Modern Screen (Feb-Dec 1959)

RIO BRAVO Ricky brings his guitar! new movies Continued from page 16 is Debbie Reynolds. Everyone's crazy about the Douglas family except their dyspeptic next-door neighbor who 'informs' on them to the income tax bureau. Serious-minded Tony Randall is sent down to check Douglas's 'books.' Naturally, Douglas doesn't keep any books. He never even heard of the income tax. He's heard of love, though, and he thinks Tony would make a wonderful son-in-law. Debbie, who likes to flirt in the hayloft, can't seem to drag him up there, but a few stiff drinks (prepared by her cooperative father) do the trick. A lens pops out of Tony's eyeglasses and he becomes a kind of nature boy — hampered somewhat by the long hours he's spent at a desk. Tony's boss, Fred Clark, keeps calling him on the phone, but all he gets back is the sound of joy and abandon. So Fred drives down to take over the reins. He does such a good job that the government winds up owing fourteen million dollars to Douglas. Wacky 's the word for this colorful mob — Technicolor, MGM. Ricky Nelson John Wayne Dean Martin Walter t».«jnn-.n Angie Dickinson ■ Once he was sheriff's deputy but now Dean Martin's a pathetic alcoholic — and all because of a woman. One night Sheriff John Wayne tries to stop him from begging for a drink, and, in the small brawl that follows, a man is murdered in cold blood. Wayne tosses the murderer into jail which, in that tough town, is not appreciated. The murderer's rich brother (John Russell) is in the habit of buying men — and assassins, so Wayne's life is definitely in danger. Shamed into trying to cure himself Dean tries out for deputy again. While old Walter Brennan guards the prisoner, he and Wayne patrol the town. Rancher Ward Bond and some of his men (including RickyNelson) ride in. Just for sympathizing with Wayne, Ward gets shot in the back, and Ricky, who until this time had planned to 'mind his own business,' gets angry enough to help Wayne. (Lucky for Wayne, since Ricky is not only goodlooking and smart, he's also the fastest 'gun' in the west). The struggles of Dean's trying to cure himself, and of Wayne's trying to resist his attraction toward a girl named Angie Dickinson, add lots of interest to a very action-packed, nicely he-man Western. There's some singing, too! — Technicolor, Warners. NIGHT OF THE QUARTER MOON Julie London John Drew Barrymore a drama of inter-marriage Nat ,^JJg,> fjjjje Dean Jones fessing that Julie 'deceived' him by holding back her color line. While he's sick in the mansion, Mom's trying to get his marriage annulled. Julie and her lawyer, James Edwards, fight back— in court. It's the kind of problem that deserves better treatment. — MGM. IMITATION OF LIFE lavish soap opera Lana Turner John Gavin Sandra Dee Susan Kohner Juanita Moore ■ Guaranteed to make you cry (and to gasp at Lana's gorgeous wardrobe), Imitation Of Life is based on a once best-selling novel by Fannie Hurst. The characters are brought up to date. Lana's a widow, determined to be a great actress. One summer day at Coney Island she and her little daughter meet a warm and intelligent Negro woman (Juanita Moore) and her child. Juanita is desperate for shelter — and Lana provides it, for life. The man in Lana's own life is photographer John Gavin, but he can't compete with the ambition that takes her into the world of agent Robert Alda, playwright Dan O'Herlihy and, soon, into the world of fame. Meanwhile, her daughter has grown up into a cute, bright teen-ager (Sandra Dee) and Juanita's daughter, now a beautiful (and, as always— nearly white) girl is tortured by her Negro blood and tries desperately to pass. She runs away from home, works in cheap nightclubs, disowns her mother — finally breaking her heart. Lana, self-centered but generous, has broken her own daughter's heart, in another way. This movie spans many years, many moods against lavish settings and just as lavish problems. Go see it for yourself — Eastman Color, U-I. RECOMMENDED MOVIES NOW SHOWING: TONKA (Buena Vista): Sal Mineo, an Indian Brave, captures a magnificent stallion and names him Tonka — the Great One. But Sal's cousin, H. M. Wyant. treats Tonka so cruelly that Sal secretly frees him to go back to his wild herd. Tonka's next owner is a cavalry officer in Custer's Army. Custer wants to murder off all the Indians and one daySal is captured by his men. He very nearly misses becoming a dead Indian, but is saved by Tonka's owner. Sal is supposed to return to his own people and ask them to surrender. He returns — but they don't give up without a battle. And as for Custer . . . well, this really was his last stand. THE HANGING TREE (Warners) : Doctor Gary Cooper is off women for life — that is until he meets Maria Schell who needs him to help cure the blindness she got when she was left to roast inthe sun after her stagecoach had been robbed. When she gets cured, he gets scared and retreats. Determined to stand on her own feet, she goes into business on a mine with Karl Maiden and Ben Piazza. They strike it rich, and Maiden — drunk not only with success — attacks Maria. Gary saves Maria and kills Maiden in doing so. But the simple-minded miners can't understand why Gary killed Maiden and they want to hang him at the hanging tree. Do they succeed? Let the movie answer that one. ■ John Drew Barrymore is the wealthy son of snobbish Agnes Moorehead of the 'California Nelsons.' He is also reeling from the effects of two years in a Korean prison camp. His brother (Dean Jones) takes him fishing south of the border and there Julie London hooks him. Julie is a refined, well-educated girl but she has a drop of African blood in her veins and that, 'My Dear,' won't do for the Nelsons. John loves her, her cousins (mulatto Anna Kashfi and husband Nat 'King' Cole) love her— but her neighbors don't; they throw stones through her window. John is hauled off to a police station for throwing himself at the neighbors and Mama comes down to throw herself at John. The poor kid thinks he's back in Korea again. Before you know it he's con NEVER STEAL ANYTHING SMALL (U-I): A real hep hood, name of James Cagney, who is union head of the waterfront comes up for trial and chooses young Roger Smith for a mouthpiece. Roger's wife Shirley Jones doesn't dig the arrangements— or Cagney. But Cagney does dig Shirley and in order to get her, hires Cara Williams to break up this blissfully wedded pair. What a commotion! There are break-ups, breakdowns, and bust-ups in this really beat movie. GIDGET (Columbia): Sandra Dee's a cute 'Gidget' who doesn't like feminine frills 'cause she's a tomboy who spends her time following around a group of' surf-boarding young men, led by Cliff Robertson. It's all because a certain boy from the group saved her life just as she was about to drown. That's James Darren. And Sandra won't leave the group alone — that is, not until she can get a good grip on James Darren. (Who came blame her???) Gary Crosby (Continued from page 47) all right. But I hate this phony jazz," he went on. "Nailing me as a perennial playboy— as a brawling mad drunken Irishman. ... "I date maybe once a week — if I'm lucky," he said. "I like to go out to the clubs, to some spot where they've got a good group goin' — or where they've got a good singer or comic. I go sit in a corner and watch. I'm a great watcher — I have to be. Because of the name, I started at the top, and it's pretty tough to start at the top when you've missed all the valuable years of experience coming up. The only other way you can get that is by watching. "But I don't go out too much. As a matter of fact, it seems I can't even go out in public any more at all." He glanced in the direction of the paper on the coffee table, to the glaring black indictment against him. "I don't go out of my way to make trouble. I don't ever go lookin' for trouble." There would be no need. Trouble, in some form, has usually been there waiting for him— ever since Gary cut his tonsils in show business in the shadow of his { father, Bing . . . the shadow of a beloved man who's pretty much of a legend in his own time. And it was usually j the same story. Whether voiced by a swaggering school boy in a drive-in, a j drunken soldier in an enlisted man's club ! in Germany— or a Hollywood heckler, j Gary pointed once again to the newspaper on the coffee table. "I'll tell you exactly what happened. There were maybe eight or ten people around— the party was really over. I was sitting in a corner with Ruth Berle, just the two of us talking. Across the room a blonde woman I'd never met started telling everybody good-bye. She waved to us and we waved back. She stopped in the door and came over to us and said good-bye again. "Then she said, 'Oh by the way,' and she pulled up a chair and sat down and really started in. 'You're kind of a fat slob, aren't you?' she said. 'Why do you get drunk all the time?' You know— that kind of thing. I just laughed, which really got her mad, I guess. And she finally came up with the one line that kills me. She said, 'You're a disgrace to your dead mother — ' " , " 'Get away from me, lady, please, I told her. 'Get your hat and get away—' "That was when her husband walked up— that was all he heard. 'How dare you I talk to my wife like that?' he said. He lunged at me and I picked him up and sat | him on the floor and held him there. A minute later we were shaking hands. That's all that happened. Sometimes I think if being in show business means getting blasted in the press for every little thing, then maybe I'd better give it up and be just a normal joe nobody's going to write about. But I love show business. It's what I was brought up in. What I know. I dig the business and I dig the people. I like the way they feel, the way they talk, all of it. This is my life, and I'm not going to run away from it! For Gary Crosby, it's been a tough fight all the way. A fight not only with the press but with himself. The struggle between his intense love for show business and the burning desire to make his own name there— and wondering whether he will ever perform well enough, whether he'll ever sing the way he really wants to sing. He resembles Bing physically and