Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-10-13

This is to say that 1t is a I
the cone-hither quality of I,au
nature Of John Wayne. When
essences Of its stars, "Blood ALI,
the stalwart Wayne is the re-
doubtable ship captain who evac.
yates an entire Chinese village
from its hated Communist
masters.
In the balance Of Director VIII
liam Wellman,s picture, however
the admirable idealism Of the
evacuation exploit Is secondary
It's net effect is to suggest that
In getting Miss Bacall In the
fnal sequences. Wayne is more
amply rewarded than the Chi.
nese villagers who merely gel
their freedom.
This scale Of values Is one
that might strike non-Wayne
fans as false but since not many
Of these are likely to see BLOOD
Alley" the point is perhaps un-
important.
= 4 4 +
Blood Alley" unlike several
other recent tales of the Orient
related by Hollywood, did moi
travel to the actual setting. II
contented itself. instead. with
shooting its backgrounds in the
San Francisco area, which is
fairly Chinese.
Against this landscape. and in
the midst of a multitude OF
Chinese extras. Wayne is every
inch the hero he finds in his
reading Of adventure fiction.
He Is q scapegrace, a rogue,
and q self -confessed happy lecher
in China coastwise shipping, but
when a girl like Miss Bacall asks
him to save a miserable village
he has no choice but to accept
So he loads the villagers, their
animals. food. and Miss Bacall
onto an ancient ferry boat and
takes them 800 miles through the
Formosa Straight to Hong Kong
and freedom.
This, you can bet, is no simple
weekend excursion. It calls for
courage, faith. resourcefulness.
virtues whose display requires
almost two hours Of film.
The single novelty in Blood
Alley" is one that has a certain
piquancy In that Wayne hardly
seems the actor for 1t. This is
o running monologue he con-
ducts with an invisible character.
q poltergeist possibly. who APP
parently answers to the name Of
Baby"
He and Baby" it seems, be-
came good companions when he
was resisting brainwashing as q
captive of the Communists. The
relationship, when 1t comes to
her attention. strikes Miss Ba-
cali Is one that doesn't make
sense.
She's right.
4 y y
WHIMSEY: You don't think
Of drive-in theater people as
being whimsical but this Is be-
cause you don't know them.
Now, you take the manage
ment Of the Lee Highway drive
In. It made Page One just last
Sunday by being held up In
rather spectacular fashion. This
cost 1t some money, but 1t also
gave 1t an idea.
The idea? Well. to book Al
fred Hitchcock's ITO Catch q
Thief" as this week-end's at
traction. The picture win open
there tomorrow night and II the
bandits have q wisp OF whimsey
In their natures. they probably
will return.
But only to see the movie. Of
course.
AsIDES: To Koren d. Kas-
parian, Bethesda: Thanks for
passing along William Saroyan's
comments on the column. As for
his Jim Dandy" he means it
never has been produced pro-
fessionally. It was done, with
Saroyan's blessing and this re-
viewers, In its first public per-
Torrance at Catholic University
some years ago.
And to Ross Horning. IT,, Falls
Church: The trouble with writ
ers is that they do not make
themselves clear. We thought our
reference to "Antastasia's" au-
thenticity as something to be
left to more scholarly minds" as
covering that point. It turned
out to be fuzzier than we antici-
pated. Shame on US.
\ 4 n II
BULLETIN BOARD: Thornton
Wilder's Edinburgh festival play,
1.-THE Matchmaker" went into
rehearsal in New York this week
with Ruth Gordon and Eileen
Herlie Of the original cast. and
Eddie Mayehoff supplanting Sam
Levene. 1t is due to open in
New York on December S. (.
Theater Lobby is campaigning
for subscribers to Its four-play
series which opens in November
with Lorca's Blood Wedding +"
And will include "The Three