Harrison's Reports (1949)

70 HARRISON'S REPORTS "Edward, My Son" with Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr (MGM, June; time, 112 min.) This is a powerful adult drama, with superb direction and acting. Spencer Tracy's part is not pleasant, but it is dramatic, and he acts it with realism. As for Deborah Kerr, she deserves an Oscar; although she is a very young woman and looks charming, towards the end she gives an exceptionally fine portrayal of a worn out woman, aged and tired, driven to drink by the unhappiness of having as a husband a man who thinks more of the material things of life than of the spiritual as he dotes on his son and even resorts to crime and trickery to make sure that nothing mars the boy's happiness and that he has everything that his heart desires. A novel twist is that the son is never shown; yet the spectator feels his image and knows his character from what is told about him. All in all, it is an unusual story of a father's misguided love for his son, given a mature but fascinating treatment. It seems, however, as if the picture will go over better in big cities than in small towns. It is a lavish production, made by MGM in England : — With the birth of their son, Edward, in 1918, Tracy and his wife, Deborah, middle-class Londoners, find their happiness complete. But the desire to provide the best for his son soon becomes an obsession with Tracy. When the youngster, at the age of five, requires an expensive operation to save him from being a cripple, Tracy sets fire to a furniture store he owned in partnership with Mervyn Johns, and collects the insurance. Johns, however, through Tracy's trickery, goes to jail for the criminal act. With what money is left after his son's successful operation* Tracy starts another business, and with the passing years, through sharp practices, he becomes one of the wealthiest men in England and is elevated to the peerage. Tracy's marriage becomes merely a symbol of respectability to which he clings for the sake of his son. Meanwhile he grants the boy every wish before he thinks of it himself, and even buys an exclusive boys' school to save the lad from expulsion. He drives Johns to commit suicide by refusing to help him upon his release from jail, and feels relief in the thought that his son need never fear that his father will be exposed as an arsonist. When Deborah asks him for a divorce after learning that his secretary, Leueen McGrath, had become his mistress, Tracy compels her to withdraw her request by threatening to accuse her of having had an affair with Ian Hunter, their family doctor, thus ruining them both. To further protect his son, he deserts his mistress to avoid a possible scandal. His son, by this time an incorrigible playboy, seduces Harriette Johns, a shop girl, whom Tracy unsuccessfully tries to buy off when she reveals that she is to have a baby. Deborah takes to drink and becomes a recluse. Tragedy strikes when Edward is killed in the war and Deborah dies soon after. Tracy, now alone and aging, learns that Harriette had given birth to a son and attempts to learn her whereabouts from Hunter. The doctor refuses to give him the information lest he spoil also his grandson. Tracy's past eventually catches up with him, and he goes to jail for arson. It was produced by Edwin H. Knopf and directed by George Cukor from a screen play by Donald Ogden Stewart, based on the play by Robert Morley and Noel Langley. Strictly adult fare. "The Great Gatsby" with Alan Ladd, Betty Field and Macdonald Carey (Paramount, August 5; time, 91 min.) Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel of the roaring twenties, which was produced by Paramount in 1926 as a silent picture, this melodrama, though colorful in its depiction of life in the prohibition days, is only moderately entertaining. The story, told through a series of flashbacks, is a rather ponderous account of the rise of a bootlegger who unsuccessfully uses his wealth to win back his former girlfriend, now a married woman. In addition to being distasteful and unpleasant, the story is dramatically weak, for the principal characters are so shallow that the spectator feels no sympathy for them. Moreover, the hero dies a tragic death, giving the film an unpleasurable ending. Alan Ladd does capable work as the hero, and his role — that of a man who shows complete faithfulness to the woman he loved — is by nature sympathetic; but the fact that he is a bootlegger, and that he sets out to woo a married woman, acts as a brake to one's sympathies. Betty Field, as the heroine, fails to make the part believable; she is too theatrical. The production values are lavish: — Told in flashback, the story shows how Ladd, a lowlyborn youth, had become acquainted with Henry Hull, a cynical old millionaire, who had taught him that money was the only thing that mattered in life. Ladd had met Betty when he was a Lieutenant in World War I, and had refused to marry her because he was poor. Upon his return from overseas, he had learned that she had married Barry Sullivan, a socialite. With a small legacy left to him by Hull, who had died, Ladd had entered the bootlegging business and, by 1928, had become a millionaire. He had bought a huge Long Island estate directly opposite the one where Betty lived, and through Ruth Hussey, Betty's long-time friend, and Macdonald Carey, her cousin, had arranged to meet her. He had declared that he still loved her, and she, aware that Sullivan had been unfaithful, had agreed to divorce him. Sullivan, in a futile effort to make Betty change her mind, had passed up an appointment with Shelley Winters, wife of Howard Da Silva, a local garage owner, with whom he had been having an affair. That same day, Betty, driving Ladd's car, which was a duplicate of Sullivan's car, had approached Da Silva's garage, and Shelley, thinking that Sullivan was in the car, had rushed out into the road. The car had struck and killed her, but Betty had not stopped. Ladd, to protect Betty, had offered to take the blame. That night, Da Silva, who had seen the accident, had confronted Sullivan with a revolver and had accused him of having an affair with his wife. Sullivan had slyly placed the blame on Ladd by pointing out that he had a duplicate car. Da Silva had investigated and, after seeing the dented fender on Ladd's car, had shot him dead without questioning him. It was produced by Richard Maibaum and directed by Elliott Nugent from a screen play by Cyril Hume and Mr. Maibaum. Strictly adult fare. "We Were Strangers" with Jennifer Jones, John Garfield and Pedro Armendariz (Columbia, May; time, 106 min.) Set in Cuba in the early 1930's, "We Were Strangers" is a gripping dramatic film, dealing with a group of underground revolutionists who join together in a fabulous assassination plot to overthrow the tyrannical leaders of the ruthless Machado government and thus liberate Cuba's oppressed people. The story is somewhat overlong, but on the whole it is a taut and suspenseful tale of violence, marked by brilliant directorial touches and generally fine acting. Its appeal, however, will probably be limited, for it is extremely grim and morbid, and hardly the type of entertainment that people are in the mood to see in these troublesome days. The chief reason for the picture's morbidity is that much of the action is concerned with the digging of a secret tunnel underneath a vast cemetery, and it goes into considerable detail in its depiction of the nightmarish work, showing the revolutionists sickened by the stench of death as they dig out the dead bodies. Squeamish movie-goers will probably find these scenes unbearable: — When she sees her younger brother assassinated by Pedro Armendariz, head of the secret police, for distributing pamphlets against the Machado regime, Jennifer Jones enlists in the underground to avenge his murder. She joins a group of revolutionists headed by John Garfield, a Cuban raised in America, and plots with them to free the country by assassinating the governmental leaders. Garfield outlines a plan to make a dynamite bomb powerful enough to destroy any one within a radius of one hundred feet, and to dig a tunnel from Jennifer's home into an adjoining cemetery to the tomb of an important family. He then proposes to assassinate a member of this family, and to explode the bomb when the president and his cabinet attend the funeral. The group starts work immediately, and after many hardships and troubles, during which Jennifer is molested constantly by Armendariz, who suspected that she was involved with Garfield in the revolutionary movement, they finish the tunnel and accomplish the assassination of the statesman marked for death. With everything ready to blow the president and his cabinet to bits, the whole plot is thwarted when the murdered dignitary's family decide to bury him elsewhere. Garfield decides to flee the country, and Jennifer goes to the bank where she was employed to cash his check. Armendariz, notified by the bank teller of the transaction, follows Jennifer to her home and surrounds it with his police. Unable to escape, Garfield puts up a gallant fight with dynamite sticks and a tommy-gun, but he is eventually shot down. He dies in Jennifer's arms just as the government is overthrown and Havana celebrates its liberation. It was produced by S. P. Eagle and directed by John Huston from a screen play by Peter Viertel and Mr. Huston, based on an episode in the novel, "Rough Sketch," by Robert Sylvester. Adult fare.