The Independent Film Journal (1955)

“Bhowani Junction” i(M-G-M) CinemaScope^Eastmaii Color 109 Min. Cast: Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger, Bill Travers, Abraham Sofaer, Francis Matthews, Marne Maitland, Peter lUing, Edward Chapman, Freda Jackson. Credits: Produced by Pondro Berman; Directed by George Cukor; Screenplay by Sonya Levien and Ivon Mofiot; Based on a novel by John Masters. Bkowani Junction has been given an exciting and tasteful production by Pandro Berman and M-G-M and could easily turn out to' be one of the company’s big winners of the year. Uniting Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger, it’s set in post-w'ar India during the tremulous late 194:0 ’s, wdien the British were about to leave the coun¬ try and domestic unrest swept through the M-G-M's "Bhowani Junction," in CinemaScopeEasbnan Color, stars Ava Gardner (above) and Stewart Granger. “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (Paramount) VistaVision-Technicolor 120 Min. Cast: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda De Banzie, Bernard Miles, Ralph Truman, Daniel Gelin, Mogens Wieth, Alan Mowbray, Hillary Brooke, Christopher Olsen, Reggie Nelader, Richard Wattis, Noel Willman, Alix Talton, Carolyn Jones. Credits: Produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock; Associate Producer, Herbert Coleman; Screenplay by John Michael Hayes and Angus MacPhail; Based on a story by Charles Bennett and D. B. WyndhomLewis As an exercise in super-charged suspense, The Man Who Knew Too Much is Alfred Hitch¬ cock ’s best picture in many years. Chilling and completely gripping once it gets underway, the film will captivate audiences everywhere and should be one of Paramount’s biggest money pictures of the year. The acknowledged master at this sort of thing, Hitchcock originally film¬ ed this thriller in England in the 1930 ’s in black-and-white. Now he’s re-produced it, using the finest production details that Paramount can offer — and they are very fine indeed : exciting location settings in Marrakech, North Africa; beautiful VistaVision and Technicolor camera work; and a cast headed by two top box office names : .James Stewart and Doris Day, the latter riding high after her success in Love Me or Leave Me. The director is the real star of this film, however, and Hitchcock has put together a mystery stew of sure-fire ingredients. An Amer¬ ican doctor, vacationing in North Africa with his entertainer wife and his seven-yearold son, inadvertently hears the last words of a dying French secret service man. The upshot: an am¬ bassador from a foreign country is about to be teeming populace. The CinemaScope-Technicolor film displays a kind of lavish realism — de¬ ploying some of the most dramatic and con¬ vincing crowd scenes ever filmed. Setting his story in a vital railroad junction, Berman stages a brilliant crowM scene of passive resist¬ ance: Congress party Indians stop a locomotive by lying in a road-bed, while Communist agita¬ tors try to stir the crowd despite the efforts of military and civil officials. There are also su¬ perb mass scenes involving a train wreck and a railway slowdo\vn. The film is devoted to the problem of the Anglo-Indian in the person of Miss Gardner. Drawn to both Indian and Brit¬ on and yet unconvinced of her ov\ti destiny. Miss Gardner has never appeared more beauti¬ ful, a phenomenon of feminity. There’s a wide range of sympathy here: for the Indian wfith whom Miss Gardner tries to fall in love; for his mother, a rabid nationalist who harbors the chief Communist agitator; for Bill Travers, an Anglo-Indian who loves her and disgusts her wfith his idolatry of the English ; and for the English colonel. Granger, whose owTi roots have been in India and who provides her wfith a substantial love. Although Indian politics and history play a vital part in molding the characters and creating interest in this film, it is a solid personal story wfith a suspenseful wind-up: Miss Gardner, a military aide, is forced by the Communist agitator to help him escape from Bhowani Junction, so that he can blow up a train bearing Ghandi and Nehru. Granger and Travis in pursuit thw'art the effort, but Travers is killed in a tense scene in a tumiel. At the end. Granger returns to England to resign his commission and to rejoin Miss Gardner in India. assassinated in London, during a symphonic performance of crashing modern music. Soon afterwards, Stewart’s son is kidnapped and threatened wfith death if the secret should be revealed. The recovery of the child by the par¬ ents, hindered by a slow-moving Scotland Yard and their own near-fatal mistakes, forms the bulk of the action. The supporting cast (mainly French and English and unfamiliar here, wfiiich adds to the suspense) is uniformly excellent, with British character actor Bernard Miles playing a mock-parson wfiio in reality is an agent of a foreign power. And there is plenty of music also. The London Symphony performs an impressive symphony which helps to move the action along, and Miss Day sings two pop¬ ular songs — all contributing to the mounting suspense. James Stewart (above) stars with Doris Day in Paramount's "The Man Who Knew Too Much," VistaVision-Technicolor. “The Revolt of Mamie Stover” (20th-Fox) CinemoScope-De Luxe 92 Min. Cost: Jane Russell, Richard Egon, Joan Leslie, Agnes Moorehead, Jorja Curtright, Michael Pate, Richard Coogan, Alan Reed, Eddie Firestone, Jeon WUes. Credits: Produced by Buddy Adler; Directed by Raoul Walsh; Screenplay by Sydney Boehm; From the novel by William Bradford Huie. Jane Russell and Richard Egan are top-cast in 20th-Fox's "The Revolt of Mamie Stover," CinemaSoope-De Luxe Color. Mamie Stover, as played by Jane Russell, had to leave San Francisco, if you know what I mean. She ’s quite a gal. Ashamed of her poor Southern background, she wants a bankroll of money so she can go back and impress her old man. Mamie shoves off for Honolulu in 1941, prior to Pear Harbor, and gets a job in Agnes Moorhead’s gilded palace. The Bungalow offers dancing, champagne and ' ‘ social entertain¬ ment, ’ ’ and is supervised by Michael Pate, an owlish sadist who beats up girls who have ‘ ‘ gentlemen friends on the outside. ’ ’ Mean¬ while, Mamie meets wealthy writer Dick Egan, engaged to socialite Joan Leslie, who tries to straighten out Mamie. Mamie becomes the star attraction at The Bungalow (she gets a per¬ centage), and after the Pearl Harbor bombing and evacuation, wfisely invests in real estate. Wlien Egan goes into the Army, Mamie gets his ring and promises to quit her job. But when Agnes tells her that Egan ’s just another salesman, that he’ll never marry her, Mamie decides to go on w-orking, just in case, and keep it a secret. Unfortunately, the American GI ’s bring a booming business to The Bunga¬ low. Mamie finally has a song written about her. One of her famous photographs reaches the battlefield and Egan, and he comes crashing back to Honolulu. Then . . . All of wfiiich should indicate that The Bevolt of Mamie Stover is a whale of an entertainment bargain. Lavishly produced by Buddy Adler, this remarkably handsome picture has every¬ thing the general audience could want: action, sex, pictorial beauty. Jane Russell gets real conviction into her w'ell-conceived portrait of Mamie, a girl who wmuld do anything for money, only because she ’s so frightened without it. Dick Egan is good as her co-star and a fine cast of supporting actors — notably Richard Coogan as a GI captain “on the make” — add to the effectiveness of this fast-moving film. The Hawaii settings are lovely, and the Pearl Harbor attack is excitingly re-created in OinemaScope and DeLuxe Color. Audience anticipa¬ tion should be high for this film, especially among those who have read or heard about the novel on which it is based. The transfer to the screen suggests Mamie’s status in life without being offensive, and is still another quality that should make Mamie Stover one of Fox’s big¬ gest hits of the year. {Continued on page 34) 32 THE INDEPENDENT FILM JOURNAL— May 12. 1956