Harrison's Reports (1950)

September 16, 1950 147 house to house eventually implicate her in two mur' ders committed by Cowan's gang, and before long she becomes a suspect. She then becomes the object of a police hunt, with Albert helping her to elude the law. After many complications, Lucille and Albert are lured aboard a freighter owned by Cowan, and an exciting chase ensues from one end of the ship to the other when they escape from their stateroom. It all ends explosively when a case of dynamite blows up the ship. The final fadeout finds the lovers safe, embracing each other on a floating piece of wreckage. Meanwhile, of course, their innocence had been established. Among the highly amusing situations, outstanding are the ones in which Lucille, trapped in a burlesque theatre, does a strip-tease act to evade capture, and in which she and Albert get all tangled up in television aerials during a chase over roof-tops, causing the owners of the video sets to get fantastic pictures. A brief but amusing highlight is where a householder canvassed by Lucille turns out to be Red Skelton, who sells her some brushes before she can give him her sales pitch. Frank Tashlin wrote the original screen play. No producer credit is listed. Suitable for the family. "Farewell to Yesterday" (20th Century-Fox, Sept.; time, 90 min.) This is a highly interesting documentary pictorial history of world events during the last thirty years, depicting the cause and effect of war. Compiled from newsreel clips and from official Allied and enemy films, most of the footage is familiar, yet it is an arresting presentation from start to finish by reason of the excellent job done on the editing and on the commentary. Unlike other recent documentary films, this one omits the frivolous side of life and, through a series of powerfully dramatic sequences, concentrates on the events that since the end of World War I have put the entire world into a condition of chaos from which it has not yet recovered. Beginning with the signing of the treaty at Versailles, the film traces the unrest that arose all over Europe in the struggle against poverty, giving birth to Fascism and Nazism and leading to the unholy alliance between Hitler and Mussolini. Picturing the fall of the League of Nations, the appeasement of Hitler, and the invasion of Poland that set off World War II, the film then dwells on the horrors of war, depicting the 82-day blitz against England by the Nazis, the invasion of the Lowlands and France, and the different European battlegrounds. It shows in minute detail the destruction fo property in the big European cities, and the heartbreaking suffering of people at home and of soldiers on the battlefield. Much of this is so appalling that it leaves one depressed. Shown also is America's involvement in the war with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent battles that raged throughout the South Pacific on sea and on land before the conflict was brought to an end with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. The final reel is concerned principally with the outbreak of war in Korea. Those who will see this film cannot escape its powerful message, which is that we must learn our lesson from the mistakes in the past, and that wc must at all times be fully prepared to meet lawless aggression with force. It was produced by Edmund Reek and edited by Louis Tetunic. Written by Joseph Kenas, the commentary is shared by Sidney Blackmer, John Larkin, Kermit Murdock and William Post, Jr. "The Breaking Point" with John Garfield, Patricia Neal and Phyllis Thaxter (Warner Bros., Sept. 30; time, 97 min.) This melodrama offers some violent action as well as some spicy dialogue that is spouted by a woman of loose morals, but as entertainment it is somber and depressing. Moreover, the story, which is a pretty free adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not," is handicapped by characterizations that are not clearly motivated. Another weakness lies in the fact that the spectator is asked to follow the fate of an unsympathetic hero, a man who knowingly breaks the law from start to finish. As an impoverished charter fishing boat owner who is always in trouble, John Garfield manages to give some credence to his role, but Patricia Neal, as a playgirl who is constantly making passes at him, is not given much of a chance by a role that not only has little to do with the story but seems to have been dragged in by the ear to give the proceedings some spice. Considerable sympathy is felt for Phyllis Thaxter, who gives a touching portrayal as Garfield's suffering wife, and for Juano Hernandez, as Garfield's loyal helper. On the whole, however, it impresses one as a pointless story of sex and violence: — Garfield, an ex-GI with a wife and two children, barely ekes out a living chartering his cruiser to fishing parties. Heavily in debt, he finds it difficult to meet the payments due on the cruiser. He gets a break when a wealthy playboy charters his boat for a cruise to Mexico with Patricia, a good-time girl. During the trip, Garfield, finds it necessary to resist Patricia's advances. The playboy disappears in Mexico, leaving Garfield, his helper, and Patricia stranded. Needing funds to return to the States, Garfield makes a deal through Wallace Ford, a shady lawyer, to smuggle eight Chinese into the States, but he forces the Chinese overboard in shallow Mexican waters when their leader, whom he kills, tries to doublecross him on the price. When he returns home, Garfield's boat is impounded by the Coast Guard, which had heard rumors about his attempt to smuggle in the Chinese. Despondent, he goes on a drunk, and Patricia, who had returned with him, once again makes a play for him. Phyllis, however, soon makes her understand that Garfield is not an unfaithful husband. Ford comes to the States and, by seeing to it that Garfield's boat is returned by court order, persuades him to make a deal with four gangsters who wanted to make a getaway in his boat after holding up a racetrack. Phyllis' pleas that he give up the job are unavailing. Having pulled off the holdup successfully, the gangsters arrive at the pier and shoot down Garfield's helper, who had joined him unexpectedly. They then force Garfield to take them out to sea. Positive that they will kill him when he gets them to their destination, Garfield, at sea, succeeds in killing them all in a furious gun battle, but is wounded seriously himself. He is rescued by the Coast Guard and told that his damaged arm must be amputated. He prefers to die, but Phyllis induces him to consent to the operation so that they might try life anew. It was produced by Jerry Wald and directed by Michael Curtiz from a screen play by Ranald MacDougall. Strictly adult fare.