Anthony Havelock-Ellis produced it, and Ronald Neame directed it. Adult entertainment. "Three Daring Daughters" with Jeanette MacDonald, Jose Iturbi, Edward Arnold and Jane Powell (MGM, March 5; time, 115 mm.) This Technicolor musical should give pretty good satisfaction to most picturegoers, although it is somewhat overlong and slow in spots. That it misses being a top musical is due to the fact that there isn't much to the story, which occupied the time of no less than four writers, and which is more or less reminiscent of "Three Smart Girls." Nevertheless, it has lush production values, amusing comedy, tender romantic interest, and enjoyable music that ranges from the popular to the classical. Moreover, it marks the return to the screen of Jeanette MacDonald who, though more mature, is as beautiful as ever, and whose lovely singing voice has lost none of its charm. Her duets with youthful Jane Powell, whose clear soprano voice is always pleasurable to the ear, are appealing. This time Jose Iturbi, in addition to his superb piano playing, takes on quite an acting chore as a middleaged suitor who woos and wins Miss MacDonald. He handles himself surprisingly well, putting over with ease the different moods he is called upon to convey. Most of the comedy stems from the unwitting efforts of Miss MacDonald's three 'teen-aged daughters to bring her together with their father, whom she had divorced years previously, thus complicating her newfound life with Iturbi. Edward Arnold, as a newspaper publisher who finds himself innocently embroiled in the mixups, adds much to the comedy. A highlight of the film is a mouth organ rendition of the Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1 by Larry Adler, accompanied by a symphony orchestra: — ■ Jeanette, a fashion magazine editor, is ordered by her doctor to take a vacation. She takes a cruise to Cuba. Her three daughters (Jane Powell, Ann E. Todd and Mary Eleanore Donohue) conclude that the real cause of their mother's illness is longing for their father, an ace newspaperman stationed overseas, whom she had divorced years previously. Actually, their father left much to be desired as a husband, but to the children he was a glamorous figure, and Jeanette, not wanting to disillusion them, had blamed her divorce on the fact that his work kept him from home. In their mother's absence, the girls visit Arnold, their father's employer, who, after listening to their story, agrees to recall him. Meanwhile Jeanette meets Iturbi on shipboard. Their friendship develops into a serious romance, culminating in their marriage when the ship docks in Cuba. Returning home, Jeanette becomes frantic when she learns that the girls had arranged for her ex-husband's return. She induces Iturbi to keep their marriage a secret temporarily, and rushes to Arnold, persuading the bewildered publisher to keep her husband away from America. Iturbi succeeds in winning the children's love, but they turn against him when they learn of his marriage to their mother. Jeanette, in deference to the children, separates from him. Disturbed, Iturbi decides that the only solution to the problem is to bring the ex-husband home so that the children can see and judge him for what he is. He approaches Arnold and asks him to bring their father home. Realizing that the youngsters were interfering with their mother's happiness, Arnold brings them to their senses, gets them to accept Iturbi, and sees to it that the couple are happily reunited. Albert Mannheimer, Frederick Kohner, Sonya Levien, and John Median wrote the original screen play, Joe Pasternak produced it, and Fred M. Wilcox directed it. Unobjectionable morally.