The New Pictures

Carnival in Costa Rica (20th Century-Fox), a happy brawl of tone and color, shows off a few of the complications that may develop when parents arrange marriages for their children and the children arrange their romances otherwise.

Vera-Ellen, daughter of American-born Anne Revere and Costa Rican Coffee Planter J. Carrol Naish, is slated to marry 100% Costa Rican Cesar Romero. But Romero wants to marry American Comedienne Celeste Holm, and Vera-Ellen falls for Romero's American friend, Dick Haymes. All of this becomes involved enough to last for nearly two fiesta-flurried hours because the young people are slow about telling their parents--and each other--the bad news.

Some of the picture is harmless but not specially interesting fun. A lot of it is considerably better than that. Vera-Ellen, who has never had much acting to do before, makes her love affair more real, individual and touching than most ingenues manage even in nonmusicals. Singer Dick Haymes also plays his role for a good deal more than an excuse to break into song. Miss Revere and Messrs. Naish and Romero are much more human, too, than musical films are supposed to require; and Celeste Holm adds a welcome dash of lemon juice.

The bigger dance numbers, arranged by Leonide Massine, are only moderately exciting, but Massine stomps and silhouettes himself through one fine routine and he has coached Vera-Ellen into a splendid frenzy of ruffles. A ringing, all-Latin score by Cuba's Ernesto Lecuona includes several probable hits (Another Night Like This, Mi Vida, Giu-Pi-Pia, etc.) and a wild, magniloquent chorus as the camera honors some beautiful Costa Rican landscapes. Lecuona's music overwhelms some of the movie; it enriches much of the rest with the pleasantly itchy stitching of guitars.

Johnny O'Clock (Columbia) is another strenuous whodunit in which everyone talks in a monotone, wears an inscrutable expression, indulges in pinwheel fisticuffs and drinks a mort of straight whiskey. It may be that the type has become formalized and will shortly be just plain dull.

Dick Powell, Hollywood's prettiest tough guy, is cast as a tinhorn gambler with a heart of pure gold. As junior partner in a plushy gambling house, he is suspected of the murder of a crooked cop (Jim Bannon) and the cop's girl (Nina Foch). Powell can take some comfort from the fact that his partner's wife (Ellen Drew) and the murdered girl's sister (Evelyn Keyes) are both crazy about him. A tired police inspector, well played by hulking Lee J. Cobb, finally unravels the puzzle. But the story is told with such coy head-jerkings and pregnant silences that only a hardened whodunit fan can be sure of what's going on.

To balance its suspense, this type of movie generally tries for incidental humor. Johnny O'Clock tries almost too hard. (In a checkered-tablecloth restaurant, the waiter serves Powell & girl two unordered straight shots. Powell: "Who ordered these?" Waiter: "Ever eaten here?" Powell:"No." Waiter:"You'll need 'em.") But the show's biggest laugh is unintentional. During a gambling session, Powell and his partner, by this time sworn enemies, step outside to split their profits and call it quits. After they have been gone a few tense minutes, the sound track shudders with a rattle of pistol shots. Cries one of the gamblers: "What was that?"

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