Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1954)

s Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, February 9, 1954 Motion Picture Daily Feature Reviews "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (3-D) ( Universal) A STORY of a monster, with enough suspense to hold most audiences, especially the children, is offered in this Universal release. The monster in this instance is a so-called "gill-man," half human, half fish, a relic of ages gone by. The picture was seen in 3-D, which emphasizes some aspects of the story. The picture is available in conventional form, also. In either form, the same exploitation angles could be employed to gain the maximum audience and it should do a fair business in situations which draw a thrill-seeking crowd. The locale is the Amazon River, where a geologist has discovered the fossils of a webbed-hand. The discovery leads to an expedition, headed by Richard Denning, a fame seeker, and his scientific aide, Richard Carlson, who is the principal human character in the film. The star, of course, is the gill-man, whose webbed hands are first in evidence and then as the suspense is built, the half-man, half-fish is shown in all of his scaly ugliness. The most thrilling scenes, in a story which runs according to formula, are those of an underwater chase for the gill-man, the creature's horrible devastation of a camp-site and the plight of the young girl when she is captured by the creature, played by Ben Chapman, who is unrecognizable in his gill-man costume. Others in the cast include Julia Adams, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell and Henry Excalante. William Alland produced, while Jack Arnold directed from a screenplay by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross, based on a story by Maurice Zimm. Running time, 79 minutes. General audience classification. For March release. MURRAY HOROWITZ it La Lupa (Jules Levey) AGAINST the authentic background of Southeastern Italy, the production team of Ponti and De Laurentiis has come up with a hot-blooded story about hot-blooded people, with Kerima, the "she-wolf," best fitting that description. The story is interesting throughout, the intimate touches having been handled delicately and in good taste. Basically, the narrative tells of the rivalry between a mother and daughter for the love of a man, even though the daughter, in the beginning, is not aware of the threatening triangle. Kerima is a fascinating personality in her role as a scheming, unethical and lurid "she-wolf" whose affair with Ettore Manni precedes his meeting with May Britt, the daughter, with whom he falls in love. Despite the fact that Kerima gets top billing, the acting honors must be shared with Miss Britt who as the innocent daughter gives a sterling performance. In brief, the plot deals with a woman of shady character, Kerima, whose daughter innocently wins her mother's lover. The mother seeks to win him back and, in so doing, almost shatters the home life of her daughter and her son-in-law. Retribution comes when the mother perishes in a tobacco factory after she has aroused the anger of the townspeople. "La Lupa" is based on a story by Giovanni Verga. It was directed by Alberto Lattuada, who also was responsible for "Mill on the Po," "Anna" and "The Overcoat." Others in the cast are Mario Passante and Maresa Gallo. Running time, 95 minutes. Adult audience classification. For February release. AL STEEN "Dragonfly Squadron" (Allied Artists) THIS war-front melodrama dealing with the training of Korean pilots by American Air Force men combines action and romance which hold an over-all interest. The cast is headed by John Hodiak, Barbara Britton and Bruce Bennett, with Jess Barker, Chuck Connors, Pamela Duncan and others in support. Sequences linking the intensified training of pilots are independent of the not unfamiliar personal story of two men who love the wife of one of them. The picture winds up with an all-out tank attack which is repelled by defending planes, containing thrills that pack a wallop. The screenplay by John Champion, who is also the picture's producer, has Hodiak, a famed but grounded Air Force officer, assigned to Kongju, South Korea, to expedite training of Korean pilots. At the post he meets Barker, a war correspondent of impossible qualifications and a totally superfluous character in the story, and Miss Britton, whom, it comes out, he was on the point of marrying a year or so ago when she learned that her supposedly dead husband, Bennett, was alive and coming back from imprisonment and torture to resume his doctoring. In the foreground story it turns out that she has told her husband about the romance with Hodiak, and they all work together in the general interest, with nothing changing in their relationship until an enemy bomb kills off the doctor and ends the complication. In a furious finish of the picture the Korean pilots blow up attacking tanks identified in the dialogue as Russian. Lesley Selander gave the picture his usual competent handling. The supporting cast also has Harry Lauter, Adam Williams, John Lupton, Benson Fong and John Hedloe. Running time, 83 minutes. General audience classification. Release, in February. "Overland Pacific" (World Films-UA) ALTHOUGH this is a formula-made western, it has adequate action, photography and pace which should meet with audience approval. Villainy festers and romance blooms in the story which has as its background the building of a railroad in frontier days. Since the town bosses want to capitalize on the railroad, they try to have its route changed. One of their methods is to bribe the Comanches into attacks on the railroad workers. Jack Mahoney, a railroad investigator in the guise of a telegrapher, is sent to investigate. He finds that, among others, the town saloon-keeper, William Bishop, and the sheriff, are the ringleaders. Matters are further complicated by the fact that Bishop's fiancee is Peggie Castle, to whom Mahoney also is attracted. There are the usual skirmishes and plot involvements before the tracks are laid as originally planned. Adele Jergens, as the girl friend of an outlaw, lends another feminine touch to the proceedings which are kept moving fluidly by director Fred F. Sears. The screenplay is by J. Robert Bren, Gladys Atwater and Martin Goldsmith. The cast also includes Walter Sande, Chubby Johnson, Pat Hogan, Chris Alcaide, Phil Chambers, George Eldridge, Dick Rich and House Peters, Jr. Running time, 73 minutes. General audience classification. For release in February. "Turn the Key Softly" (Rank-Astor) CiHARM, sensitivity and irony are combined in this agreeable picture, made J in England by J. Arthur Rank. Using dramatic devices, the story concerns three women released from prison after paying their debt to society, tracing their fortunes in the world of the free. The story spins out its interest on three points of a triangle. First, there is a flighty, good-time charmer, Joan Collins, who starts out to marry a bus conductor, gets detoured along the way when temptation beckons, but finally heads for the altar. Next come the experiences of Yvonne Mitchell, an attractive young lady who went to prison in the first place because of misplaced love for a young man. She almost is taken in again by the man, but circumstances, in a highly melodramatic vein, rescue her from another misstep. Finally there are the adventures of a little cockney lady, Kathleen Harrison, whose primary interest in life is her dog. When she gets separated from the animal, a desperate search ensues, resulting in tragedy for the lady. The screenplay by Jack Lee and Maurice Cowan cleverly weaves together these diverse tales into a unified whole. Lee, who also directed, has elicited convincing performances from the cast. Maurice Cowan produced. Others in the cast are Terence Morgan, Thora Hird, Dorothy Alison, Glyn Houston, Geoffrey Keen, Russell Waters and Olive Morton. Running time, 81 minutes. General audience classification. Release date not set. 44 Fugitive in Trieste (I.F.E.) THIS Italian-made picture rates as a fair action thriller in which the romantic and the melodramatic are well integrated. The locale is Trieste. The story centers around the pursuit and capture by the Allied police of an Italian air force officer suspected of bombing a hospital ship. Mostly through the efforts of a sweetheart, Edda Albertini, a witness is dug up to prove that the bombing was not intentional, but the consequence of being hit by enemy fire. A four-way romantic angle has been put into the story involving the two above mentioned and the Allied officer, Carlo d'Angelo, and a Viennese beauty, Doris Duranti. Plot involvements are also at hand, since the latter was once in love with the accused and is the mother of their child. Whether or not they were married is not made quite clear in the story. After a series of chases, flights, capture and the fall and rise of hope, the story culminates in a courtroom scene in which the protagonist is~ cleared and the way paved for love to triumph. This Astor Film has English subtitles. The story by Camillo del Signore was directed by Fuido Salvini. Others in the cast are Jacques Sernas, Giovanni Grasso, Charles Fawcett, Vittorio Sanipoli, Alberto Bonucci, Giancarlo Sbragia, Gianni Bonagura, Ettore Gaipa, Vittorio Stagni and Massimo Girotti. Running time, 83 minutes. Adult audience classification. Cassidy Named Head Of Local H-63, IATSE David A. Cassidy of Paramount has been elected president of Local H-63, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Russell M. Moss was named executive vice-president. Also elected were Edward J. Devine, Universal, vice-president ; Harry Baum, Warner Bros., secretary-treasurer ; J. Schachtel, RKO Radio, sergeant-at-arms, and Lou Abamont, Columbia, trustee. Set Music Hall Fete For Contest Winners Winners of the recent New York "Journal-American" motion picture contest will be guests of the Organization of the Motion Picture Industry of the City of New York at a reception and cocktail party to be held in the studio apartment of Radio City Music Hall next Tuesday. Russell Downing, president and managing director of the Music Hall, will be host.