Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1952)

6 Motion Picture Daily Thursday, October 9, 1952 Motion Picture Daily Feature Reviews Because of You ( U niversal-International) GOOD performances by Loretta Young and Jeff Chandler, together with the marquee value of their names, are the chief assets of this drama of a wrecked marriage and frustrated mother love. The Ketti Frings screenplay, based on a story by Thelma Robinson, is more devious and complex than it is original. What fresh lustre the stars impart to familiar plot situations accounts in large measure for some better than average box-office possibilities. It is not to be overlooked that the plight of a woman who loses both husband and child through misinterpreted transgression is a box-office lure to many another woman. If you have made note of some of Universal' s trade advertising of the picture, it will be apparent why many husbands may accompany them when they see it. Miss Young is sentenced to prison for a loosely defined part in a crime committed by her fiance, Alex Nicol. Released on parole, she becomes a nurse in a veterans' hospital where she meets the wealthy Chandler. They fall in lcve and are married without Miss Young having confessed her prison background. Nicol returns to force her to drive him to Mexico, presumably on a dope-running mission and, in an accident which occurs when they are pursued by police, both Miss Young and her daughter, played by Gayle Reed, are injured and the story, including Miss Young's background, becomes public. Chandler gets a divorce and custody of the child, believing that his wife had .been keeping a tryst with her ex-lover. Circumstances bring Miss Young and the child together again at the home of Chandler's sister, played by Francis Dee, where the mother, unrecognized by the child, cures her by love and attention of a melancholia. Chandler returns from abroad unexpectedly and, unrelenting, causes Miss Young to leave the household. Eventually, the child's melancholia returns and leads to a reconciliation between Miss Young and Chandler. Albert J. Cohen produced with a keen sense of economic short-cuts which do not detract from the story-telling. Joseph Pevney's direction places emphasis on what action the story affords and on scenes of courtship and marital intimacies. Running time, 95 minutes. Adult classification. For November release. Sherwin Kane "Operation Secret" {Warner Brothers) WORLD WAR II underground operations are the background of this fast-moving, exciting feature that contains considerable action and stars Cornel Wilde, Karl Maiden, Steve Cochran and Phyllis Thaxter. It is suspenseful although there is slight variation from anticipated developments. It should fare well at the box-office. The story by Alvin Josephy and John Twist is revealed in a series of flashbacks beginning with an investigation by the French secret police of the murder during the war of. an underground agent. Subsequent disclosures incriminate the guilty ones and show the workings of the group headed by French leader Maiden and including the heroic but reckless Wilde, a former French Legionnaire escaped from Nazi imprisonment and in the employ of the U. S. Marines. Miss Thaxter is on hand and supplies the romantic interest with Wilde. There are manv clashes with the Nazis. Steve Cochran performs various villanies, including murder, as a Russian agent intent upon stealing German jet plane plans which the group has captured, and shipping them to Russia. His efforts are foiled and the investigating police, after piecing together the evidence, punish him. Wilde is reunited with Miss Thaxter for the happy romantic ending. This was produced by Henry Blanke and directed by Lewis Seiler. Harold Medford and James R. Webb wrote the screenplay. Included in the cast are Dan O'Herlihy, Jay Novello, Paul Picerni, Lester Matthews, Dan Riss, Wilton Graff, Harlan Warde, Kenneth Patterson, Gayle Kellogg, Wayne Taylor and William Leicester. Running time, 108 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Nov. 8. "Desperadoes' Outpost" (Republic Pictures) ALAN (ROCKY) LANE'S large following should be well pleased with this latest of .his series, offering an actionful Western with several novel plot twists. There's plenty of hard riding and fighting to go along with a story about a California mercury mine in the days of the SpanishAmerican war. Lane is a U. S. agent who arrives ! to investigate interruption of the mail service in the area. Although no actual robberies have been committeed, he discovers the continual sabotage of the mail coaches have forced Postmaster Eddy Waller to mortage his home to replace wrecked coaches. Waller's home contains a kitchen sink connected directly to the mine water supply and when Lane accidentally discovers mercury pouring through the faucet he gets onto an attempt to smuggle mercury away from the miltiary by an unscrupulous mine foreman. After plenty of shooting and fighting Lane restores order. Philip Ford directed and got the maximum 'action and suspense out of the Arthur OrloffAlbert DeMond story. Lane registers strongly and as usual, Waller provides comedy support. Roy Barcroft/ Myron Healey, Lyle Talbot, Claudia Barrett and Lane Bradford are also in the cast. Running time, 54 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Oct. 8. The Four Poster (Columbia) A WARM, appealing comedy that deals with familiar marriage crises and is expertly performed by Lilli Palmer and Rex Harrison, this Stanley Kramer production, based on the successful Jan de Hartog play currently on Broadway, should do solid box-office business. The stars comprise the entire cast and the bed of the title is the setting of some of the situations, but the performances are so fine and the direction is so skillful that neither of these facts is noted during the viewing. Since the incidents of the film occur over a wide period of years, there are some fine and witty animated interscenes created by United Productions of America that serve well as continuity bridges. The story opens in 1897 when Harrison and Miss Palmer arrive in their apartment on their wedding night. The prospect of sharing the four-poster causes them much embarrassment from which Harrison recovers first but Miss Palmer finds innumerable excuses for delay, all of which are humorous. Harrison overcomes these obstacles. A year later Harrison is an ex-school teacher whose book of poetry has just come back from the last publisher to reject it. His wife is well along in pregnancy and convinces him to forego the poetry and write about that which he is familiar. A careless Harrison shove results in his running five blocks barefoot for the doctor. Ten years later Harrison is a successful novelist and lecturer with a swelled head and "another woman" who "understands" him. Miss Palmer's indifference and implication of her own amours causes Harrison to change his mind and reclaim his husband's rights. In 1916 it is Harrison's discovery of a full whiskey bottle hidden in his son's closet that has him in an uproar but it turns out the boy is innocent. Soon after the boy goes off to war and is killed. In the jazz era it is Miss Palmer who feels she must leave and it is a young poet who sets her pining for her youth. Harrison talks her out of it. In a touching scene that, like the final one, is a departure from the play, Harrison tries to poison Miss Palmer who has contracted a fatal ailment, but can not do it. The last scene is, an imaginative bit of fantasy in which Miss Palmer's ghost comes to take Harrison to an afterlife in which their joyous moments .are relived. , Allan Scott wrote the screenplay and a good musical score was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin. The use of Garutso Balanced lenses kept the setting in focus even on. medium and long shots, abetting the illusion of intimacy. This, is a comedy on a sure-fire theme that should attract much of the family trade. Running time, 103 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, not set. Walter Pashkin 99 The Raiders ( U niversal-International) RICHARD CONTE and Viveca Lindfors star in this superior Western that boasts credible characterizations, good performances, fine photoggraphy, knowing direction by Lesley Selander, and color by Technicolor. Set in lawless California in 1849, this has Conte, a hard-panning gold miner, lose his fortune, his wife and brother to the vicious methods of gun-slingers forcibly building a land empire for powerful Morris Ankrum. He turns outlaw to overthrow Ankrum. This is made possible by a banding together of all of the land owners whose claims were stolen, under the leadership of Richard Martin. Ankrum wants California to remain independent and not become a part of the Union to gain him even greater power. He runs gold mines full blast to get money to influence Congressional action. U. S. Marshal William Bishop arrives to look into the outbreak of crime and Ankrum enlists his efforts to capture Conte's gang, who have stolen his horses and held up his stage coaches. The Conte gang sets up an honest land office in opposition to Ankrum's. During a holdup Conte spots one of the murderers of his wife. Threatened with hanging, the desperado confesses the murder and reveals the names of his confederates. Conte leads a raid on the mine and gets the rest of the killers. Bishop has Ankrum apply for a loan to Conte's company and trails the clerk back to the hideout. Conte escapes the ensuing ambush and in attempting to force a confession from Ankrum personally, kills him in selfdefense. Conte is convicted at his trial but is freed as California becomes a state and general amnesty is declared. Conte chooses Miss Lindfors at the fade-out instead of Ankrum's daughter, Barbara Britton. This was neatly produced by William Alland and the above-par screenplay is by Pollie James and'Lillie Hay ward, from a story by Lyn Crost Kennedy. Also in the supporting cast are Hugh O'Brien, Palmer Lee, Dennis Weaver, Margaret Field, John Kellog, Lane Bradford and Francis MacDonald. Running time, 80 minutes. General audience classification. For November release. Shane Due Here Today Accompanied by Vittorio Gassman, Maxwell Shane is expected to arrive in New York from Hollywood today to complete details for a special preview showing before United Nations! employes of "The Glass Wall," Shane-! Tors Production for United Artists release. Gassman, who co-stars; with Gloria Grahame, is set for a series of press interviews. Long Run for Silent Bill The silent film reissue of "The Last Laugh" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," now playing at Walter Reade's Baronet Theatre here, is expected to remain there until Christmas, Max Sanders, manager of the house, disclosed here yesterday. The program, released, by Famous Films Productions, opened Monday and a first week's gross of $7,000 is indicated.