Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1955-May 1957)

Teahouse Of The August Moon ATTACHED to Army occupational forces on Okinawa, Glenn Ford is ordered to bring democracy to a small village. Armed with good intentions and interpreter, Okinawan Marlon Brando, Ford arrives and briskly checks off his list of "Things to do": Bring order out of chaos! Build school! Start industry! The natives are enchanted by this crisp efficiency. As tokens of welcome they present Ford with a quaint array of presents. One comes wrapped in a kimono. Her name is Machiko Kyo, a fragile porcelain geisha girl. In time, Ford swaps his uniform for a bathrobe, smiles benevolently when his Okinawan charges stop making sleazy souvenirs and start distilling potent potato brandy. When Ford sends in a requisition for lumber for a teahouse where the local ladies can entertain the gentlemen properly, the Army flips. Psychiatrist Eddie Albert is rushed to the scene. He finally concludes bathrobes are comfortable, especially when growing sweet peas. The Army froths at the mouth. About to take drastic steps, an ultimatum from Washington saves Ford, the teahouse and Albert's sweet peas. As light as a cloud and as merry as a Japanese lantern, this is probably the year's most delightful splash of Metrocolor whimsy. (MGM.) Giant THIS WarnerColor drama just might ' prod some Texans into seceding from the United States. As seen through the eyes of Elizabeth Taylor, wealthy rancher Rock Hudson's bride, Texas is big, sprawling and brawling. A place where almost everybody had almost everything but danged if they knew what to do with it. An Easterner, Elizabeth is slow to understand the Texans and their swaggering bravado. To her, it's a place where many 't ::: : J LIFE in Texas intrigues Easterner Elizabeth Taylor, rancher Rock Hudson's bride in "Giant." 62 I SUSPENSE piles up when Doris Day finds husband Louis Jourdan is murderer in "Julie." vast fortunes, like ranchhand James Dean's, are made not through intelligence, work or merit, but on blind, stupid luck. It's a place, Elizabeth learns from sisterin-law Mercedes McCambridge, where women often seem to be a different breed from other women. Worst of all, Elizabeth points out to her virile, thick-hided Rock, Texas is a place where some people need the sort of power that comes from pushing around a less fortunate people. Nothing, but nothing, has been overlooked to make this a magnificent and exciting enlargement of the Edna Ferber book. (Warner Bros.) Westward Ho, The Wagons BECAUSE Walt Disney was responsible for filming this Technicolor epic of a wagon train heading for the plush land of Oregon, you can be fairly sure the violence is not of the grisly sort. With Fess Parker coming to grips with Pawnees and Sioux, there's ample opportunity for a blood bath of violence. Instead, a series of incidents with the Indians, which is pretty much the way things happen in real life, rarely by plot, test the mettle of the pioneers. The tensest situation arises when Parker, who doubles as a doctor, tries to help the critically injured son of a Sioux chief. If Parker fails, the wagon train is doomed. . . . They went wild on Indian research in this so everything looks quite authentic. The small fry will love this. (Buena Vista.) Julie %Af HAT, you ask yourself, what good heavens, keeps Doris Day going throughout all the harrowing ordeals peppering this suspense thriller? Married to erratic concert pianist Louis Jourdan, Doris finds out too late that Jourdan, a victim of intense jealousy, killed her former husband. Fleeing their eerie eyrie, continued on page 70 : i