Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1948)

By IVAN SPEAR Republic Has 17 Features Ready to Be Released Production itself may not be booming — and isn’t — but the backlog business is flourishing out Hollywood way. At Republic, for example, the aggregation of completed but unreleased product has reached a new high for the past three years, the valley lot having totted up and found it now has 17 pictures all finished and ready to go. Heading the list is John Steinbeck’s “The Red Pony,” with other high-budgeters including “Drums Along the Amazon,” starring George Brent and Vera Ralston; “The Plunderers,” with Rod Cameron; John Carroll in “Angel in Exile,” with Adele Mara; “The Last Bandit,” a William Elliott vehicle; and “Wake of the Red Witch,” with John Wayne and Gail Russell. Also awaiting release are two Roy Rogers oaters in 'Ti’ucolor, “Grand Canyon Trail” and "The Far Frontier.” Others in the backlog include “Sons of Adventm-e,” “Homicide for Three,” “Rose of the Yukon,” “Daughter of the Jungle,” “Sundown in Santa Fe,” “Renegades of Sonora,” “Sheriff of Wichita,” and two serials, “Federal Agents vs. Underworld, Inc.,” and “King of the Jungleland.” Story Market Shows Gain With Five Purchases In better shape than for many weeks past was the story market, which hummed with activity as a quintet of properties were disposed of to the picture-makers. One of the most important deals was that whereby Producer Hal Wallis acquired Niven Busch’s new novel, “The Furies,” as a potential starring vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck at Paramount. Just published, the Busch opus is played against a background of New Mexico and San Francisco in the late 1800s and tells of a spirited girl whose devotion to her cattlebaron father turns to hate when a stepmother is brought into her life . . . For their Allied Artists schedule, the King Brothers pur MGM Starts Huddles On 25th Year Plans A tentative elaborate program for large-scale observance of the company’s 25th anniversary are being discussed by MGM’s high executive echelon. Huddles on the scheduled quarter-century celebration are under way with Louis B. Mayer, Dore Schary and Howard Strickling of the studio discussing arrangements with Howard Dietz, advertising-publicity dhector, who planed in from New York for the conferences. Studio spokesmen said the plans still are in the “nebulous” stage, although it was indicated a year-long observance was being drafted. Metro was dedicated on its present site in Culver City by Mayer, Harry Rapf and the late Irving Thalberg on April 26, 1924. chased “Killers Are Born,” an original by Harold Douglas based on the Barbary Coast days . . . “Couple of the Month,” a romantic comedy by Jerome D. Ross and Leslie Reade, was added to the Independent Artists slate as a starring vehicle for Rosalind Russell. It is scheduled for RKO Radio release . . . Columbia purchased for Gene Autry Productions the film rights to “Phantom 45’s Talk Loud,” by Joseph Chadwick, which appeared originally in a western pulp magazine. It will be produced as “Rim of the Canyon,” with John Butler set to write the screenplay. Autry, now in Madison Square Garden with his rodeo, will return in time to don greasepaint for a December start . . . “Sing Your Way Out,” an original musical comedy by Producer-Director-Writer Maxwell Shane, was bought by Universal-International. Laid within the walls of a penitentiary, the vehicle is a burlesque on prison pictures and the radio industry, and will be directed by Shane under the productional guidance of Leonard Goldstein. 'Lydia Bailey' Is Added To 20th-Fox Na’vy List It begins to look as though filmdom has appropriated that famous slogan, “Join the navy and see the world,” for its own use, what with the constantly increasing list of pictures on which production in foreign parts is planned. Latest to be added to that category is 20th Century-Fox’s scheduled film version of the Kenneth Roberts best-seller, “Lydia Bailey,” with the disclosure that arrangements have been completed whereby a large portion of the picture will be photographed in Haiti. Much of the novel was localed in that Caribbean country. Sol Siegel, who will produce, plans a trek to Haiti in the near future to scout locations. In addition to production there, some sequences of “Lydia Bailey” are also scheduled to be shot in England. A mixed cast of British, American and Haitian players will be utilized. 20th-Fox Extends Pact Of Conte Seven Years Richard Conte was handed a new sevenyear acting ticket by 20th Century-Fox and, simultaneously, was awarded the male lead in “Thieves’ Market.” Under his new contract, Conte is permitted to make two stage commitments— one during the first three years, the other sometime during the latter four . . . Returning to the scene of many of his silent-screen hits, Buster Keaton, sad-faced clown, draws one of the featured roles in MGM’s “Good Old Summertime” . . . On loan from Eagle Lion, Scott Brady ha? one of the leads opposite Jane Russell in “Montana Belle,” the Howard Welsch production which Republic will release . . . Whether he’ll do it with or without that famous monocle hasn’t been disclosed — but Charles Coburn has been booked to portray a football coach in Universal-International’s “And Baby Makes 'Three” . . . Roland Yoimg draws a comedy topline in Paramount’s new Bob Hope starrer, “Easy Does It” ... As her Hollywood B'nai B'rith Has Cinema Lodge Hailed as a far-reaching step in the furtherance and propagation of interracial amity is the formation of the Cinema Lodge as a new agency of the national B’nai B’rith organization, headed by an advisory council of film industry notables and with Albert S. Rogell as president pro-tem. Members of the council include Barney Balaban, Nate Blumberg, Henry Ginsberg, Samuel Goldwyn, Joseph Schenck and John M. Stahl. The charter membership will include an imposing list of stage, screen, radio, television and other entertainment field representatives and religious and professional leaders. On the Cinema Lodge’s docket for the immediate future is the launching of what it describes as “the most comprehensive campaign ever undertaken by professional units on behalf of better understanding and tolerance among all peoples.” It plans to employ all public relations media and the facilities of the entertainment world in the venture. first assignment under a new long-term ticket, Barbara Hale will have the femme lead in Columbia’s “Jolson Sings Again,” for which Bill Goodwin is also set . . . Edward G. Robinson swings over to 20th Century-Fox for the starring role in “The East Side Story” . . . Femme lead in “Africa Screams,” AbbottCostello vehicle which Edward Nassour is producing for United Artists, goes to Hillary Brooke. Novelist Forms Own Producing Company One sure way for authors to combat the producers’ apparently dwindling interest in new story properties; Form your own company and film your brain-child yourself. That’s the course to be pursued by one novehst, Edward Thompson, who has organized Thompson Productions in association with A1 Lewis, formerly a Metro producer. Depending on how quickly he can get preliminary details cleared away, ’Thompson plans a February start on the first five projected pictures based on his own writing. 'This one will be “Hot Shot Dawson,” story of a medicine man of the 1880s. 'The Thompson-Lewis combine will follow with “Take Away the Darkness,” to star Cleo Moore; “I Wish Tonight,” based on the life of Lotta Crabtree; “Listen for the Laughter” and “A Seed in Spring.” 'They haven’t, as yet, negotiated a release. William Powell to Star In Melodrama for U-I Although he’s an MGM contractee, WilUam Powell has been more at home in recent years out at Universal-International, where he has starred in two comedies — “The Senator Was Indiscreet” and “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.” Continuing that liaison, U-I has arranged for Powell to star in “Take One False Step,” a suspense melodrama which Chester Erskine will produce. It is an original screenplay by Irwin Shaw, 24 BOXOFFICE :: November 6, 1948