Harrison's Reports (1950)

July 22, 1950 HARRISON'S REPORTS altogether unnatural. From this point on, all the action seems to have been contrived by the author; his characters move at his will, and their actions are not those of normal persons. All in all, the story is synthetic— it couldn't have happened in real life. The pace is slow, and there is no comedy relief:— Kent Taylor, a successful playwright, writes a psychological murder mystery melodrama, but Theodore Von Elu, his producer and a philanderer, rejects the play and the two get into a violent argument. On the following morning, Taylor learns that Von Eltt had been found strangled to death in his office. Audrey Long, Taylor's sweetheart, advises him not to say that he had been with Von Eltt on the previous night lest he be accused of the murder. But Audrey's brother, Robert Rockwell, a lieutenant with the Homicide Squad, suspects Taylor. To trap the killer, Taylor decides to write and produce a play, fitting the action to parallel the circumstances surrounding Von Eltt' death. K. Elmo Lowe, backer of Von Eltt' productions, had assembled a cast in anticipation of getting Taylor's psychological mystery story underway, and Taylor receives permission to use both the cast and the staff for the production of his new play. This worked in with his scheme, for Barbra Fuller, the leading lady, John Whitney, the male lead, Stanley Waxman, the director, Barbara Bilhngsley, Von Eltt' attractive associate, and Ruthelma Stevens, his disillusioned wife, who hated her dead husband because of his philanderings, were suspects. The play is a sellout since the public had become aware of its purpose. Meanwhile Taylor, under constant threat of death from the murderer himself, uncovers evidence indicating that Miss Fuller had been the killer's accomplice. On opening night, Taylor plays the part of the detective and maneuvers Miss Fuller into admitting her connection with the real-life killer, who turns out to be none other than Lowe. Lowe suddenly confesses that he is Miss Fuller's foster-father, and that he had killed Von Eltt for forcing his attentions on her and refusing to put an end to his efforts. Convinced of Taylor's innocence, Rockwell steps in and arrests Lowe. The story is by Rose Simon Kohn, the adaptation by Lawrence Goldman, and the screen play by Albert DeMond. Stephen Auer produced it, and Philip Ford directed it. Harmless for family patronage. "Death of a Dream" (Eagh'Lion, July 19; time, 45 nun.) Written and narrated by Quentin Reynolds, this documentary featurette is a compilation of newsreel clips of actual historic events of the last thirty-five years, which Mr. Reynolds uses to sum up the world situation as it exists today and to show that the dream of all free men for peace, democracy and security may turn into a nightmare as a result of Communist aggression. Most of the clips are familiar and have been used in many other documentary-type films. They include, among others, battle scenes of World Wars I and II; President Wilson and the League of Nations; the rise of Hitler and Mussolini; the attack on Ethiopia; the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the attack on Pearl Harbor; the Nazi march into the Rhincland; Chamberlain at Munich; and the present Communist advance in the Orient. Although familiar, these clips give impact to what Mr. Reynolds has to say as he draws a parallel between the ambitions of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito and those of Stalin, and warns that the United Nations, unlike the League of Nations, must be equal to the challenge of aggression. It is an interesting film, one that should do well in the newsreel theatres. Because of its timeliness, regular theatres may be able to exploit it to good advantage as a secondary feature. It is a United World Films production. "Stella" with Ann Sheridan, Victor Mature and David Wayne (20th Century-Fox, August; time, 83 min.) "Stella" is a comedy-farce of questionable taste and doubtful box-office value, mainly because of the macabre quality of its subject matter. The comedy stems chiefly from the farcical doings surrounding the search for a missing man, killed accidentally, whose "screwball" family had hidden his body lest they be accused of murder. Worked into the proceedings for laughs are grave diggings and several decomposed corpses, including a high comedy sequence in an undertaker's parlor during the funeral services for the wrong remains. The whole thing is played strictly for laughs, but the different happenings and zany characterizations will, as noted at a New York sneak preview, result in mixed audience reaction ; some persons thought it quite funny while others didn't. The story itself is pretty weak and the romantic interest lacks substance. The acting is just fair, and the camera has not been too kind to Ann Sheridan; she appears wan : Ann is the only working member of a shiftless family, which includes her mother, two sisters, their lazy husbands, and an uncle addicted to drink. All live in a New England resort town, where Ann is employed as secretary to Lief Erickson, an insurance broker, who hoped to marry her. Victor Mature, a representative of a large insurance company, comes into Ann's life when he arrives in town to check on Erickson 's qualifications for a job in the home office. While Ann is at work, the family quarrels at a picnic and the uncle is killed accidentally. Agreeing that it might look like murder, the relatives bury the body and, later, lead Ann to believe that he had disappeared on one of his periodic binges. But Ann becomes suspicious and soon draws the truth from them. She favors going to the police, but the family convinces her that the authorities would not accept the truth. While Ann, Mature and Erickson become involved in a romantic triangle, the family discovers that the uncle had been heavily insured by Mature's company, and to collect the money they begin to identify one stray corpse after another as the uncle's body. In every case, however, Mature, meaning to be helpful, disproves the identification. Driven frantic by her family's antics, Ann unburdens herself to Erickson, who in turn uses her confession as a club to make her forget about Mature. In the events that follow, the two brothers-in-law try to exhume the uncle's body so that it would be found elsewhere and enable them to collect the insurance. They are caught redhanded by Mature and the police as they dig up the body of an Indian woman, and the discovery is made that they had inadvertently buried the uncle in an old Indian graveyard. With the truth finally out, the relatives arc absolved of responsibility for the uncle's demise and, while Ann and Mature depart to be married, the brothers-in-law keep prospecting for the uncle's body, still hopeful of collecting the insurance. Claude Binyon directed it and wrote the screen play, based on a novel by Doris Miles Disney. It was produced by Sol C. Siegel. Adult fare.