Harrison's Reports (1956)

70 HARRISON'S REPORTS May 5, 1956 "The Revolt of Mamie Stover" with Jane Russell, Richard Egan, Joan Leslie and Agnes Moorehead (20th Century-Fox, April; time, 92 min.) Based on a the widely-read novel by William Bradford Huie, who described its heroine as "the Henry Ford of harlotry," this lusty romantic sex drama should draw well at the box-office, for it is being backed by a top exploitation campaign and stars the voluptuous Jane Russell in a role tailored to her talents and to her physical attributes. The novel, which dealt with the methods employed by a wealthseeking prostitute to amass a fortune in Hawaii before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor, has been toned down to make it suitable for the screen. Hence the heroine is now depicted as a hostess in a dance hall, where she becomes the star attraction and obtains a major cut from the receipts she earns for dancing and drinking with servicemen. It does not, however, take much imagination on the part of the spectator to understand the purpose of the so-called "champagne rooms" off the dance floor, where the girls entertain the servicemen in private. Miss Russell is highly effective in the title role, and a competent performance is delivered by Richard Egan as an author who befriends her and wins her heart, but who rejects her love when he learns that she had continued her shady life to increase her wealth while he was at the battlefront. Agnes Moorehead contributes a colorful characterization as the dance hall's proprietess, who employs Michel Pate, a sadistic brute, to keep the girls in line. The CinemaScope and DeLuxe color photography add much to the colorful Honolulu backgrounds against which the action was shot: — Compelled by the police to leave San Francisco as an undesirable character, Jane boards a freighter bound for Honolulu. On board she meets Egan, a novelist who lives in Hawaii, and she tells him of her ambitions to make a fortune. He tries to talk her out of seeking employment in Miss Moorehead's dance hall but to no avail. Jane starts work in the dance hall immediately after her arrival and, to get around the rule that no girl may have a bank account, asks Egan to hold her money for her. In time Egan's emotions cloud his judgment and he falls in love with Jane, much to the dismay of Joan Leslie, his socialite girl-friend. Immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jane sees an opportunity in the resultant panic and she uses the money Egan had been saving for her to buy real estate at low prices. Meanwhile Egan joins the Army and, on the eve of his departure for the front, he asks Jane to give up the dance hall. She agrees, but after he leaves, Agnes offers Jane a bigger cut to remain. With Honolulu jammed with troops, Jane is unable to resist the golden opportunity. She becomes the darling of the armed forces and uses officers, not only to financial advantage, but to break down the social system that had kept her out of places where the town's respectable element congregated. Her wealth increases by leaps and bounds, and in due time Egan learns of her failure to keep her promise. When he returns to Honolulu, Jane believes that her material success will vindicate her moral failure in Egan's eyes, but Egan, in spite of the fact that he still loved her, parts from her. Disillusioned, Jane gives away her wealth and sadly heads for her home-town in Mississippi. It was produced by Buddy Adler, and directed by Raoul Walsh, from a screenplay by Sydney Boehm. Adult fare. "The Man Who Knew Too Much" with James Stewart and Doris Day {Paramount, June; time, 120 min.) In keeping with his reputation, Alfred Hitchcock has fashioned a highly exciting and entertaining suspense thriller in "The Man Who Knew Too Much," which has been photographed in VistaVision and Technicolor. One is held in tense suspense throughout because of the danger faced by a 7-year«;old American boy, who had been kidnapped in French Morocco by international plotters so as to prevent his vacationing parents from revealing to the authorities information they had inadvertently obtained concerning the pending assassination of a diplomat in London. Thanks to Hitchcok's masterful direction and to the expert acting of James Stewart and Doris Day, as the anguished parents, the taut, suspense-laden plot grips the audience from start to finish and they will find themselves experiencing the horror and emotional strain suffered by the distraught parents who are forced to keep silent for the sake of their child, and the overwhelming feeling of relief when they succeed in rescuing the boy. The manner in which they prevent the assassination and save the boy will keep the spectator on the edge of his seat. Most of the action has been shot against authentic French Morocco and London backgrounds, adding a striking touch of realism to the proceedings: — While vacationing in French Morocco with Doris and with Chris Olsen, their little son, Stewart, an American doctor, innocently becomes involved with international plotters who become friendly with him. One morning, in the market place, he witnesses the murder of one of his newfound friends who, before dying, reveals to Stewart that he is a secret French agent and informs him of an assassination plot that is going to take place in London. Before Stewart can talk to the authorities, he receives a message from the plotters telling him that his son had been kidnapped by them and that the child would be killed if he (Stewart) divulged the information he had. Stewart and Doris naturally keep silent for the sake of the child and they depart immediately for London in the hope that they can locate and rescue him. Upon their arrival in London, they are met by a Scotland Yard inspector who tells them that he knows of the kidnapping and offers to aid them, but they refuse his assistance lest they endanger their boy. From the meager information given Stewart by the dying agent, he and Doris eventually trace the boy to a mission, where the kidnappers knock Stewart unconscious and then remove the boy to the Embassy of a foreign country, whose Prime Mnister was to be assassinated that night at London's famed Albert Hall in a plot engineered by his own people. Through a series of odd circumstances, Doris goes to Albert Hall to locate the Inspector who had offered to aid her and, noting one of the plotters pointing a gun at the Prime Mnister, spoils his aim with a timely scream just as Stewart arrives on the scene. Stewart, having learned that the boy had been taken to the Embassy, cleverly induces the grateful Prime Minister to invite him and Doris to a reception that night at the Embassy, where he manages to rescue the child before any harm can come to him. It was produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, from a screenplay by John Michael Hayes and Angus MacPhail, based on a story by Charles Bennett and D. B. WyndhamLewis. Family. "Hilda Crane" with Jean Simmons, Guy Madison and Jean Pierre Aumont (20th Century-Fox, April; time, 87 min.) Centering around the trials and tribulations of an attractive but restless young woman whose search for domestic happiness, after two unsuccessful marriages, is stymied by her own wayward tendencies, "Hilda Crane" is a "soap opera" drama, the kind that probably will not win critical acclaim, but it has saleable ingredients and, properly exploited, should give a good account of itself at the boxoffice, for it is the type of picture that has given ample satisfaction to audiences in the past, particularly women. Although her role is hardly one that rates the spectator's sympathy, Jean Simmons effectively gets across the character of a confused young woman who makes a mess of her life through her own weaknesses. Guy Madison is sympathetic as her third husband, an understanding fellow who marries her in spite of her past, and Jean Pierre Aumont is smooth and oily as a debonaire college professor who pursues Jean and succeeds in enticing her to his bedroom when her husband leaves town on a business trip. As in most stories of this kind, the heroine is constantly faced with problems, but in the end everything is resolved satis