The New Pictures

Six Bridges to Cross (Universal-International), a well-made cops-and-robbers thriller, might have an arresting subtitle: They Stole $2,500,000 and Got Away with It. That is more or less what happened five years ago in Boston when a well-organized band of crooks relieved Brinks, Inc. of its clients' assets. Jerry Florea (Tony Curtis), a born organizer, rises from a Boston gutter to mastermind the multimillion-dollar robbery. Policeman Ed Gallagher (George Nader), Jerry's longtime friendly enemy, cannot break his alibi. Just as Jerry is about to split the take, it turns out that the story idea was only half right for Hollywood. Jaws drop, eyes pop, and guys go for gats as Jerry announces to his hoods that he is going to return the millions and give himself up.

"You wouldn't understand.'' he snarls, and adds disarmingly, "I don't either." As the bullets cut Jerry down, those who know the rules of Hollywood censorship will understand perfectly: in a U.S.-distributed movie, you can't get away with murder--or even $2,500,000.

Underwater! (RKO Radio). Fill a bathing suit with Jane Russell, toss into water and mix well into a $3,000,000 movie. Season the movie with submarine photography, a few sharks, two treasurehunting skin-divers and one sunken Spanish galleon. The result is likely to be a lot of bullion. By the time Skin-Divers Richard Egan and Gilbert Roland surface with the gold ingots, Jane has displayed her more notable talents in high-cut shorts, low-cut dresses, pajamas, a nightgown, one-piece and two-piece swim suits. Her clothes designer can hardly be held responsible for the shape the movie puts her in. At ten fathoms, with a tank of oxygen on her back and her teeth clamped on an aqualung, Jane is not at her best. Even the sharks seem to pursue her with not much conviction. Although it has little to recommend it, Underwater promises to be a hard picture to avoid. Ten days before it was released, on the crest of an expense-be-damned publicity campaign, it had already racked up more bookings than any RKO movie in the past ten years.

The Intruder (Associated Artists) is a happy example of the British talent for murmuring graceful commonplaces. Made from a Robin Maugham novel, Line on Ginger, the picture begins when a stockbroker (Jack Hawkins), home from an afternoon of golf, surprises a burglar (Michael Medwin) in his house. The man proves to be "Ginger" Edwards, a soldier the broker commanded in his regiment during World War II--and a good soldier he was. What has gone wrong with him? The broker asks, but before he can get an answer, Ginger takes French leave.* As the broker goes from one to another of his old soldiers, looking for the fugitive, the decline and fall of Ginger is described in five long flashbacks. For a wonder, the interruptions, usually fatal to the flow of interest, do not really interrupt; the flashback has seldom been used with such propriety and naturalness. The battle scenes are excellent, too, particularly a couple of comic ones.

The fun, however, always chords with a thoughtful undertone that carries through the whole picture. The moviemakers--Scriptwriters Robin Maugham and John Hunter, Director Guy Hamilton, Producer Ivan Foxwell--seem to have cared, not only to make good entertainment, but to get a real line on Ginger, and the warm pulse of that feeling beats through every performance and every scene.

Cinerama Holiday (Stanley Warner Cinerama Corp.), the second production in Cinerama, lacks the technical surprise of the first, and offers little to take its place. In This Is Cinerama, which grossed $20 million in only 14 theaters during the past 28 months, the giant curved screen caught the spectator in an emotional pincers movement and empathically lobstered him out of his seat; but in essence it was no more than a wraparound newsreel. Cinerama Holiday, in turn, is just an oversized travelogue, but a fairly lively and sometimes picturesque one. though often it is blatant enough to explain all those stories about Americans abroad.

The European tour begins with a heart-stopping panorama of the Alps, as the plane glides over them toward the Zurich airport; then on to a rattling good bobsled run and a grand ski-daddle down the famous slope at Davos. Off to Paris: quick looks at the city, the Louvre, High Mass in Notre Dame, spring showings in Jacques Path's salon, the soubrettes in a big tourist boite. The best thing in the show is a study of the children's faces as they watch the Guignol in the park.

There is also a tour of the U.S., featuring the sort of thing (Las Vegas, Top of the Mark, a New Orleans jam session, the Washington Monument) best left to home movies. On the whole, the trouble with Cinerama Holiday is that it employs such mighty means to such an insignificant end. As one customer remarked, "You get at least half the thrill of a roller-coaster ride for only ten times the price."

* The French call it English leave.

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