Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1948)

EXPLOITIPS ] Suggestions for Selling; Adlines for Newspaper and Programs SELLING ANGLES: "A Foreign Affair" Current widespread interest in the U.S. occupation of zones in Germany suggests that you blow up newspaper headlines and articles in news magazines for lobby display and mailing pieces. See if you can locate an ex-Gl who was stationed in Berlin and arrange for newspaper interviews on his ideas about the occupation. Don't neglect, however, to build up the comedy angles of the plot. You might arrange tieups on displays of luggage, etc., along the lines: ''Going abroad? Make that 'Foreign -Affair' really delightful with stunning new luggage." CATCHLINES: Here Comes a Load of Laughter on an International Plane . . . Scattering Diplomatic Protocol to the Four Winds . . . As Delirious Love Interferes With a Congressional Investigation ... In Bombed-Out Berlin. Had Your Laugh Today? Don't Miss the Year's Most Hilarious, Harrowing Adventure . . . As a Lady Congresswoman Journeys to Berlin to Investigate the Morale of American Troops . . . And Winds Up Madly in Love . . . With the Wrong Man. SELLING ANGLES: "Romance on the High Seas" Tieups with travel agencies and, if there ore any such locally, steamship agencies should be effected, using suitable stills from the picture in window displays. Doris Day, orchestra and recording singer, makes her film debut herein. Arrange for special displays of her records in music stores and see that juke boxes in the vicinity have one or more Day recordings. Make over lobby in nautical style and, for throwsheets, use simulated steamship tickets good for one "first-class voyage." CATCHLINES: From the Atlantic to the Pacific . . . Everybody Says It's Terrific . . . No Entertainment Was Ever Like It on Land or Sea ... A Gay, Glittering, Gorgeous Comedy . . . And It Introduces the Year's Singing, Dancing, Romancing Sensation . . . She's Doris Day . . . And She's Dynamite. Its a Treasure of Musical Comedy Pleasure . . . About a Slaphappy Shipboard Romance . . . Between Two Swell People Who Knew They Shouldn't Fall in Love . . . But Just Couldn't Help Themselves. SELLING ANGLES: "Blondie's Reward" It is always in order to contact the newspaper in your town which runs the Blondie strip. Try to get it to sponsor an essay contest on some subject like: "How My Husband Helps Around the House." Award guest tickets of two each to the ten most humorous letters received on this. Run a wantad in the Personals which reads: "Reward Offered: There'll be the reward of laughter and fun at the State Theatre, Friday. See' you there. — Blondie." CATCHLINES: It's the Biff] — ^Bom! — Bumstead's Best Hit! . . . Wake Up, Dagwood. You're Missing Your Funniest Picture . . . Dagwood Bites Man for Job and Blondie . . . Your Favorite Fun Family's Newest Howl Hit. A Grand New Laugh Reword for You Wfth Blondie's Compliments . . . Blondie's Newest Side-Splitter . . . Dogwood's Getting the Bum-stead Rush in This Laugh-Topper of All Blondies ... A Bumstead Knock-Out in More Ways Than One. SELLING ANGLES: "The Gay Intruders" Sell this one right down the line on an all-comedy basis. Use a laugh record on your lobby public address system and, if a local psychiatrist has a sense of humor, invite him to see the film as your guest, using his comments in subsequent advertising. Merchandising tieups could be worked out along the lines: "Victim of unexpected guests? Make it a 'Gay Intruders' party with dinner at the Blank restaurant." Stills of John Emery driving very recklessly could be planted in windows of insurance companies, banks and the like. CATCHLINES: Everything Goes from Bad to Bedlam . . . When Two Psychiatric Trouble-Shooters Try to Find Out . . . What Makes a Great Stage Star and His Actress Wife Tick . . . And Wind Up With Double Trouble All Around. Here's a Hysterical, Hilarious Comedy Scream . . . About Two Slap-Happy Stage Stars . . . Who Were Terrific Behind the Footlights . . . And Couldn't Be Happy at Home . . . Unless They Were Battling Each Other. SELLING ANGLES: "16 Fathoms Deep" If it's possible to locate one, a diving suit would make an eye-catching display in the lobby; a man hired to wear one could be used effectively in street ballhoo. Since the original story appeared in the American magazine, arrange to stuff special heralds in current copies of that publication. Try to obtain copies of the issue in which the story appeared and blow up tearsheets for lobby easels. In advertising and exploitation point up the use of Ansco color — this is the first feature in which the process was employed. CATCHLINES: It's a Tidal Wave of Thrills . . . Never Has a HeartChilling Story of Desperate Men and Hopeless Love . . . Been Filmed in More Terrifying Surroundings . . . Deep in Treacherous Ocean Waters. Treacherous Love and Murderous Hate . . . Exploding in the Depths of the Sea ... A Torrent of Emotion in Bottomless Chasms of Merciless Water . . . With Desperate Men Trapped in a Torrent of Fear and Hate. SELLING ANGLES: ‘"Bad Sister" Schedule a special screening for welfare workers, civic officials and representatives of women's clubs in the community. Perhaps a benefit premiere could be staged, with receipts going into the coffers of a local group interested in the rehabilitation of delinquent girls. American magazines recently devoted considerable space to the fact that Margaret Lockwood had again been voted Britain's most popular femme star. Blowups of some of these articles could be used in lobby easels, newspaper advertising and mailing pieces. CATCHLINES: Tense Emotional Drama 'That Will Tear at Your Heart . . . The Poignant Story of Remorseful Women . . . Who Learn Too Late That Their Mistakes Cannot Be Rectified . . . Unfortunate Girls for Whom There Is No Turning Back. In Slums or Palaces ... A Mother's Love Transcends All Forces of Evil . . . From the Uppermost to the Lowest Rung of an Empire's Social Ladder . . . Come Two Women to Find Understanding in a Common Bond . . . Reckless Love . . . And Hopeless Tragedy. SELLING ANGLES: "The Cobra Strikes" Since this is on the chiller-diller order, the exploitation should feature stills with the deadly cobra of India in coiled position and ready to strike. Plant newspaper stories about this deadly reptile, or use a more subtle one in which all deadly snakes are featured and the cobra is worked in. Run a contest for the longest accurate list of poisonous snakes. Also, because poison is the basic weapon used, a story about its criminal aspects, going back to the Borgias, should point up the interest. CATCHLINES: There Is a Mad, Clever Killer on the Loose ... A Femme Fatale, and Corpses All Around . . . No Tell-Tale Marks but Three Dead Men Prove It's Murder . . . Who Held the Secret of the Crime Without Clues? Murder Without Motive — or Was There a Sinister one? . . . A Real Treat for Whodunit Fans and Horror Addicts . . . Weird Mystery Film Where Romance Creeps in ... A Mysterious Woman, a Novel Weapon, Tense Drama. SELLING ANGLES: "Showtime" Ann Todd, who has become a boxoffice name since her appearance in "The Seventh Veil" and the more recent "The Paradine Case," is the strongest selling point. This is one of her earlier British films, but the period costumes make it acceptable today. Richard Greene, recently featured in "Forever Amber," also has some marquee value. To attract the operetta devotees, have a phonograph with a loudspeaker attachment playing standard musical numbers and ballads in the lobby. CATCHLINES: Music, Laughter and Song in the Theatre's Gaslit Days . . . Ann Todd, Star of "The Seventh Veil," and Richard Greene, Featured in "Forever Amber," in a Moving Story of the Theatre and Its People . . . The Man Who Startled London With His Novel Combination of Music and Dancing. One of the Great Names of the Theatre Who Started Out with a Small Legacy and Lot of Enthusiasm . . . He Gove the World a Tradition of Gaiety, Beauty and Song.