Harrison's Reports (1949)

October 22, 1949 HARRISON'S REPORTS 171 "That Forsyte Woman" with Greer Garson, Errol Flynn, Walter Pidgeon and Robert Young (MGM, T^ovember; time, 112 mm.) Lavishly produced and finely photographed in Technicolor, this period drama catches the true flavor of 1880 London, but as entertainment it is no more than fairly absorbing. It will have to depend greatly on the drawing power of the stars, and on the popularity of John Galsworthy's novel, "The Forsyte Saga," on which the story is based, for most picture-goers will find it rather heavy, slow-moving and singularly lacking in emotional appeal. Revolving around the frustrated love between a married woman and the fiance of her husband's niece, the story offered ingredients for tense drama, but as presented it comes through with a minimum of emotional impact. The trouble seems to lie in the improper development of the characters, who somehow do not impress one as being real people. Moreover, the story has a tendency to ramble, and the abrupt cutting of some of the sequences is confusing. The story, told partly in flashback, depicts Walter Pidgeon as a prominent artist, ostracized by his very proper London family because of behavior that did not meet with their standards. His daughter, Janet Leigh, had been raised by the family after her mother's death, and she was not permitted to visit Pidgeon. Errol Flynn, Pidgeon's cousin, a stuffy fellow, marries Greer Garson, a piano teacher, despite the obections of the family, which felt that he should marry for position and not for love. A strong attachment grows up between Greer and Janet, who asks her aid in getting the family to accept Robert Young, a carefree young architect, with whom she was deeply in love. Through Greer's efforts, the family agrees to Janet's engagement to Young. Attracted by Greer's charm and beauty, Young falls in love with her, despite her efforts to discourage him. He is brought into closer contact with her when Flynn gives him a contract to design a new home, and he pursues her secretly but ardently. Greer, unhappy with Flynn, resists her desire for Young because of his engagement to Janet. She visits Young secretly to urge him to forget about her, and is seen entering his apartment by Janet, who suspects the worst. Furious, Janet informs Flynn. When Greer returns home, Flynn mistreats her, then sends for Young. The two men have a violent quarrel after Young openly declares his love for Greer. Meanwhile Greer had gone back to Young's apartment, where she meets Pidgeon, who had come to censure Young for his treatment of Janet. Shortly thereafter Flynn comes to the apartment and informs them that Young, in his haste to follow Greer, had been accidentally killed by a carriage. Greer, heartbroken, refuses to return home with Flynn and goes instead to Pidgeon's studio. Five years later, in a quick shift of scene, Greer is shown living in Paris, happily married to Pidgeon. It was produced by Leon Gordon and directed by Compton Bennett from a screen play by Jan Lustig, Ivan Tors and James B. Williams. Adult fare. "The Reckless Moment" with Joan Bennett and James Mason (Columbia, November; time, 82 min.) Just fair. It is a rambling thriller that promises more than it delivers. The story, which revolves around the efforts of a mother to cover up a murder she presumes her headstrong daughter had committed, does have its moments of suspense, but on the whole it shapes up as an artificial concoction of murder and blackmail that is highly theatrical and lacking in conviction. The blackmail angle, which is dragged in by the ear, is particularly unbelievable, and even more unrealistic is the love one of the blackmailers feels for the distracted mother, even to the point of sacrificing his life to free her from her dilemma. The direction and acting are no more than adequate: — With her husband away on a business trip, Joan Bennett finds it difficult to control Geraldine Brooks, her 17-yearold daughter, who had become infatuated with Shepperd Strudwick, a shady Los Angeles character. Strudwick, when asked by Joan to leave her daughter alone, calmly asks for payment. He then arranges to meet Geraldine in a boathouse near her home on Balboa Bay, and tries to make a deal whereby he would get money from her mother but would continue to See her just the same. Geraldine, infuriated, hits him with a flashlight. As she flees to her house, Strudwick stumbles and pierces his body on an anchor. Joan, discovering him dead on the following morning, believes that Geraldine had killed him; she hides the body on an island across the bay, where the police find it a day later. Matters become complicated when Roy Roberts, a vicious money-lender, sends James Mason, his lieutenant, to Joan to collect $5,000 in exchange for some incriminating letters that Geraldine had written to Strudwick. Mason explains that Strudwick had borrowed the money from Roberts, leaving the letters as collateral, and that Roberts wanted the money now that Strudwick was dead. Mason, attracted to Joan, is unable to side-step his task, but he does all he can to give her enough time to raise the money. In the several days that follow, her efforts to raise the money fail. Meanwhile Mason, deeply in love with her, becomes ashamed of his part in the blackmail. He tries to stall Roberts, but the ugly and truculent fellow ignores him and goes to Joan's home. There, he demands the money immediately under threat of giving the letters to the newspapers. Mason, to protect Joan, strangles Roberts to death. He returns the letters to Joan, then drives away with Roberts' body. He speeds down the road, hits a tree, and wrecks the car. Pinned under the wreck, Mason, before he dies, solves Joan's problems by confessing to a policeman that he had killed both Roberts and Strudwick. It was produced by Walter Wanger and directed by Max Opuls from a screen play by Henry Garson and Robert W. Soderberg, based upon the Ladies Home Journal story, "The Blank Wall," by Elisabeth S. Holding. Adult fare. "Beyond the Forest" with Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten and David Brian (Warner Bros., Oct. 22; time, 96 min.) An extremely sordid drama, one that seems to have been made for the sole purpose of giving Bette Davis an opportunity to demonstrate her emotional abilities. The viciousness of some of the characters Miss Davis has portrayed in her time is puny when compared to the one she portrays in this picture. A treacherous woman, swayed by twin emotions of lust and selfishness, the characterization stands out as one of the most detestable ever seen on the screen. She is completely void of sympathy, for there is no valid reason for her morally offensive behavior. The only principal character who wins the audience's sympathy is Joseph Cotten, as her tolerant husband, whom she forsakes to continue a clandestine affair with a wealthy man. As a character study of an evil woman, and as an exposition of animal passions running wild, the picture has considerable merit, but it cannot be considered wholesome or appealing entertainment for the majority of picture-goers. (Editor's Note: The National Legion of Decency has placed the picture in the C or Condemned classification, because "the sordid story it tells uses, in a morally offensive manner, subject material considered morally dangerous and unfit for entertainment. ... It contains suggestive situations and costuming. Moreover, the film lacks sufficient moral compensation for the evils portrayed") : — Married to Cotten, a doctor in a small Wisconsin lumber town, Bette makes no secret of her discontent with smalltown life, and with her husband's meagre medical practice. Unknown to Cotten, Bette had been carrying on a secret clandestine affair with David Brian, a wealthy Chicago industrialist, who owned a magnificent hunting lodge in the woods nearby. She hounds Cotten for enough money to buy some decent clothes and go to Chicago, but he rs unable to give it to her. She solves the problem by belaboring his patients, without his knowledge, to pay up their doctor bills. Infuriated, Cotten gives her the money and tells her not to come back again if she leaves. She goes to Chicago, determined to divorce Cotten and marry Brian, but suffers a great disappointment when Brian informs her that he had become engaged to a society girl. Disillusioned and ill, she returns to Cotten, who nurses her back to health. Several months later Bette discloses that she is going to have their baby. Minor Watson, caretaker of Brian's lodge and an old friend of Cotten's, invites him and Bette to attend a party at the lodge in honor of his daughter, Ruth Roman. At the party, Bette meets Brian once again. He tells her that he had broken his engagement and had come back for her. Wildly happy, she agrees to elope with him on the following day. Watson, having overheard their conversation, warns Bette that he will tell Brian about her pregnancy unless she abandons her plan. To keep him quiet, she deliberately shoots him dead the next morning during a hunting party. She claims that the killing was accidental and is acquitted on that ground. In her determination to win Brian, she goes to an abortionist but is stopped in time by Cotten. She succeeds, however, in ridding herself of the unborn baby by leaping down a steep hill. The self-induced miscarriage leaves her deathly ill and, despite Cotten's warning to stay in bed, she attempts to catch a train for Chicago. On the way to the station, she dies in the gutter. It was produced by Henry Blankc and directed by King Vidor from a screen play by Lcnore Coffee, based on the novel by Stuart Engstrand. Strictly adult fare.