Harrison's Reports (1950)

HARRISON'S REPORTS December 9, 1950 "Short Grass" with Rod Cameron, Cathy Downs and Johnny Mack Brown (Allied Artists, Dec. 3; time, 82 win.) This is not an ordinary western, for the story is substantial and it has been produced on a pretty big scale. It holds one's interest all the way through, and most of the situations are gripping. There is considerable shooting, and Rod Cameron, as the hero, wins one's sympathy as well as one's admiration for risking his life to battle the lawless element. Johnny Mack Brown, as the marshal, is his typical fearless self. The acting of all is good. The outdoor scenery is, as the title suggests, sunburnt country, with plenty of rocks and sage brush to boot. The photography is good : — Shortly after his arrival at Willow Creek, a trading post center controlled by two ruthless brothers (Morris Ankrum and Riley Hill), Rod Cameron becomes involved with an outlaw, who had killed his partner-in-crime after holding up and knocking unconscious Jonathan Hale, owner of the trading post. The outlaw, who tries to make it appear as if he had shot a holdup man, befriends Cameron and invites him to ride along with him. A short way out in the barren hills Cameron realizes the truth about the outlaw and suspects that he will attempt to kill him. But Cameron, being alert, is faster on the draw and kills the outlaw when he attempts to shoot him in the back. He then recovers the money stolen from Hale. Wounded, Cameron is found by Cathy Downs, whose father (Stanley Andrews) owned a rundown ranch nearby. There she nurses him back to health, and both fall in love. He uses the stolen money to help Andrews buy a better piece of land on a partnership basis. The land, however, is coveted by the two vicious brothers, and Cameron, unsuccessful in his efforts to oppose them, offers to sell them his share. In the discussion that follows, Cameron kills Hill when he pulls a gun on him. He then goes to Hale and returns the money stolen from him by means of an assignment of his half ownership in the ranch. Impressed by Cameron's honesty, Hale asks him to go to Silver Spur, a thriving town, to buy property for him so that he might open a saloon. He does so, and then goes away. Cameron returns to Silver Spur five years later and finds Hale doing a thriving business. He learns that Cathy lived in town as the wife of a drunken newspaperman, and that Ankrum and his gang were encroaching on the grazing land. He joins Raymond Walburn, who headed the forces determined to keep town free from Ankrum's influence. This results in open war, which ends with the death of, not only Ankrum, but also Cathy's husband, thus leaving her free to start life anew with Cameron. It was produced by Scott R. Dunlap, and directed by Lesley Selander, from a screen play by Tom W. Blackburn, based on his book of the same name. Good for those who like pictures with virile action. "One Too Many" with Ruth Warwick, Richard Travis and Ginger Prince (A Hallmark road show attraction; time, 110 min.) (Editor's Hote: In view of the fact that this picture will be handled individually as a roadshow attraction, it is doubtful if this review will have any effect on the sale of it to the exhibitors. But it is presented here for the record.) This picture has much merit, but it has also serious defects. The chief fault is that the story is synthetic — the characters seem to obey the will of the author rather than do things that they would do in life naturally. Rhys Williams, for example, is a fine bartender, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, but it is hard for the spectator to believe his refusal to sell drinks to those who had one too many, for not many bartenders in life are like him. Ruth Warrick does not awaken sympathy because of poor characterization. There is no cause for her to take to drink, and the abandonment of her musical career does not ring true. Had she been induced to take her first drink at some aff?ir on the ground that it would not hurt her, and then shown taking another and another until she becomes a dipsomaniac, she would have had audience sympathy with her. The acting is so^so. Thurston Hall is presented as a bigoted person, and the fact that he is eventually won over to the cause does not help erase the bad impression of him. Ginger Prince is a fine little actress and does well in several song-and-dance numbers, but she lacks the looks that might have made her another Shirley Temple: — Ruth, a promising concert pianist, gives up her career to marry Richard Travis, a reporter. The change to housewife and motherhood is too much for her, and in time 6he takes to drink and becomes a dipsomaniac. Searching around for news, Travis goes to Rhys Williams' saloon where he finds Frank Emery, his neighbor and candidate for Mayor, intoxicated. The incident makes Travis unhappy, for his story destroys Emery's chances of election. Returning home, Travis finds Ruth highly intoxicated. He calls in the family physician who is able to effect a temporary cure, but in time Ruth has a relapse and her condition becomes worse. Travis is embarrassed when Thurston Hall, his publisher and a severe teetotaler, sees Ruth drunk. He takes her to a sanitarium, but she escapes and hides out in a cheap rooming house with a bottle. Meanwhile Emery kills himself, and Travis, busy searching for Ruth, loses his job for missing the story. When the bottle is empty, Ruth returns home and, to buy more liquor, robs the piggy bank of her daughter, Ginger. She then takes the child for an automobile ride, but her driving is so erratic that the police arrest her and place her in a psychopathic ward. Shocked, Travis appeals to civic leaders to help establish a hospital for alcoholics, and cites the fine work done by Alcoholics Annonymous. When Ruth sobers up, she realizes how close she came to killing herself and her daughter. The climax is reached when a benefit show is staged for funds for the hospital, and Travis, to restore Ruth completely, arranges for her to play the piano. This gives her courage to face the world again, and she plays like the great artist she once was. Kroger Babb produced it, and Earle C. Kenton directed it, from a screen play by Malcolm Stuart Boylan, based on Mr. Babb's original story. Adult fare. "Revenue Agent" with Douglas Kennedy, Jean Willes and Onslow Stevens (Columbia, no rel. date set; time, 72 min.) A passable program melodrama, with enough action and intrigue to serve its purpose as the lower half of a double bill. Produced on a modest budget, the story, as indicated by the title, deals with the exploits of an Internal Revenue agent who gets on the trail of income tax evaders. It is a routine cops-and-robbers plot that offers few surprises and is, in fact, somewhat choppy and confusing. But the semidocumentary treatment and the fast-moving pace should make it acceptable to the undiscriminating action fans. The acting is fair, but there is no marquee value in the names of the players: — When Lyle Talbot, an accountant, discovers that Jean Willes, his wife, is carrying on an affair with Onslow Stevens, his employer, he telephones the Department of Internal Revenue and offers to give evidence of a large income tax evasion racket if an agent is sent to meet him. By the time that Douglas Kennedy, the agent, arrives, Talbot is murdered by William Phillips, one of Stevens' henchmen, who had overheard the phone call. Kennedy follows up several clues and soon discovers that Stevens and Archie Twitchell, his partner in a mining company, were smuggling gold bullion from their mine to Mexico, where they sold the gold and deposited the money under assumed names in Mexican banks, thus evading payment of income taxes. Needing evidence to make an arrest, Kennedy informs the partners that he is a revenue agent, that he knows of their tax evasion scheme, and that he will hound them into prison unless they cut him in on the deal. Suspicious, they put him through a number of tests to judge his loyalty to their cause and finaly accept him. He soon learns that