The New Pictures

To the Ends of the Earth (Columbia) shows Treasury Agent Dick Powell hounding his quarry from San Francisco to Shanghai to Cairo to Beirut to Havana to New York. The picture has something of the gallivanting glamour of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. It is based on actual files in the Narcotics Bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department.

"Based" is such an elastic word, it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Everybody (especially Vladimir Sokoloff) acts like a character in a half-believable movie melodrama. But some of the things they do are so incredible that they are obviously current history.

Jay Richard Kennedy, who makes his bow as a writer-producer with this one, studied 150 movie scripts and 95 pictures while he was getting ready. He evidently studied them too humbly, for his unconventional material is conventionally filmed. However, within its convention this is a good, straightforward job. The story alone would be worth the price of admission.

Killer McCoy (MGM) is a slum boy (Mickey Rooney) who becomes a ranking boxer. He falls in love with a finishing-school girl (Ann Blyth) who does not realize that her father (Brian Donlevy) is a big-time gambler. The rest of the story runs true to type. The hero's father is a no-account souse (nicely played by James Dunn); and whenever the laughter, tears or plot complications get too tiresome, there's always another fight to watch. The whole picture is so disarmingly old-fashioned that it is almost likable--but not quite.

Mickey Rooney, who must play to a large following that knows what it wants, reminds one that horsing and hamming can be done with as much skill and power as real acting. His proficient use of his body, in the early fights, is reminiscent of Chaplin or Astaire. In flashes, he plays straight; then and throughout his performance, it is clear that one of the best actors in pictures is wasting his time for lack of roles worthy of him--for example, Studs Lonigan.

Three Daring Daughters (M-G-M). Producer Joe Pasternak discovered long ago that charming young people, musical celebrities and double jiggers of relaxed good humor and good will are likely to shake up into a very pleasant musical. He has poured out the mixture, with happy results, quite a number of times (100 Men and a Girl, Two Girls and a Sailor, etc.). But the recipe doesn't always work ( Three Daring Daughters).

Mrs. Morgan (Jeanette MacDonald, back on the screen after six years' absence) is a divorcee who sings and falls in love with Jose Iturbi (played, with superb assurance, by Jose Iturbi). Jeanette's three little girls (Jane Powell, Ann E. Todd, Mary Eleanor Donohue), who still idealize their father, oppose the marriage. Everybody is fairly stupid about trying to resolve the trouble, but everybody means awfully well. Also, everybody bursts into song or sits down at the piano with little or no provocation.

Miss MacDonald's voice sounds richer than ever; Senor Iturbi plays much better boogie than he used to; and a couple of the children are very nice. It should have made a pleasant, easy show, but it seems hardly worth all the trouble.

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