Harrison's Reports (1962)

122 HARRISON'S REPORTS August 11, 1962 "Two Weeks in Another Town" with Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton, Claire Trevor (M-G-M, August; 107 mins.) FAIR. This script must have read well. Almost as if Oscar himself were delivering the re-assuring lines of promised greatness. As a matter of fact, the Academy Award symbol of motion picture achieve' ment is all over the film, with proper credit on screen, press material, etc., to the Academy of Motion Pic ture Arts and Sciences. Yes, this is a story of Hollywood. Its movie making beyond the slopes of the Pacific (Rome, Italy) . It is the story of a business to which many are attracted, but very few are chosen; where the promises loom big, but the residue of fulfillment small; where everybody is supposed to be successful and so very happy. Yet, the specter of disillusionment, disappointment and suicidal insecurity hang over most of its workers, especially those in the upper-brackets. Two of our chief protagonists fall in the latter category. They're big marquee names, Kirk Douglas and Edward G. Robinson. Each in his own right is a seasoned, polished performer. But, the original story (from a man who knows how to rub the patina of drama into his writings, Irwin Shaw) failed in its fashioning into a powerful film yarn with all its emotional impact, plot-structural smoothness and dramatic tightness. It does not come through as a highly entertaining release. This had too much going for it not to have emerged as a more enjoyable entry upon the famished summer screens. Which reminds us, this M-G-M release is the first one to play the Paramount (New York) Theatre in eight years. Properly exploited, however, this may do business. It is still heavy with "want-to-see" names. But, it is light in its treatment of a powerful theme, Hollywood and what goes on behind the picture-making scenes. The Douglas character fails to come through with its clear-cut understandability. Somehow, he fails to beget your sympathy. The few scenes of his former wife (Cyd Charisse) are too frivolously fluffy like the negligees she wears with the imperial bravura of a bordello queen. Edward G. Robinson's performance runs the gamut from the unrelenting slave-driver to the henpecked husband, but he wavers between powerful characterization to downright scenery-chewing. George Hamilton, a mixed-up leading man fails, by getting the on-looker more than a little mixed up. A beauty of breathless appeal, Dahlia Lavi, comes out of it nicely. Done in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, the photography is a job of beauty. Kirk Douglas is finally released from a three-year stretch in a sanitarium. He yields to the pleading of film director Edward G. Robinson, flys to Rome to take a small part in Robinson's film. But, there is no part for Douglas. Instead, with clever Robinsonian coaxing. Douglas takes on the tangled-up job of supervising the dubbing. He meets up with his exwife (Cyd Charisse) who messed up his life. Douglas also meets up and falls in love with a beautiful young Italian actress, Dahlia Levi. He even wants to marry her. In the meantime, Robinson is stricken with an attack, Douglas finishes the film, successfully. Having plunged himself into this work he suddenly finds himself free of Simon Legree Robinson, his old love, his new love, his weaknesses. He departs alone by plane for Hollywood and a new start. Produced by John Houseman; directed by Vicente Minnelli, screenplay by Charles Schnee, based on the novel by Irwin Shaw. General patronage. "Damn the Defiant!" with Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Quayle (Columbia, September; 101 mins.) FAIR. For a while, the ever-reliable westerns have been foresaken a little and the war plots have been trotted out. This one takes us back to the Napoleonic era. Our chief protagonists are those ever-precisely obedient men of the British Navy. This again, falls in the line of service pictures and no matter with what confused complexity things may work themselves out (story-wise) you have to admire with what compelling sincerity a Britisher attacks his role when in uniform. It is said that Alec Guinness can't possibly give a bad performance. While he holds to his high ranks of histrionic achievement in this one, he is held back from delivering the nature of a job of work that makes for the kind of a cinema worthy of high recommendation. Dirk Bogarde is wily and hostile, while Anthony Quayle is an understanding mutineer. The skeins of the plot-pattern stretch themselves rather thin, giving the tale an element of confusion, especially down towards its final chapters when the fighting takes place among the ships of the various enemy nations. While the interiors were made in London, the marine scenes drape themselves across the screen with the majestic beauty of seascapes done by the masters. A dimensional CinemaScope and mural-like Eastman Color were used for the eyecompelling effects. It is too bad that the story of England's mastery of the sea and her brave men who go down to the sea in ships, didn't play itself out with more telling effects and deliver a clearer-cut vehicle of entertainment. Alec Guinness is the commander of the H.M.S. Defiant. For all his toughly experienced background, he remains a rather sympathetic man. Yet, as the Defiant gets ready to set sail on a hazardous mission, and his only son goes along as a junior midshipman, Guinness informs everybody that the boy (David Robinson) is to be treated like any other junior midshipman." Guinness and his first lieutenant, Dirk Bogarde, don't see eye-to-eye. Once the ship is under way the relationship between the two grows worse. Bogarde treats the crew with bestial contempt. Guinness' little boy comes under the whiplash of Bogarde's rule. By the time the Defiant is ready to reach the Mediterranean, the entire ship's company is ready for open rebellion. The French have gained a victory and the British fleet has withdrawn in order not to be cut off. The Defiant encounters enemy ships and bombards them to the bottom of the sea. There are more sea battles. In the meantime, Guinness has had an arm shattered and it must be amputated giving the command to Bogarde. He rides herd unmercifully on the men. Outright mutiny is at hand. Guinness asks to see Anthony Quayle, leader of the mutineers. He