Harrison's Reports (1958)

January 4, 1958 HARRISON'S REPORTS 3 intensely interested in all men except her husband. She makes a play for Madison, who is attracted to her but who does not trust her. Infuriated over his wife's attentions to Madison, Greene assigns different henchmen to the task of killing the deputy, but Madison disposes of them one by one in a series of dangerous encounters. In due time matters reach the point of a showdown between Madison and Greene, with Valerie attempting to persuade Madison to kill the husband she despises. In the final gunfight, however, Valerie herself kills Greene before Madison can do so, and she is shocked no end when Madison places her under arrest for being responsible for the murder of one of his friends. It was produced by Helen Ainsworth and directed by George Sherman from a screenplay by Leo Katcher, based on his novel. Adults. "Rodan!" with an all-Japanese cast (Dist. Corp. of America, T^ov.; time, 70 mm.) Photographed in color and produced in Japan with an all-Japanese cast, this is a sort of science-fiction melodrama, with horror as its basis. Since English dialogue has been dubbed in, it can, if properly exploited, get by on a double bill wherever pictures of this type are acceptable. The story is the usual hokum about pre-historic monsters that wreak havoc and destruction after being unearthed by atomic explosions, but the action is fast all the way through, and the monsters, thanks to the expert special effects, should impress the followers of horror melodramas. The picture must have cost considerable money, for it seems as if no expense was spared to employ every possible trick that would grip the audience's attention. Even the Japanese Army is used to create excitement, for all sorts of military power is employed to subdue the monsters. The photography and the color are below par: — When a flood strikes a huge Japanese coal mine, Kenji Sawara, a young engineer, rushes to the scene with a rescue team. They find the body of a miner drenched in blood and conclude that more than an ordinary mining accident was involved. Shortly thereafter, fear sweeps the area when a gigantic crawling insect attacks the village and kills several policemen, inflicting wounds that are identical to those found on the dead miner's body. The monster retreats to the mine, pursued by Sawara and combat squads from the Army. A sudden cave-in occurs and the mine is soon filled with more of the monsters. All flee except Sawara, who had been trapped. Alone, he sees a giant winged monster being hatched from a large egg. He loses consciousness and is later found by a volcanic research party, dazed and suffering from a complete loss of memory. New terror strikes the land when a flying monster roars across the skies at a speed surpassing sound. Baffled scientists are unable to identify the creature until Sawara relives the agonizing scene he had witnessed in the mine. As a result of his information, they identify the monster as a "Rodan," a pterodactyl of enormous size, whose huge wingspread enabled it to race at incredible speeds. Employing jet fighters and rocket missiles, the Army pursues the Rodan and manages to wound it. A second Rodan appears, swoops down to aid its wounded comrade and both race away. The monsters finally are trapped in the crater of a volcano, their breeding place. The army attacks them with atomic weapons, which cause the volcano to erupt. It ends with the monsters suffering a flaming death in the fiery lava. It is a King Bros, presentation, produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka and directed by Inoshiro Honda from a screenplay by Takeshi Kimura and Takeo Murata. Family. "The World Was His Jury" with Edmond O'Brien and Mona Freeman (Columbia, January; time, 82 min.) This program drama is synthetic in that the characters obey the will of the author rather than act as human beings would act in real life. But the courtroom trial, which takes up a major part of the footage, has been staged so effectively that it offsets most of the story's defects. The trial grips one's interest because it has been handled in a logical and realistic manner, and because Edmond O'Brien, as the defense attorney, wins the spectator's good will by his determined efforts to save his innocent client from being found guilty, despite overwhelming public sentiment against him. One also admires O'Brien for refusing to give up the case, despite the well-intentioned pleas of his wife, who felt that it would do his reputation no good. There is no comedy relief, but it is hardly needed. The photography is good: — When a luxury liner off the New Jersey coast is wrecked by a violent explosion and 162 crewmen and passengers lose their lives, Robert McQueeney, the captain, is charged with criminal negligence by a Coast Guard board of inquiry and held for trial. No one believes in the innocence of McQueeney, who had taken command of the ship at Port Au Prince, where the previous skipper had died. Subordinate officers had testified that he had been lax in enforcing discipline, and that he had been physically unfit to handle the emergency because of socializing with the passengers. Although public opinion called for a quick verdict of guilty, Edmond O'Brien, a famed attorney, undertakes McQueeney 's defense in the hope that he will find something favorable to hang the case on. He is unable to do so, but, believing in McQueeney 's innocence, he goes into court with wit and daring as his only weapons. Mona Freeman, O'Brien's wife, begs him to withdraw from the case, but he refuses to do so even though she threatens to leave him. O'Brien utilizes all sorts of legal tricks to stall the trial and influence the jurors, and his first break comes when he cross-examines Matt Lorenz, a crewman who had testified against McQueeney, and proves that he is an ex-convict whose word means nothing. John Berardino, a private investigator working for O'Brien, follows Lorenz after he leaves the courtroom and trails him to a shabby apartment, where he (Lorenz) is stabbed to death by a man who escapes before Berardino can capture him. Back in court, O'Brien establishes that other prosecution witnesses, who had signed on as crew members in Port Au Prince, were ex-convicts, and that all had been hired by Paul Birch, the ship's first officer. O'Brien calls Birch to the stand and he appears to be sympathetic to McQueeney. But O'Brien, through brilliant crossexamination, compels Birch to admit that he, jealous because McQueeney had been promoted over him, had caused the ship to be wrecked to discredit him, and that he had murdered Lorenz to prevent him from revealing the facts. McQueeney is quickly acquitted. Mona returns to O'Brien possessed of a deeper appreciation of the "innocent until proven guilty" concept. It was produced by Sam Katzman and directed by Fred F. Sears from a screenplay by Herbert Abbott Spiro. Family.