Harrison's Reports (1961)

June 3, 1961 HARRISON'S REPORTS 87 Dahlbeck is excellent as Wieth's browbeaten, brutalized wife. Outstanding is blond newcomer Maj-Britt Nilsson as die comely Swede who helps lead the Yank astray. Photography is excellent: — Patrick O'Neal, a minor official of a Milwaukee bank, arrives in Stockholm to verify final details" of a million'dollar loan for which a Swedish factory is collatoral He meets Mogens Wieth, the factory manager. An employee of the plant tries to warn O'Neal that Wieth, with a group of associates, is looting the firm's assets, but the man is "accidentally" killed before he can explain what's happening. One condition of the loan is an insurance policy on the life of financier, Gosta Cederlund, the factory's owner, who has been away from Sweden for many years. We learn that Wieth, a sadistic manipulator of people, is ex' tremely brutal with his wife, Eva Dahlbeck. He introduces O'Neal to his lovely sister-in-law, Maj-Britt Nilsson. O'Neal immediately falls in love with her, tells her his wife in The States doesn't understand him, that he will get a divorce. Seeing that Wieth is trying to implicate O'Neal, Maj-Britt, who flits from affair to affair, tells the American she won't marry him. Nevertheless, he returns to the U.S. Some months later, O'Neal returns to Stockholm. He has divorced his wife, lost his job. Maj-Britt is not particularly interested in him, although he has given up everything to marry her. He joins Wieth, assigning to him the million-dollar policy on Cederlund's life. Cederlund unexpectedly returns to Stockholm. Wieth persuades O'Neal that the only way out for them is to slay the financier. As O'Neal is about to murder the man, Cederlund takes his own life with a pistol. O'Neal phones Wieth who tells him to make the suicide appear as murder. Only when the police ap' proach does O'Neal realize that Wieth is framing him, has turned in the alarm O'Neil escapes long enough to kill Wieth. Maj-Britt, learning of the two slayings, tries to reach O'Neal, arrives to see the police taking him away. Produced by John D Hess and Steven G. Hopkins. John Cromwell directed from Hess' screenplay. Adults. "The Warrior Empress" with Kerwin Mathews, Tina Louise and Riccardo Garrone (Columbia, May; time, 97 min.) Fair. This Italian-made spectacle, utilizing Greek mythology and fact, has as its major asset a bevy of 6cantily-draped beauties, lesbian devotees of the goddess Aphrodite. Previously known as "Sappho, Goddess of Lesbos," ("Saffo, Venere di Lesbo"), the costly Eastman Color-CinemaScope production tells of a young Lesbian, who befriends the leader of a rebellion against a tyrant. The plot's action-jammed, with lots of gore and violence: battles with lions, hand-to-hand combat. On the debit side is the complicated story line, weak dubbing and the lack of marquee power: — Kerwin Mathews, leader of a rebellion against Enrico Maria Salerno, tyrannical Mytilene king, is wounded by royal guards, then by a lion. He escapes, hides in the Temple of Aphrodite. An officer of the guards, Alberto Farenese, introduces his leader, Riccardo Garrone, to his sister, Sappho, Tina Louise, devotee of Aphrodite and niece of the king. After Garrone returns to the palace, Mathews is found by Tina and other maidens, and is hidden and nursed to health. One temple maiden, Susi Golgi, is angry. She loves Tina herself. She tells Mathews that Tina's only using him to get information from him. Tina and Mathews are told at the cave of the Sybil that their destinies are in the hands of Amphitrite, bride of Poseidon. Susi, jealous, informs Garrone of Mathews' presence. Tina stalls Garrone and Mathews escapes. Awakening from a dream, Tina calls upon Amphi' trite in time to save Mathews from a storm. Later, Mathews poses as a guard, learns that Garrone is set to marry Tina. Meanwhile, Susi commits suicide. Mathews returns to his rebel band, learns of murder, rape by king's tax collectors and plans a full-scale war. Tina postpones her wedding. Mathews, surprised to hear that she is to wed Garrone, meets Tina, effects a reconciliation. Garrone finds out who Mathews is, makes Tina promise to marry him to save Mathews, who is arrested. Convicted as a guard who struck a superior officer, Mathews is exiled. A boatload of rebels rescue him. Garrone tells Tina that Mathews has slain her brother. She asks him to avenge his death. The rebels, led by Mathews, take over the city. The king surrenders. Garrone is arrested, returned to rank. Tina has become high priestess. Her brother appears, saved at sea, tells that Garrone plotted his death to frame Mathews, and to make Tina sole heir to the throne. In a duel with Mathews, Garrone falls into a lion-filled moat. Tina renounces her vows to Aphrodite, plans to marry Mathews. A Documento Film Orsay Film Co-production. Produced by Gianni Hecht Lucari, directed by Pietro Francisci from a script by Ennio de Concini, Francisci, and Luciano Martino. From a story by Francisci. Adults. "Gidget Goes Hawaiian" with James Darren, Michael Callan and Deborah Walley (Columbia, June; time, 102 min.) Poor. An unwholesome romantic melodrama deal' ing with a sexy teen-ager's unhappy love life on vacation in Hawaii with her parents. The Eastman Color (print by Pathe) picture takes little advantage of the island setting, relies mainly on such trite unpleasant topics as Gidget 's rumored promiscuity, her par' ents alleged infidelity. Newcomer Deborah Walley seems unable to play a "good girl" even when the script calls for it, which is seldom. James Darren and Michael Callan offer undistinguished, indistinguishable performances. Teenagers — at whom the screen' play is aimed — should find this a terrific bore. Eddie Foy, Jr. and Peggy Cass are the only skilful players. This sequel will have to lean heavily on the earlier Gidget 's success: — Gidget, Deborah Walley, is unhappy when her parents, Carl Reiner and Jeff Donnell, tell her the family's going to Hawaii for a vacation. Deborah has just received a pin from James Darren, whom she's been after for some time. When Darren tells Deborah that he's happy about her going to Hawaii, she takes it the wrong way, and they part. On die plane, Deborah meets Vicki Trickett, another teen-age beauty. Vicki's coarse parents, Eddie Foy, Jr. and Peggy Cass, make friends with Deborah's folks. Also on the Ha(Continued on Tiext Page)