Modern Screen (Dec 1948 - Oct 1949)

near the Canadian border, and Cornel runs it for him. (Celeste is the cashier.) Cornel, having been born poor, is a practical soul. He hates it when Widmark hires entertainers at exorbitant salaries because Widmark happens to like their legs. Which is where Ida comes in. Widmark hires her in Chicago, and when she arrives at the road house, Cornel tries to hustle her off again. "He always gets tired of his women after a while anyway," he explains more or less crudely. "Go back to Chicago." Ida gives him a smash in the face for his advice, and then proceeds to show him a thing or two. She's such a terrific draw at the road house that business booms, and Widmark is eating canaries for breakfast. This time, he's really in love. But Ida has her cap set for Cornel, and there's nothing left for Widmark but to frame Cornel on a robbery charge, and have him sentenced to from two to ten years in jail. This accomplished, he gets the judge to put Cornel on probation in his (Richard's) custody. Very clever. One false move, and Cornel goes to jail for the full ten years. Now Richard has Cornel where he wants him. He can taunt him, ride him, enrage him, and Cornel can't do anything about it. Cornel and Ida are pretty upset, because up until Richard was crossed, he seemed to be a lovely person. Any lingering illusion they ever cherished about him is speedily dispelled when he forces them — and Celeste — to go to his cabin in the woods for a few days of hunting. As soon as it becomes apparent that what he intends to hunt is them, there's a fracas. Widmark dies, nodding toward Ida. "I told you she was different," he mutters. It's a surprising speech, considering the fact that he'd just tried to bean the girl with a 90pound boulder. The acting is nice in this picture, and everybody gets an even break except, as we said before. Miss Holm — who has to stand around stopping bullets, and being hopelessly in love with Cornel. They're a couple of thankless tasks, but she does them fine. — 20th-Fox. THE DECISION OF CHRISTOPHER BLAKE Why a twelve-year-old child with an offensively precocious vocabulary and an earnest desire to blow up the house (he manufactures atom bombs in his spare time) should be considered as heart-rending as everyone in this picture considers Christopher Blake (Ted Donaldson) I haven't even begun to understand. Because of him, his parents (Alexis Smith and Robert Douglas), who seem completely and painfully bored with one another, are made to feel like cads for having harbored the thought of divorce. It isn't as though they haven't assured little Christopher that they love him passionately (more than he seems to warrant, from the wretched way he behaves). He's convinced that neither of them wants him, and that after the divorce, he'll be just so much flotsam. Being overly dramatic, he goes off into long, painful dreams. (Lady in the Dark plus Walter Mitty') where he 1) is a famous director-actor-producer who causes Mr. and Mrs. Blake to reconcile for the sake of their wonderful boy, 2) goes to call on the woman he thinks his father loves, and asks her to lay off, 3) forces the President of the United States to forbid the Blakes to divorce. All of which gets him nowhere. His parents smother him with birthday presents, beg him to smile, and still he gives them a fishy eye. Right up until the very divorce proceedings, where he's called on to choose between them. Then watch the clever trick he pulls! And sure enough, there's the sweetest reconciliation you ever saw. Until Pop falls in love again, I guess. Admittedly, there's nothing amusing about children of divorce. They're a real and heart-rending problem. But not in this picture. Sure, you can make people weep if you show 'em a courtroom scene where a mother and a father who have once loved one another stand wrenching themselves out of a marriage, while their stricken child looks on. But the emotion generated by Christopher Blake is so far from honest it makes you tired. — Warners. also showing • . • AN INNOCENT AFFAIR (U. A. ) — Fred MacMurray and Madeleine Carroll up to their old and expert tricks in a triflin' but funny comedy. Buddy Rogers makes you hope his return to the screen is permanent and Rita Johnson and the rest are fine too. . . APARTMENT FOR PEGGY (20th-Fox)— Ex-G.I. Bill Holden goes to college. He and his wife, Jeanne Crain, find a place to live in the house of an old professor, Edmund Gwynn. The prof, has been contemplating suicide, but now he's got something to live for. A superb comedy-drama that will both entertain you vastly and stimulate your pretty head. A SONG IS BORN ( Gold wyn-RKOl— Danny Kaye is a professor who falls in with a group of jazz musicians, including Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey. Danny does no specialties but you'll have a fine time at this even though you're not a hepcat. CRY OF THE CITY (20th-Fox) _ Another crime thriller, with Victor Mature as a cop pitted against criminal Richard Conte. Shelley Winters makes much of a small part. Very good of its melodramatic type. , GOOD SAM (RKO) — Gary Cooper as a guy who's too good for his own good and Ann Sheridan as his long-suffering wife do their darnedest to make this Leo McCarey number successful, but it's a bit dullish. JULIA MISBEHAVES (MGM) —Greer Garson is turned into a slapstick comedienne with highly satisfactory results in this fine riot. Walter Pidgcon, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter 96 Lawford and Cesar Romero aid and abet. JUNE BRIDE (Warners)— Bette Davis will make you happy in this bright comedy. She's a magazine editor who, with assistant Robert Montgomery and the rest of her staff, moves in on an Indiana family to get an article. Very funny stuff. KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS (Univ.)— Burt Lancaster, a murderous young drifter in postwar London, gets involved in lurid doings and involves a nice girl, Joan Fontaine, in them too. Brilliantly directed and performed, but one of the most shocking films in a long time. LUCK OF THE IRISH (20th-Fox) —Newspaperman Tyrone Power meets a leprechaun, Cecil Kellaway, and a colleen, Anne Baxter, on a trip to Ireland. After he returns to the U. S., they show up and battle to win him away from his fiancee, Jayne Meadows. Less expertly done, this whimsy could have been embarrassing. But it turns out to be a honey. MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS (Para.) — Barry Fitzgerald, for complicated reasons, hires John Lund to impersonate a half-wit heir to millions. Hilarious developments develop. This comedy's got everything, including Wanda Hendrix and Monty Woolley. MY DEAR SECRETARY ( U. A.)— A typical bedroom farce in which novelist Kirk Douglas falls for secretary Laraine Day, who'll have none of bis wild doings. Rudy Vallee and Keenan Wynn help give it many funny moments. NO MINOR VICES (Ent.-MGM)— Dana Andrews, a nice but overbearing doctor, urges painter Louis Jourdan to paint Lilli Palmer, Dana's wife. Thev fall in love, of course. Sophisticated comedy with some charming touches. ONE TOUCH OF VENUS (Univ. -Int.)— A statue of Venus comes to life and has vast influence in the lives of Robert Walker, Eve Arden, Dick Haymes and some others. Ava Gardner as the goddess is happy casting. Lots of laughs. RACHEL AND THE STRANGER (RKO) — Loretta Young is a bondwoman — meaning slave — in the Old West to Bill Holden, who has married her but treats her strictly as a servant until Bob Mitchum wanders along and she goes for his pleasant ways. Then the Indians attack. Good movie. SEALED VERDICT (Para.) — TJ. S. Army officer Ray Milland, after prosecuting and winning case against a notorious Nazi general, begins to suspect there was something fishy about the evidence. He uncovers curious things as he digs deeper. An involved but absorbing drama. STATION WEST (RKO) — Dick Powell is an Army secret service man on the untamed frontier in this hard-hitting Western. Plenty of fights, chases and suspense. Excellent. THE LOVES OF CARMEN (Col.) — Rita Hay worth is properly emotional as the famous gypsy, Glenn Ford and Victor Jory likewise heave their chests and all is most entertaining in this Technicolor display of good, clean passion. THE THREE MUSKETEERS ( MGM ) —Metro has shot the works on this fine old adventure classic of 18th-Century France. Mammoth sets, Technicolor, roaring action. Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Vincent Price and 900 unidentified horses — what do you want, blood? There's lots of that. too.