Harrison's Reports (1962)

70 HARRISON'S REPORTS May 12, 1962 "Lisa" with Stephen Boyd, Dolores Hart, Hugh Griffith (20th Century-Fox, June; 112 mins.) VERY GOOD. This him does something to your emotions. Its flow of subdued romance and pounding drama build up within you as if some hidden dam of humanity was about to be dynamited. These days of a big phalanx of star names heading up the casts for their high box office potential, you didn't expect too much in that department. None of the stars has powerhouse value for the marquee. But, they have enough of the basic talents to lend strength, believability, and sympathetic appeal to a story that stands strong against the many encroachments that can bedevil such nature of plot-structure. It refused to allow its drama to turn into melodrama; the wistful touches of pathos into hokey bathos; its obvious sincerity segueing into insincerity. The fictional structure of the tale can well rise from the foundation of truth. The romantic leads, Stephen Boyd and Dolores Hart gave warmth, sympathy, intense meaning to their roles. Boyd is superb. From Hugh Griffith down to the lesser support, the performances held like the dikes of Holland through which the tale glides in its scenic reality. To be sure, in addition to the brooding vistas of the Dutch country in which is set part of the Jan Dc Hartog novel, locale work found the cameras, the crews, the players in Wales and Tangiers. The process of CincmaScopc and the lush tints of DeLuxe picked up the scenic beauties of these places with eye-compelling effect. It all added to the majestic emotional power that propelled the smooth movement of the story. It was a background that helped give meaning to the warm dialogue, the compassionate feeling, the crystal-clear delineation of character, especially when the two leads (Boyd-Hart) reached some of the more tender interludes of a victim of conscience and a girl of heartbreaking punishment realizing how much they needed each other. Of course, this will have its special appeal to the women. It should be a welcome arrival at most of the box offices of the nation. Stephen Boyd is an inspector in the Dutch police. His fiancee was slaughtered in a Nazi concentration camp during the war. He did nothing about it. He became a victim of conscience. With the war over, he is assigned to watch an ex-Nazi white-slaver whose current victim is Lisa (Dolores Hart). To Boyd the girl is his dead love reincarnated. He rescues the girl from the white-slaver in a struggle that results in the latter's accidental death. Miss Hart wants only one thing in life, --to emigrate to Palestine. Boyd guarantees to deliver her to the promised land, making them both fugitives of justice. The route to Palestine is a long, hard, hazardous one. Via smugglers' barges, border nets they finally reach the beaches of Palestine and the safety of a Haganah patrol. In the course of the flight, Boyd had fallen in love with Miss Hart; it was decided that she veto the advice of American friends who felt that she belonged at the Nuremberg trials as a witness. The Nazis used her as a living cadaver for surgical demonstrations almost making her incapable of being a real wife to any man. Wounded in a gun-battle, when on one of the smuggling barges, she is taken to a hospital in her new homeland. She is conveyed in the lone tank British-controlled Israel gave to the Allied forces during the war. Identified by its blue Star of David, it rolls off the beach as Boyd, knowing that each is in love with the other, waits for the British authorities to pick him up and take him back to pay the penalties of a law-breaker. Produced by Mark Robson; directed by Philip Dunne; screenplay by Nelson Gidding based on the novel by Jan De Hartog. General patronage. "A Taste of Honey" with Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens (Continental, Current; 100 mins.) FAIR. Our British brethren of the cinema have begun to compete with their French, Italian, Danish neighbors over there in the pursuit of off-beat, sexridden, depravitytcmpoed themes. Turned out by the more successful practitioners of the so-called new school of neo-realism, it is, of course, for that graduate school of movie-viewing, the art house. When the exhibitors in this phase of showbusiness book the film, they'll no doubt cash in on such reminders to the public that this tale, which leans heavily on miscegenation and homosexuality, is for "the emotionally mature," the adult. As a London and Broadway stage play it gained its measure of success. As a cinema, it has already garnered, over there, four "Oscars" in the British Academy sweepstakes and is a British entry in the Cannes Film Festival which is already under way. Also, for many of our contemporaries covering movies for newspapers, it may well be "a critic's picture" which too often has been a box office kiss-of -death when playing the regular theatres. While the theme is repulsive, and in many places throughout the nation should be considered with extra precaution before booking, it is well done. Production-wise, actingwise it does not falter. Photography, good. This plays itself out in the Blackpool slums begrimed by the smelly pubs, the smoky factories. A mother (Dora Bryan) imprisoned by that strange alchemy of animal-like lust isn't too concerned with the plight of her daughter (Rita Tushingham) . The youngster gives herself to a Negro sailor. Soon the 17-year old is with child. The man of the sea is off on his rounds. A sympathetic homosexual befriends the young mother-to-be. There is a strange warmth to this friendship, each seeming to need the other. They sort-of set up house. The youngster is not easy to live with. She seems to have little room in her life for him. But, he (Murray Melvin) takes it. In the meantime, the mother (Dora Bryan) returns to her daughter, herself fed up with her latest "husband" (Robert Stephens) who, to be sure, is a symbol of degrading humanity wallowing in its own muck and mire. This means the end of the strange relationship between the girl and the homosexual. To repeat, for all the sordid, repelling, off-beat nature of story, the acting of the leads is to be commended. Rita Tushingham as the daughter, a newcomer, is beautifully appealing though no beauty herself. Her mother, Miss Bryan comes through with conviction. The other portrayals are of high stature. The basic theme will find its dissenters. Maybe, it's because we've had so very much of this nature of sex-ridden filth of late. Produced and directed by Tony Richardson; screenplay by Shelagh Delaney and Richardson from the play of the same name, by Miss Delaney. For the emotionally mature.