Motion Picture Reviews (1943)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEWS Five but the method of suggestion has a powerful effect. Under such a bitter regimen the citizens rebel, using undercover systems of destruction. When Torenson kills an officer, he becomes a fugitive, but even reprisals against his friends do not shake their loyalty to him or their stern purpose. After locating a secret Nazi airfield planned as a lookout for convoys on the Arctic supply lines, he escapes to England and returns as a guide to the Commandos on a raid along the coast which is successful but very costly for both sides. The film is written and acted with fine restraint. Dialogue is especially fine. The Nazi oppressors, tough soldiers as they are, do not appear caricatured or overdrawn. The raid is thrilling and demonstrates as no film has done before, the tactics used in such warfare, since they are performed by actual trained Commandos in the natural settings of British Columbia very similar to the terrain of Norway. It is an excellent production, the first important war film. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Good Pretty strong ❖ CORREGIDOR O O Otto Kruger, Elissa Landi, Donald Woods, Frank Jenks, Rick Vallin, Wanda McKay, Ian Keith, Ruby Dandridge, Eddie Hall, Charles Jordan. Musical score by Leo Erdody. Direction by William Nigh. Produced by Dixon R. Harwin and Edward Finney. Producers Releasing Corporation. Perhaps the bitter memories left by the capture of Corregidor are still so fresh that an American audience could not endure a realistic depiction of that heart-breaking struggle. This picture capitalizes on the name but sets no mark as a production of historical importance, being largely concerned with the triangular romance of a woman doctor and two incredibly noble and selfeffacing men. There are many violent battle scenes, bloodthirsty bayonet charges, and grim panoramas of markeshift hospital wards full of wounded and dying, but all this is not so harrowing as it might be because much of it is stagey. The actors are handicapped bv unimportant dialogue. It is exciting and timely melodrama and nothing more. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 No Terrifying ❖ THE DESPERADOES O O Randolph Scott, Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor, Evelyn Keyes, Edgar Buchanan, Raymond Walburn, Guinn Williams, Porter Hall, Joan Woodbury, Bernard Nedell, Irving Bacon, Glenn Strange. Original story by Max Brand. Screen play by Robert Carson. Musical direction by M. W. Stoloff. Direction by Charles Vidor. Columbia. With many of the scenes filmed in Zion National Forest, this story of Utah in the sixties is filmed in such lovely Technicolor that it is often breathtaking. While it follows a Western pattern, telling of the exploits of a sheriff in a town full of bad men, the characters are treated with individuality and one gets the underlying motives for their behavior. The clearly defined ethics, usual to Westerns, are, however, lacking. Camera shots of hundreds of wild horses are taken with expert direction. The tempo is fast, building up to a spectacular stampede of cattle through the center of the frontier town. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Entertaining but Mature in vein ethics jumbled and too exciting for many ♦> DIXIE DUGAN O O James Ellison, Charlotte Greenwood, Charlie Ruggles, Lois Andrews, Helene Reynolds, Raymond Walburn, Ann Todd, Eddie Foy, Jr. Screen play by Lee Loeb and Harold Buchman. Based on the character created by Joseph P. McEvoy. Directed by Otto Brower. 20th Century-Fox. In contrast to the “Blondie” films which are usually amusing in their own right, this picture has little interest for those who have no preconceived notion of the people in this comic strip. The character of “Dixie” is inconsistent and rather tiresome. Charlotte Greenwood and Charlie Ruggles manage to exact a small degree of humor from the predicaments arising from first aid and air raid wardens’ duties, although by this time such situations have become overworked. Adolescents, 12 to 16 Children, 8 to 12 Fair No particular value ❖ EDGE OF DARKNESS O O Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Nancy Coleman, Helmut Dantine, Judith Anderson, Ruth Gordon, John Beal, Helene Thimig, Morris Carnovsky, Charles Dingle, Roman Bohnen. Screen play by Robert Rossen based on novel by William Woods. Direction by Lewis Milestone. Warner Bros. This is a melodramatic story of Norwegion resistance to the Nazis. It is hampered by failure of the leads to give a convincing picture of selfless devotion to the cause of freedom. The film opens with a scene of utter destruction, a ruined town strewn with corpses of civilians and Nazi soldiers. Then the action is reconstructed to show how the revolt of the patriots was accomplished with the aid of arms smuggled in from an English submarine lying off shore. In the end practically all perish with the exception of Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan who miraculously escape to carry on guerrilla warfare. The plot is exciting but never rises to any heights of reality except that Judith Ander