Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1963)

FEATURE REVIEWS Story Synopsis; Exploitips; Adlines for Newspaper and Programs THE STORY: “Come Fly With Me” (MGM) Three overseas airlines hostesses, Pamela Tiffin, Dolores Hart and Lois Nettleton, learn that it’s exciting „ to make dates with pilots and handsome passengers on i^ody a trip to Paris and Vienna, but that the complications can 'iverh be tough. Vienna might have been better, but Karl Boehm, as the Baron, manages to involve Dolores Hart in a diamond-smuggling charge. The pilot, Hugh O'Brian, is transferred to a charter flight, because of the irate Parisian husband of a former girl friend, making starryeyed stewardess Pamela Tiffin quite unhappy until the return flight, when millionaire-Texan Karl Malden charters the entire plane to be near Lois Nettleton, who suddenly discovers him. All three girls land back in New York immersed in love affairs. EXPLOITIPS: Work with travel agencies on this one. Get local TV columnists on “Wyatt Earp” (Hugh O’Brian) as the lover-boy pilot. Feature Frankie Avalon’s albums in record shops. CATCHLINES: Be an Airline Stewardess and Catch Your Man in Paris, or Vienna. What Happens to Airplane Hostesses When They Date the Passengers ... or the Pilot? Three American Beauties on the Town in Paris Bring You a Pay-load of Romantic Antics and Fun. THE STORY: “Bye Bye Birdie” (Col) When rock ’n’ roll idol, Conrad Birdie (Jesse Pearson) is to be inducted into the Army, Dick Van Dyke, his man<6' ager, and Janet Leigh, Dick’s gal Friday, hit upon a plan '(7) to have Pearson give a farewell kiss to a Sweet Apple, Ohio, young girl, Ann-Margret. Pearson’s arrival in Sweet Apple causes a panic and arouses the jealousy of AnnMargret’s boy friend, Bobby Rydell. Further complications arise with the arrival of Van Dyke’s domineering mother, Maureen Stapleton, and the opposition of AnnMargret’s father, Paul Lynde, to having Birdie live in his house. But much is placated when it is learned that Ed Sullivan is going to telecast the farewell kiss. On the night of the big show, a Russian ballet is spotted ahead of the kiss scene and it looks as if the kiss is going to be eliminated from the program. But some rare pills cause everything to speed up and Van Dyke’s mission is accomplished. EXPLOITIPS: Exploitable tieups are wide open with shops dealing with teenage merchandise. Music shops have the albums. Your local telephone company has the data on how to win a Princess phone. CATCHLINES: Go Go — See See — Bye Bye Birdie . . . It’s the Greatest Musical Ever Ever . . . It’s Bye Bye Blues When You See “Bye Bye Birdie” . . . You’ll Rock and Roll With Laughter at This Tantalizing Teenage Tonic. THE STORY: “The Ugly American” (Univ) A Senate Foreign Relations Committee, after strong argument, appoints Brando as ambassador to a Southeast Asia country. A mob attacks his car as he arrives almost killing him. Demanding that his embassy staff become more business-like, he confers with Eiji Okada, a longtime friend, now leader of the government opposition and a revolutionary. Now worlds apart, politically, they argue about the U. S. Freedom Road, being sabotaged. Okada carries on sabotage, blowing up the camp and roadbuilding equipment, but is betrayed by the Communists. Killed by his traitor-aide, his dying words urge his countrymen to make a new constitution. Brando faces newsreels but is cut off by a television viewer before he Jomy comes up with solutions to complex Southeast Asia, in T'sh what may be termed a true analysis of our present Far Eastern foreign-aid program. EXPLOITIPS: Because of the topical aspects of this film, it can be a political science subject for debate in local schools or book clubs. It is based on a true story. We are spending billions and American lives are being lost daily in the area covered by the film, and some of the reasons for the program’s difficulties are brought out. CATCHLINES: Marlon Brando’s First Suit-and-Tie Role . . . See the Two Brandos in the Same Film for the First Time. THE STORY: “The Man From the Diners’ Club” (Col) Telly Savalas, a mobster who operates a health club as a front, is in trouble with the government for tax evasion and plans to flee to Mexico. His girl friend (Cara Williams) suggests he get a Diners’ Club card to charge his plane flight after he has hired a paid assassin to murder a man with the same measurements as himself. At the Diners’ Club, Danny Kaye, a nervous clerk, accidentally okays Savalas’ application and, realizing his mistake, he tries to intercept the mailman and then joins the health club in order to get the Club card back. Savalas gets the bright idea to bump off Kaye and then use the latter’s Club card to get out of the country. Kaye gets mixed up with Cara and incurs Savalas’ jealousy ... while Danny’s fiancee, Martha Hyer, also breaks with him. But, after a furious chase in which a fleet of cars and messengers on bikes, all secured through the Diners’ Club card, pursue Savalas and Cara, they are stopped from fleeing the country and Kaye is promoted — with a new safe Diners’ Club card. EXPLOITIPS: In addition to Danny Kaye’s selling name, take advantage of the Diners’ Club national membership by circularizing the theatre and date. CATCHLINES: It’s Danny Kaye in His Maddest and Merriest Adventure . . . Danny Kaye Joins the Diners’ Club to Pay for a Honeymoon — Trailed by a Notorious Gangster. THE STORY: “Miracle of the White Stallions” (BV) Colonel Alois Podhajsky decides to try to get out of Vienna, in 1945, with the Lipizzan horses, because of bombings. Despite interference by Nazis, the “art treasures” are taken to St. Martin’s, in upper Austria by train. Stabled safely there until refugees try to steal them for food, arrival of General George S. Patton caused them to be made wards of the U.S. Army. A hundred miles away, it is learned the mares and foals may be “liberated” by the Russian army, and a detachment is sent to return them to their stallion mates. Nazi SS patrols wage a battle, unsuccessfully, and the herd is returned to Austria where finally, after the war, performances are resumed. EXPLOITIPS: Arrange tieins with horse shows, rodeos, circuses, and parades. Use tickets to show as prizes. Run horse-painting contest with schools on 29-cent coloring book. Free entertainment TV film clips are available for stations. CATCHLINES: Only the Spanish Riding School in Vienna Has These /*• Horses . . Watch General George Patton’s “Operation US3* Cowboy” as He Brings the Mares to Safety . . . Where Riding Is an Art Shared by Horse and Man ... A Man Who Dared to Put His School’s Preservation Above War Destruction. THE STORY: “Critic’s Choice” (WB) Bob Hope, a Broadway drama critic whose vitriolic reviews can mean death to a new play, is divorced from Marilyn Maxwell, glamorous actress and mother of his 12-year-old son, Ricky Kelman. Bob’s happiness with his second wife, Lucille Ball, is threatened when she decides to write a play, although he discourages her and thinks she will never finish it. But a big producer decides to put on Lucille’s play and Rip Torn, a girl-chasing young director, is hired to work on it. At the Boston tryout, the nervous Lucille begs Bob to disqualify himself as critic and send the second-string reviewer to the Broadway opening. After a quarrel with Lucille about Tom’s attentions to her, Bob relents and says he won’t review the play. But, after a few drinks and a session with the jealous Marilyn, Bob attends the play and gives it a murderous review. Lucille decides to leave Bob but she relents when he tells her he loves and needs her. EXPLOITIPS: Bob Hope, today’s top comic in films and on TV, and Lucille Ball, whose TV fame as “Lucy” is even greater than her picture following, have been teamed in “Facts — of Life,” “Fancy Pants” and “Sorrowful Jones.” VThun CATCHLINES: It’s Bob Hope and Lucille Ball in Another Frivolous Fun-Fest Based on the Broadway Stage Hit . . . The Beautiful Playwright Feared Only One Critic — Her EverLoving Critical Husband. BOXOFFICE BookinGuide :: April 8, 1963