Harrison's Reports (1948)

84 HARRISON'S REPORTS May 22, 1948 "The Gallant Legion" with William Elliott, Adrian Booth, Joseph Schildkraut and Bruce Cabot (Republic. July 25; time, 88 min.) The one thing that may be said of this big-scale Western is that it is well-stocked with actionful moments, generating sufficient excitement to make it highly satisfactory to the devotees of this type of entertainment. Picture-goers who are not particularly addicted to Westerns will find that it offers little that is unusual either in story or in treatment. But to the dyed-in'the-wool cowboy fans the lack of story novelty should make little difference, for there is a goodly share of chases, shooting, fist-fights, and skullduggery, plus the customary comedy relief of the type supplied by Andy Devine. All in all, the picture is a strong bet for theatres that cater to action fans, and it should get by as a supporting feature in most other situations: — When Texas is admitted into the Union and the illrcputcd State Police disbanded, Bruce Cabot, a ruthless landowner, secretly leads a vicious clement in a fight to establish West Texas as a separate state. Senator Joseph Schildkraut, Cabot's undercover mouthpiece, demands abolishment of the Texas Rangers in a veiled move to make Cabot's task easier, but the State Senate votes to retain the Rangers for a trial period of six months. Cabot embarks on a program of brute force and chicanery to discredit the Rangers by showing them as unable to cope with the crime wave. Adrian Booth, a newspaper woman, who is Schildkraut's niece and Cabot's fiancee, is assigned by her paper to cover the fight between the Rangers and the lawless element. Meanwhile William Elliott, a Civil War veteran, returns to Texas to settle down on his ranch but changes his mind when his younger brother, one of Cabot's renegades, is shot by a Ranger during a bank holdup. Suspecting that Cabot was behind the lawlessness, Elliott joins the Rangers in an effort to prove his guilt. Cabot tries to discredit him by claiming that he had joined to avenge himself on the Ranger who had killed his brother, but Catpain Jack Holt expresses his faith in Elliott. Simultaneously, Adrian, whose news dispatches, influenced by her uncle, had been uncomplimentary to the Rangers, is invited by Holt to live at the camp and witness the Rangers' activities. In the course of events, Adrian catches her uncle altering her news dispatches to smear the Rangers; she threatens to reveal his perfidy. Cabot, fearing that Schildkraut will talk and ruin his plan to arm the Comanche Indians against the Rangers, murders him. This killing sets off a series of events involving the massacre of several Rangers, culminating in a showdown battle between Holt's Rangers and Cabot's renegades. During the battle, Holt's son (James Brown) is shot in the back by Cabot, and Elliott is suspected of killing him to avenge his brother's death. But he is exonerated when his courage and bravery win the fight for the Rangers and bring about Cabot's death. Joe Kane produced and directed it from a screen play by Gerald Adams, based on a story by John K. Butler and Gerald Geraghty. The cast includes Adele Mara, Grant Withers and others. Unobjectionable morally. "Port Said" with Gloria Henry and William Bishop (Columbia, April 15; time, 69 min.) A mediocre, low-budget murder-mystery melodrama; it has little to recommend it, even for the lower half of a double-bill, for it has neither excitement nor suspense. Not only is the story involved, unbelievable, and confused, but to make matters worse talk has been substituted for action, with the result that it barely holds one's interest. The players struggle to make something of their individual roles, but there is little they can do to lift the inept screen play from its depths of boredom: — Arriving in Port Said for a vacation, William Bishop learns that his best friend, a theatre manager, had been murdered mysteriously. In attempting to unravel the case, he learns from Edgar Barrier, a magician, and Gloria Henry, his daughter, that his friend had probably been murdered by Richard Hale, a Nazi collaborationist, whose daughter (also played by Gloria Henry) was Gloria's first cousin. He explains that, because of the striking resemblance between the two girls, Hale feared that he and his daughter would be unmasked if the public saw their act and noticed the resemblance. They further explain that his friend had been killed to prevent him from booking their act. Bishop falls in love with Gloria and soon becomes involved in a scries of events in which several unsuccessful attempts are made on his life by Ian MatDonald, Hale's sinister henchman. With Bishop hot on his trail, Hale devises a scheme whereby his daughter is substituted for Gloria in Barrier's fencing act (an act in which Barrier and Gloria pretend to kill each other with trick swords), in order to kill both Gloria and Barrier. Gloria is drugged and replaced in the act by her cousin, but before the vicious girl can kill the unsuspecting Barrier, Bishop, having learned of the plot, arrives with the police, saves Gloria and Barrier, and captures the criminals. Wallace MacDonald produced it and Reginald LeBorg directed it from a screen play by Brcnda Wcisberg, based on a story by Louis Pollock. The cast includes Steven Geray and others. Unobjectionable morally. "Wallflower" with Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton, Janis Paige and Edward Arnold (Warner Bros., June 12; time, 77 mm.) A lightweight but fairly amusing romantic comedy, revolving around adolescent doings. Although it docs not rise above the level of program fare, it is strong enough to serve as the top half of a mid-week double-bill. Laid in a typical small town, its story about two attractive step-sisters, one flirtatious and the other a shrinking violet, follows a wellworn pattern in that the subdued sister, tired of being a "wallflower," assumes the kittenish characteristics of her uninhibited sister and soon wins the admiring glances of their male friends, particularly of the boy she loved. It offers little that hasn't been done many times, but it is pleasant enough. The comedy is of the sort that provokes chuckles instead of belly laughs: — Returning home after a year in college, Joyce Reynolds and Janis Paige, step-sisters, miss their plane at the airport. Don McGuire, attracted by Janis' obvious charms flies them home in his own plane. At home, their parents, Edward Arnold and Barbara Brown, have their hands full answering telephone calls and receiving flowers for Janis. When Robert Hutton, a young family friend, comes to greet the girls, he sees Joyce first and invites her to accompany him to a forthcoming country club dance. But he forgets about Joyce when he sees Janis and invites her to the dance instead. Joyce, resigned to playing second-fiddle to Janis, decides to remain at home on the night of the dance, despite the family's insistence on finding an escort for her. McGuire telephones just as the family leaves for the dance, and Joyce, copying her sister's ways, charms him into escorting her to the dance. She dresses herself in alluring fashion and, at the club, wins the admiring glances of Janis' many boy-friends who vie for her attentions. Meanwhile Hutton gets drunk at the bar because Janis had turned down his marriage proposal. Entranced by the "new" Joyce, he asks her to marry him. She decides to sober him up before considering his proposal and takes him to a nearby lake for a swim. Their clothes are stolen from the locker by some boys and. in the resulting confusion, both are picked up in abbreviated beach robes by a policeman and kept in jail overnight. The newspapers publish the story, and the youngsters' families, putting a wrong interpretation on the incident, insist that they elope at once. Joyce, believing that Hutton was being forced into the marriage, runs away. Hutton overtakes her and convinces her of his love. Alex Gottlieb produced it and Frederick de Cordova directed it from a screen play by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, based on the stage play by Reginald Denham and Mary Orr. The cast includes Jerome Cowan and others. Suitable for the family.