Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1955)

6 Motion Picture Daily Monday, March 28, 1955 Motion Picture Daily Feature Reviews "The Prodigal" (M-G-M) (CinemaScope) PRODUCTION and showmanship properties are prodigally invested in this Hollywood idea of what happened to the prodigal son of the Bible story between the time of his leaving and his return to his father's house. What is shown bears little resemblance to any average person's ideas of a Biblical account and, while it most certainly can be sold to bring throngs to boxoffices, it would be wholly unwise for any exhibitor accountable day in and day out to his patronage, to represent this as a Sunday school exercise. It is most emphatically not for the young. The reason is that the pursuit by the prodigal, Edmund Purdom, of the pagan high priestess of fertility, Lana Turner, frankly referred to in the script as the "temple harlot," is depicted in the boldest pagan terms in incident, costuming and dialogue, that a production of this standard has essayed in the memory of this viewer. There is, too, a prodigal helping of brutality, as well as sensuality, throughout. Close-ups of men being lashed, of men and women pierced with lances and knives, of finger ends being mutilated and of a vulture's attack on Purdom, magnified on the CinemaScope screen into possible terrifying proportions, and emotionally accented by the musical score, with closeups of talon gashes in Eastman color, all have a market. The point we would make here is that it is not the market that is in search of entertainment based on the Bible, while accompanied by offspring of a tender age. The Maurice Zimm screen play, and adaptation by Joe Breen, Jr., and Samuel James Larsen, sends the prodigal, Purdom, to Damascus where he sees and desires the pagan high priestess, Miss Turner, and earns the enmity of the high priest, Louis Calhern, and his lieutenant, Neville Brand. He eventually succeeds in buying Miss Turner's favors with a pearl for the love goddess and by subjugation of his own faith. Through a plot by Calhern, Purdom is imprisoned for debt but escapes and leads a hungering populace, victims of Calhern's tyranny, in revolt against both the latter and the pagan idols. Miss Turner is killed in the rebellion and, with the pagan gods destroyed, Purdom returns to the home of his father, Eli, played by Walter Hampden, and to the innocent girl to whom he had been bethrothed, played by Audrey Dalton. The production obviously is a costly one, reproducing lavish conceptions of pagan temples, street scenes, bazaars and villas, peopled with a large cast and with scores of extras. There is plenty of action, mob scenes, fighting on the grand scale as well as in personal combat, all in the rich hues of Eastman Color and the broad canvas of CinemaScope. Charles Schnee produced and Richard Thorpe directed. Running time, 114 minutes. Adult audience classification. Release, in May. SHERWIN KANE "Interrupted Melody" (M-G-M) (CinemaScope) Hollywood, March 27 THIS film is emotionally thrilling, mature entertainment for everyone. The audience attending its preview showing at Warner's Beverly Theatre gave resounding evidence of its approval for the dramatic, musical life story of opera star, Marjorie Lawrence. It will prove a memorable milestone in the career of Eleanor Parker. Her impersonation of Miss Lawrence singing in no less than 14 difficult scenes is an amazing achievement. Her beauty and charm are wholesome. Her personality sparkles with the kind of vitality that personifies a singer's ambition ; and her skill in depicting the problem which interrupted the operatic star's career is an absorbing study of human emotions. Miss Parker is not alone in her triumph as the opera singer. Glenn Ford gives one of his most impressive portrayals as the singer's husband, Dr. Thomas King. His sensitive display of emotional conflict, weighing the demands for self respect by building a practice in his own profession rather than become attached to hers and being known as "Mr. Lawrence," is significant of the sympathetic role. His appeal to God to help him when he stops his wife from committing suicide by taking an overdose of pills, because of her physical problem and their financial embarrassment, is a high point in the film. Jack Cummings' production is tastefully mounted. The choice of CinemaScope was effective for staging the operatic scenes. The Eastman Color photographed by Joseph Ruttenberg and Paul C. Vogel is good. The construction and character development of the William Ludwig-Sonya Levien screenplay is toned with warm, human reactions under the direction of Curtis Bernhardt. Marjorie Lawrence's story begins when she leaves her farm home in Australia to take advantage of a voice scholarship in Paris. She has a chance meeting with Dr. King on the eve of his return to America when he helps her to celebrate her first operatic engagement. Her success on the Continent brings her to the Metropolitan Opera House. She meets Dr. King again and decides to marry him on his terms — no more concert tours. Her brother and manager prevail upon her to take a South American tour to break in for a season at the Met. The doctor agrees to the tour but has a falling out with his wife when he learns the tour will take five months. While on the South American tour, the opera star suffers an attack of polio. The doctor flies to her aid and decides to give up his New York practice to spend his time helping her in Florida. With all their funds gone, she agrees to stay in Florida while he gets back into practice in New York. She finds a great opportunity for mental relief, which ultimately affects her physical recovery, by traveling all over the world entertaining servicemen with songs from her wheelchair. In a heartwarming climax, a special performance is arranged at the Met where the Doctor and her brother watch her get to her feet as she gives full voice to the end of an aria. Among the operatic numbers are popular arias from "Carmen," "II Trovatore," "Madam Butterfly," "Samson and Delilah," "Tristan and Isolde" and "La Boheme." Running time, 108 minutes. General audience classification. Release in April. SAMUEL D. BERNS "Jungle Moon Men" (Columbia) Hollywood, March 27 THIS time Johnny Weissmuller has four foes to cope with in his jungle. They include not only the redoubtable little moon men of the title (who aren't actually moon men, in the sense of coming from the moon, as you might be disposed to suspect in view of what's been going on in sciencefiction lately, but a tribe of pygmies slavishly obedient to a moon goddess who lives luxuriously in an inaccessible place — now let's see, where were we?) but also a quartette of standard-height present-day adventurers, who want money, diamonds or what have you of value, keenly enough to shoot you for the financial proceeds. There are also some standard-size savages, but these are on the side of the civilized people, and all the savages — big or little — speak English as well as the rest of the cast, except Kimba, the monkey, who makes himself understood by means of gestures, often more clearly than the script the oral members of the cast have to speak from. The picture was produced by Sam Katzman and directed by Charles S. Gould. Other players in the cast are Jean Byron Helene Stanton, Bill Henry, Myron Healey, Billy Curtis, Michael Granger, Frank Sully, Benjamin F. Chapman, Jr., Kenneth L. Smith and Ed Hinton. The action opens with a British writing-woman arriving in the jungle in quest of rare historical material and hiring Weissmuller to guide her into the dangerous fastness. He does it, at length and in and out of trouble and with interruptions, and they wind up in the power of a beautiful moon-goddess (that's what she says she is) who's been living innumerable centuries in the dark because the sun will destroy her if she ever gets in front of its beams. If you can take that much as credible enough for the purposes of the picture, try taking her destruction right in front of your eyes the minute she gets into the sunshine. Well, that's the kind of picture it was made to be, and that's the kind of picture it is. Running time 69 minutes. General audience classification. Release in April. WILLIAM R. WEAVER "Love in the City" (IFE Releasing Corp.) AN interesting format, designed to tell the story of urban love in pictorial, featurish style, is offered in this IFE release. The film, utilized in this instance as a popular magazine, relates five episodes ranging from the plight of an unwed mother to the arrival of spring in the city. The results are uneven. Box-office-wise, there are many facets of this picture which lend themselves to exploitation. There are many elements of shock, human disaster and sex. But the manner in which these elements are employed can be challenged. Human disaster, at times, is examined superficially, leaving many vital questions unanswered, sex is treated without a feeling of compassion or tenderness in a number of episodes and the element of shock is employed at times for the sake of shock, lending nothing to the dramatic insight of the episode. People may find many areas of controversy in this Italian film import. Its impact will depend a good deal on the orientation of the viewer. With the exception of the love of an unwed mother for her child, this reviewer found little love in "Love in the City." Tying the episodes together is a running commentary written by Harry Henderson for the American market. Some episodes contain sub-titles, while one carries itself successfully just with a musical background. "Invitation to Love," the first episode, by Dino Risi, features young people and how they behave at a local dance palace. As a mood piece, this offers some entertaining moments. "When Love Fails" by Michelangelo Antonioni, attempts to re-enact the suicide drama of disappointed love, an episode which is one of the weakest. "Love Cheerfully Arranged" by Frederico Fellini is about a matrimonial bureau and the sad story of one girl seeking an escape from her poor surroundings through matrimony. "The Love of a Mother" by Maselli-Zavattini is the episode which carries through most successfully, with the viewer getting a more satisfying feeling of the character involved and the plight she is in. "Love Comes to the City" by Alberto Lattuada is almost a parody on spring as the camera follows ogling men eyeing curvaceous Italian beauties along the streets of Rome. The cast is composed mainly of non-professionals, utilized with effect by the Italian "neo-realists." Running time, 90 minutes. Adult audience classification. For May release. MURRAY HOROWITZ