relations that conversions to Christ sometimes bring to a family, The Heart Is a Rebel takes up where other Billy Graham evangelistic films leave off. Joan Foster (Georgia Lee), a young New York mother and cap able buyer’s consultant in a smart Manhattan store, has two major concerns: David (Scotty Morrow), a bed-ridden son with a weak heart, and an ambitious, self-sufficient husband named Hal (John M il ford) who, though grieved about his son, will not tolerate any nods to God for help. Early in the film Joan is per suaded by David’s jolly nurse (Eth el Waters) to attend Graham’s Madison Square Garden meeting to hear her sing. Joan is converted that night and the battle is on. Hal pictures his career in adver tising shattered when Joan disclos es her conversion before his asso ciates at a party in their home. In d isgust Ha l leaves home and plunges into a lucrative advertising account. He stays away two months and David grows worse. It takes the desperate crisis of David’s heart operation to rally Hal to some con sciousness of God and eventually in a bar where he is fortifying him self against his troubles, he sees Billy Graham on a TV screen. That’s the day he shakes off his pride and begins the climb to con version in the arms of his wife as the picture ends. Professional actors gleaned from the Hollywood Christian group, aided by the flawless filming and directing by Dick Ross of World Wide Pictures, do their job so well the viewer loses himself in the story. The Heart Is a Rebel plot is en livened by five minutes of Billy Graham’s preaching on regenera tion and glimpses of the crowd at New York’s Madison Square Gar den—-which was a tremendous ex panse to illmninate sufficiently for photography in full color. At the picture’s world premiere, May 2, in the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium, Navigator counselors recorded 68 decisions for Christ from among an audience of 6200 viewers. Music by Ralph Carmich ael. Running time: 83 minutes. Available for church show ings through World Wide Pictures, P.O. Box 1055, Sherman Oaks, Calif.
servant. This, I think, is open to qualification. It may be true of a doctrinaire Catholic and extremist such as the late Cardinal Segura in Spain. But is it fair to assume that a United States senator who is also a Roman Catholic is so slavishly d e v o t e d to th e position of the church hierarchy? While it is a question which must be faced, it must also be recognized that some parts of this film are more thor oughly documented than others. Hidden Power is well done. The acting is professional, the photog raphy and sound acceptable. Per haps the most effective sequence of the entire film is a skillfully edited flashback to a religious festival in Mexico City which shows writer- director Dave Ferrin’s flair for the documentary. Though long on talk and short on action, this motion picture will keep the audience in volved. 55 minutes, color. The Unfinished Task The Unfinished Task (produced for Concordia by Family Films of Hollywood) still continues to draw interest after many months. It may be of value to point out that here we have an illustration of the im portance of professional writing, acting and directing. Somewhat audaciously, the film seeks to bur den the audience for the cause of foreign missions while spending 9/10 of its screen time here at home. But it succeeds. In some other hands, such a venture could have been deadly. Probably the most serious criticism to be leveled at the film is that at times it moves much too slowly. In the role of John Bradford, w e a l t h y construction engineer whose only son disappoints him by becoming a m i s s i o n a r y in the Orient, old pro Ray Collins does a fine job — even makes you forget he also plays unsympathetic Lieut. Tragg on the Perry Mason tele vision series. Unfinished Task can be used with great effectiveness in conjunc tion with a church’s missionary conference. 72 minutes, b & w.
Now let’s take a look at a couple of films. The Hidden Power The Hidden Power (produced for Christ’s Mission by The Iversen- Ford Associates in New York) is a serious and intelligent effort to grapple with some implications of Roman Catholic influence in Amer ica. And since American evangeli cal expression on the Romanist in fluence has at times been somewhat inflammatory, the contrasting so briety of this film’s approach needs to be underscored. Mike Regan, career diplomat, is back in Washington for a Senate sub-committee hearing which will decide on the confirmation of his appointment as Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Ordinarily, it would be a rubber- stamp proposition, but a Protestant member of the committee presses home an inquiry c o n c e r n i n g Roman Catholic Regan’s primary allegiance. An honest man, Mike has no glib answers. His dilemma is intensified when a Mrs. Jacinto is brought in as a witness. She and her husband were Protestant mis sionaries in C o l om b i a during Regan’s term as consul in that country. The husband was mur dered by religious fanatics. Mrs. Jacinto implies that though legally Regan had no responsibility to pro tect her husband, ethically he was at fault in not doing all he could to prevent the murder. During a mid-day recess, Mike is pressured on one hand by Father Francis of Georgetown University and on the other by some immortal words of Thomas Jefferson on reli gious freedom. When the hearing resumes, Mike’s internal battle and the film come to a quick show down. To say that Hidden Power takes a sober and intelligent approach is not to suggest that it pussyfoots. It makes some serious accusations. For example, it infers that a Roman Catholic senator would condone perjury on the part of a Catholic appointee to a strategic diplomatic post if the implications of his reli gious affiliations were questioned too closely. It also suggests quite unmistakably that a man cannot be a loyal Roman Catholic and at the same time a loyal American public
♦
*
*
*
*
The Heart is a Rebel Reviewed by Norman B. Rohrer With a plot based on the strained
17
The King's Business/July 1958
Made with FlippingBook HTML5