Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

transcript of the evidence before the Grand Jury." Under California law a defendant may have his case decided by the judge alone, solely on the basis of evidence submitted to the Grand Jury. Wanger was originally charged with intent to kill, but Giesler urged the court to reduce this charge to a lesser offense. Throwing himself on the mercy of the court, Wanger's only statement when he announced how he would plead was: "I'm doing this for the sake of my children." Judge Harry J. Borde reserved decision. Ultimately, Wanger was sentenced to four months at the Los Angeles County Jail Farm for shooting Lang. In sentencing him, Judge Borde told the film producer: "The law of the six-shooter has gone out of California long ago." Walter Wanger may have hoped intensely for wifely understanding during his sojourn at the Honor Farm. But when he was released on September 13 after serving a 102-day sentence — how strangely the fateful date of 13 turns up in this dramatic husband-and-wife saga! — Joan Bennett was not on hand to meet him. She was on tour with her play. However, a confidante of the actress said Joan would not have greeted her husband had she been in Hollywood. According to this friend, Joan had stated three weeks before that there was no "chance of reconciliation." "Joan feels any relationship with Wanger would be impossible in view of what has happened," the friend said. "She has no plans for a divorce. Wanger is still in love with his wife and she wouldn't want to do anything to hurt him or the children. There's no one else she wants to marry, so they'll just stay separated." Recently in New Orleans where she was appearing, Joan expressed herself with firmness about the rumors of a get-together with her husband. "There is no truth to any report of a reconciliation," she declared. Wanger had made a flying visit to the southern city to bring their little girl, Shelly, 4, to Joan to accompany her on tour, and then returned to the Coast. "I want to be with my little girl because I haven't had much chance to be with her lately," Joan said. Meanwhile, Wanger whose friends among top executives in the film industry rallied to his defense and sought financially to get him back on his feet, has a new job and three pictures to produce for Allied Artists, formerly Monogram Pictures. Notwithstanding his effort at a comeback, the once ideal BennettWanger romance has come, apparently, to an end. For 13 years they had been one of Hollywood's happiest couples. The film capital took pride in the young grandmother's life and that of her producer husband as an example of a successful blend of family and career. Joan Bennett and Walter Wanger were married in Phoenix, Ariz., on January 12, 1940. He was then at the height of his career, head of the Academy of Mo68 tion Picture Arts and Sciences and responsible for the stardom of such personalities as Hedy Lamarr and Claudette Colbert. It was Joan's third trip to the altar. She was married first at the age of 16, to John Marion Fox, 20-year-old heir to a Seattle lumber fortune, eloping from school in Paris to wed him in London. She divorced him in 1928 shortly after the birth of her first child, Diana. In 1932 she married Gene Markey, screen writer and producer. Previously she had been engaged to John Considine, who had broken his engagement to Carmen Pantages, of the theatrical family, for Joan, and then reconsidered. The Bennett-Markey union lasted six years, during which Joan again became the mother of a daughter — Melinda. Like so many Hollywood marriages, theirs broke over career conflicts. Joan said later that they were incompatible. Markey did not like big, glittering Hollywood parties. She not only liked them, she thought them necessary to her career. Joan's film work and her allure were now attracting attention. Particularly, they were attracting the attention of Walter Wanger, whose wife, the beautiful Justine Johnstone, had just divorced him after 19 years together. Wanger saw great potentialities in Joan Bennett, and as a top producer in the industry he believed himself able to do something about it. At any event, he rescued her from cloying ingenue roles, gave her a chance at playing sophisticated women. He cast her, auspiciously, as a psychiatrist's wife in the picture "Private Worlds." He also persuaded her to turn from blonde to brunette. The switch altered Joan's personality, gave her a marked resemblance to Hedy Lamarr, the Wanger discovery who was to marry Markey. Wanger was nearing 50 and was hopeful of establishing Joan among such of his successes as "Algiers," starring Hedy (Keith Larsen) to head scouting parties into the Dakota territory. Hiawatha finds the Dakotas friendly, but Larsen, anxious to prove his courage, kills a couple of braves and incites a war party seeking revenge. Hiawatha learns of this in time to warn his people of the retaliation. In return, he is made chief of his tribe and given permission to marry the Dakota maiden. Film, a little slow, is aided greatly by use of Cinecolor and lavish outdoor scenery. Allied Artists The Sea Around Us A colorful documentary based on Rachel Carson's best seller, the film closely parallels the book. It depends on its unusual subject-matter, explained by narrators Lon Forbes and Theodor Von Lamarr; "Animal Crackers," with which he introduced the Four Marx Brothers to the screen, and "The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine," the first outdoor color film. Wanger was a good friend to Joan and she was grateful for his help. She was not sure she wanted to marry him. But she wasn't sure she wanted to marry anybody. A serious and earnest person, she did not like the idea of another unsuccessful marriage. The producer, however, was eager to marry Joan, but it was not until 1940, when they had been good friends for five years, that he convinced her they could make a go of it. They eloped to Phoenix and were married in the basement of city hall. Three days later Joan's first husband gulped an overdose of sleeping pills. "I didn't like the idea of Joan being married to that other man," he claimed. For a long time it seemed the Bennett-Wanger alliance was succeeding. They had two daughters, Stephanie, born in 1943, and Shelly, born in 1948. Joan said she had learned that "marriage is a compromise." Hollywood thought her marriage to Wanger was genuinely happy. He had been a top-ranking executive at Paramount, Universal, United Artists, MGM and Columbia. In 1945, while with Universal, he was one of the highest salaried men in America. He was listed as having received $409,928. In 1948 her daughter Diane married, and in 1949 made her a grandmother — one of the trio of most glamourous grandmothers who included Marlene Dietrich and Gloria Swanson. In 1949, Wanger produced his super flop, "Joan Of Arc," and almost immediately the decline of Joan's marriage had begun. The history of the BennettWanger union proved as sensationally dramatic as any Hollywood picture. END Eltz, to hold audience's attention. It offers a vivid presentation of the beginning of the earth, and how, after the boiling mass of land was created, the rest became sea. It suggests life first began in the deep waters. A disconnected series of incidents ranging from microscopic looks at animal and plant life on the ocean's floor, to a fishing fleet, to a man pitted against a whale, are included. The movie covers 64 of the 75 categories included in the book. Continuity, produced and written by Irwin Allen, was supplied by some 2,431 sources ranging from marine biologists to oil companies. Over one million feet of film was gathered from the widely diverse fields and trimmed down to sixty-one interesting minutes of educational viewing. RKO END YOUR GUIDE TO CURRENT FILMS [CONTINUED FROM PACE 17]