Harrison's Reports (1948)

June 5, 1948 HARRISON'S REPORTS 91 "Secret Service Investigator" with Lynne Roberts and Lloyd Bridges (Republic, May 31; time, 60 min.) Although it is lacking in name value, this is a brisk program melodrama that should easily satisfy the demands of the non-discriminating action fans. Its story about a jobless veteran who innocently becomes involved with a gang of ruthless counterfeiters is on the whole implausible, but it unfolds at a rapid pace and with considerable excitement and suspense. Moreover, it has enough unusual twists to grip one's attention from start to finish. The direction is expert and the acting competent. There is some mild love interest, but it does not get in the way of the story: — After placing a "job-wanted" ad in a San Francisco newspaper office, where he meets Lynne Roberts, a pretty clerk, Lloyd Bridges is contacted by Trevor Bardette, who represents himself as a secret service inspector and gives him a job to impersonate a captured ex-convict (also played by Bridges), whom he resembled. Bardette explains that the ex-convict, during his years in jail, had made a perfect plate for counterfeiting currency, and that George Zucco, head of an Eastern counterfeiting gang, had offered to buy it. His job was to impersonate the ex-convict and deliver the plate to Zucco. Bardette and his men would take care of the rest. En route to New York, Bridges is recognized as an imposter by the ex-convict's wife, June Storey, and by her crooked brother, John Kellogg, who knock him unconscious and disappear with the plate. He returns to San Francisco, where he is promptly arrested by the police for the murder of the ex-convict, whose body had been found in the room where he had met Bardette. Bridges comes to the realization that Bardette, too, was a crook, and his fantastic story is believed by Douglas Evans, a real secret service inspector, who offers him a special appointment in the service to help catch all the crooks. Pretending that he was not "wise" to the fact that Bardette was a crook, Bridges communicates with him for further instructions. Bardette orders him to bring in Zucco dead or alive. Meanwhile Zucco, having discovered that the plate brought to him by June and her brother was a fake, accompanies them to San Francisco to recover the perfect plate, which Bardette had in his possession. Between Zucco's and Bardette's machinations, Bridges soon finds himself involved in a series of events in which his life is constantly in danger, but in the end he succeeds in rounding up all the counterfeiters with the aid of the inspector and his agents. Sidney Picker produced it and R. G. Springsteen directed it from an original screen play by John K. Butler. The cast includes Milton Parsons, Roy Barcroft, Jack Overman and others. Unobjectionable morally. "My Dog Rusty" with Ted Donaldson (Columbia, April 8; time, 67 min.) An unpretentious but fairly heart-warming human-interest story, suitable for theatres that cater to the family trade. Set in a typical small town, its homespun story about a growing boy and his problems offers little that is new, but it is competently directed and acted, and puts over its message for the need of parental understanding in a constructive way. As the youngster who is devoted to his father but resorts to lies to escape punishment, Ted Donaldson is appealing and convincing. As a matter of fact, all the principal characters are likeable and sympathetic. Worked into the story are some nice touches of humor: — John Litel, campaigning for mayor of Lawtonville against the incumbent, Lewis R. Russell, has trouble with his son, Ted Donaldson, who persists in telling lies. Trouble brews when Ted, assisting the town's new doctor, Mona Barrie, slips his father's campaign handbills into the envelopes containing the doctor's announcement cards. The mayor accuses Mona of complicity in the affair. When several of the town's youngsters fall ill, Mona, fearing that the water supply may be contaminated, has samples taken from the water faucets in each of the boys' homes. Ted accidentally spills the samples from the test tubes and, in panic, refills them with water taken from a dirty duck pond. He says nothing of the substitution when Mona finds that the water is highly contaminated. When the news gets out, the townspeople become enraged over the mayor's seeming neglect of the water supply, and he faces defeat at the polls. But the mayor discovers the truth about the samples and, after proving that the water supply system was pure, condemns both Litel and and Mona publicly. Ted, who had denied knowledge of the laboratory mixup, runs away from home, but when his dog is bitten by a rattlesnake he returns home for medical aid. There, he makes a clean breast of the laboratory incident and, in a public acknowledgment of his deed, clears his father and Mona. His confession, however, comes too late to save Litel from defeat at the polls, but Litel is nevertheless happy to have taught his son the value of truth. Wallace MacDonald produced it and Lew Landers di' rected it from a screen play by Brenda Weisberg, who wrote the story in collaboration with William B. Sackheim. Suitable for the entire family. "Up in Central Park" with Deanna Durbin, Dick Haymes and Vincent Price (UnivAnt'l, no release date set; time, 87 min.) Just moderately entertaining; its value to an exhibitor will depend heavily on just how much Deanna Durbin means at his box-office. Based on the Broadway musical show of the same name, which was no more than a fair success at best, this screen version suffers by comparison because it concentrates more on the story than on the music, thus losing what was most charming about the stage production. The story in the stage production was nothing to cheer about, and on the screen it remains just as static. Miss Durbin sings the several songs with her usual effectiveness, although the music itself is not particularly compelling. The picture does have its good moments, but it has many more that are draggingly dull. The action takes place in the 1880's: — Deanna Durbin and her father (Albert Sharpe), Irish immigrants, reach New York just as the city is in the throes of a mayoralty election manipulated by Vincent Price (as Boss Tweed) . Her father is taken in tow by Tom Powers, one of Price's ward heelers, who rushes him to the polls and arranges for him to vote twenty-three times. While her father celebrates the election victory in Tammany Hall, Deanna, convinced that Price is a great man, sneaks into his empty office and falls asleep while admiring his portrait. As she sleeps unnoticed, Price and his henchmen enter to discuss plans for looting the public till. Price suddenly discovers her presence and, not knowing how much she had heard, he appoints her father as Park Commissioner to insure her loyalty. Strolling around her home in the park, Deanna meets Dick Haymes, a newspaper reporter, when he starts a flirtation with her. Haymes, who had been carrying on a crusade against Price and Tammany Hall, comes upon Deanna's father as he feeds the animals in the zoo, and learns from him that Price supplied his personal table from the fowl raised there. He writes the story and, as a result, Deanna's father is discharged. Furious, Deanna refuses to have anything to do with Haymes, and remains friendly with Price in the belief that he was a great man. Price, in turn, takes advantage of her naiveness and launches her on a singing career. Meanwhile her father, sympathetic to Haymes' views, soon becomes convinced that the political corruption practiced by Price was no good for the people. Together with Haymes, he tricks Hobart Cavanaugh, Price's drunken puppet-mayor, into revealing the party's innermost secrets. The resultant publicity brings an end to Price's rule. Deanna, having seen the light, reunites with Haymes. Karl Tunberg wrote the screen play and produced it, and William Seiter directed it. Thur*ton Hall, Howard Freeman and Moroni Olsen are included in the supporting cast. Unobjectionable morally.