Modern Screen (Dec 1954 - Dec 1955)

DESIREE The trouble is, Marlon Brando looks like Napoleon and acts like Napoleon but you never get the feeling he is Napoleon. Maybe because it isn't Napoleon's story1 after all. It's Jean Simmons' story. She's Desiree, daughter of a well-to-do silk merchant (now dead). Desiree fell for Nap when he was just a general and was jilted by him when he met Josephine (Merle Oberon), a worldly, influential lady. Well, if Napoleon won't have Desiree, General Bernadotte (Michael Rennie) will. And there's nothing wrong with him. He becomes King of Sweden. Napoleon starts conquering the world but never once does he forget Desiree or stop wanting her. Out of focus as it may be, the movie is still vastly entertaining. The acting is fine, the sets and costumes are extremely expensive and you're given a boudoir view of some very important people. With Cameron Mitchell, Elizabeth Sellars. CinemaScope — 20th-Fox THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS If there was ever a dream of a writer his name was F. Scott Fitzgerald and here's one of his stories — almost unrecognizable but still terribly romantic and touching. It's about a struggling writer (Van Johnson) and his beautiful, undisciplined, vivacious wife (Elizabeth Taylor) who loved in Paris with the spirit of the Twenties, although unfortunately, it's the Fifties. Johnson loses faith in himself, starts drinking heavily and playing around with divorcee Eva Gabor. Elizabeth becomes suddenly serious, wants to go home. They have a little daughter (Sandy Descher) whom both adore. One night, a pie-eyed Johnson locks Elizabeth out and she catches pneumonia. Her sister (Donna Reed), who once loved Johnson, takes care of the girl. When he comes to claim her a couple of years later, Donna is too bitter to turn her over. I cried all the way through. With Walter Pidgeon. Technicolor — MGM THE VIOLENT MAN Edward G. Robinson is back and he can still scare me. Only this time he's crippled and with all his bluster is obviously not in control of the situation. Wife Barbara Stanwyck is in control. And she wants him to make her a present of the whole valley. He's trying, and with his sadistic henchmen riding wild there isn't a rancher who doesn't sell out dirt cheap — or die protesting. Even Glenn Ford wants to sell. He's no coward; his fiancee May Wynn is pushing him to go east. You can push a man like Glenn too far — which is exactly what Robinson and May do, in different ways. So Glenn sets about restoring a little dignity and equality in that valley. Robinson's daughter (Diane Foster) sees through Mom, realizes she's carrying on with her brother-in-law (Brian Keith) who's running the ranch. But Stanwyck is capable of more than that. She's capable of murder. CinemaScope — Col. TRACK OF THE CAT Sometimes a movie gets so symbolic you wonder what it's about. Track Of The Cat looks awful pretty — the color's vivid, the photography's artistic, the scenes fall into dramatic tableaus. But what goes? Here's this big brother Bob Mitchum out hunting a mountain lion (his other brother was killed trying) that's been bothering cattle on his ranch. And on the ranch are the weirdest people I've ever seen. A hundred-year-old Indian giving everyone the creeps; a selfish, domineering mother (Beulah Bondi); a hard-drinking father (Philip Tonge) who rants in his cups; an old maid sister (Teresa Wright) getting more and more bitter; a younger, unassertive brother (Tab Hunter) planning to marry Diana Lynn who is silly enough to hang around. Everybody talks, but not really to each other. And Mitchum is out there in the snow hunting, hunting. Why, I ask you, why? CinemaScope — Warners GREEN FIRE Naturally, Grace Kelly is cool and beautiful (but smoldering underneath) and Stewart Granger is reckless, irresistible. Throw them together — fireworks! He's a kind of adventurer, looking for emeralds in a South American mine not far from Grace's coffee plantation. Money's scarce in both places so Grace resents it when her brother John Ericson throws his last sou into Granger's risky project. Also, Granger lures away all of her plantation workers, and with his fancy blasting sends the river coursing into her yard. Paul Douglas, Granger's buddy, gets fed up with being same. He's sweet on Grace, too — and begs her to let him dynamite Granger's mountain so that the river will run in a whole different direction. It's at this point that Granger finds emeralds. Well, the mountain's all set to blow — will Grace go through with it, will Granger let her, or does he care for emeralds more ? Technicolor — MGM THE PURPLE PLAIN Gregory Peck is a lone wolf gone "round the bend" (that means loco) in his associates' opinion. Reason is his bride was killed right before his eyes in a London air raid. Now he's an RAF pilot in Burma and since he has nothing to live for he takes his crew through hell trying to get himself bumped off. This is pretty wearing on everyone. Finally, unit doctor Bernard Lee introduces him to a beautiful Burmese girl (Win Min Than) who works with missionary Brenda De Banzie. One-twothree and Peck's back from around that bend. But next flight out his plane crashes into enemy territory. His navigator's legs are burned, his passenger is so sure he's finished he shoots himself and there is Gregory. Trapped, you say? Now that he has something to live for you couldn't kill him with a bomb! So unreal and romantic I loved every minute. Technicolor— U. A. MORE-> Smoothest eye-crayon in the whole world —and the easiest to use— it's a joy! Never needs sharpening. Crayon propels and retracts! Always ready to J make your eyes far lovelier— in a It's the only eye-crayon that's springlocked — cant fall out! minute s time MA "AUTOMATIC" EYEBROW AND EYE LINER PENCIL 7Qi Velvet Black, Dark Brown, I J y Light Brown or Auburn .. . ■ Elegant turquoise and gold case! TWIN "REFILLS, 39^