Evening star., 1951-02-23


screenplay Of genuine merit.
With four stars. Ginger Roger
Steve Cochran in the key roles,
this Jerry Wald production tells
. tight and shocking tale of mob.
violence, It's setting is an un-
identified Southern town. one of
those sullen. Klan ridden COM
munities which believes more in
its masked terror than in any
such thing as. due process of law.
The story Of storm Warning"
as written by Daniel Fuchs and
Richard Brooks underscores the
angers, fears. shame and psy-
chotic pride inherent in hooded
government.
If it occasionally ,over-reaches
itself. and it seldom does, put the
mischance down to the authors
own deep and justifiable anger.
The cast which is dominated
by Miss Rogers in the role of a
New York model. gives the story
q notably vehement telling under
the direction of Stuart Heisler.
It works In those drab and mist
fly treacherous lights which
Hollywood is learning to use as
effectively as they are used by
European film makers.
n u X
AS the center of this violent
emotional storm. Miss Rogers is
q girl who drops off in the un-
named town to visit her sister.
Murder is in the atmosphere of
the night. Everything is closing
: early. including the bus station,
and the visitor marks a sinister
1nhospitality.
Passing the jail en- route to her
sisters she runs into the reason
for all this. She sees a hooded
mob shoot down a fleeing man and
from her hiding place. sees two
Of the mob's leaders remove their
hoods as they stand over the
victims body.
One Of these later turns out to
be the brother-in-law she has
never met. the other his boss.
From this point on, the plot
turns on the question of whether |
her family loyalty will close her
lips or her outraged sense Of
justice ally her with the decent
young local prosecutor Regan) to
bring the mob to trial. Whichever
it is. she is caught in the vortex |
Of a community emotion whose
ugliness is relieved only by the
prosecutors determination to do
his duty.
Storm Warning" takes a long,
hard look at the facts of lynch
ing. It works outward from the
body Of the victim-a Southern
newspaperman from another city
bent upon exposing khan govern
ment-and it comes upon much
Of interest. It finds that the mur-
derous element and the decent one
Of the community are kin or neigh
bors and thus united against the
young county attorney.
His case will have to rest upon
the strange girl in town and the
emotional conflict within her is
the inspiration for some excellent |
acting by Miss Rogers.
Three locales contain the major
drame of Storm Warming" One
of these is the humble home of
the models sister miss Day. and
her masked. muscular husband
Cochran The second is the
community recreation center,
bowling alley to which the mob
retreats to lose itself among those
who knew of but did not partici-
pate in the killing.
The third big scene is that in
the coroner's Office where one of
the most bitterly ironic inquests
ever photographed is held. At
this hearing, Miss Rogers refuses
to talk. but when her hoodlum
brother-in-law later attempts to
rape her, her emotional confusion
comes to logical end.
y X
Considering the explosive nature
OF its material, Storm Warning"
Is an intelligently calm screen
play which is always careful to
dig into the personal aspects and
motivations of its principal char
acters.
It's pivotal players all give ex-