Harrison's Reports (1949)

June 11, 1949 HARRISON'S REPORTS 95 ages to reach London, where he discovers his cousin's plot, not only to remove his name from his uncle's will, but also to poison his uncle. In the events that follow, Daniell catches up with Ney and takes him back to Edinburgh, where he is formally charged with murder and, on the strength of a weakling coprisoner's false testimony, is found guilty and sen' tenced to death. But at the last moment, Vanessa arrives with Ney's uncle and Edgar Barrier, another former co-prisoner, who compels the weakling to ad' mit that his testimony against Ney had been false. Pardoned as he is about to be shot, Ney rushes into Vanessa's waiting arms. It was produced by Rudolph C. Flothow and di' rected by Philip Rosen, from a screen play by Eric Taylor, based on a Robert Louis Stevenson story. Unobjectionable morally. "The Weaker Sex" with an all-British cast (Eagle-Lion, no rel. date set; time, 89 mm.) A heart-warming British-made comedy-drama, re' volving around the martyrdom of a middle-class English family, particularly the mother, from D-Day to the present. It is a charming, wholesome entertainment, packed with human interest, and even though it has a rambling story it should be enjoyed by most movie-goers, for the average person will understand and respond sympathetically to the heartaches and pleasures experienced by the different characters as they absorb the tragedies and joys of life. Many of the situations will touch ones heartstrings deeply. The direction is intelligent, and the players, though unknown to American audiences, are very capable, particularly Ursula Jeans, as the mother : — The story opens in 1944 — at the time of the invasion of Europe, and depicts Ursula Jeans as a typical suburban housewife, a widow who struggles against the difficulties on the home front while her family fights the enemy. Living at home with her are two daughters (Joan Hopkins and Lana Morris), both in the WRNS; John Stone, a young soldier billeted with them; and Cecil Parker, a naval officer an old family friend. Joan is married to Derek Bond, a young naval officer serving on the same ship as Digby Wolfe, Ursula's son. With the coming of D-Day, all leave to go to their stations, while Ursula sits at home and waits for news. Prior to their leaving, Stone had declared his love for Lana, and Joan, having met her husband at the quayside just before his ship set sail, had been too excited to tell him that she was going to have a baby. Ursula bears the brunt of the awful days of suspense that follow when word comes that the ship carrying her son and son-in-law had been sunk, but she manages to keep the others together with her cheerfulness and love until they hear that the two boys, though wounded, are safe. The end of the war brings joy to Ursula but no relief from the endless round of rationing and standing in line for everything. But with her family reunited, and with Lana married to Stone, she accepts Parker's proposal of marriage and sets out with him on a new life. She still remains the confidante of the family, however, sharing their joys and tragedies, and facing the future with confidence, although post-war conditions are very difficult for all of them. It is a J. Arthur Rank presentation, directed by Roy Baker from a screen play by Esther McCracken and Paul Soskin. Suitable for the entire family. "Illegal Entry" with George Brent, Howard Duff and Marta Toren (Univlnt'l, June; time, 84 min.) A fairly exciting cops-and-robbers type of melodrama, supposedly based on a case history from the files of the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Just how much of the story is fact and how much is fiction is hard to say, but aided by a semi' documentary treatment the film, through a mixture of intrigue, romance and murder, presents an interesting account of the work done and the methods employed by the Immigration Service to prevent the smuggling of aliens into the United States. The first half is somewhat slow, but it picks up speed in the later reels and offers a number of exciting sequences because of the danger to the hero, a former Army flyer, who is enlisted by Government agents to help break up a West Coast smuggling ring dealing in human lives. The direction and the performances are adequate: — To help break up the smuggling ring, George Brent, an immigration inspector, persuades Howard Duff, an ex-war pilot, to become an undercover agent for the Immigration Service. Duff is assigned to ferret information from Marta Toren, a member of the gang, whose dead husband had been Duff's war buddy. Unknown to Duff, Marta was an unwilling member of the gang, having been coerced into joining them after they had smuggled her brother into the United States from war-torn Europe. Her job was to handle transactions between the gang and Americans paying to have foreign relatives smuggled into the country. Duff meets her in a cafe owned by the gang, and it becomes a case of love at first sight for both of them. Cleverly playing his hand, Duff registers with the different airlines for employment and in that way is contacted by Tom Tully, operator of a small air service, which in reality was a blind for the business of smuggling in aliens; actually, the gang was headed by Richard Rober, a deported criminal living below the Mexican border, who looked upon Marta as his girl-friend. Duff is put to work as a pilot after he proves his willingness to take chances. Marta, learning that he had joined the gang, turns cold towards him. Secretly working with Brent, Duff's first plan to expose the gang misfires, and Tully, suspecting that Duff is an informer, sets a trap for him. But Marta warns Duff in time, enabling him to avoid being killed. When Marta's brother, feeling that he was a source of grief to his sister, commits suicide, Marta denounces the gang and decides to quit. Her decision annoys Rober, and Duff is assigned to fly him up from Mexico to talk things over with her. In Mexico, Duff manages to get word to Brent that he was flying Rober and several of the other gang members to Los Angeles. But Rober discovers his scheme just before they land and, at gunpoint, orders Duff to fly the plane back to Mexico. Risking his own life, Duff crash-lands the plane, bringing about the gang's arrest by the immigration men. With charges against Marta suspended because of her aid in trapping the gang, she and Duff plan to marry. It was produced by Jules Schermcr and directed by Frederick de Cordova from a screen play by Joel Malone, based on a story by Ben Bengal, Herbert Kline and Dan Moore. The cast includes Paul Stewart and others. Suitable for the family.