Cinema
THE BIG KNIPE. (Gaumont.) ---- DAVY Caocxerr. (Studio One.) The Big Knife, taken (but not very far) from Clifford Odets's play, is an indictment of Hollywood, and as presented by Hollywood is, presumably, an exercise in masochism. It has one splendid piece of acting by Rod Steiger as a producer, a tyrant with deaf-aid and tears to help him over the tough spots, and a megalo- maniac's temper when he is thwarted. There arc good performances by Jack Palance as the film star who is blackmailed into toeing the company line, by Ida Lupino as his wife, by Wendell Corey as the producer's stooge, by Ilka Chase as a make-or-break columnist, and by Shelley Winters as the permanent starlet. A quiverful of good performances, in fact, but strung on to a bow which pings falsely. Brood- ingly directed by Robert Aldrich, this film makes heavy weather in theatrical language of a situation which barely merits so sombre a treatment. It is too plaintive, too self-pitying, and the ogre-eating-idealist motif overplayed.
The latest .children's hero, ousting Hopalong Cassidy from his long-held throne, is Davy Crockett, whose legend has recently been re- vived in America to the benefit of the coonskin hat trade. Walt Disney traces his life in a fine adventure film and we follow Davy from his Indian Scout days with General Jackson, 'via politics in Washington with General Jackson, to the forlorn siege of Alamo with Jim Bowie. The hero is played by Fess Parker, and very good he is,-too, with his slow, honest manner
and his droll Tennessee accent. Plain spoken independent, incredibly brave, and handsom as a hawk, he is the answer to every school boy's prayer, and incidentally to ever mother's. On a wet holiday afternoon Day Crockett tracking Indians through the forest teasing the Army with his tricks, confoundin. Senators with his forthright speeches, an dying gloriously, could not be bettered.
Christmas films which arc showing too lat• for me to see are The Tender Trap with Sinatra, which I am told is very good; Sincere! Yours, starring the current heart-throb Libe ace; All for Mary with Nigel Patrick an Kathleen Harrison, and Seven Cities of Gol with Richard Egan. At the Everyman they are) reviving M. Hulot's Holiday, which is perfect holiday fare.
VIRGINIA GRAHAM
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