The New Pictures

The Big Sky (Winchester; RKO Radio), based on A. B. Guthrie Jr.'s 1947 novel, can best be described as a northwestern--the story of a grueling, 1,200-mile fur-trading trek up the uncharted

Missouri River from St. Louis during the 18303. On board the whisky-laden keelboat Mandan are a brawling Creole crew captained by roly-poly Frenchie (Steven Geray); a couple of Kentucky mountain men, high-spirited Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) and hot-tempered Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin); and a hostage Blackfoot princess named Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt), who has been taken along to safeguard the expedition against Indian attacks.

Author Guthrie's novel is an epic saga of the hardy men who discovered a wilderness before the covered wagon came. The picture cuts down the novel's size and scope and tones down its realism, imposing a happy ending on the tragic love story of Boone and Teal Eye. But. for all its hemmed-in dramatic horizons, The Big Sky frequently has an easy naturalism, as if the camera and sound track were eavesdropping on the actors. Credit goes to Director Howard (Red River) Hawks.

Scenes filmed in Grand Teton National Park give the feeling of the northwest's sprawling magnitude, of the raw, vast, lonesome land. And in the performances of Dewey Martin as the moody, savage Boone and Arthur Hunnicutt as the grizzled old fur trapper, The Big Sky captures some of the book's roughhewn poetry and its dark strain of violence.

Sudden Fear (Joseph Kaufman; RKO Radio) finds Joan Crawford in something of a predicament. Her actor-husband (Jack Palance) is trying to murder her by running her down with his convertible on the hilly streets of San Francisco. This homicidal urge, it seems, dates back to the time when Joan, a playwright-heiress, turned him down for the leading part in one of her plays because she felt he was not romantic enough for the role. Shortly afterwards, she apparently changed her mind because she decided to marry him. She puts him up in her elegant home overlooking the bay and gives him plenty of pocket money, but Palance is still brooding over her professional affront to him. With the help of an old flame (Gloria Grahame), he decides to eliminate Joan so that he can inherit her money--and presumably finance a stage production in which he will-play the romantic lead.

This florid tale has been given flamboyant direction with overemphasis on such familiar thriller props as jangling telephones and doorbells, blaring radios, sudden shrieks and cats yowling in the night. Gaunt, towering Jack Palance makes an unusual leading man for Joan, while Gloria Grahame gives a pungent performance as the scheming other woman. As for Joan, she suffers bravely and beautifully--in gowns by Sheila O'Brien, lingerie by Tula, furs by Al Teitelbaum, and hats by Rex, Inc.

Dreamboat (20th Century-Fox) is a tart, tweedy college professor (Clifton Webb), who was once a silent screen ham, rated second in popularity only to "some stupid police dog." When his old movies suddenly become popular on television, embarrassed Professor Webb sues to keep them from being shown. "It's like exhuming a man from his grave," he argues. But the ending is a happy one: Webb winds up in Hollywood with a talking picture contract that bars police dogs from the casts of his movies.

Dreamboat gets a few celluloid chuckles from television--a subject about which Hollywood has yet to crack a smile offscreen. It also ribs silent films by speeding them up to make them look jerky. In the silent sequences, Webb makes flaming love to Ginger Rogers in Rudolph Valentino style.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.