Harrison's Reports (1962)

54 HARRISON'S REPORTS April 14, 1962 "The Counterfeit Traitor" with William Holden, Lilli Palmer, Hugh Griffith (Paramount, July; 140 mms.) VERY GOOD. If truth is stranger than fiction, then it is stronger in its impact on the war-story weary listener. This plays itself out with penetrating power and emotional surge. Chief protagonist of the tale, Eric Erickson, master Allied spy (portrayed by William Holden) is alive, today. He lived this terror 'Stricken, dangerous story. Out of its pages charged with what may well be the granddaddy of the cloak-and-dagger school of espionage, sabotage, traitor-baiting, comes this superb piece of motion picture entertainment. There are all those heroics which marked the real-life operations of the men who carried on their warfare behind the lines. There are the dangers, the sacrifices, the torment and the beatings. But, you're always remindful of the fact that they are woven out of the texture of truth into a pattern of tautly exciting film entertainment. There can be boring, overplayed, unexciting truth too! So, there are William Pcrlberg and George Seaton to think of as you sing the praises of this film, and think of the huge grosses this should run up. You can't see this thundering drama without talking about it after you've left the theatre. It will be all good talk, because this is all good stuff. Lending to the reality of the spy story is the fact that most of the filming took place in the actual locales of the drama, - Germany, Denmark and Sweden. There is a chilling coldness to many of these scenes. Technicolor captured it with the power that is the medium. There is an unforgettable job of superb play-acting turned in by Holden and Lilli Palmer. William Holden (as Eric Erickson) is a New Yorker. But now, 1942, with World War II in full blast, he's a prominent business man in Stockholm, having become a Swedish citizen. He's on the Allies' blacklist for trading oil with Nazi Germany. Hugh Griffith, a British agent, sort-of "blackmails" Holden into cooperating with the Allies about German oil. And so, Holden becomes a "counterfeit traitor." This calls for becoming friendly with the enemy, - Germany. Holden takes on a series of visits to Germany. He meets Lilli Palmer who becomes his confederate. Some of his newly-made German friends mistrust him. He is placed under Nazi surveillance. Holden succeeds in recruiting important Germans, using threats, horse trading, and clever trickery. Of course Holden's road is dangerous. But, as he follows the espionage blueprint of operation and works with Miss Palmer, the "not-for-real" intimacy with her is developing into impassioned reality. Being extremely religious, she confesses about the death and destruction she helped cause. But, an S.S. Officer slipped into the church cubicle. She is arrested, "tried" and condemned to death. Holden, himself held in the Berlin prison, is forced to watch the execution of the brave, lovely woman he had grown to love, very deeply. He is released from prison, hurries to the home of a trusted (and departed) friend to retrieve a very important paper. The suspicious young son of the friend snatches the briefcase (containing the document) and runs off with it. Holden catches up with the boy and persuades him to burn the incriminating letter. Holden seeks safety in the red-light district of Hamburg where an Allied agent plies her trade. With the help of the underground operators he completes his dangerous (and long) flight to freedom. His work as a "counterfeit traitor" is over. His life-risking contributions have helped shorten the war. Produced by William Pcrlberg; directed by George Seaton who also did the screenplay based on the novel by Alexander Klein. General patronage. "Don't Knock the Twist" with Chubby Checker, Gene Chandler, Vic Dana (Columbia, April; 87 mms.) FAIR. The title lends itself to all sorts of twitting. But, in a sober, serious evaluation of the box office merits of this, in the latest of a series, (from the majors) of raucous, cacophonous exercises in the latest moan-beat excuse for music, we'd say that the teenagers have got it made. They've got the melodic (?) gyrater Chubby Checker who's responsible for all the twistin' that's been unleashing itself on the former hepcats. Checker picks up where Elvis (pelvis) Presley left off, except that Checker doesn't limit his gateswing to the pelvis region. To be sure, Checker's a personable young man. Overnight, it got him up to near the seven figure class. So don't knock the craze. Checker is on for most of the running time and he does, what seems to come to him naturally, with breathless gusto, fast tempo and loose-leaf rhythm. He delivers a mess of songs as he twists, what there is of the alleged story, all out of shape. To repeat, this is just what the doctor ordered for the young folks, as the rot-'n'-roll craze is dying out slowly suffering from its own anemia. Photography, fair. The bossman of one network hears that the opposition is ready to stage a big twist spectacular. He orders his program director to come in with one a month earlier. Lang Jeffries begins recruiting twist talent. Chubby Checker says he'll be on the early show, also he'll corral some of the proven twisters, - Gene Chandler, Vic Dana, Linda Scott, the Carroll Bros., The Dovells, etc. Some of 'em sing. Out of these young pros comes a surprise. It's a rank amateur (Georgine Darcy) and a partner who make the biggest impression on the Tv programmer the week-end he spent with his fashion-designer fiancee (Mari Blanchard) up in the country. The little country girl takes over the spotlight. The kick-off Tv twist show is being fashioned around this amateur. She's taking everything (and everybody) by storm. Even the Tv titan. He's lost Miss Blanchard, by this time. She gets even by creating an all-revealing Salome costume (and how they kick the Salome mispronunciation around) for the Darcy doll. The bulb-and-shutter boys get a shot of it, the home town paper front-pages it thus helping its editorial battle against the violence and sex that have taken over Tv. The show is called off by the sponsor. A young group from the Orphans Summer Camp (benefactors of the Tv show) plead with the television tycoon, the show is back on the air, and there you have it. Produced by Sam Katzman; directed by Oscar Rudolph; screenplay by James B. Gordon. General patronage.