BRIGHT LEAF

BRIGHT LEAF (1950). Director: Michael Curtiz.

Thrown out of the town of Kingsmouth, NC many years before by the wealthy tobacco man Major Singleton (Donald Crisp), Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) returns to make a fortune and stir up trouble. With the aid of John Barton (Jeff Corey), who has invented a machine for making and packaging cigarettes, and the financial help of gal pal Sonia Kovac (Lauren Bacall), he builds the Royle cigarette company into a giant that puts many of his tobacco competitors out of business. Sonia is in love with Brant, but he only has eyes for Singleton's lovely daughter, Margaret (Patricia Neal), and as the years go by he becomes more and more like her father, gaining power and prestige but treating people shabbily. Brant finds out that he may not have a friend left in the world ... Bright Leaf is a pot-boiler that slowly builds in dramatic intensity and features some effective performances. Cooper is better than usual in his portrayal of Royle; Neal is good but not great; and Bacall [Shock Treatment] has one of her best roles in this. Jack Carson and Jeff Corey are fine as Brant's business partners, Elizabeth Patterson [Out of the Blue] is terrific as the major's elderly sister; and Donald Crisp [The Old Maid] nearly steals the show as the implacable major -- one of the movie's best scenes has the major challenging Brant to a duel. As the love rivals, Neal and Cooper haven't any scenes together, unfortunately. A comical aspect of the movie is when Bacall tells Cooper that she's opened a "rooming house" when it is all too obviously a brothel! Smoothly directed by Michael Curtiz.

Verdict: This could be dismissed as a nearly two hour advertisement for cigarettes were it not for its sheer entertainment value. ***. 

MADONNA OF THE SEVEN MOONS

MADONNA OF THE SEVEN MOONS (1945). Director: Arthur Crabtree.

Maddalena (Phyllis Calvert) is a convent-raised girl who is raped and traumatized shortly before being married off to the kindly Giuseppe (John Stewart). Years go by and their daughter, Angela (Patricia Roc of The Wicked Lady), is now grown, but the announcement of her marriage to Evelyn (Alan Haines) precipitates another episode in which Maddalena runs off for months and vanishes. Maddalena has a whole other life as Rosanna, the lover of the criminal, Nino (Stewart Granger of Blanche Fury), in Florence. Neither Guiseppe nor Nino realize that Maddalena/Rosanna has a split personality due to her rape years before, and Nino thinks that she has taken a lover, Giuseppe, and decides to kill one or the other ... Madonna of the Seven Moons is hard to take seriously as it's much more of a pot-boiler than a drama, but it is arresting at times, and generally well-acted. Phylllis Calvert [The Man in Grey] is quite effective at getting across her different personalities and at different time periods, and the other cast members are all good. Especially notable are Peter Glenville as Sandro, Nino's slimy brother, and Nancy Price as their cackling old crone of  a mother. The film is entertaining, but one senses it would have worked better as an Italian verismo opera with a score by Pietro Mascagni.

Verdict: Watch out for those wild Florencian passions! ***.