Harrison's Reports (1962)

January 20, 1962 HARRISON'S REPORTS 7 this librarian runner is tripping along smoochingly with the "zophtic" Zetterling. The fact that her husband is boss-man of the Library Council won't hurt when Sellers is interviewed for a higher post at the book mart. He gets the job and also gets uncompro' misingly moral. He'll have none of the clandestine meetings with the blonde beauty. He'll have more of his wife and a lot of traveling. The latter is via a mobile library where his roving eye is watched over by his ever-loving wife. Executive producer, Leslie Gilliat. He also directed. Bryan Forbes did the screenplay which is based on the novel, "That Uncertain Feeling." General patronage. "Moon Pilot" with Tom Tryon, Brian Keith, Edmond O'Brien, Dany Saval, Tommy Kirk (Buena Vista, April; 98 mins.) FAIR. This is not one of those usually dependable Disney delights. In fact, there are so many weak' nesses in the presentation that you wonder if the vehicle is from the workshop of the prize winning producer. To be sure, this is Disney's first time out in the realm of all live-action penetrating our space age. It is a cross between comedy, romance, drama, and a physical visitation from another planet. It gets itself all mixed up and the net results are rather tangled. Some pretty inane dialogue found its way into the script. A genie-like, blithesome young lady is given to warning the pilot to the moon. She seems to have more brain-saving information than all the medicos of the Air Force put together. She is given to speaking French which sounds more like Hollywood Berlitz. At times the film plays itself out with so much slapstickish absurdity, that it robs the story of whatever entertainment values it strives to achieve. It's a loud, raucous, lacklustre attempt to make the experimental moonflight into a vehicle of entertainment. The route taken leads us up lost alleys. Performances are not distinguished. Even an acting stalwart like Edmond O'Brien got himself lost in the weakness of the film. At times the whole thing was playing itself out as if "Moon Pilot" were a pilot film of early Tv. This was filmed (Technicolor) with the cooperation of the United States Air Force. To be sure, the aerial shots are thrillingly exciting. But, the whole thing fails to register. Its believability founders in its inacceptability. Briefly, we find a massive rocket rounding the moon as the experimental monkey returns safely to the air force base. A dinner is thrown by the commanding officer which is attended by eight astronauts. There is a call for a volunteer to make another flight. By accident, Tom Tryon is accepted. He wants a three-day leave before he takes off. The high command tells him to be very secretive. On the plane a beatnick-type girl (Dany Saval) gives him an antidote for air-sickness. From then on, where he goes, goes the girl. He's ordered back to the base, also picked up by a squad of Federal Security Agents, headed by Edmond O'Brien. From then on a Keystone Kop kind of slapdash farce plays itself out. Tryon, right under the watchful eyes of the sleuths gets lost more times than a kid at a circus. He can't lose the young lady. She wants him to take a formula for protection when he rockets up toward the moon. Finally, the rocket-rider gets back to the base, he takes off for the moon, and before he could repeat some of the real-life dialogue of our two recent astronauts, there is genie-like girl kissing him, hugging him and violating all the rules laid down to him before he took off. Instead of heading back for home, Tryon and the girl book passage for the planet where they'll spend their honeymoon. Directed by James Neilson; screenplay by Maurice Tombragel, based on the story by Robert Buckner. General patronage. "Walk on the Wild Side" with Laurence Harvey, Capucine, Jane Fonda, Anne Baxter, Barbara Stanwyck (Columbia, February; 114 mins.) VERY GOOD. This can almost be said to be early Tennessee Williams. It is laid in the deep south (New Orleans) ; illicit love can be had at a price; in a plush bordello humanity reduces itself to the most vicious denominator; it is sprinkled with gutter-language; the moral degradation of man (or woman) is almost the accepted mode of life of the society with which this deals. All of this badness is to be found here. But also, there is the goodness of one man who, driven by a worshipful kind of love, shows the other, ever-trusting, side of the human coin. There is a sense of honesty to the delineation of the plot, an honesty and directness that hit your emotions with cold-blooded impact. The chief protagonist's (Laurence Harvey) relentless quest and search for this one woman of his life, for instance, could have destroyed itself on the rocks of implausibility and slobbering sentimentality. But, the tale is told with stern conviction. The grown man's boyish-like faith that he'll find that love, marry her and even be forced to follow the example of a prophet by hiding his harlot-wife in the woods away from all men for whom she may have a physical yearning, comes across rather appealingly. It is the power of the story that makes this film what it is, - highly entertaining. This is something on the big plus side of Hollywood movie-making. In addition to the tight, compelling story there are a series of performances that are unforgettably thrilling. Barbara Stanwyck, for instance, who isn't seen too often these days, helps herself to several scenes as if there were no one else within the focus of the cameras. What a talent hers is. Capucine has some tough competition. While she doesn't rise to any great dramatic heights, the lady has highly attractive features, an alluring kind of appeal and a rather sensitive, wistfully submissive approach to her role. But, a youngster who does scale the heights, is young Jane Fonda as an innocent trollop. Anne Baxter, as usual, does a superb job. The drama was shot in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Photography, good. It is the early 1930's and a lovelorn man (Laurence Harvey) is on his way from Texas to New Orleans. On the lonely road he meets up with a lovely young ( Continued on FoUowinn Pane)