Harrison's Reports (1949)

November 26, 1949 HARRISON'S REPORTS 191 "Bagdad" with Maureen O'Hara, Paul Christian and Vincent Price (Universal-International, November; time, 82 min.) The best that may be said for this fabulous Technicolor adventure melodrama is that it is acceptable in pace if farfetched and confused in story. It should get by with those who are more concerned with movement and pageantry than story values, for the action takes place in Bagdad and against vast expanses of desert scenery, stressing swordplay, fights, chases, colorful costumes, dancing girls, and the like. But those who are in the least bit discriminating will find the proceedings generally tedious, for the story is hackneyed and its development unimaginative. The action is so ludi' crous at times that it provokes laughs where no laughs are intended. The players, who play their roles straight, struggle to make something of their parts, but their characterizations are so exaggerated that they are put at a distinct disadvantage:— Returning to Bagdad from England, where she had been educated, Maureen O'Hara, a princess, learns that her father had been assassinated by a band of desert marauders known as the Black Robes. Jeff Corey, her father's faithful aide, informs her that Paul Christian, a prince of a rival tribe, was the secret leader of the Black Robes. Maureen swears revenge. Actually, however, the Black Robes were led by John Sutton, Christian's cousin, who was secretly in cahoots with Vincent Price, Bagdad's Turkish military governor; both had framed Christian for the murder. Christian comes to Bagdad to gather evidence to clear himself, and assumes the identity of a jewel merchant. Price reveals Christian's true identity to Maureen, hoping that she will arrange for her followers to kill him. Meanwhile he gives orders to his own soldiers to dispose of Christian. After numerous narrow escapes, Christian gathers the evidence he needs and informs Price that he is ready to stand trial before the Arab shieks in the desert. Sutton and Price, ordered to attend the trial, instruct the Black Robes to attack the palace and kill Christian, but the young prince escapes death when he is captured during the excitement by Maureen and her followers, who take him into the desert to die. They free him, however, when he convinces them that Sutton and Price were behind the Black Robes, and join him in a fabulous scheme that results in proof of his innocence and brings the culprits to justice after much bloodshed. With her revenge satisfied, Maureen embraces Christian. It was produced by Robert Arthur and directed by Charles Lamont from a screen play by Robert Hardy, based on a story by Tamara Hovey. Harmless for children. "Adam and Evalyn" with Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons (Universal-International, December; time, 92 min.) A fairly good British-made romantic comedy-drama. Although its story about an orphan girl who grows up and falls in love with her guardian is not too original, it has been presented with considerable appeal and charm. It should, in fact, prove more popular than most British pictures with the general run of American audiences. Jean Simmons, as the woebegone orphan who blossoms into a young lady of considerable beauty, makes a beguiling heroine, and Stewart Granger, as the affable gambler who adopts her, is highly effective. Their pleasing performances, aided by crisp direction and occasional bits of snappy dialogue, make for a light-hearted entertainment that is easy to take: — Jean Simmons, living in an orphanage, believes her father to be a successful business man and waits for the day when he will take her home. Actually her father (Fred Johnson), ashamed at being a failure, had consistently lied to her in his letters and had represented himself as Stewart Granger, a successful gambler, who aided him often. Just before Johnson, a jockey, dies from injuries received in a fall, Granger promises to visit Jean. He is shocked when the girl greets him as her father, but soon learns the truth. Rather than disillusion her, he takes her home to his swank London flat and leads her to believe that he is a stock broker. But after several days of the masquerade, Jean learns the truth from Helen Cherry, Stewart's girl-friend and associate. She breaks down completely and is sent away to a finishing school in Switzerland. Returning after several years at school, Jean, now a sophisticated young miss, captures Granger's heart. He fully realizes his feelings when Raymond Young, his worthless younger brother, starts to date Jean. When Granger's interest in Helen diminished, and when he tells his brother to keep away from Jean, Helen and Raymond decide to avenge themselves by bringing Jean to one of his gambling parties in the hope that she will leave him when she learns the source of his income. Shocked because of her complex about gambling, which had made a failure of her father, Jean informs the police and makes Granger subject to a heavy fine. Granger, puzzled by her action, forgives her when she explains that she loved him dearly and had informed on him to make him give up gambling. Harold French produced and directed it from an original story by Noel Langley. It is a J. Arthur Rank presentation. Unobjectionable morally. "Whirlpool" with Gene Tierney, Richard Conte and Charles Bickford (20th Century-Fox, January; time, 97 min.) Hypnotism, blackmail and murder make up the theme of this exciting and suspenseful melodrama. Revolving around the wife of a prominent psychiatrist who becomes the victim of a sauve but unscrupulous astrologist, who uses his hypnotic powers to frame her for murder and make her appear unfaithful, the well-written story keeps one engrossed throughout because of the absorbing plot developments. Since there is no mystery as to who committed the murder, one's interest is held taut by the ingenious methods employed by the crafty astrologist to pin the guilt on the heroine while establishing his own innocence through selfhypnosis. Gene Tierney, as the wife, Richard Conte, as her husband, and Charles Bickford, as a detective, handle their roles effectively, but top acting honors go to Jose Ferrer, who makes believeable the part of the slick but cruel hypnotist. The production values are fine: — Briefly, the involved but understandable story brings Gene and Ferrer together when he, a total stranger, comes to her rescue when a department store detective catches her stealing a diamond pin. He identifies her as a woman of means and talks the store manager out of prosecuting her. Introducing himself as an astrologist, Ferrer tells Gene that she was suffering from a form of kleptomania and talks her into letting him treat her, even though her husband is a successful psychiatrist. She begins to have faith in him when, through hypnosis, he relieves her suffering from insomnia. One afternoon at a cocktail party, Barbara O'Neill, a society matron and one of Conte's patients, warns Gene that Ferrer is a crook who lives off wealthy women. Unknown to Gene, Ferrer had swindled Miss O'Neill out of a huge sum of money and, on the advice of Conte, she had demanded restitution from Ferrer under threat of going to the police. To rid himself of Miss O'Neill, Ferrer conceives a diabolical plot whereby he murders her after weaving a web of circumstantial evidence against Gene and then, through hypnosis, places her at the scene of the crime when Miss O'Neill's body is found by the police. Conte, heartbroken over the apparent proof of his wife's infidelity but believing her protests of innocence, offers to produce recordings he had made of interviews with Miss O'Neill to prove that Ferrer may have committed the murder. But he finds the recordings missing, for Gene, in her hypnotic trance, had removed them and had hidden them in Miss O'Neill's home. Meanwhile Ferrer, in the hospital, establishes his innocence by proving that he had undergone a major surgical operation several hours before the murder. He implicates Gene further, however, by insinuating that she had murdered Miss O'Neill to eliminate her as a rival for his love. After many complications, Conte deduces that Ferrer had hypnotized himself after his operation to make himself impervious to pain so as to leave the hospital and commit the murder. He deduces also that Gene, in her trance, had hidden the records in Miss O'Neill's home. Detective Charles Bickford agrees to follow up Conte's theory and accompanies him and Gene to Miss O'Neill's home to search for the records. Learning of this move, Ferrer hypnotizes himself, leaves the hospital, and rushes to Miss O'Neill's home to recover the records. Discovered by Bickford, Conte and Gene, Ferrer, armed, holds them at bay and defiantly confirms everything Conte had surmised. As he moves to escape, he falls to the floor, dead from the loss ot blood. It was produced and directed by Otto Prcminger from a screen play by Ben Hecht and Andrew Solt, based on a novel by Guy Endore. Adult fare.