Harrison's Reports (1949)

78 HARRISON'S REPORTS May 14, 1949 "The Window" with Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale and Arthur Kennedy (RKO, no rel. date set; time, 73 min.) Very Good! It is a real thriller, one of the best to come out of Hollywood in a long time, revolving around the grim plight of a ten-year-old youngster who, because of his habit of telling tall stories, is unable to convince either his parents or the police that a pair of murderers were out to kill him. The action is packed with so much suspense that it will keep the spectator on the edge of his seat. Bobby Driscoll, as the youngster, is excellent; he plays the part so naturally that one finds himself concerned for his safety and sharing his fears. Many of the situations are of a hair-raising quality, the most effective being the final chase through a condemned and abandoned tenement building that collapses partially as the killers unsuccessfully try to trap the youngster. It has been produced on a limited budget and is lacking in marquee value, but it is a picture that is worth selling, for it will leave the picture-goers satisfied that they have seen an outstanding piece of highly dramatic suspense entertainment, expertly directed and very well acted : — Because of his active imagination and fanciful taletelling, Bobby becomes a problem to his hard-working parents (Barbara Hale and Arthur Kennedy), to whom he causes considerable embarrassment. Sleeping on the fire-escape one night, Bobby sees a man stabbed to death in the adjoining flat of Paul Stewart and his wife, Ruth Roman. He tells his parents, but they think he is either fibbing again or had a nightmare. When he insists that he is telling the truth, they lock him in his room. He sneaks down the fire-escape to the police station and tells what he saw. A detective brings him home and, after learning of his proclivities, makes a perfunctory investigation and reports no evidence of a crime. Exasperated, Bobby's mother makes him apologize to Stewart and his wife, despite the lad's frantic plea that they will kill him, too. Realizing that Bobby was a menace to their freedom, even though they had hidden their victims body in an abandoned tenement building nearby, Stewart and his wife kidnap Bobby one night when he is left alone by his parents. He escapes from them and takes refuge in the abandoned tenement building, where he stumbles across the body of the murdered man. He barely manages to elude his pursuers in a hectic chase through the building that ends when Stewart plunges to his death as he tries to reach Bobby hiding on a rickety ledge. Rescued by police and firemen, the youngster rejoins his contrite parents. Mel Dinelli wrote the screen play from a story by Cornell Woolrich. It was produced by Frederic Ullman, Jr., and directed by Ted TetzlafF. Unobjectionable morally, but some parts of it may prove too harrowing for small children. "Roughshod" with Robert Sterling, Gloria Grahame and Claude Jarman, Jr. (RKO, no rel. date set; time, 88 min.) Although it is somewhat different from the average Western story, this melodrama is no more than a fair outdoor entertainment of its kind, best suited for theatres that specialize in Westerns. But even the action fans may find it disappointing, for the story is only moderately interesting, and the pace, for the most part, is slow. Moreover, its running time is much too long for what the story has to offer. The picture is not without its moments of suspense and violent action, but there are not enough of them to make up for the slow spots. No fault can be found with either the direction or the acting; the fault is in the thin material, which in many respects is vague : — Preparing to drive a herd of horses from a Nevada town to their ranch in California, Robert Sterling and his 'teen-aged brother, Claude Jarman, Jr., learn that John Ireland and two other escaped convicts are in the neighborhood. Ireland had vowed to kill Sterling on sight because he had been imprisoned on the latter 's evidence for killing Sterling's best friend. Aware that Ireland would try to ambush them, the brothers start the return trip and, on the way, come across Gloria Grahame, Myrna Dell, Jeff Donnell and Martha Hyer, dance-hall hostesses, who had been run out of town by a reform element, and whose light surrey presumably had been wrecked by Ireland and his henchmen, who had molested them. Sterling agrees to give the girls a lift in his supply wagon. Martha leaves the party when her boy-friend catches up with them, and later, Jeff drops out when they reach the ranch of her parents, from whom she had run away. Gloria and Myrna continue with Sterling and Claude. When the party reaches the camp of Shawn McGlory, a young gold prospector, Myrna, attracted by his gold dust, decides to remain with him. Meanwhile Sterling and Gloria fall in love, but he shies away from her because of her past. They quarrel, causing Gloria to leave on a passing stage en route to Sonora. Claude, trying to convince his brother that Gloria would make him a good wife, incurs his anger. In the meantime Ireland and his convict pals reach the prospector's camp and, after learning that Sterling is just ahead of them, murder McGlory and Myrna. The convicts eventually catch up with Sterling and Claude only to be killed in a desperate gun battle. Having eliminated the dangerous threat to his life, Sterling seeks out Gloria to propose to her. It was produced by Richard H. Berger and directed by Mark Robson from a screen play by Geoffrey Homes and Hugo Butler, based on a story by Peter Viertel. Adult fare. "Fighting Fools" with the Bowery Boys (Monogram, April 17; time, 69 min.) Given a prizefight background, this latest in the Bowery Boys series of comedy-melodramas shapes up as a good supporting feature for double bills. This time the boys cross the paths with crooked promoters in a series of exciting and hilarious situations, some of which are tinged with touches of deep human interest because of their efforts to help the poor mother of a friend killed in the ring. As in previous pictures, the comedy is the rowdy, boisterous sort, with Leo Gorcey's misuse of the English language and Huntz Hall's goofiness provoking most of the laughs: — When one of their friends is killed in an overmatch with Billy Cartledge, Leo Gorcey and the Bowery Boys determine to break up a boxing racket headad by Lyle Talbot, a crooked promoter. To help the dead boy's mother, they find his brother, Frankie Darro, who had quit the ring after Talbot had doublecrossed him. The boys persuade Darro to stage a comeback. His ring return is successful, and the boxing commissioner compels Talbot to match him with Cartledge, the winner to fight the champion. On Talbot's orders, Cartledge deliberately takes a "dive," bringing about a suspension for both Darro and himself. In order to clear Darro, Gorcey agrees to Talbot's scheme to let Darro lose to the champion and then win in a rematch. Talbot, to make sure that Darro