Harrison's Reports (1955)

November 5, 1955 HARRISON'S REPORTS 179 Stubby Kaye, George E. Stone and Veda Ann Borg, as assorted Runyon-type Times Square characters, add much to the entertainment values. The direction, sets, costumes, photography, color and all other technical work are in keeping with the top-drawer quality that has always been associated with a Goldwyn picture. It was produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz from his own screenplay, based on the play by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, who adapted it from a Damon Runyon story. The picture is inoffensive in content, but it is best suited for adult audiences because of the daring costuming in some of the dance sequences, as well as the sophisticated tone of some of the dialogue and situations. "Tarantula" with John Agar, Mara Cot-day and Leo G. Carroll (Univ.-Int'l, December; time, 80 min.) This program horror melodrama offers a mixture that is reminiscent of the "Wolf Man"1 type of scary pictures and of Columbia's recent "It Came from Beneath the Sea," for it deals with an "atomic energy nutrient" that distorts the face and body of human beings and causes animals and insects to grow many times larger than their normal size. It is a fair enough picture of its kind and should get by with undiscriminating audiences in situations where such films are acceptable, for they may get chills and thrills out of watching a massive tarantula, large enough to step over huge mountains (thanks to trick photography) , attack an entire area and its people. But it is so fantastic that most movie-goers probably will find it more laughable than frightening. There is not much that can be said for the acting, but it is competent enough when one considers the limitations of the material : — When a scientist in Desert Rock, Arizona, dies with his head swollen to twice the normal size and his hands grown clawlike and hairy, Leo G. Carroll, his associate, attributes the death to a disease called acromegalia, but John Agar, the town doctor, does not accept this diagnosis. Carroll returns to his laboratory in the desert, where he resumes feeding a special atomic energy nutrient to different animals, including a tarantula. During his work, he is attacked by a monster-like associate, who, too, dies, but not before he injects Carroll with the nutrient. A fire breaks out during the attack, and the tarantula escapes from its glass cage. Carroll buries his associate secretly. Later, when Mara Corday becomes his assistant, Carroll explains that the object of his experiments was to find a nutrient that would augment the world's future supply of food. Agar, who had started to romance Mara, senses a connection between the experiments and the scientist's death when Mara informs him that rats and guinea pigs injected with the nutrient had doubled in size within one day. He is shocked further when he visits the laboratory and notices that Carroll's features were becoming distorted. Before long the area is plagued by mysterious killings of cattle and humans, with only the skeletons of the victims left at the scene of the crimes. Much confusion results until Agar, aided by a confession from the dying Carroll, discovers that the attacks were being made by the escaped tarantula, which had grown to immense proportions. When the creature is discovered heading for the town, the police try to stop it with machine gun bullets and dynamite but to no avail. They then call upon the air force for help, and jet planes, using powerful napalm bombs, destroy it in the nick of time. It was produced by William Alland, and directed by Jack Arnold, from a screenplay by Martin Berkeley, based on a story by Robert M. Fresco and Mr. Arnold. For the family, if they can stand horror. "Running Wild" with William Campbell, Mamie Van Doren and Keenan Wynn (Univ.'Int'l, December; time, 81 min.) A fair program melodrama, suitable as a supporting feature in double-billing situations. There is nothing unusual about the story, which centers around a rookie policeman who masquerades as a hoodlum in order to crack a ring of juvenile car thieves, but it has enough fast action and suspense to satisfy the undiscriminating movie-goers. William Campbell is competent as the courageous policeman, and Keenan Wynn is cooly vicious as the mastermind behind the car thefts. Kathleen Case is sympathetic as Wynn's unwilling girl-friend, with whom Campbell falls in love, and Mamie Van Doren is cunning and flirtatious as the flashy blonde girl-friend of a gang member. The characterizations, however, are stereotyped. Worked into the proceedings are some "hot" rock-and-roll dance numbers with tough 'teenagers in a juke-box joint: — Arriving in Riverton, a suburb of Los Angeles, Campbell acts like a tough hoodlum and applies for a job as a mechanic to Wynn, operator of a gas station, who withholds his decision on whether to hire him. That night, Campbell visits a juke-box joint patronized by young toughs. There he meets Kathleen, Wynn's girl-friend, and gets into a fight with Jan Merlin, who worked for Wynn, over a fancied slight to Mamie, his girl-friend. A policeman breaks up the fight and hauls Campbell down to the station house, where it is revealed that he is really a law officer on the trail of juvenile car thieves. When Campbell is released by the police without involving the others in the fight, Wynn becomes convinced that he can be trusted and hires him at the garage. Careful to avoid suspicion, Campbell soon establishes that Wynn is the mastermind behind the car thefts, and he discovers also that Kathleen, to whom he had become attracted, accepted Wynn's attentions because she feared that he would expose her father, who had entered the country illegally after escaping from a Polish concentration camp. In due time Wynn invites Campbell to go along on a "job," giving him an opportunity to learn how the thefts were carried out. Merlin catches Campbell as he telephones the police and starts a gun duel. Campbell shoots him dead. Learning that Wynn blamed Kathleen for his troubles, Campbell and the police keep a watch on her home. Wynn shows up within a few days to wreak his vengeance on her, but Campbell finishes him off in a gun fight. It all ends with Campbell renewing his romantic pursuit of Kathleen, after assuring her that steps would be taken to legalize her father's entry. It was produced by Howard Pine, and directed by Abncr Biberman, from a screenplay by Leo Townsend, based on a novel by Ben Benson. Adult fare.