Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1937)

Back on his old home lot, Richard Arlen visits the “Souls at Sea’’ set at Paramount. Left to right, Gary Cooper, Arlen, George Raft (seated) and Director Henry Hathaway. Arlen has a top role in “Artists and Models.” GOLDWYN SAMOA UNIT RETURNS WITH SCENES A 46-day jaunt to the South Seas ended this week when the “Hurricane” location unit sent to Samoa by Samuel Goldwyn returned to Hollywood bearing 140,000 feet of film. Headed by Location Director Stuart Heisler and Percy Ikerd, unit production manager, the troupe filmed a complete record of native life, including traditional feasts, religious and marital ceremonials. Footage will serve as a background for action now being shot at the Goldwyn studio under John Ford’s direction, with Jon Hail, Dorothy Lamour, Mary Astor and others in the cast. RAMON NOVARRO WILL DO 3 FOR REPUBLIC After an absence from the screen of several years, Ramon Novarro will resume his acting career under the Republic banner. He has signed for three pictures, the first of which, “She Didn’t Want a Sheik” will start immediately under the guidance of Producer Herman Schlom. The story is an original by Adele Buffington. No selection has been made for the remaining two commitments on Novarro’s contract. Tone Subs for Stewart James Stewart, who was forced out of “Vivacious Lady” at RKO Radio because of illness, loses out on another assignment at Metro, his home lot. Originally scheduled for a part in “Once There Was a Lady,” the Luise Rainer starrer, he has been replaced by Franchot Tone. Filming starts June 1. "Revels" Again Slated RKO’s “Radio City Revels” has been placed on the production schedule after having been shelved for some time. Originally assigned to Jesse L. Lasky for production, studio heads have not decided whether Lasky or P. J. Wolfson will handle production. Paul Yawitz is working on the script. General Drift to Color Accepted in Film Circles Jane Wyatt Settles With Universal A mutual settlement of the actress’s contract out of court this week terminated the suit brought against Universal by Jane Wyatt for $13,000, the amount which the player asserted was due her as guaranteed advances on two pictures she was to make for the company. The studio declared that a compromise was effected through a partial payment of the guarantees, although the company had previously prepared a defense on the grounds that Miss Wyatt had been incapacitated because of the arrival of a child. The actress left the lot this week. Riskin-Capra Idea Provides Field Dai] Film city dopesters were given a new morsel to toy with this week when word buzzed around the rumor lanes that Frank Capra and Robert Riskin, Columbia’s ace director-writer team, had decided to leave the studio to form a production company of their own. With Capra out of the city and Riskin on a European vacation, neither could be contacted for affirmation or denial, and studio spokesmen, either reluctant to talk or uninformed on the matter, limited their denials to an official statement that both Capra and Riskin were under contract to the company. Studio officials were, however, obviously loath to state when the respective pacts were due to expire, giving rise to the belief that the reports have more basis in fact than do most rumors about Hollywood and its production ramifications. Columbia’s reluctance to comment either way on the reported break is understandable in that Capra and Riskin are recognized as the studio mainstays, having collaborated in producing, directing and scripting such Columbia successes as “It Happened One Night,” “Theodore Goes Wild,” “Lost Horizon,” and “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.” "HARMONY" FOR VIOLA SHORES RKO Radio has assigned Viola Brothers Shore to script “Perfect Harmony” for Edward Kaufman’s production unit. Charles Boyer and Ginger Rogers have the featured leads. Perhaps the greatest single impetus toward the filming of feature pictures in color came this week when Samuel Goldwyn announced that henceforth he will make pictures only in Technicolor. Hir statement has been accepted in film circles as being the forerunner of similar statements from other major producing units indicating the further disappearance of black-and-white motion pictures from the Hollywood scene. Next Three in Color “Within the past six months, color has taken vast strides forward. Color no longer interferes with the telling of the story which is the primary motif behind a motion picture,” Goldwyn declared in explanation of his decision to abandon blackand-white films. “Also, the new third color is subdued and a happy adjunct to motion picture making, as proved by ‘A Star Is Born’ and the yet-unreleased ‘Vogues of 1938.’ “There is no doubt that most of the present big companies would utilize the new color processes if there were sufficient equipment to care for them. “I am announcing that I shall make ‘The Goldwyn Follies,’ my forthcoming $2,000,000 musical, entirely in Technicolor; ‘The Real Glory,’ which has as its background Manila and the Philippine I~Jand'= at the time of the American occu ation and ‘You Can Be Beautiful,’ the beau y industry story in which I have decided to star Gary Cooper with Merle Oberon.” Slowed by Equipment Shortage “I would gladly include ‘The Adventures of Marco Polo’,” Goldwyn’s statement continued, “but Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, of Technicolor, frankly advises me that they are yet unable to supply that much equipment. “Dr. Kalmus, however, plans to start preparations immediately for cameras and laboratories to handle the inevitable swing of Hollywood almost completely — certainly in all major films within the next year — to color. “When I made ‘Whoopee’ in 1929 with a two-color process, I realized that it had novelty value only. But in the past six months, I have been completely convinced that the third color now is an aid to picture making and the subtlety of the color no longer hinders the story. “Color pictures will not mean any change in screen technique so far as I am concerned. Instead it will merely join sound and music as permanent and acceptable aids to screen story-telling.” Boy Choristers Cast St. Luke’s choristers, consisting of 68 boy singers, will appear in “Make a Wish,” the forthcoming Bobby Breen starrer which Principal is making for RKO Radio release. They were spotted also in “Rainbow on the River.” BOXOFFICE :: May 22, 1937. 29