Harrison's Reports (1949)

April 30, 1949 HARRISON'S REPORTS 71 "Stampede" with Rod Cameron, Gale Storm and Johnny Mack Brown (Allied Artists, May 1; timers min.) "Stampede" is not without its shortcomings, but on the whole it is a rugged Western melodrama, filled with all the ingredients that appeal to the lovers of this type of entertain' ment. There is plenty of shooting, fast-riding, and fistic battles. One sequence, where a huge herd of cattle is stampeded over a towering cliff, is particularly thrilling. The story, which is the old one about feuds between cattlemen and land settlers, has been given some interesting twists, but it misses fire because of the choppy editing. Moreover, the action has a tendency to bog down in too many spots. In its favor, however, is the attractive title and the popular stars. The sepia-tone photography is very good: — Rod Cameron and Don Castle, brothers, own a huge ranch in Arizona and use the surrounding land for cattle-grazing. John Eldredge and Donald Curtis sell this land to settlers, who arrive to find it bone-dry because of a dam on the brothers' ranch. Gale Storm, daughter of one of the settlers, attempts to take legal action against them, but Sheriff Johnny Mack Brown tells her that he can do nothing about it. Meanwhile Castle is attracted to Gale but Cameron is unimpressed with her charms. Returning from a settlers' dance, Castle surprises Curtis in the act of blowing up the dam and is killed in a fight. Later, Curtis sends his men to stampede Cameron's cattle over a cliff to divert his attention while he blows up the dam. The cattle are killed despite Cameron's efforts to stop the stampede. He rides to the dam, finds Curtis, and kills him in a vicious fight. As he is joined by Gale, who had fallen in love with him, Cameron realizes that the dam had brought him nothing but trouble; he blows it up voluntarily to give the settlers their needed water. It was produced by John C. Champion and Blake Edwards from their own screen play, based on the book by Edward Beverly Mann. Lesley Selander directed it. "The Crooked Way" with John Payne, Sonny Tufts and Ellen Drew (United Artists, April 22; time, 89 min.) A routine gangster-type melodrama that does not rise above the level of program fare. It should, however, satisfy the action fans, for it has plenty of movement and the usual quota of gun-fights, beatings, and killings. The story starts off in a promising way, with the hero, a war veteran afflicted with amnesia, attempting to pick up the threads of his past life and learning that he had been a notorious criminal. But the plot soon bogs down into a routine gangster yarn in which he is framed by his former pals for the murder of a detective and becomes a fugitive in order to gain time to clear himself. It is not a convincing tale, for it depends too heavily on pat coincidences. Moreover, the motivations of the different characters are not too clearly defined. The performances are adequate, considering the deficiencies of the script: — Discharged from the Army, John Payne, an amnesia victim, goes to Los Angeles in the hope that some one would recognize him and tell him who he is. Arriving at the railroad station, he is picked up by Police Lieutenant Rhys Williams, from whom he learns that he had been a former member of Sonny Tufts' gang. Williams refuses to believe his story about amnesia and warns him to get out of town. As Payne leaves headquarters, he is recognized by Ellen Drew, who drives him to a hotel where he lived tormerly, and then notifies Tufts. That night, Tufts and several of his henchmen give him a sound beating. Determined not to leave Los Angeles until he has cleared up his past, Payne tails on Ellen and convinces her that he is an amnesia victim. She then discloses that she had been his wife but had divorced him because he had been the stool pigeon responsible for sending Tufts to prison for two years. Ellen finds her love for Payne renewed. Meanwhile Lieut. Williams is murdered by Tufts, who then sees to it that Payne is slugged and placed alongside Williams' body, and the police notified. Payne recovers before the police arrive and escapes. Ellen helps him to hide out and, after a series of encounters with Tufts' henchmen and then Tufts himself, Payne is cleared of the murder charge while Tufts is shot dead by the police. In the end, Payne learns from an Army doctor that an operation would restore his former personality and save his life. He chooses to forego the operation, preferring death rather than to be his old self. It was produced by Benedict Bogeaus and directed by Robert Florcy from a screen play by Richard Landau, based on a radio play by Robert Monroe. Unobjectionable morally. "Sand" with Mark Stevens, Coleen Gray and Rory Calhoun ( 20th. Century-Fox, no rel. date set; time, 78 min.) Photographed in Technicolor, "Sand," which is the story of a show-horse turned savage, is a pleasant entertainment of its kind, the sort that usually fares best in small-town and neighborhood theatres catering to family audiences. The story itself is somewhat choppy and repetitious, but it moves along at a fairly fast clip and is, at times, quite exciting. A vicious fight between two wild stallions is one of the thrilling highlights. Worked into the action, which deals mainly with a search for the horse when it escapes into the Colorado wilds, is a pleasing romance between Mark Stevens and Coleen Gray. The Colorado scenic backgrounds, en' hanced by the fine color photography, are magnificent: — Jubilee, a prize show-horse stallion, escapes into the desert when fire breaks out in a train bringing him west. The horse makes his way near a ranch owned by Coleen Gray, who recognizes him and notifies his owner, Mark Stevens, a wealthy sportsman. Jubilee entices a prize mare owned by Rory Calhoun, Coleen's hot-tempered foreman, who shoots at the stallion but misses and kills his own horse. Stevens goes in search of Jubilee and finds him, but the horse, turned wild, refuses to allow his owner near him. Meanwhile Coleen and Stevens fall in love. Calhoun, jealous, attempts to shoot Jubilee, but he is prevented from doing so when Stevens engages him in a fight. Stevens offers Calhoun a reward to catch the horse, and they become friends. Aided by Calhoun and Coleen, Stevens eventually catches Jubilee but is unable to approach him. On the verge of shooting the horse as a menace, Stevens, in a final try, wins him over. As Stevens and Coleen head for the ranch with Jubilee in tow, Calhoun, aware that he had lost the girl he loves, quits his job and heads for Texas. It was produced by Robert Bassler and directed by Louis King from a screen play by Martin Berkeley and Jerome Cady, based on the novel by Will James. Suitable for the entire family. "Night Unto Night" with Ronald Reagan and Viveca Lindfors ("Warner Bros., May 14; time, 92 min.) Good production values and an able cast have been wasted on a story that is not only grim and unpleasant but also vague in its unfoldment. Revolving around the psychological problems of a young biochemist afflicted with epilepsy, and around a young widow who is haunted by the voice of her dead husband, the strange story is a curious hodgepodge of romance and philosophy in which the different characters go into lengthy discourses of what ails them in terms that will be understood only by the few, if at all. Most picture-goers will wonder what it is all about. Some of the individual scenes are highly effective, and the producer has succeeded in capturing an unusual eerie mood, but for all its good points the proceedings never become merged into an absorbing whole. Most exhibitors will probably find it difficult to sell this picture to their patrons: — Afflicted with an incurable form of epilepsy, Ronald Reagan, a scientist, shies away Irom society by moving into a large and lonely house by the sea. There he meets Viveca Lindfors, a young widow, from whom he had rented the house, and who had given it up because she was haunted with delusions of hearing her dead husband's "voice." She finds solace and understanding in their new found love, and is no longer haunted by the voice. Reagan, however, keeps his ailment a secret. But sensing a deep futility in his love, he becomes depressed and contemplates suicide. During a dinner at Reagan's home, Osa Massen, Viveca's sister, harboring an unrequited love for him, overhears Art Baker, Reagan's doctor, discuss his condition with him. In a jealous rage over Reagan's attentions to Viveca, Osa stuns the guests by revealing his secret. Reagan quietly leaves the room. Sensing his despair, Viveca follows him to his room, where she restrains him from committing suicide through her sympathetic understanding of his problem. It was produced by Owen Crump and directed by Don Siege] from a screen play by Kathryn Scola, based on the novel by Philip Wylie. The cast includes Brodenck Crawford, Rosemary De Camp and others. Adult fare.