Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

THIS WEEK in PRODUCTION . . . Started — 2 Independent — Naked Invader (Ronnie Ashcroft Prods.). Warner Bros. — Bombers B-52 (CinemaScope; WarnerColor). . . . Completed — 5 American International — Rock All Night (Sunset Prod.). Independent — The Beginning of the End (Am-Par Pic.); Johnny Trouble (Motion Pictures by Clarion). Paramount — The Joker (VistaVision). Warner Bros. — The Story of Mankind. . . . Shooting — 25 Columbia — Hellcats of the Navy (Morningside Prod; 3:10 to Yuma; The Brothers Rico (William Goetz Prod.); The Haunted; The Bridge on the River Kwai (Horizon-American); The Admirable Crichton (London Films). Independent — Valerie (Hal R. Makelim Prods.); II Crido (Robert Alexander Prod.). Metro-Goldwyn-Moyer — Man on Fire (Sol C. Siegel Prods.); Action of the Tiger (Blau-Meyer Prods.); This Could Be the Night; The Seventh Sin (CinemaScope); Gun Glory (CinemaScope, Metrocolor); Silk Stockings (Arthur Freed Prod, CinemaScope, Metrocolor). RKO Radio — Escapade in Japan (Color). 20th Century-Fox — The Sea Devil (Regal Films); The River's Edge (Bogeaus; CinemaScope, DeLuxe Color); Island in the Sun (Zanuck, CinemaScope, DeLuxe Color); Boy on a Dolphin (55mm, CinemaScope, Color). United Artists — The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (RussField Prods.); Mark of the Vampire (Gramercy Pics.); The Sweet Smell of Success (Hecht-HillLancaster Prods.). Universal-International — The Man of a Thousand Faces (CinemaScope). Warner Bros. — The Pajama Game (WarnerColor); The Black Scorpion (Melford-Dietz). HOLLYWOOD BUREAU Start of two pictures conspired with completion of five to drag the total of features in shooting stage down from an unimpressive 30 to a slim 27 as Christmas came and New Years loomed ahead. But in view of the fact that the turning of the calendar year doesn’t threaten to usher in any new and discouraging stresses likely to hamper progress, it is reasonably certain that producers, major as well as independent, will be putting a compensating number of pictures into production next month. Warner Brothers started “Bombers B52,” in CinemaScope and WarnerColor, with Karl Malden, Natalie Wood, Efrem Zimbalist, James Garner and Bob Haver. Richard Whorf is the producer, Gordon Douglas the director. Ronnie Ashcraft Productions, independent, began shooting “Naked Invader,” with Robert Clarke, Marilyn Harvey, Kenny Duncan, Ewing Brown, Shirley Kilpatrick and Jeannie Tattum. Ronnie Ashcraft is producer, director and film editor of the project. I Sc cene GOOD TALENT IS GOOD — TV OR FILM by WILLIAM R. WEAVER HOLLYWOOD: Although the jury is still out on the question of whether a good television play is necessarily a good story property for production as a theatrical feature, there appears to be considerably less uncertainty about the theory that a good television writer, director or actor is likely to turn out, under proper handling, to be a good writer, director or actor in the theatrical-film field also. Paddy Chayefsky and Rod Serling are TV writers who’ve turned their talent to the theatrical film successfully. John Cassavetes and Sal Mineo, the latter already among the Top Ten winners in this publication’s Stars of Tomorrow poll, are among the TV actors Hollywood has found appropriately equipped for its service. And now Allen Reisner, director of some of the leading live television shows, has completed directing his first theatrical motion picture and looks forward enthusiastically to two more. From Television Play Mr. Reisner’s first theatrical film is “The Day They Gave Babies Away,” now in final editing stages at RKO, and it is a derivative, with expansions, of a television play, in the Climax series, which he directed about a year ago and which won wide praise in that medium. The expansions, he says, are in fact what might be called restorations of story material that were left out of the TV play for reasons of running time, production facilities, and of course commercial interruptions. The basic story, which is based on a factual event, is the same. Director Reisner, now 32, started his career as an actor, and learned acting, as an actor should, in a dramatic school. While still schooling he was singled out by an important publication as its “Discovery of the Year,” and the occurrence took him swiftly to the Broadway stage, where he appeared in a variety of plays starting with “The Doughgirls” and continuing for nine instructive and profitable seasons. In common with Broadway stage in general, Actor Reisner heard the call of video and responded for reasons of career, coming thus within the range of such stars as Yul Brynner, Walter Hampden, Nancy Kelly and others. Actor Brynner saw in the young actor the makings of a director, and when William Dozier took charge of CBS TV production, shortly afterward, he gave the actor a director post that worked out to everybody’s satisfaction. Director Reisner’s TV directings in the east include such works as Studio One, You Are There, Omnibus, Schlitz Play house of Stars, and the Peabody Award winner, Adventure. Then he came west and directed 30 Climax productions, including the one he has completed re-producing, with those vital expansions, for the theatre screen. The switchover of the Reisner talent from TV to motion pictures was brought about, of course, by the same William Dozier who changed the actor into a director, and who switched over, himself, from his producing berth at CBS to his present producing berth at RKO. The RKO contract for the director is for three pictures within three years, “The Day They Gave Babies Away” being the first. Director Reisner says the motion picture medium gives the TV director so much more working room than the video medium that it is his own failure if he doesn’t make a success of such a transition as he has made. He says the opportunities for developing characterizations, for following side-stories relevant to the major plot, for employing large numbers of players often essential to the clear meaning of a narrative passage, and above all the privilege of re-taking a scene that doesn’t come off well the first time over, make directing a motion picture a far more challenging, rewarding and altogether enjoyable undertaking than the necessarily smaller, swifter, inflexible field of TV. The first Reisner picture, which costars Glynis Johns and Cameron Mitchell, is scheduled for June release. Cinema Editors Honor Gilmore and Catozzo HOLLYWOOD: With more than 250 members of the press and professions attending, American Cinema Editors last week made its third annual presentations of critics’ awards for best editing of theatrical motion picture and television films during 1956. The ceremony took place in the Cadoro Suite, Beverly Hilton Hotel. Stewart Gilmore and Leo Catozzo were honored for their editing of “War and Peace.” In the television category, five writers were cited for their work on “Four Star Playhouse.” They are Bernard Burton, Samuel Beetley, Desmond Marquette, Roland Gross and Lester Orlebeck. Heads Pension Plan HOLLYWOOD: Fred S. Meyer has been named president of the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan. Approximately $5,000,000 has been accumulated in the pension fund since the plan was adopted in October, 1953. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER 29, 1956 23