Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1952)

6 Motion Picture daily Friday, January 18, 1952 Motion Picture Daily Feature Reviews 'Here Come the Nelsons' ( Universal-International) AS the radio fan knows, there is always something popping in the household of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. The first featured appearance of the entire family, and that also includes David and Ricky, is made in this Aaron Rosenberg production. The picture is energized with action, complication and genial confusion, and all of it strictly in the formula vein. Xo doubt a ready-made audience awaits the picture in the large radio following of the Nelson program. The homespun comedy arises out of a misunderstanding when Harriet suspects Ozzie of being interested in another woman and Ozzie gets the idea that Harriet is attracted to another man. .\long with this confusion runs another aspect concerning the turmoil of the home town as it prepares for a centennial celebration and rodeo. Ozzie, as an advertising executive, is hard-pressed to think up a promotional stunt for a foundation garment manufacturer. Luckily for him there are sorne big-time thieves around and when they run ofT with the circus funds, Ozzie catches them with a roadblock of foundation garments. Thus Ozzie gets a promotion for the publicity. As for the marital misunderstanding, it is easily cleared up, naturally. Romance in a more youthful vein is portrayed by Barbara Lawrence and Rock Hudson. Ozzie Nelson also had a hand in the screenplay, along with Donald Nelson and William Davenport. Frederick de Cordova directed. Running time, 76 minutes. General audience classification. For February release. Mandel Herbstman 'Royal Journey' {Xational film Board of Canada — United Artists) THE headline-capturing visit last autumn of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Canada and the United States is here presented in a striking 52-minute documentary. The picture is especially noteworthy because it is the first in feature length to be filmed in the new Eastman Kodak negative-positive color process. The color was soft and clear and seemed particularly effective, especially since weather conditions under which the picture was photographed were frequently bad. The picture shows the highlights of the visits to the various provinces and frequently lingers over some dramatic incident. In Washington there is the meeting with President Truman and stressing of the good neighbor theme. .\ clever narration accompanies the picture in which frequently the voice of some enraptured citizen of the locale visited is heard. The documentary at once combines the best qualities of a newsreel and a travelogue although the very nature of the material gives it a repetitive quality. It is obvious from the picture that everywhere the Royal couple went they left an impression of charm and friendliness. The picture was made by the National Film Board of Canada. Tom Daly produced and David Bairstow directed. Leslie McFarlane wrote the narration. Running time, 52 minutes. General audience classification. For March release. M. Herbstman ''Harem Girl" ( C tihnnbui ) THE internal politics of a mythical Middle Eastern country get quite a workout at the hands of Joan Davis, an uninhibited, gangling American girl. The result is "Harem Girl," a fast-paced slapstick fare. While serving as secretary-companion to Peggy Castle, a princess whose oil-rich lands have been usurped by a sheik. Miss Davis immediately finds herself very deep in plot and counterplot, providing plenty of opportunities for her d(juble-talking brand of humor. Miss Davis's romantic illusions about the mysterious East are never quite lost despite one narrow escape from a fate worse than death with a rotund sheik and numerous narrow escapes from death itself. .'\t various points in the proceedings, she is forced to disguise herself as a palace guard, tangle with a headless ghost, do an impnjmptu harem dance and run around on what must be the slipperiest palace floors in the Middle East. Miss Castle is a very pretty straight girl, while Paul Marion has the thankless role of her boy-friend who leads a revolt. Arthur Blake is the comic, rotund sheik who does not care who gets the oil, and Donald Randolph and Henry Brandon are wicked conspirators. Also on hand are some very shapely "harem" girls. It is a one-woman show, however, directed by Edward Bernds, from a story which he wrote and a screenjilay on which he collaborated with Elwood Ullman. Wallace MacDonald produced. Running time, 70 minutes. General audience classification. For February release. Rogers Suit Transferred A suit for $l5,0fXJ, brought by Budd Rogers against the financial firm of Walter E. Heller & Co. for alleged commissions due Rogers, has been transferred from New York Supreme Court to Federal Court here. The suit concerns commissions sought by Rogers for procuring a distribution agency for "Walk in the Sun" in the United Kingdom. Testimonial to Brown Bui-KAU), Jan. 17. — Maniiie A. Brown, formerly local Paramount exchange manager, later Eagle Lion Classics division manager in Buffalo and Albany, and recently city salesman for UA here, was honor guest at a testimonial luncheon tendered him here by Tent 7, Variety club. Brown recently was named manager of the Cleveland UA office. "Fort Osage'' (Monogram) Hollyzvood, Jan. 17 A SPLENDID frontier melodrama of broad entertainment porportions containing box-office ingredients consisting of vivid Cinecolor, loads of action, a well-knit yarn and a large and well-directed cast, topped by a convincing Rod Cameron, all nicely wrapped up for a piece of solid screen merchandise, by producer Walter Mirisch and director Lesley Selander, based on a story and screen-play written by Dan Ullman. The tale goes back to the days when old Fort Osage in Missouri was the last safe frontier stopping place for pioneers venturing in wild Indian country for pioneers and their wagon-trains riding off to the gold fields of California. Scores of pioneers and scores of Indians are seen in the climactic sequences, and the script is the strictly straightaway type with which screen stories of the Old West fare best. The onus for the trouble which brews in the plot is on a small group of greedy white men, the Indians being given a clean bill for the most part. The guilty parties get their punishment in ample measure when they get it. Box-office prospects for the picture appear bright. Cameron plays a wagon-master hired by Morris Ankrum, frontier operator of a wagon-transit company, and father of Jane Nigh, the feminine lead, to take a wagon-train through the Osage country. But Cameron refuses when he witnesses the destruction of a wagon and its passengers by Indians, knowing Ankrum must have caused it. Ankrum's partner, Douglas Kennedy, sets his thugs to kill Cameron, but they fail, and Cameron goes into the Indian country to find out the reason for the unrest. He learns that Ankrum has broken a trade treaty with the Osages, and returns, again escaping Kennedy's gunmen, to wring a confession from Ankrum and force him to make the treaty good. Kennedy prevents this, however, by killing Ankrum, and Cameron joins with the Indians to run down the escaping Kennedy and his pals in a cross-plains pursuit and mountain battle. Others in the cast are John Ridgely, William Phipps, Stan Jolley, Dorothy Adams, Francis McDonald, Myron Healey and Lane Bradford. Running time, 72 minutes. General audience classification. Release date. ''Captive of Billy the Kid'' {Republic) THE traditional requirements of Westerns are easily met in "Captive of Billy the Kid." Allan (Rocky) Lane heads the cast as the stalwart of law and order, while Penny Edwards holds up the slight feminine role and Grant Withers turns in an accustomed role as the "heavy." The plot goes on the supposition that when Billy the Kid died he hid his loot and then divided the map of its location among five different people. Miss Edwards' father, who' possessed a portion of the map, is suddenly killed, thus bringing Lane into the case. There is the usual amount of shooting, skullduggery and hard riding. It is obvious that the source of the villainy arises from one of the five holders of the map portions, among whom is Miss Edwards. Lane has quite a job pinning down the villain, who finally turns out to be Withers, presumably a respected citizen. In between there are several close calls for Lane as well as an assortment of murders. The final strategy by which Lane captures Withers and his henchmen is strictly in the Western groove. Harry Keller was associate producer and Fred C. Brannon directed, from a screenplay by M. Coates Webster and Richard Wormser. Running time, 54 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Jan. 22. M. Herbstman "Scandal Sheet" (Columbia) PRODUCER Edward Small and Phil Karlson present in "Scandal Sheet" a mighty suspenseful tale of newspaper men and newspaper women with some rather unique twists, a swiftly moving vehicle about the downfall of a New York newspaper editor of a "scandal sheet" which headlines the very kind of situations as the one which leads to his downfall and ruination. Broderick Crawford as the ruthless editor turns in a performance to match his role in "The Mob." John Derek and Donna Reed also are on hand to lend marquee strength. At a lonely hearts ball sponsored by his paper, Crawford meets Rosemary DeCamp, the neurotic wife he abandoned years before. When Miss DeCamp threatens to expose him as a deserter and wife beater, Crawford hits her — inadvertently killing her. Derek, the editor's protege, gets on the story as a good follow-up to the ball, and from there on in, Crawford is forced to sit back and watch while Derek slowly tracks down the killer. Derek and Miss Reed, the paper's "sob-sister," do nicely as the youngsters caught up in the improbable events, but their elder supporting players really shine. Henry O'Neil turns in a fine bit as an alcoholic old newspaperman whose meddling forces Crawford into a second murder. Miss DeCamp illuminates the brief role of the nagging, shabby wife, giving it real depth. Crawford performs with the sort of off-hand, blustering power that has become his trade mark. The screenplay, by Ted Sherdeman, Eugene Ling and James Poe moves swiftly with matter-of-fact humor. It is based on the novel, "The Dark Page," by Samuel Fuller. The film is a Motion Picture Investors Production. Others in the cast are : Henry Morgan, James Millican, Griff Barnett, Jonathan Hale, Pierre Watkin, Ida Moore, Ralph Reed, Luther Crockett, Charles Cane, Jay Adler, Don Beddoe. Running time, 82 minutes. General audience classification. For February release.