Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1947)

32 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW. October 4, 1947 STB W«Jt Coast Offices 6777 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood 28. CoJif. Telephone Hollywood 2055 U-I to Preview Films For Out-of-Town Guests Production Balloon Deflates As Fewer Start Than Finish Inflation may be here, but the production scene in Hollywood this week is definitely one of (inflation, for fewer pictures were started than completed, and what's more, the film capital is making scarcely a dozen more films than Great Britain. Republic is one bright spot, having added a third picture to those now before the cameras. "Old Los Angeles" started Oct. 4, with William Elliott, John Carroll, Ilona Massey, Joseph Schildkraut, Andy Devine, Tito Renaldo and Estelita Rodriguez. Joseph Kane is both associate producer and director. Warner Bros, is another redeeming situation, with six productions in work ; the latest is "The Adventures of Don Juan," Technicolor romance that began Oct. 1. Errol Flynn and Viveca Lindfors are starred. United Artists, which has been noticeably dormant on the production front, made a "comeback" with "So This Is New York." Stanley Kramer's organization. Screen Plays, Inc., is making the film for Enterprise, which in turn releases through UA. Dick Fleischer is directing a cast which includes radio comedian Henry Morgan, Virginia Grey, Dona Drake, Rudy Vallee, Hugh Herbert and Bill Goodwin. Meanwhile, another UA producer, Benedict Bogeaus, resumed activity on his extra-long delayed "A Miracle Can Happen," by signing Dorothy Lamour as the final star ; her sequence replaces that of Charles Laughton, which was considered too serious for the film. Universal-International put "All My Sons" before the lenses Sept. 30 on location under Irving Reis' direction. Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster head the cast. Peter Lorre was signed for "Casbah," scheduled to roll the first week of October with John Berry directing for Producer Nat Goldstone ; Yvonne DeCarlo and Tony Martin are starred. Sigmund Romberg's "Up in Central Park" got the green light Sept. 29 with William Seiter directing for Writer-Producer Karl Tunberg. Twentieth Century-Fox started "Call Northside 777," with James Stewart, Richard Conte, Helen Walker, Lee J. Cobb and George Tyne. Henry Hathaway is directing for Producer Otto Lang. RKO Radio sent two new pictures to the starting gate : "Mystery in Mexico" is at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City, while "The Velvet Touch," starring Rosalind Russell for Independent Artists, is working at RKO Pathe under the direction of Jack Gage. Simultaneously, the "Rachel" troupe returned from six weeks in Oregon for interior sequences. While at Eugene, fire on the "Rachel" location caused $30,000 damages. After seeing rushes of her initial scenes, Producer Barney Gerard enlarged columnist Sheila Graham's role in "Jiggs and Maggie in Society" and shot additional sequences this week. Dance instructor Arthur Murrav is in troducing a new dance step, the "Maggie Rhumba," in the film. The "Panhandle" company began shooting Sept. 25 at Monogram studio after locationing at Lone Pine. "Smart Woman" started Oct. 1, with Constance Bennett starred in the Hal Chester production. M ore than 4,000 feet of film was exposed during the recent Florida and Louisiana hurricane for use in the David O. Selznick production, "Portrait of Jennie." Cecil Barker supervised the work of two camera crews. Paul Eagler was named to succeed the late Joseph August as cinematographer of the picture (August, for 36 years one of Hollywood's top cameramen, died of a heart attack last week). Producer-writers Norman Panama and Melvin Frank signed Reginald Denny to appear with Gary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas in "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House." The picture started Oct. 1 at RKO studios for the Selznick Releasing Organization. Filming of MGM's "The Hills of Home" was resumed at the studio this week following a location in the High Sierras. Columbia placed James Gleason in its Technicolor comedy, "The Return of October," which has been on location at a horse-breeding ranch. Kane Richmond was announced for the title role in "Brick Bradford," Columbia serial that went before Ira Morgan's cameras Sept. 29 at Kernville with Sam Katzman producing and Spencer Bennet directing. Nancy Saunders and Rick Vallin have other top parts. NOW BEFORE THE CAMERAS COLUMBIA. Coroner Creek (Harry Joe Brown, in Cinecolor); Return of October (Technicolor); The Woman from Tangier; Brick Bradford (Sam Katzman Serial) . EAGLE-LION. Prelude to Night (Producing Artists). REPUBLIC. California Firebrand (Trucolor); Campus Honeymoon; Old Los Angeles. 20TH CENTURY-FOX. Ballad of Furnace Creek; The Flaming Age; Call Northside 777. WARNER BROS. To the Victor; Christopher Blake; April Showers; Winter Meeting; Johnny Belinda; The Adventures of Don Juan (Technicolor). MGM. Luxury Liner (Technicolor); B. F.'s Daughter; State of the Union (Liberty); Homecoming; Hills of Home (Technicolor). UNIVERSAL-INTERNATIONAL. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Rampart); All My Sons; Casbah (Marston); Up in Central Park. RKO RADIO. I Remember Mama (Liberty); Good Sam (Rainbow); Rachel; Station West; Berlin Express; Joan (Sierra, in Technicolor); The Velvet Touch (Independent Artists); Mystery in Mexico. MONOGRAM. Jiggs and Maggie in Society; Panhandle; Smart Woman. SRO. Portrait of Jennie; Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. PARAMOUNT. The Paleface (Technicolor); The Long Gray Line. UNITED ARTISTS. So This Is New York (KramerEnterprise); A Miracle Can Happen (Bogeaus). The sneak preview fans of Glendale, Inglewood, Pomona, Ri-verside, Santa Barbara and other nearby cities are not too happy these days. For Universal-International, discarding the timeworn custom of sneak-previewing pictures in towns adjacent to Hollywood, has inaugurated a new policy which may become standard procedure for the industry. U-I executives and producers will check Los Angeles hotel registers for out-of-town guests who will be invited in groups of 50 or more to previews in studio projection rooms. Plan was tried out with success on Nunnally Johnson's "The Senator Was Indiscreet." Reason for the change, according to William Goetz, production chief and instigator of the idea, is that sneak audiences in the Hollywood vicinity have become jaded from too many previews, and their preview cards bear little or nothing of a constructive nature. Meanwhile at the U-I studio, Susan Hayward and Robert Cummings have been cast for the principal roles in "The Big Snow," screen version of the novel by Henry Morton Robinson. -Tony Martin, who starts work soon in "Casbah" for Marston Productions, the company he and Nat Goldstone own, will star in the musical comedy, "Summer Holiday," which Sidney Box will make in England next year for J. Arthur Rank. At MGM George Murphy has been set for the romantic leading role in "The Big City," which Norman Taurog will direct for Producer Joe Pasternak. And Charles Walters, who recently completed "Good News," has been assigned the directorial chores on "Easter Parade." Stories are being bought at Columbia. "Wings Westward," an original story by Jack Townley, has been acquired by Armand Schaefer, president of Gene Autry Productions, and set as the fifth of Autry's westerns for Columbia, to be filmed in Cinecolor. Another original, "Genius, Inc.," by Ruth Brooks, has been purchased by the studio as a vehicle for its young players. And still another, "The Last 30 Minutes," by Lee Horton, has been bought for Irving Starr's production slate. The studio has signed Dorothy Lamour to star in an untitled top-budget musical. At Warners Michael Curtiz Productions has purchased the Ryan James story, "La Otra," which is currently a Mexican film starring Dolores Del Rio. The Mexican Spanish-language treatment of "La Otra" will cease showing in Europe simultaneously with the release of the Curtiz film. Don Siegel has been assignd to direct "Act of Violence." After a short period of comparative inactivity, Eagle-Lion expects to have several pictures before the cameras before the end of the year. These will include a Cinecolor musical, "Clementine," "The Noose Hangs High," "Corkscrew Alley," "Madhouse," "New Girl in Town," "Kenny" and "Prince Valiant." At RKO Production Chief Dore Schary has completed a deal for filming "Honored Glory" from an outline submitted to him in a telegram by Henry Grunwald, contributing editor to Time and Life magazines. The picture will be placed in production early next year. Paramount has set Veronica Lake, Joan Caulfield, Barry Fitzgerald, Sterling Hayden and William Demarest to head the cast of "The Sainted Sisters," which goes into production next month. William D. Russell will direct under the production aegis of Richard Maibaum. Monogram's cutting department is active these days. Being edited, or soon due for the shears, are "Jiggs and Maggie in Society," "The Old Gray Mayor," "A Palooka Named Joe," "Panhandle," "Rocky" and "The Guest of William Hunter."