Harrison's Reports (1956)

190 HARRISON'S REPORTS December 1, 1956 "A Woman's Devotion" with Ralph Meeker, Janice Rule and Paul Henreid (Republic, J^ov. 9; time, 88 mm.) Although photographed against picturesque Acapuleo, Mexico, backgrounds, which are enhanced by very good Trucolor photography, "A Woman's Devotion" shapes up as no more than a moderately interesting murder mystery melodrama of program grade. The pivotal character in the story is an American war hero who suffers recurrences of battle shock and who presumably murders two women while he is mentally unbalanced. The less than adequate screenplay never makes clear if he had actually committed the murders, not even after he himself is killed by the police when he goes beserk. The story's title stems from the efforts of the hero's wife to protect him from the police, despite his apparent guilt. The pace is somewhat slow and heavy, and the plot is developed so sketchily that one's interest wanders from the screen. Neither the direction nor the acting are impressive: — Vacationing in Acapulco with Janice Rule, his bride of six months, Ralph Meeker, a painter and World War II hero, finds himself suspected of murdering a Mexican waitress, whom he had met in a bar and who had posed for him in her home. Questioned by Paul Henreid, a police captain, Meeker admits being with the woman but denies that he had killed her. Janice angrily defnds him to Henreid but she becomes concerned when Yerye Beirute, the murdered woman's husband, acting through Rosenda Monteros, his young mistress, tries to blackmail her with incriminating sketches made of his wife by Meeker. Later, Janice suspects the worst when she learns that Meeker suffered recurrences of battle shock, after which he could not remember what he had done. Urged by Janice, Meeker goes to Beirute to recover the sketches and finds him in a drunken stupor. He pays Rosenda for the drawings and reacts violently when she makes a play for him. On the following morning, Rosenda is found murdered, and Bierute, though innocent, is charged with her death as well as that of his wife. Henried, now convinced that Meeker is innocent, gives him permission to leave the country with Janice. At the airport, however, the roar of plane engines affects Meeker and he believes that he is back in battle action. He goes beserk and obtains possession of a guard's gun, but he is shot down by the police before he can commit wholesale murder. It ends with his dying in Janice's arms. It was produced by John Bash, and directed by Paul Henreid, from a story and screenplay by Robert Hill. Adult fare. "The Wild Party" with Anthony Quinn, Carol Ohmart and Jay Robinson (United. Artists, ~h{ovember; time, 81 min.) "The Wild Party" is unique adult film fare, but it is also weird, sordid and decidedly unpleasant. It is a story about a harrowing night of terror experienced by a young couple when they are kidnapped and brutally manhandled by jazz-crazed, jive-talking hoodlums lmking for victims with money. The picture no doubt will hold some sort of fascination for those who seek something different in screen enter tainment, but what they will see is a disagreeable and distasteful depiction of man's inhumanity toward man, inflicted by mixed-up characters with sick minds and without a spark of human decency. Aside from the fact that the story is displeasing and the characterizations obnoxious, the direction and acting are first-rate. Anthony Quinn is most effective as the leader of the hoodlums, a savage, hulking ex-football hero who still looked upon himself as a "big man" but who had become a human dreg, dependent on his animal strength to exist and satisfy his desires. Impressive characterizations are turned in also by the players who enact his cronies, including Nehemiah Persoff, as a bewildered piano player who fears Quinn but follows him; Jay Robinson, as a foppish sadist who likes to slash his victims with a switchblade knife; and Kathryn Grant, as a young and pretty girl who had been beaten into apathy by Quinn and who finds release only in jive music and in "flying high." Carol Ohmart is good as a society girl who fights off Quinn's brutal advances while he holds her hostage, and Arthur Franz is competent as her courageous boy-friend who absorbs much physical punishment in his futile efforts to defend her. The squalid backgrounds are in keeping with the grim and base mood of the story. The photography is expert, but it is in a low key: — Desperately in need of money, Quinn and his pals decide to go on the prowl for victims. Robinson strikes up an acquaintance with Carol and Franz in a swank cocktail bar and lures them to a shabby cafe to hear some unusual jive music. Quinn, attracted by Carol's obvious class and breeding, makes a play for her and she in turn is drawn by his animal magnetism, but she decides to leave when his aggressiveness and uncontrolled passion prove repelling. By leading Carol to believe that she had lost her car keys, Quinn and his cronies induce her and Franz to accept a lift in their car, ostensibly to be driven to a cab stand. Instead, Quinn drives them to an abandoned house where he lived and, by making improper advances to Carol, forces Franz to attempt to raise $4,000 in cash from Paul Stewart, a close friend and nightclub operator. When Franz is unable to obtain the money, Quinn decides to force Carol into marrying him and to eventually make her wealthy family pay for her freedom. Carol agrees to cooperate lest Quinn cripple Franz for life. Quinn dispatches Persoff and Kathryn to send a telegram to Carol's folks over her signature informing them that she is eloping with Quinn. While they are gone, Quinn throws Robinson down an air shaft after discovering that he had made a deal with Franz to doublecross him. Meanwhile Persoff, in love with Kathryn and fed up with Quinn's viciousness, convinces her that they must not let Quinn claim another victim in Carol. She agrees to join him in notifying the police but insists that they drive back to warn Quinn and give him a chance to escape. When Quinn learns what they had done, he starts to strangle Persoff. Kathryn, to save the helpless man, runs down Quinn with the car. Fatally injured, Quinn dies as the police drive up and end the night of terror. It was produced by Sidney Harmon, and directed by Harry Horner, from a story and screenplay by John McPartland. Strictly adult fare.