Evening star., 1947-04-25

The cattlemen and sheepmen who
have been rehashing their battle
/ for the grazing lands of the West in
a score Of recent movies shoot it
out again in 'Ramrod,"s which
opened yesterday at the Capitol
theater. Nothing new has been
added TO the conflict, except for
Veronica Lake, which probably
leaves the screenplay to find its
audience among those who are
push-overs for horse opera and /or
Miss Lake.
Enterprise Pictures seems quite
confident there are a lot of such
customers. At any rate, it invested
a lot Of its money to make Ram
rod" fancy album of stars together
with a wide expanse of scenery
which is exciting in rugged way.
1t probably can be set down to
| the credit of ''Ramrod" that it tries
more than most screenplays of its
kind to explain these rough riding
and romancing characters in some
detail. The effect of this is merely
a spot of novelty when what every
one hoped for was a heightened
touch of drama.
Here Joel McCrea Is captain of
the sleepmen's team In the mur-
derous game played In "Ramrod. !"
william Preston Foster, of course, is
the master-mind of the catt1emen.
They are doughty pair of rivals,
you can be sure, and with Miss
Lake tossing herself in as sort of
loving cup for the winner, the game
is bound to be rough.
| In the current fashion of such
screen tales, "Ramrod" is compara-
lively quiet. Its shooting sequences
are fewer and the build-up between
them is OF the cold, deadly type that
Is calculated to heighten the pitch
of your suspense. Director Andre
de 10th, and his corral of we'll
trained cowboy actors, are reason
ably expert about all this. Nothing
| they do, however, can change the
formula which has it that McCrea
must be the winner, even though
flip at the end juggles grill friends
oddly a second or two.
Any claim the Capitol's picture
has to distinction lies in the han
ding Of its detail Some of its most
| familiar incident is worked with
such skill that you forget 1t dupli-
Gates something you probably saw
| the night before last in another
movie. This is notably true of the
climactic man-hunt scene, an affair
in which so many different men are
hunting one another that it is not
unlike looking at three westerns at
one time.
The romantic interludes, on the
other hand, are the weakness of
"Ramrod." Miss Lake never really
is able to take over as an icy blond
capable Of leading the cattlemen to
the destruction she plans for them,
or Sheepman McCrea to the cozy
future she anticipates.
In gangster's high-powered car
she is one girl; in a blackboard be-
hind a team of horses, another. The
first is more believable.
X
Mario and Floria, as smooth
ballroom dance team as the last
decade has produced, headline the
Capitops stage program this week
and invest it with a sparkle few
performers can achieve. In both
old and new routines, they demon
strate Qualities of irnapination and
technical skill the like of which you
have not seen since you saw them
last.
Otherwise, the bill has Gene
Archer vocalizing with the orches-
ira; the comedy of Jimmy Edmon-
son which is not as fresh as yester-
day mornings milk; the acrobatic
Edwards Bros; and. the Crosby sis
ters who sing irnitatively of some
of the more currently popular song
Iset. J,
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