Harrison's Reports (1958)

106 HARRISON'S REPORTS July 5, 1958 "Never Love a Stranger" with John Drew Barrymore, Lita Milan and Robert Bray (Allied Artists, June 22; time, 91 min.) Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, and photographed against authentic New York backgrounds, "'Never Love a Stranger" shapes up as a fairly strong gangster melodrama that probably will be received with mixed reactions. Blending gangster violence with an undertone of tenderness and warmth, its story about a youth who rises from the streets of New York to become the top racketeer in the country is filled with ingredients that should give ample satisfaction to undiscriminating movie-goers. Those who are fussy about story values, however, probably will find much in it that is confusing and incredible, particularly with regard to its religious aspects, which has John Drew Barrymore, as the protagonist, raised in a Catholic orphange until he is 16, only to be removed by law from its jurisdiction when it is discovered that his parents were Jewish, despite his wish to remain there. Moreover, the story's treatment lacks originality and numerous incidents are somewhat illogical. But those who are not too concerned about story values should, as said, find it to their liking, for the acting is competent and the gangster action exciting: — In 191 1, an unwed young woman dies at childbirth and her son is placed in a Catholic orphanage headed by Douglas Rodgers. The years pass and the boy (Barrymore) grows to young manhood. He is befriended by Robert Bray, a racketeer, and Walter Burke, a small-time bookie. Among his friends are Steve McQueen, a young Jewish boy, and Lita Milan, who becomes his (Barrymore's) sweetheart. Barrymore becomes a "numbers runner" for Burke, who operated from a poolroom, protected by Bray. On Barrymore's first day of work, rival mobsters kill Burke and Barrymore winds up with pay-off money belonging to Bray. He gives it to Lita for safe keeping. When he returns to the orphange that evening, he is shocked to learn that he must leave the institution because it had been discovered that he is a Jew, mistakenly brought up as a Catholic. Refusing to go to a Jewish home, Barrymore runs away after a brief goodbye to McQueen and to Lita, whom he instructs to return the pay-off money to Bray. The years pass and Barrymore, who had been bumming around, returns to New York at the height of the depression. While working in the streets, he is struck by a truck and taken to Bellevue Hospital. There, McQueen, now an Assistant District Attorney, recognizes him and tells him that Lita had become a singer in one of Bray's night-clubs. Bitter, Barrymore refuses to see her. Upon leaving the hospital, Barrymore visits Bray and becomes one of his entourage, after the racketeer makes it clear to him that Lita now is his girl. Gang wars erupt and Barrymore becomes more and more important in Bray's operations. The rival mobsters finally decide to stop the fighting and organize a criminal syndicate with Barrymore as head man. The syndicate becomes so powerful that McQueen is assigned to get Barrymore and end the underworld influence. Meanwhile Barrymore and Lita are reunited, and Bray becomes his open enemy. Bray, who had imported several killers to murder Barrymore, is him self wiped out in a showdown battle. Barrymore, mortally wounded in the fight, crashes his car while trying to return to Lita. Months later, Rodgers, head of the Catholic orphanage, receives a letter from Lita telling him of a new Barrymore and asking that he receive him with love and understanding, which had been denied his father. It was co-produced by Harold Robbins and Richard Day, who collaborated on the screenplay, based on the novel by Mr. Robbins. It was directed by Robert Stevens. Adult fare. "I Bury the Living" with Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel and Peggy Maurer (United Artitsts, July; time, 76 min.) A well made program horror melodrama that grips one's attention and keeps him mystified right up to the closing scenes, at which time it leaves one disappointed because of a weak and illogical denouement. Centering around a respectable business man who becomes chairman of a cemetery property, the weird story is concerned with the mysterious deaths that occur when he sticks black pins into the cemetery map containing the names of people who owned the plots but were still alive. The disturbed hero begins to believe that he has the power of life and death over people, and what mystifies him, as well as the audience, is that the police investigate each of the deaths and find no evidence of homicide. In the end, however, it is revealed that a disgruntled old caretaker had committed the murders, but just how he had accomplished the crimes, making it appear as if some of the victims had died from natural causes, is never explained. The eerie atmosphere of the cemetery background heightens the suspense, but this tense build-up serves only to make the weak ending all the more disappointing. The photography is good, but most of it is in a low key: — Visiting the Immortal Hills Cemetery after assuming its chairmanship, Richard Boone, a leading business man in his home town, is informed by Theodore Bikel, the 70-year-old caretaker, that the white pins on a map of the cemetery represented the lots owned by people who were still alive while the black pins represented those already buried. Bikel is upset when Boone notifies him that it had been decided to retire him on a pension. Just then a pair of newly weds arrive to purchase two plots, and Boone inadvertently sticks two black pins into their sites on the map. Shortly thereafter, the honeymooners are killed in an auto accident, and Boone, noticing that he had marked their grave sites with black rather than white pins, has an eerie feeling that he had marked them for death. That evening, before joining Peggy Maurer, his fiancee, for dinner, Boone selects at random a white pin marker on the map and replaces it with a black one. Within a few hours, the owner of the plot is found dead. Boone, disturbed, tries to resign, but the four other men on his committee refuse to accept his resignation and, to prove that the deaths were coincidental, insist that he mark their grave sites with black pins. They, too, die before the night is over, and Boone becomes convinced that he has "extra sensory perception" and has the power of life or death over