Harrison's Reports (1955)

118 HARRISON'S REPORTS July 23, 1955 "How To Be Very, Very Popular" with Betty Grable, Sheree North, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn and Tommy Noonan (20th Century-Fox, July; time, 89 min.) Those who accept "How To Be Very, Very Popular" for the whacky farce that it is should have a right good time watching it, for much of it is highly amusing, in spite of the fact that it is nonsensical and wears a bit thin at times. Photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe color, and centering around two empty-headed blonde chorus girls who witness a murder and who end up in a college fraternity house, in scanty costumes, when they flee for their own lives, the story, such as it is, is peopled with screwball char-, acters and provides a full measure of laugh-provoking situations as a result of the zany complications that ensue. Betty Grable and Sheree North are ideal as the dumb chorines. Much of the comedy stems from the fact that Miss North is accidentally hypnotized by a student who does not know how to get her out of it. She remains in that mesmerized condition throughout the proceedings, thus adding to the complications. The sequence in which she turns the school's commencement exercises into a wild "rock and roll" dance session is hilarious. Considerable comedy stems also from the fact that the killer is known to be bald-headed and that several of the characters who fit that description are given a rough time by the police. Charles Coburn, as the college president; Robert Cummings, as a student who had been attending the school for 17 years; and Fred Clark, as the agitated, bald-headed father of one of the students, add much to the hilarity with their amusing characterizations. All in all, it is a merry movie, one that should give good satisfaction, even if the output of laughter is sometimes uneven. Briefly, the action opens with Betty and Sheree, dancers in a San Francisco honky-tonk, witnessing the murder of Noel Toy, a Chinese stripper. The unknown assailant escapes through a window in the girls' dressing room, after warning them that they will get the same treatment if they are around to identify him. Putting on coats over the scanty costumes, the girls flee out of town on the first bus and before long find themselves outside the fraternity dormitory of a small college, broke and hungry. Looking for some food, Betty walks in on Robert Cummings, who had been attending college for 17 years in order to keep living off a legacy left to him for that purpose. While Betty relates her troubles to Cummings, Sheree wanders in on students Tommy Noonan and Orson Bean, who were conducting an hypnosis experiment, and accidentally gets herself hynotized, a condition from which Noonan is unable to rouse her. From then on the whole college becomes involved in a series of nutty complications while Cummings, Noonan and Bean try to hide the girls from the school authorities, the police and the killer. Worked into the wild proceedings is a sub-plot concerning the expelling of Bean for a "panty raid" and for failing to make passing grades, and Coburn's willingness to graduate Bean with honors provided Bean's father, Fred Clark, grants the college a big endowment. Added to the confusion are the whacky romances between Betty and Cummings, and between Bean and the hypnotized Sheree, who goes into a violent hip-swinging, dance routine when anything resembling the word "Salome" is mentioned. The story is resolved in the end by the capture of the killer who starts to shoot at Sheree when she goes into one of her wild dances at the commencement exercices, but before he is caught a number of other baldheaded men who roam about the campus are hauled in by the police. Alice Pearce, as a pixilated house mother; Rhy Williams, as Sheree's balding father; and Andrews Tombes, as a baldheaded detective who wears a toupe backwards, are among the others who add much amusement to the nuttiness of the story as a whole. The screenplay was written, produced and directed by Nunnally Johnson, based upon a play by Howard Lindsay, a novel by Edward Hope, and a play by Lyford Moore and Harlan Thompson. Unobjectionable for the family. "To Hell and Back" with Audie Murphy, Marshall Thompson and Charles Drake (Univ.-Int'l, October; time, 106 min.) The best way to evaluate "To Hell and Back," which has been photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor, is to say that it is an interesting, well produced war picture with unusual exploitation possibilities. The thing that distinguishes it from most other war films is the fact that it is autobiographical of the war career of Audie Murphy, the picture's star, who, as most every one knows, served with such great distinction in World War II that he ended up as the most decorated soldier in American history, earning twenty-four decorations in all, including the Congressional Medal of Honor. The picture offers a fascinating account of his exploits on the battlefields of North Africa and Europe, and its depiction of his individual feats of heroism are so extraordinary that they would be scoffed at as the usual type of Hollywood heroics if not for the fact that they have been authenticated. But the mere fact that the story is genuine does not lift it to any great heights as a dramatic offering, even though it is well directed and acted and is tinged with deep human interest touches because of the close association between Murphy and his war buddies. It still remains no more than a fairly good war picture entertainment-wise, with its box-office chances depending on strong exploitation of the fact that it stars Audie Murphy in the movie version of his own autobiography. The story opens with the depiction of Murphy as as a 12-year-old boy in Texas, working at odd jobs to help his mother keep her poverty-stricken family together. Following the death of his mother, charity officials take charge of Murphy's younger sisters and brothers while he in turn joins the Army after being rejected first by the Marine Corps and then by the Navy. Before long he joins the battle-weary Third Platoon of Company B in the 15th Regiment of the 3rd Division in North Africa as a replacement. He is first looked upon with disdain by such hardened combat veterans as Charles Drake, Marshall Thompson, Paul Picerni, Richard Castle and Jack Kelly, but they learn to respect and admire him when he faces his baptism of fire with quiet bravery. As his unit moves through the battlefields of Tunisia, Italy, France, Germany and Austria, over a period of 30 months, Murphy rises from a private to company commander while distinguishing himself with single-handed feats of heroism that bring death to 240 Germans. Meanwhile he is wounded three times himself, while his different buddies die on the battlefield one by one. The story comes to a close with Murphy being awarded the Medal of Honor by his commanding general while the entire 3rd Division stands in formal formation behind him. It was produced by Aaron Rosenberg, and directed by Jesse Hibbs, from a screenplay by Gil Doud, based on Murphy's autobiography "To Hell and Back." Family. "The Phenix City Story" with John Mclntire, Richard Kiley and Kathryn Grant (Allied Artists, August 14; time, 100 min.) Given a fine semi-documentary treatment, this is a forceful expose of Phenix City, the notorious Alabama town, which was known in its vice heyday as "America's City of Sin" because of its wide-open gambling joints, women, liquor and corrupt city officials, and which was cleaned up by Alabama's Attorney General John Patterson, whose father, Albert Patterson, had been murdered by thugs for attempting to do the same thing. The facts about this crimeridden city were given wide publicity in the daily newspapers and national magazines, thus the picture becomes a natural exploitation-wise. The action, most of which was shot on actual locations, unfolds at a fast pace, has a number of strong dramatic punches, and holds one's attention nailed to the screen from start to finish. There is, of course, no comedy relief, for the subject matter is grim. The direction and acting are competent, and the photography good: —