Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1952)

V'Sv' Outstanding I'V Good * Fair BRIEF REVIEWS A — For adults F — For the whole family For fuller reviews, see Photoplay Shadow Stage for months indicated. See page 24 for this month’s reviews ✓ (F) AARON SLICK FROM P UNKIN CRICK — Paramount, Technicolor: Musical version of the oldtime melodrama with Robert Merrill and Adele Jergens as a couple of crooks who try to fleece farm girl, Dinah Shore. With Alan Young. (May) ^ .(F) ABOUT FACE — Warners, Technicolor: Uninspired musical remake of “Brother Rat” with Gordon MacRae, Eddie Bracken and Dick Wesson as the three cadets who spend their time involved in the usual military school kind of nonsense. With Phyllis Kirk, Aileen Stanley Jr., Virginia Gibson. (June) /V/*4 (F) ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN— Paramount: Jose Ferrer comes to the U . S. in search of happiness and a long-lost uncle; finds both and a romance with Kim Hunter in the bargain in this charm-laden bit of Americana. With Kurt Kasznar, Eugenie Leontovich. (May) 4/ (F) BATTLE AT APACHE PASS, THE — U-I, Technicolor: Jeff Chandler repeats his Cochise character, and again tries to live in harmony with the white settlers until Bruce Cowling stirs up an incident that results in a bloody massacre. Susan Cabot, John Lund, John Hudson and Beverly Tyler are involved in the proceedings. (Mav) l/54 (F) BELLE OF NEW YORK, THE— M-G-M. Technicolor: Vera-Ellen’s a missionary worker and Fred Astaire a playboy in this rather disappointing lightweight musical set in the Gay Nineties period. With Marjorie Main, Keenan Wynn. (May) 4/)/ (F) BELLES ON THEIR TOES— 20th Century-Fox, Technicolor: The further adventures of the “Cheaper by the Dozen” family with Myrna Loy and her brood of twelve going through humorous and sentimental situatons to keep their home intact after the death of Papa. With Jeanne Crain, Jeffrey Hunter, Barbara Bates, Debra Paget, Bob Arthur, Hoagy Carmichael, Edward Arnold. (June) 4/54 (F) BRIGAND , THE — Columbia, Technicolor: An old-fashioned swashbuckler with Tony Dexter doubling as a frivolous king and his commoner cousin who subs for him when he’s wounded. Jody Lawrance and Gale Robbins supply romance, Anthony Quinn, the villainy. (July) 54 4/ (F) BRONCO BUSTER— U-I, Technicolor: This tale about a young rider (Scott Brady) who becomes nasty and big-headed with success is almost one continuous rodeo show with a triangle involving Scott, John Lund and Joyce Holden tossed in to give the horses a respite. (June) 544/ (F) CALIFORNIA CONQ UEST— Columbia, Technicolor: Cornel Wilde foils Mexicans and Russians and brings California into the Union all by himself according to this corny but fast-moving Western. With Teresa Wright. (May) 4/54 (F) CAPTIVE CITY, THE— U.A.: A suspenseful drama in which small-town newspaperman John Forsythe is faced with the problem of exposing, at the risk of his life, a gambling syndicate’s branch in his community. With Joan Camden. (June) 4/4/ (F) CARBINE WILLIAMS— M-G-M: A biographical drama in which James Stewart plays a convicted murderer who, while serving his sentence, invents the LT.S. Carbine rifle. With Jean Hagen, Wendell Corey. (July) /V (A) CARRIE — Paramount Laurence Olivier gives up his wife, family and honor and sinks to tragic depths for the love of Jennifer Jones, in a haunting picturization of the Theodore Dreiser novel. With Eddie Albert, Miriam Hopkins. (July) 4/54 (F) CARSON CITY — Warners, Warnercolor: Another workin’-on-the-railroad fable — this time with Randy Scott overcoming obstacles laid in his path by dastardly Raymond Massey to get the choo-choo going between Virginia City and Carson City. With Lucille Norman. (July) 4/w^54 (F) DEADLINE U.S.A. — 20th Century Fox: Newspaper editor Humphrey Bogart struggles to expose the head of a crime syndicate and save his paper from being dissolved. With Kim Hunter, Ethel Barrymore. A walloping drama. (June) 1/1/4 (F) DENVER AND [ RIO GRANDE, THE— Paramount, Technicolor: Unscrupulous Sterling Hayden and staunch Edmond O’Brien, working for rival companies, fight tooth and nail to get a railroad built on property franchised by both. A routine dime-novel kind of story. With Laura Elliott. (Julv) 4/54 (F) DIPLOMATIC COURIER— 2 0th CenturyFox: Courier Tyrone Power becomes involved in a tug-of-war between Russians and Americans working in Trieste, in this fast-moving modern spy story. With Pat Neal, Hildegarde Neff. (July) 4/^54 (F) ENCORE — Paramount: Another trio of Somerset Maugham short stories unrelated in theme — dealing with a lazy playboy. (Nigel Patrick), an old maid (Kay Walsh) and a high diver (Glynis Johns) — but all delightful. With Terence Morgan, Roland Culver. (June) / (F) FIGHTER, THE — U.A.: Mexican prizefighter, Richard Conte, slugs his way to victory in the ring in America to get money for guns for his revolutionary friends across the border. A confusing dramatization of the Jack London story. (July) /'//4 (F) 5 FINGERS — 20th Century-Fox: The best spy story in years based on actual events which took place in Turkey during World War II, with James Mason as the cool spy who sold top war secrets to the Nazis for mercenary reasons. With Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie. (May) 4/4/ (F) FLESH AND FURY— U-I: Tony Curtis, a deaf-mute fighter, incited by mercenary Jan Sterling to become champ, almost forfeits his career and Mona Freeman when he regains his hearing. An off-beat and absorbing behind-the-scenes fight yarn. (June) 4/54 (F) GIRL IN WHITE, THE — M-G-M : June Allyso i plays the first woman doctor ever to be attached to a public hospital. Her work as an ambulance surgeon and her fight against bigotry and prejudice make for an interesting biographical drama. Co-starring Arthur Kennedy, Gary Merrill. (June) /V' (F) HIGH NOON — U.A.: Gary Cooper, on the morning of his marriage to Grace Kelly, learns a man lie sent to jail five years previously is returning to kill him. Unable to obtain help from the townspeople, Gary faces the killer and three henchmen alone in this adult and unbearably suspenseful Western. With Lloyd Bridges. Thomas Mitchell, Katy Jurado. (June) ^/ (A) ISLAND OF DESIRE — U.A.. Technicolor: Fair adventure story about the events that ensue when Linda Darnell and Tab Hunter are shipwrecked on a South Pacific island. With Donald Gray. (May) 4/54 (F) LION AND THE HORSE, THE — Warners, Warnercolor: A beautiful and touching Western concerning Steve Cochran’s love for a fiery stallion, climaxed by a fierce battle between the stallion and an escaped rodeo lion. (Tune) 4/ (F) MA AND PA KETTLE AT THE FAIR — U-I: Further misadventures of the homespun couple in which Ma loses a jam-making contest and Pa a sulky race. With Lori Nelson. James Best. (May) 54/" (F) MACAO — RKO: Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell and William Bendix meet on a ship to Macao and all the shenanigans add up to a merely routine mystery. With Gloria Grahame. (June) 4/ (F) MARA MARU — Warners: An average adventure story with Errol Flynn as a salvage diver who becomes involved in intrigue and murder when he goes qfter an unusual treasure which went down with his ship during World War II. With Ruth Roman, Richard Webb, Raymond Burr. (June) 4/4/54 (F) MARRYING KIND, T HE — Columbia : Humor, tragedy and a lot of everyday plain living are unfolded in a marriage story of average couple Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray. With Madge Kennedy, Sheila Bond. ( May) 544/ (F) MUTINY — U.A., Technicolor: Mark Stevens as the skipper of a U.S. ship during the War of 1812 tries to break the British blockade and bring French gold back to America. A routine adventure varn. With Angela Lansbury. (May) 4// 54 '(F) MY SIX CONVICTS— Columbia: Marshall Thompson, Gilbert Roland, Henry Morgan, Millard Mitchell, Alf Kjellin. Jay Adler prove to be unusual assistants to John Beal’s experiment in establishing prison reforms. An entertaining and different kind of picture. (May) 4//54 (F) MY SON JOHN— Paramount : Helen Hayes returns to the screen after a seventeen-year absence in the heartbreaking role of a woman who has to face the realization that her beloved son, Robert Walker, is a traitor to his country. A bold if somewhat talky anti-Communist propaganda piece. (June) // (Y) NARROW MARGIN, THE— RKO: Excellent suspense-filled story of events that take place aboard a crack train as detective Charles McGraw tries safely to escort gangster’s widow, Marie Windsor, to a grand jury trial in California. (July) 4/4/ (F) OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT— 20th Century-Fox: Exciting events occur when, after being driven out of a pioneer town. Anne Baxter, Dale Robertson, Miriam Hopkins seek refuge in a mountain cabin. A harsh drama. With Cameron Mitchell, Craig Hill, Barbara Bates. (July) 4/54 (F) PARK ROW — U.A. : The newspaper era of the 1880’s is the background for this absorbing behind-the-scenes story, in which Gene Evans plays an idealistic publisher whose innovations in journalism keep him from being ruined by his attractive but hard-hitting rival, Mary Welch. (July) (F) PAULA — Columbia: A heavy tear-jerking drama in which Loretta Young, after accidentally hitting Tommy Rettig with her car, takes him into her home and helps him regain his power of speech. With Kent Smith, Alexander Knox. (May) 4// (F) PRIDE OF ST. LOUIS, THE — 20th Century-Fox: Baseball’s Dizzy Dean comes jauntily to life with Dan Dailey as the pitcher whose screwy •. antics provided amusement for thousands of fans, Joanne Dru as his understanding wife and Richard Crenna as his brother. With Richard Hylton. (May) 4/54 (F> RANCHO NOTORIOUS— RKO, Technicolor: A tongue-in-cheek Western in which Arthur Kennedy, seeking revenge for the murder of his sweetheart, is led by Mel Ferrer to a robbers’ hideout run bv Marlene Dietrich. (May) 4/ (F) RED BALL EXPRESS— U-I: The real story of the work done by the U.S. Transportation Corps during World War II to keep the supply trucks rolling is lost in quarrels between Jeff Chandler and Alex Nicol and a couple of romances. (June) 4/4/ (F) RETREAT, HELL ! — Warners : A true and gripping story of our soldiers in Korea and the hardships they went through before and during the infamous attack at Chosen Reservoir. With Frank Lovejoy. Richard Carlson, Anita Louise. (May) W/ (F) RETURN OF THE TEXAN— 20th CenturyFox: A modern-day Western in which widower Dale Robertson returns to his ranch and tries to make a new life for himself. Joanne Dru and Robert Horton provide the romantic triangle. Walter Brennan, the humor, Richard Boone, the villainy. (May) 4/ (F) SAN FRANCISCO STORY, THE— Warners: A routine tale set in 1850 with Joel McCrea as a miner who tries to bring law and order into the corrupt seacoast town despite complications by Yvonne De Carlo and Sidney Blackmer. (June) 4/4/ (F) SHE’S WORKING HER WAY THROUGH COLLEGE — Warners, Technicolor: This musical version of “The Male Animal” stars Virginia Mayo as an ex-burlesque queen who goes i after some higher education and becomes involved with college musicals, football players and jealous co-eds. Co-starred are Gene Nelson, Ronald Reagan, j Pat Wvmore. Phyllis Thaxter, Don DeFore. (July) 4/l/V <F) SIN GIN’ IN THE RAIN— M-G-M. Technicolor: This super-happy musical pokes fun at the roaring twenties. Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen play a famed silent screen team who try to re-adjust themselves to the new-fangled talkies with hilarious results. Debbie Reynolds is the girl recruited to dub for Jean, and Donald O’Connor is great as Kelly’s life-long pal. (June) /V^54 (F) SKIRTS AHOY ! — M-G-M, Technicolor: 4 A rousing musical with nautical trimmings starring 1 Esther Williams, Joan Evans and Vivian Blaine as WAVES who set forth to get their men: Barry Sullivan, Keefe Brasselle, Dean Miller. (July) 4//^ A) SNIPER, THE — Columbia: A powerful drama about a young psychopatic killer (Arthur ! Franz) who roams the streets shooting innnocent ! women. Marie Windsor and Mario Dwyer are his victims, Richard Kiley, the psychiatrist who helps • track him down. (May) Z' (F) STEEL TOWN — U-I, Technicolor: The steel industry provides the background for the romantic complications which occur when the boss’s nephew, John Lund, falls for Ann Sheridan, Howard Duff’s girl. Fair to middling drama. (May) 1/ (F) TALK ABOUT A STRANGER— M-G-M: . Billy Gray, son of orange ranchers Nancy Davis and George Murphy, almost causes his parents’ ruin when, suspecting unfriendly neighbor Kurt Kasznar of killing his dog. he sets out to seek revenge. A minor but unobjectionable drama. (June) 4/54 (F) THREE FOR BEDROOM C— Warners, Natural Color: Gloria Swanson, a glamorous Hollywood star, meets and falls for chemistry professor, James Warren, after usurping his train accommodations in this sometimes gay but mostly forced farce. With Janine Perreau. (July) 1/4/54 (F) WAIT TILL THE SUN SHINES, NELLIE — 20th Century-Fox, Technicolor: Laughter, music and sentiment blend in this story of fifty years in the life of small-town barber David Wayne. With Tean Peters. Helene Stanley, Hugh Marlowe. (July) ; 4/4/ (F) WALK EAST ON BE A CON — Columbia : This exciting semi-documentary picture shows the authentic methods used by the FBI to track down Communist plotters bent on stealing a top secret. With George Murphy, Virginia Gilmore. (June) L/4/ 54 (F) WINNING TEAM, THE— Warners: Doris Day and Ronald Reagan help this tale of baseball hero Grover Cleveland Alexander, who rose to fame as a pitcher, fell to bottom and then came back with a bang. With Frank Lovejoy. (July)! / (A) WITHOUT WARNING— U. A.: Adam' Williams, a young gardener, who has a penchant for picking up and stabbing blondes to death, finally gets his due as he’s about to slash pretty Meg Randall. Grim film fare. (June) 4/54 (F) YOUNG MAN WITH IDEAS— M-G-M: Glenn Ford tries to prove to wife Ruth Roman that ! | he’s not a failure, and becomes involved with French ] singer Denise Darcel, student Nina Foch and a mob j of gangsters. (May)