Harrison's Reports (1948)

March 6, 1948 HARRISON'S REPORTS "Jiggs and Maggie in Society" with Joe Yule and Renie Riano (Monogram, January 10; time, 6? min.) A pleasing light comedy with occasional strong laughs. It is of the slapstick variety, but of higher order. The production is classy, and the direction and acting very good. The story has been founded on the MacManus series of "Bringing Up Father" cartoons, so popular among adults as well as children. The situation where Joe Yule is shown listening to a broadcast of a spooky story is laughter-provoking. The one where he is shown outside a window, high up over the street, talking to his sweetie over the telephone and in danger of falling to the pavement below, should hold the audience in tense suspense. (This situation reminds one of Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last," although it is not a dupli' cation.) Joe Yule, who is Mickey Rooney's father, does fine work as "Jiggs," as does Renie Riano as "Maggie." The appearance of Dale Carnegie, Arthur Murray and Sheilah Graham in the cast, as themselves, adds novelty to the picture and enhances the exploitation values: — Maggie intensifies her efforts to crash the gate of upper Manhattan society, while Jiggs continues to mingle with his old cronies at Dinty Moore's, on Tenth Avenue. Taking advantage of Maggie's social ambitions, Van De Graft (Lee Bonnell), a shady character, informs her that his company had succeeded in tracing Jiggs' family tree and the family's coat of arms, and that, for a given amount of money, he will be able to list Jiggs' name in the social register. He suggests also that she give a party for important socialites. Maggie engages Dale Carnegie to tutor Jiggs, and Arthur Murray to give him dancing lessons. Through Murray, Maggie meets and is eventually interviewed on the air by Sheilah Graham. Maggie becomes jealous when she sees Jiggs in the company of Millicent Parker (Wanda McKay). A professional party planner is engaged by Maggie to stage a novel party and, at the height of the festivities, several crooks, friends of Van De Graft, rob many of the bejeweled socialite guests. But the police, who had followed the crooks, arrive in time to arrest the thieves and retrieve the jewels. Barney Gerard produced it, and Eddie Cline directed it, from an original screenplay written by both of them. A family audience picture. "The Return of the Whistler" with Michael Duane and Lenore Aubert (Columbia, March 18; time, 63 min.) Although its quality is not as good as some of the "Whistler" pictures directed by William Castle, this first of the new series is a fair enough melodrama that should get by as a supporting feature in double-billing houses. The story is not without its implausibilities, and on occasion the padding is obvious, but on the whole it tells its story with sufficient speed, excitement and intrigue to satisfy audiences in its intended market. The production values are modest, and the direction and acting adequate. The players, however, mean little at the box-office: — Lenore Aubert, French-born widow of an American aviator, disappears on the eve of her marriage to Michael Duane, a civil engineer. Duane had met her several weeks earlier, at which time she had told him that she had run away from her dead husband's relatives because of cruel treatment. Learning the address of the relatives, he goes there and meets James Cardwell, who informs him that he is Lenore's husband, and that, during mental lapses, she imagined herself to be a widow. He takes him to Lenore, who confirms the story. Bewildered, Duane leaves her, unaware that the relatives, who were after the fortune left to her by her husband, had threatened to kill him (Duane) unless she confirmed the story. In the course of events, Duane comes across evidence indicating that Cardwell had lied. Meanwhile the relatives had managed to place Lenore in an insane asylum. Duane investigates, learns the truth and, after a series of different happenings, effects her rescue and imprisons the relatives. Edward Bock and Maurice Tombragel wrote the screen play from a story by Cornell Woolrich. Rudolph Fluthow produced it, and D. Ross Lederman directed it. The cast includes Richard Lane and others. Unobjectionable morally. 39 "The Miracle of the Bells" with Valli, Fred MacMurray and Frank Sinatra (RKO, no release date set; time, 126 min.) Excellent mass entertainment. Adapted from Russell Janney's best-selling novel of the same name, "The Miracle of the Bells" is a powerful human interest drama, of a quality rarely achieved in motion picture production. Its story about the tragic death of a talented girl whose untimely end robs her of the fame she would have achieved, and about the efforts of a press agent to bring to her, in death, the fame she would have enjoyed in life, is filled with situations that will stir one's emotions deeply. From the opening to the closing scenes, one's attention is gripped so strongly that the more than two hours running time pass by unnoticed. Told partly in flashback, the story opens with Fred MacMurray, a press agent, bringing the body of a young girl (Valli) to Coaltown, a dingy Pennsylvania mining town, to be buried beside her father. A greedy undertaker (Harold Vermilyea) takes advantage of MacMurray's grief and tries to burden him with expenses he could not afford by steering him to the town's largest church. But MacMurray, to carry out the girl's dying wish, takes the body to St. Michael's, an impoverished church, whose priest, Frank Sinatra, sympathetically offers to conduct the burial services at no cost because of MacMurray's low finances. Asked about Valli's life history, MacMurray relates to Sinatra how he had first met her in a burlesque theatre where she was struggling for a chance to get on the stage. He had helped her to obtain a job in the chorus, and in subsequent meetings they had formed a strong friendship, during which he had learned of her ambition to become a great star. Their paths had crossed again in Hollywood, at a time when a temperamental star had walked out on the leading role in "Joan of Arc," for which picture he was studio press agent. Because of his faith in Valli, he had persuaded Lee J. Cobb, the producer, to give her the part, in spite of the fact that she was an unknown. She had played the part magnificently, hiding the fact that she was ill with tuberculosis, but she had burned herself out working and, three days after the film had been completed, she had died of the disease, contracted during her early, underprivileged life in Coaltown. Despite MacMurray's urgings, Cobb had refused to release the film, claiming that the public would not accept a dead star in the role. As Sinatra arranges for the burial, MacMurray hits upon an idea to get nationwide publicity for the funeral in the hope that it might induce Cobb to release the film as a tribute to Valli's faith and courage. By giving worthless checks to the different churches in town, he induces them to ring their bells continuously for three days and nights. The unusual stunt wins nationwide attention and brings Valli's story to the public, but Cobb, though he makes good the worthless checks, refuses to change his mind. One morning, however, the worshipers in the church notice two statues at the altar turn on their bases and face Valli's coffin. Word of the "miracle" spreads like wildfire. Sinatra investigates and finds that the statues' movements were the result of the shifting of an old mine working beneath the church, caused by the weight of the unusual crowds in the church. MacMurray induces him to defer an explanation to the worshipers because of the spiritual lift the illusion had given them. Cobb, by this time convinced of MacMurray's sincerity in his desire to honor Valli, agrees to release the film but donates the profits for a memorial hospital in Coaltown to combat the disease that had killed Valli. It is a beautifully produced and directed picture, and the acting is of the highest order. Valli is very impressive as the stricken girl, and MacMurray, as the press agent, delivers one of his finest performances. Sinatra, as the priest, is unusually good and restrained, never overacting or spoiling situations with too much sentiment. Lee J. Cobb, as the producer who places his principles before profits, is excellent. Ben Hecht and Quentin Reynolds wrote the very fine screen play, Irving Pichel directed it with understanding, and Jesse L. Lasky and Walter MacEwen produced it in the very best of taste. It is a picture lor the entire lamily.