Harrison's Reports (1948)

October 30, 1948 HARRISON'S REPORTS 175 "Belle Starr's Daughter" with George Montgomery, Rod Cameron and Ruth Roman (20th Century-Fox, November; time, 86 min.) A fair program Western melodrama. Although it can boast of better-than-average production values, as well as star names that should mean something at the box-office, it remains an over-size picture of its kind, burdened by a basically routine plot that does not warrant an eighty-sixminute running time. It should go over with the avid western fans, for it has all the customary fast-riding, gunplay, and fisticuffs, but stretching the story has served to slow down the action and decrease the suspense. The performances, however, are of a caliber to sustain one's interest through the slower spots. The outdoor photography is particularly good : — Furious because Rod Cameron, one of her henchmen, had murdered the marshal in nearby Antioch, thus breaking a truce between the town and her band of outlaws, Isabel Jewell, a bandit queen, prepares to turn Cameron over to a posse headed by George Montgomery, the new marshal. Cameron, however, kills Isabel under circumstances that lead Ruth Roman, her daughter, to believe that Montgomery was responsible. With the outlaws driven out of the territory, Ruth goes to work as a waitress in town. Montgomery falls in love with her, but she rejects his attentions because of her belief that he had killed her mother. In the course of events, Cameron, now a notorious bandit, rides into town with several of his henchmen for the express purpose of killing Wallace Ford, Isabel's former foreman, whom Cameron suspected of knowing too much about her death. Ruth, fascinated by Cameron, helps to hide his identity from Montgomery. Later, when Cameron kills Ford in a shooting fray, Ruth foils Montgomery's attempt to arrest him, then rides off with the outlaw and his henchmen, helping them to commit a series of robberies. Meanwhile Montgomery sets out on their trail and, with the aid of several posses, begins to tighten a net around the fugitives. Hard pressed to escape capture, Cameron heartlessly abandons one of his injured henchmen, despite Ruth's protests. That same night, as Cameron and the others sleep, Ruth steals away and rides back to aid the injured bandit. Grateful, the dying man reveals to her that Cameron had killed her mother. Cameron catches up with Ruth just as he himself is caught by Montgomery. A gun battle ensues between the two men, ending in Cameron's death. Ruth surrenders to Montgomery, fully aware that he will turn her over to the law but happy in the thought that he will be waiting for her. Edward L. Alperson produced it and Lesley Selander directed it from an original screen play by W. R. Burnett. Jack Jungmeyer, Jr. was associate producer. The cast includes Charles Kemper, William Phipps, Jack Lambert and others. Unobjectionable morally. "The Angry God" with an all-Mexican cast (United Artists, no release date set; time, 57 mm.) In the September 25 issue of this paper, under the heading, "Beware," there was published an opinion of "The Angry God" as reported in a bulletin of the Allied Caravan of Iowa and Nebraska. The Caravan member who sent in that opinion thought that the picture was so poor that he urged the other Caravan members not to buy it and, if they had bought it, not to play it. After seeing the picture, this reviewer is inclined to agree with that opinion, for there is little in the picture that comes under the heading of entertainment. It can best be summed up as a dull, third-rate travelogue of rural Mexico, around which has been built an even duller folk tale revolving around a legendary "fire god," who assumes the shape of mortal man and falls in love with a peasant girl. When she rejects his attentions, he wreaks his vengeance on the girl and her neighbors by causing a volcano to erupt so as to destroy them and their homes. All are saved, however, when his machinations incur the wrath of Almighty God, and he is imprisoned forever in the smoking volcano. The acting of the native cast is amateurish, and matters are not helped much by the dubbed-in dialogue, which not only is uninteresting but is not synchronized with the lip movements of the players. The color photography, a process called Fullcolor, is very poor; everything, including the players and the scenery, has a coppery tint. It is an Edward J. Peskay production, filmed in Michoacan, Mexico, near the site of the new volcano that emerged from a cornfield several years ago. Van Campen Heilner directed it. "You Gotta Stay Happy" with Joan Fontaine and James Stewart (Univ.'Int'l, no release date set; time, 100 min.) "You Gotta Stay Happy" is an enjoyable romantic comedy, with a story line that is somewhat imitative of "It Happened One Night" in that here, too, a wealthy girl flees from her unwanted husband on her wedding night and becomes involved in a cross-country romance with another man. Although this picture does not match the entertainment values of the Capra classic, it should go over pretty well with mass audiences, for its plot, though highly improbable, is crammed with mirthful incidents that keep the laughs coming at a steady rate. Some of the doings are on the "dippy" side, but on the whole it retains a congenial, pleasant flavor. James Stewart and Joan Fontaine make a good light-comedy team, and amusing characterizations are contributed by Eddie Albert and Percy Kilbride. For the most part the proceedings move along at a brisk pace, but here and there it is slowed down by comedy situations that are drawn out beyond their worth; some rigid editing would help matters: — Having married Willard Parker because she had no reason for not marrying him, Joan Fontaine, a wealthy heiress, decides that she had made a mistake. She quarrels with Parker and, in her pajamas, flees their honeymoon suite and seeks refuge in the room of James Stewart, president and chief pilot of a two-plane airline. Unaware that the man she had fled from was her husband, Stewart lets her spend the night in his suite. In the morning, however, he finds himself unable to wake her because of an overdose of sleeping pills she had taken. With the hotel manager insisting that he vacate the suite immediately for a waiting guest, Stewart, aided by his co-pilot, Eddie Albert, dresses Joan in one of his flying suits and spirits her out of the hotel. Arriving at the airport, Joan talks Stewart into taking her to California on his cargo plane. She finds herself in the company of three other passengers, Marcy McGuire and Arthur Walsh, giddy newlyweds, and Porter Hall, an embezzler, who was in a hurry to get out of town; Albert had illegally sold passage to all three to bolster the airline's low finances. During a stop-over in Chicago, Joan hurries to a bank to get some money, and during her absence Stewart is asked by a detective if he had seen anything of a blonde and a man who were wanted for embezzlement. He becomes suspicious of Joan when she returns with new clothes and plenty of cash. They resume the flight only to be forced down by bad weather on a farm owned by Percy Kilbride. There, the scenes of domesticity have a corrective effect on Hall, who confesses to Stewart that he was the embezzler the police were seeking, and that the missing blonde was his secretary. Aware that he had misjudged Joan, with whom he had fallen in love, Stewart checks on her identity and is shocked to learn that she is a famous heiress, recently married. Furious, he puts her off the plane when the trip is resumed. Undaunted, Joan arranges for an annulment of her marriage to Parker, then buys out several of Stewart's partners to gain control of the airline. Stewart, still furious with her, threatens to resign as president, but when he sees a new Constellation that Joan had bought for the company, his resistance towards her vanishes. Karl Tunberg wrote the screen play and produced it, based on a story by Robert Carson. H. C. Potter directed it. The cast includes Roland Young, Paul Cavanagh, William Blakewell and others. Unobjectionable morally.