Showmen's Trade Review (1945)

18 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW November 3, 1945 mm huh i) NT Detour PRC Drama 68 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Adult) A gripping film that should satisfy any audience seeking tense, absorbing fare. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: A topper for the market. Will render strong support in most situations. Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald, Tim Ryan, Esther Howard, Roger Clark. Credits: Directed by Edgar Ulmer. Original story and screenplay by Martin Goldsmith. Photography, Benjamin H. Kline. Associate Producer, Martin Mooney. Produced by Leon Fromkess. Plot: This is the story of what happened to a young man who tried to hitchhike his way across country to get to the girl he loves. Following a pick-up, he is suspected of murder. When he tries to figure a way out of the mess, he runs into a girl who knew the dead party. Her treatment of him eventually leads to her murder. The young man, instead of getting to his sweetheart, lands in jail. Comment: This gripping film about the strangeness of fate and the fact that we are only pawns in life's game, is a picture that should satisfy any audience seeking tense, absorbing drama. It has been well produced and directed, from a tightly-knit screenplay, which gives it the kind of drawing power that will render strong support in most situations. In spite of the limited locale, for most of the action takes place in a car traveling across country, the story thread has been deftly maintained by the understanding direction of Edgar Ulmer, who blended in several musical sequences with a fine acting job by Tom Neal. Claudia Drake presents one song number, I Can't Believe You're in Love With Me, which has been recorded, separately, by Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore. Acting honors also go to Ann Savage, who very ably portrays a "no-good" dame. Entire cast, though small, includes satisfactory performances by Miss Drake, Edmund MacDonald, Esther Howard and Roger Clark. Martin Mooney produced. Spellbound United Artists Drama 111 mins. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Adult) Absorbing drama with an entirely new element in motion picture treatment of a mystery plot. Excellently acted, directed with distinction and given a superlative production, this is exceptional entertainment for all types of grown-up theatregoers. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: Seems certain to prove a very strong attraction in all situations— Bergman, Peck, Hitchcock and Selznick names a very formidable combination. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll, John Emery, Wallace Ford, Bill Goodwin, Art Baker, Regis Toomey, Addison Richards, Jean Acker, Rhonda Fleming, Norman Lloyd, Steven Geray, Paul Harvey, Erskine Sanford, and others. Credits: Produced by David O. Selznick. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Based on novel by Francis Beeding. Screenplay by Ben Hecht. Photography by George Barnes. Production designer, James Basevi. Designer dream sequence, Salvador Dali. Plot: The new head (Gregory Peck) of a sanitarium for mental cases confesses to Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) that he is not the Dr. Edwardes he claims to be but is the murderer of Edwardes. She does not believe him the murderer; associates his amnesia (he has no memory of the past) with imagined guilt. She falls in love with him, and he with her. She has to work against time in the effort to restore his memory by Legion of Decency Ratings (For Week Ending Nov. 3rd) SUITABLE FOR GENERAL PATRONAGE Code of the Lawless Prairie Rustlers SUITABLE FOR ADULTS ONLY Detour Riverboat Rhythm This Love of Ours OBJECTIONABLE IN PART Bandit of the Badlands Fallen Angel Confidential Agent Pillow of Death means of psychoanalysis, since the police are now seeking him as a murderer. She braves the risk of being murdered in the same way as was Dr. Edwardes — supposedly in a skiing accident — in order to re-enact an experience to restore his mind. Her confidence in him, born perhaps as much of love as of scientific knowledge, is justified and the real murderer confesses. Comment: Superior entertainment and a stand-out attraction for the vast majority of picture theatres, this latest David O. Selznick production ranks high from many points of view, lo begin with it is the best Alfred Hitchcock picture since "Rebecca." That is saying a lot for any attraction. Here the English master of suspense through mystery uses his outstanding gifts to great avail in producing an illusion and sustaining a mood. Ingrid Bergman shines forth again as a most talented and skillful screen actress in playing a quite difficult role as a woman doctor who is tremendously devoted to her science but who, never the less, retains her human impulses and emotions and falls deeply in love. Gregory Peck does an excellent acting job as the doctor who has lost his memory but who believes he has committed a murder. No performance in this picture, however, outshines the characterization by Michael Chekhov of a foreign-accented and rather eccentric doctor who is specializing in psychiatry. Chekhov has a very fat part and he nils it out with a wealth of detail, warmth and color — but no ham. The production is superb in every technical detail, and there is wonderful photography to render it all with richness on the screen. Hitchcock has taken a story which employs psychoanalysis for both the crux of its murder-mystery plot and the medium of its solution. Early in the picture there are scenes (this reviewer feels they could be shortened considerably with ultimate benefit to the picture as a whole) which attempt to foreshadow much of the more involved elements of psychiatry which figure in the story. These may put too much strain on the think-apparatus of theatregoers who would prefer to have their entertainment quite free of anything that calls for mental exercise. Actually, "Spellbound" is plenty interesting all the way, whether or not one cares a hoot about the psychiatry business. Of course, those who do have a liking for psychology will find this picture much richer as an experience in the theatre. From the time the doctor confesses to the heroine that he has murdered the man he is now impersonating, Director Hitchcock and actors and actresses work wonders in sustaining interest, in building suspense, in moving their characters and their story along with a deliberate pace which gives throb and pulse to the whole fascinating illusion. As the heroine and her old mentor (the psychiatrist to whose home she takes the hunted and men tally ill man) strive to bring back the memory of the amnesia victim there is eager "cooperation" by the audience. That, of course, makes for the finest kind of suspense and enjoyment on the part of the paying customers. The exceptional settings and designs by Salvador Dali to illustrate the dream related by the amnesia victim will cause widespread discussion — which will be good for the box-office prospects of this picture. This sequence, also, proves most ingenious as a means of illustrating in terms of good dramatic action and illusion some intricate psychiatric elements which are vitally tied up with the solution of a murder mystery. There is a corking good climax to a suspenseful denouement when the murderer turns the pistol he has pointed at the heroine on himself as she overcomes him with a dramatic combination of sheer courage and psychology. Hitchcock shoves his camera right into the nose of this pistol and lets you see its barrel blaze (in red) as it sends its lethal discharge into the brain, presumably, of the murderer, a suicide. This ending, which means happiness for the hero and heroine, undoubtedly will be used to fine effect for good showmanship stunts. Confidential Agent Warner Bros. Drama 118 mine. AUDIENCE SLANT: (Family) Lacks action and is rather long, but should be interesting for the vast majority of fans. BOX-OFFICE SLANT: The Boyer and Bacall names for the marquee provide plenty of drawing power for most situations. Cast: Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, Victor Francen, Wanda Hendrix, George Coulouris, Peter Lorre, Katina Paxinou, John Warburton, Holmes Herbert, Dan Seymour, Art Foster, Miles Mander, Lawrence Grant, Ian Wolf, George Zucco. Credits: Produced by Robert Buckner. Directed by Herman Shumlin. Photography, James Wong Howe. From the novel by Graham Greene. Plot: Charles Boyer, confidential agent for the Spanish Republicans in 1937, is commissioned to buy vast quantities of coal from English Lord Holmes Herbert, and meets Herbert's daughter, Lauren Bacall, a cynical girl who finally becomes convinced of the righteousness of Boyer's cause, and incidentally, falls in love with him. Dangerous obstacles are put in Boyer's path by the Fascist government's representatives, but he succeeds in his mission and returns to Spain, taking Miss Bacall with him. Comment: The intensity and skill with which Boyer invests his role of a bitter, but fanatically loyal emissary of the Spanish Republican government is the most important saving grace of this overlong, static picture. He is believable at all times, which cannot be said for Miss Bacall, although the badly written part she plays with such seeming indifference may have been the cause rather than the effect of her ineptitude. Production values are good enough, but Mr. Shumlin's usually skillful direction is not too prominently displayed, leaving several scenes at loose ends, so to speak. Wanda Hendrix, as a charwoman in a cheap London hotel, plays a small but important part magnificently which highlights the deviltry of Katina Paxinou and Peter Lorre, both of whom have turned traitor to the Republicans, and who are determined to let nothing, not even Boyer's life, stand in their way of getting all of the money they can out of the warring Spanish interests. Other parts are well cast and well played. It is interesting to note that (Continued on Page 20)