Evening star., 1945-06-21

moves. Inc explanation PROBABLY
movies have we been able always to
steed on which the hero has staked
and the script of the screen play
absolutely infallable. Too infallabl
1t was from this perspective tha
opened yesterday at the Palace.
Yet, while We picked the winner as
usual, the Alan Ladd-Gail Russell
horse-drawn vehicle seemed to us
too much of rehash to modify
persistent feeling of lethargy Maybe
1t is high time that the heroS horse
be allowed to stumble and finish
last, or at least run second in
photo finish. 1t is something for
screen dramatiStS to think about If
we are to maintain our fine, inno-
cent enthusiasm for the noblest of
beasts. And Miss Russell, of course,
To be sure. they may not care about
our innocent enthusiasts.
SALTY ORourke' will appeal to
Ladd's following, however. in that 1t
returns him to his old hard-boiled
character. He has been allowed to
become namby- -pamby. little
namby- -pamby, in some of his recent
works and it seems fitting that this
trend should be stopped. In Salty
O'Rourke' he is not exactly immoral,
but he treads such dangerous ground
that it is wise for him to carry
a gun which he may have to use at
any moment. 1t is sound. grooved
performance. but no Sounder than
the less grooved ones played by
Stanley "Stach" Clements as
tough jockey, William Demarest as a
comic horse trainer and tongue-tied
philosopher, or Miss Russell as
naive school teacher.
Ladd's role in the Palace melo-
drama is that of a tight-lipped,
grim-visaged young fellow who
seems to be in debt some $4,000 to
a racketeer who shoots the custo-
mers when they fail to pay off.
When the unbluffable Salty" bluffs
his way into a brief reprieve, he
thinks he knows an angle for max
ing not only that much money but
more besides.
The angle is that of buying
recalcitrant race horse-one that
no one can ride-finding the right
Jockey for the steed and knocking
off a valuable stake race with the
pair of them.
The right jockey, of course, is
kid who can stick on the nag.
Right" has nothing to do with the
Young mans morals which, as por-
trayed by young Clements. are alb
solutely no morals at all. The
screen script by Milton Holmes tries
to make quite suspenseful thing /,
out of whether Salty will be able to
tame the youngster sufficiently to
win the sweepstakes. but the spec
tator never is in much doubt. That .
probably is the major weakness of .
SALTY ORourke" AS We said .
earlier. it's always a cinch that
Salty will win. the horse will win,
and the innocent girl will win;
Even the brat Jockey wins a kind .
or moral victory. That is four .
clinches, too many to parley in any /
screen play.
The picture. which Raoul Walsh
directed for Paramount. is not an
inexorably grim affair. In its cursory
examination of the several varied
lives with which it deals, it achieves
several moments of sardoniC humor
The best of these is kind of run
ming jest in which the arrogant
Jockey takes it into his head that
he has a fatal charm for women.
Miss Russell, who teaches in the
jockey school "a strange OASIS of
culture in race track setting), is
his greatest ambition. 1t is quite |
dumb of him. and not little funny
that he should not realize that she
merely is good public servant,
made better in his case by her love
for Salty as the kids employer.
Demarest also lightens up the
movement of Salty ORourke" when
the going seems to be getting alto
gether dark His impersonation of a
stumblebum stable character, pa
thetically loyal to the hero, is of
piece with much that he has done
before on the screen. Demarest. as
you know, does the role very well.
Ladd's greatest aspect of heelish-
ness in his latest Paramount opus
is in his treatment of the naive girl
who loves him She would have to be
naive to fall for the line he hands
her. and more naive to persist in
being devoted to him when she dis /
covers his duplicities. Both manage |
to be convincing however, insofar as
the script permits.
Convincing also are couple Of