Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1954)

p 28 CONCENTRATE w ^ hair-conditjoning action Watch this luxury lather make your hair. exciting to behold! Suddenly glowing clean . . . silky. . . amazingly manageable! That’s the magic touch of fresh whole egg! Conditions any hair! Try it! 29<t, 59<t and $1 r\/io\/i EE Operation Manhunt u.a. \SVV Filmed in Canada, this modest action picture imagines a harrowing episode in the present-day life of Igor Gouzenko, the Russian who fled from a Soviet Embassy to help Canada smash an atom-spy ring. Portrayed with conviction by Harry Townes. Gouzenko is seen living quietly in a farming section with his wife (Irja Jensen) and children, their true identity hidden to escape Soviet vengeance. The family’s situation draws automatic sympathy, but the emotion would be stronger if the movie showed some of the events leading up to Gouzenko’s big decision. Here, he is touched by a letter from a man who wants to follow him to freedom. It’s a trap, of course, and the would-be rebel is a triggerman sent to Canada to make an example of Gouzenko. In this role, Jacques Aubuchon is a portly, dead-pan villain better suited to a more romantic sort of melodrama. But events move with satisfying swiftness to a surprise finish. family Bread, Love and Dreams titanus Gentle, leisurely and charming, this Italian movie (with titles in English) gives luscious Gina Lollobrigida her best role. As the prettiest and the poorest girl in a mountain village, she’s a free-striding little figure in tattered clothes, vigorously defending her virtue against a townful of admirers. To this isolated spot comes handsome, graying Vittorio De Sica, a marshal in the carabinieri (Italy’s national police). A lonely bachelor, he casts an eye first on the comely young midwife, but gives up because he thinks he has a rival. Then he’s drawn to Gina, not realizing that she’s in love with one of his men, a youth too painfully shy to approach her. All the picture’s people, even the prying villagers, are a likable lot, pathetically human. adult Hansel and Gretel myerberc, technicolor ‘'V Puppets of a remarkable new design are featured in this slow-paced version of the classic fairy tale. They are quaint and appealing figures, with features that move, as well as limbs. But their motions aren’t always smooth and realistic. Very young movie fans, however, are likely to be too spellbound by the little live dolls to quibble. The story, of course, follows a small brother and sister as they wander from their poverty-stricken home into a deep forest — where a fearsome witch lurks. A spirited caricature, she’s the most convincing of the puppets, though over-imaginative youngsters might find nightmare material in her fondness for baked children as a tasty dish. With Humperdinck’s familiar music, the film is a miniature opera. family Fire over Africa Columbia, technicolor VV Maureen O’Hara, Macdonald Carey and the rest of the troupe locationed in North Africa for this wildly melodramatic yarn of smugglers and secret agents. A former OSS girl, Maureen is assigned to find the unknown leader of a smuggling ring that operates in defiance of several Continued from page 12 governments. Posing as an adventures she gets a job in a dive run by the fortl right Binnie Barnes. The customers, rakish group, provide plenty of leads fc Maureen’s detective work, but she can shake Carey off. He’s a shady characte Below deck on a ship that’s fleeing killers Maureen and Mac find they’ve fallen in lovt who keeps following her, making brash advances. Eventually, both are embroiled in a colossal brawl with the smuggler gang. The story travels fast along its involved course, against varied, colorful backgrounds. family The Black Dakotas Columbia, technicolor •'V Again the Civil War is fought out west, in a lively horse opera that favors neither side. Gary Merrill’s a Confederate spy representing himself as an emissary from Lincoln, ready to offer the Sioux a peace treaty and a gift of gold. Actually, Gary has murdered the real Union agent and now plans to steal the gold, so that the Sioux will renew warfare and the Union will be forced to send troops against them. Wanda Hendrix, whose father was hanged as a Southern spy, also has Confederate sympathies, though her true love (John Bromfield) is a loyal Union man. Dissension among the Sioux and the revelation of Gary’s real character keep the plot bubbling busily, family The Human Jungle allied artists v'V' No hidden motives for Gary Merrill this time. He’s a thoroughgoing good guy. About to leave the police force and begin a law career, he can’t resist a challenge thrown at him by his wily superior: the job of cleaning up the toughest precinct in town. Gary’s treat-’em-rough policy draws censure when the gang frames him. But this can’t stop his search for the murderer of a party girl. As the chief suspect, rangy Chuck Connors does a believable sketch of a deadly young hoodlum. His alibi is furnished by Jan Sterling, equally effective as a brassy, cop-hating B-girl. Though the plot as a whole is not too plausible, the action’s exciting. The romantic element is weak, with Paula Raymond as Gary’s patient wife, in a home rather too well-appointed to belong to an honest cop. family