Harrison's Reports (1949)

16 HARRISON'S REPORTS January 22, 1949 "Bad Boy" with Lloyd Nolan, Jane Wyatt, Audie Murphy and James Gleason (Allied Artists, Feb. 22; time, 87 win.) Excellent! The action holds one's attention nailed to the screen from the beginning to the end. The story is interesting, not only because of its depiction of the marvelous work done by the Variety Clubs to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents, but also because the part of the young hero, played superbly by Audie Murphy, has been presented so effectively that one hopes and prays that he will be saved from waywardness. Lloyd Nolan, as the director of the Boys' Farm who succeeds in reclaiming Audie, captures the spec tator's good will from the very start because of his kindness and understanding towards, not only Audie, but all the other boys placed under his care. There are many thrills as well as comedy situations. The comedy is provoked by the good nature of the boys at the Farm, and by James Gleason, as Nolan's assistant. The manner in which he applies judo tactics to teach Audie a lesson in good behavior draws considerable laughter. When one takes into consideration that it is the type of story that had to be written to conform to a certain pattern, much credit is due the authors for having succeeded in delivering entertainment and not a preachment. As a result of the highly skillful direction, every player is completely believable in his part. But the one who deserves credit for the best acting is Audie Murphy, known throughout the country as America's most decorated soldier of World War II, who appears on the screen for the first time, yet handles his role as if he had been an actor all of his life; he shows remarkable restraint. It took courage on the part of the studio to give a novice so important a role in so important a picture. The photography is all that could be desired: — Audie Murphy, a young bellhop at a Texas hotel, and William Lester, another bellhop and his partner-in-crime, hold up a crap game in a guest room and steal all the cash in sight. When one of the players resists, Audie knocks him unconscious. An alarm is given before they make their getaway and, though Lester escapes with the money, Audie is caught. In court the Judge (Selena Royle), angered by Audie's incorrigibility, favors sending him to a reformatory until he is eighteen and then to the penitentiary for twenty years. But Lloyd Nolan, director of the Variety Clubs International Boys' Farm, at Copperas Cove, Texas, requests that Audie be placed in his care, for he believed that no boy is so bad that he cannot be reformed. The Judge consents reluctantly. Arriving at the Farm, Nolan acquaints Audie with the routines and informs him that each boy is permitted to select the work he desires to do. Audie chooses to do the housework for Nolan's wife, Jane Wyatt. Cunning and tough, Audie gets himself disliked by the other boys. After several days at the Farm, Audie mounts a horse owned by James Lydon, one of the boys, and goes to a town nearby where he robs a jewelry store of its cash. He returns to the Farm without being detected. On the following day he picks an argument with Lydon, and Gleason, Nolan's assistant, arranges for them to settle their differences in a fair fight with gloves. In the ring, with Gleason as referee, Audie finds himself beaten by the well trained Lydon and resorts to a deliberate foul to knock him out. Gleason stops the fight, and the other boys, angered, decide to give Audie the silent treatment. But Nolan, though not blaming the boys for their action, persuades them to give Audie another chance. Later, Audie offers to buy Lydon's horse for two hundred dollars and completes the transaction when Lydon is given his release. Nolan, learning of the sale, interrogates Audie as to where he obtained the money, but Audie, prepared for such a question, is able to offer an alibi. Baffled by his inability to understand Audie's attitude, Nolan decides to investigate his background. He learns from Martha Vickers, Audie's step-sister, that Audie had not been on good terms with her father, Rhys Williams, a fake psychologist, and that Audie had murdered his mother by giving her an overdose of sleeping pills to ease her pains. While Nolan is away, Audie mounts his horse, goes to the town nearby, and breaks into a department store where he steals clothes and a gun. The sheriff sees Audie in the store and tries to stop him, but Audie escapes and returns to the Farm undetected. His horse, however, is wounded by one of the sheriff's bullets. After the sheriff conducts an unsuccessful search at the Farm on the following day, Gleason discovers the horse dead and realizes Audie's guilt. He places Audie in the Farm's jail and summons the sheriff. But Audie, using the gun he had stolen, makes a spectacular escape. The police pursue him and force his car over an embankment. Audie, injured but conscious, holds the police at bay with his gun. Meanwhile Nolan, having satisfied himself that Audie's mother had died a natural death, returns to the Farm and then rushes to the scene of the shooting. There, at the risk of his life, he persuades Audie to give himself up after convincing him that he had not killed his mother. With Audie confined in a hospital room, William Lester, his former partner, fears that he will tell the police of his whereabouts; he enters the hospital room by donning a white uniform, knocks the police guard unconscious, and orders Audie to prepare to escape. Just then Jane Wyatt enters the room and, noticing what had happened, pleads with Audie to remain. Lester, infuriated, is about to slug her when Audie engages him in a scuffle. The police enter and arrest Lester. After his recuperation, Audie, led before the Judge, is commended for having saved Jane's life and is allowed to return to the Farm with Nolan. Paul Short produced it and wrote the story in collaboration with Robert Hardy Andrews. Kurt Neumann directed it. The cast includes Stanley Clements, Dickie Moore and others. Fine entertainment for everybody. "A Place of One's Own" with James Mason and Margaret Lockwood (Eagle-Lion, no rel. date set; time, 92 min.) Produced in 1945, the reception of this British-made picture in this country will depend heavily on the popularity of James Mason and Margaret Lockwood with American audiences. It is a ghost story, and as entertainment it barely passes muster, for it is "talky" and slow-moving. Moreover, the poor continuity makes the story difficult to follow, causing one to lose interest in the proceedings. Being a story that deals with the supernatural, one cannot expect that it will adhere to the laws of probability and plausibility, yet the main fault lies in the fact that its display of psychic phenomena has not been handled with any degree of conviction. The action takes place in England during the gaslight era: — James Mason and Barbara Mullen, a middle-aged, retired business couple, purchase a fine old mansion that had stood empty for forty years, and engage young Margaret Lockwood as a companion for Barbara. Soon afterwards, they learn from local gossip that the house is supposed to be haunted by the spirit of a girl who had been murdered there forty years previously. The two women are susceptible to the gossip, but Mason scoffs at it. In due time, strange inexplicable occurrences disturb the household, and Margaret, a sensitive girl, becomes increasingly influenced by the spirit of the dead girl until she falls seriously ill from a malady that defies diagnosis. In her delirium, Margaret herself declares that only the presence of an old doctor who had attended the dead girl years previously can cure her. Mason searches in vain for the old doctor, but one night he arrives unexpectedly, administers aid to Margaret, and then disappears into the night. On the following morning, Margaret, unaware that she had been ill, is completely recovered. That same morning the police report to Mason that the old doctor he had been searching for had been found dead on the previous night. But when Mason learns that the body had been found several hours before he had admitted the doctor into the mansion, he changes his skeptical views about spirits haunting the house. It is a J. Arthur Rank presentation, produced by R. J. Minney and directed by Bernard Knowles, from a screen play by Brock Williams, based on Sir Osbert Sitwell's novel of the same name. Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray are among the others in the cast. Adult fare.