Harrison's Reports (1949)

134 HARRISON'S REPORTS August 20, 1949 "Father Was a Fullback" with Fred MacMurray and Maureen O'Hara ( 20th CenturyFox, October; time, 84 min.) A delightfully pleasant comedy, centering around the trials and tribulations of a college football coach. Although it is loaded with chuckles, the picture has a wholesome, heart-warming quality that makes it a natural for the family trade. Most of the comedy stems from the coach's family problems, brought about by the growing pains of his two daughters, and from the fact that he is saddled with a team that never wins a game. Some of the situations are very funny, and the dialogue throughout is exceptionally good. Fred MacMurray is first-rate as the harrassed coach, and Maureen O'Hara does an outstanding job as his understanding wife who guides him through his troubles. Considerable laughter is provoked by Thelma Ritter, as their maid, a role similar to the one she played so effectively in "Letter to Three Wives": — Saddled with a team of poor players, MacMurray wearily watches them lose one game after another. Rudy Vallee, the stuffy alumni head, warns MacMurray that he had better start looking for another job if the team loses to Tulane, the final and most important game of the season. MacMurray in turn berates Vallee for not having obtained for the team a local highschool boy, a phenomenal football player, who planned to go to Notre Dame. As if his troubles with the team were not enough, MacMurray finds himself beset by the antics of his eldest daughter. Betty Lynn, who brooded over the belief that she was unpopular with boys. To make her feel better, MacMurray arranges with a middle-aged neighbor to telephone Betty and pretend to be smitten with her charms. This leads to complications because of the interference of Natalie Wood, Betty's younger sister, and MacMurray is compelled to hire a young lad to keep a date with her. She discovers the deception, however, and becomes furious, finally deciding to devote her life to the writing of novels. Meanwhile MacMurray plans to use a "secret weapon" in the Tulane game — a speedy track star who would enter the game at a decisive moment. The plan misfires when the track star bumps himself on the head in the dugout and knocks himself out. Tulane wins. As MacMurray makes plans to leave with his family for another town, one of Betty's novels, "I Was a Girl Bubble Dancer," is published. It creates a sensation and makes her the most popular girl in town. One of her new-found boy-friends proves to be the highschool star, and Betty saves her father's job by inducing the lad to spurn Notre Dame and enroll in the local college. It was produced by Fred Kohlmar and directed by John M. Stahl from a screen play by Allen Leslie, Casey Robinson, Mary Loos and Richard Sale. Fine for the entire family. "Red Light" with George Raft, Virginia Mayo and Raymond Burr (United Artists, no rel. date set; time, 83 min.) Hampered by a rambling, unconvincing story and an unsuccessful attempt to blend murder melodrama with a religious theme, "Red Light" shapes up as a spotty entertainment. It does manage to generate a fair degree of suspense and excitement in spots, but on the whole it is no more than moderately interesting. The story, which deals with the hero's relentless efforts to avenge the mysterious murder of his brother, a young priest, attempts to emphasize the lesson that one must not take vengeance into his own hands, but this lesson is delivered through preachment, with the result that the proceedings lack dramatic force. No fault can be found with the acting, which meets the demands of the script; the picture's deficiencies lie in the trite and maudlin treatment: — Having embezzled funds from a trucking company owned by George Raft, Raymond Burr is sent to prison. Seeking revenge, Burr pays Henry Morgan, another convict about to be released, to murder Raft's younger brother, Arthur Franz, a priest. Franz, shot in a hotel room, dies in Raft's arms, gasping that the answer to his killing is in the bible. After spending many days poring over his personal bible, Raft realizes that his brother had referred to the Gideon bible in the hotel room. He discovers that the bible had been stolen and that five people had occupied the room since the killing. He sets out to track them down, determined to find the killer so as to avenge his brother's death. One of the occupants proves to be Virginia Mayo, whom Raft hires to help track down the other four. Meanwhile Burr comes out of prison and learns that the killer's name may be in the bible. He locates Morgan and throws him from a speeding train, leaving him for dead. Meanwhile Raft, after a series of complications, satisfies himself that the other four occupants were innocent, and locates the bible. In it he finds a passage underscored by his brother to the effect that vengeance must be left to God. Burr, anxious to know if the bible had been found, comes to Raft's office on the pretense of seeking employment. He is trailed there by Morgan, whom he shoots. But before Morgan dies he reveals Burr's part in the murder. Attempting a getaway, Burr climbs out on a huge electric sign only to be electrocuted when he steps on a high voltage wire. It was produced and directed by Roy Del Ruth from a screen play by George Callahan. The cast includes Gene Lockhart, Barton MacLane and others. Unobjectionable morally. "Roseanna McCoy" with Farley Granger, Joan Evans and Raymond Massey (RKO, no release date set; time, 100 min.) This is a well produced and somewhat gripping melodrama, based on the historic feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. But whether it will enjoy more than moderate box-office business is doubtful, for, despite some variations on the romantic angle, it is just another feud story centering around vicious and bigoted American mountain folk, offering little that is novel. Moreover, it is a sombre entertainment, with no comedy to relieve the tension, and the players, though competent, lack marquee value. As a McCoy girl who falls in love with a Hatfield boy and thus fans the smouldering feud between both families into open violence, Joan Evans, a 'teen-aged newcomer, shows considerable promise, handling her role with ease. The photography is excellent and the mountain backgrounds magnificent: — Despite the long-standing but dormant feud between both their families, Roseanna McCoy (Joan Evans) and Johnse Hatfield (Farley Granger) are attracted to each other when they meet at a county fair. She tries to forget Johnse, but when he comes to her one night she lets him carry her off to his family's mountain home. Johnse's father (Charles Bickford) objects to their marriage, but Johnse defies him and goes in search of a preacher. During Johnse's absence, Mount Hatfield (Richard Basehart), a cold-blooded killer, attempts to attack Roseanna but she is saved by Johnse's father. Roseanna decides to return to her family to explain her deep love and thus avert a blood feud between the clans. Her father (Raymond Massey) is unhappy about the match but he agrees to accept the couple. Before Johnse can come for his bride, however, Mount Hatfield precipitates a fight between some of the Hatfields and McCoys in which Roseanna's little brother (Peter Miles) is seriously wounded. As a result, the old feud breaks out in all its fury, with much shooting and killing on each side. Convinced that Johnse was not responsible for the outbreak, Roseanna makes her way to him. They decide to escape the family hatred together, and as they ride into the direct line of fire both sides silent their guns. The story closes with the suggestion that their love ended the feud. It was produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by Irving Reis from a screen play by John Collier, based on a story by Alberta Hannum. The cast includes Aline MacMarion, Gigi Perreau, Marshall Thompson and others. Adult fare. "The House Across the Street" with Wayne Morris and Janis Paige (Warner Bros., Sept. 10; time, 69 min.) Just a mildly diverting program newspaper melodrama, revolving around a crusading editor's efforts to put a racketeer behind bars. The routine story is developed without any new angles and, owing to the familiarity of the plot, one knows just what will happen before the picture is half over. But since the treatment is light and the accent is on the comedy, which is mildly amusing at best, the film should get by in secondary situations as a supporting feature: — When a star witness in a fraud case is murdered, Wayne Morris, managing editor of the Chronicle, blasts the police for gross incompetence and hints broadly that Bruce Bennett, a racketeer, was responsible for the murder. Bennett's threats to sue the paper for libel compels Alan Hale, the publisher, to order Morris to stop printing stories about the racketeer. When Morris refuses, Hale transfers him to the editorship of the lovelorn department, thus relieving Janis Paige, who detested the routine of solving the heart problems of bewildered women. In the course of his work, Morris is visited by Lila Leeds, who tells him of a lover's quarrel she had had with her boy-friend, James Holden, at a night