Boxoffice barometer (1954)

Quality Rise Seen For '54 Production (Continued from page 15) lar “Mr. Roberts” and the stage musical, “High Button Shoes,” are to be converted to the screen by Warners, while 20th Century-Pox plans “Carmen Jones” and will release the Edward L. Alperson-Berman Swarttz production of “New Faces.” To be distributed by United Artists is “Top Banana,” filmed independently by a group headed by Ben Peskay and Albert Zugsmith, and utilizing the original Broadway cast. To cite the novels acquired for lensing would be virtually to recapitulate the best-seller lists for a year or two back. At Columbia, of course, “The Caine Mutiny”— produced by Stanley Kramer — heads the agenda, with production completed thereon. A top trio at 20th Century-Fox comprises “The Egyptian,” “Desiree” and “Lord Vanity,” all popular items in the book marts, while UniversalInternational is preparing “Foxfire” and the Warner stockpile includes “East of Eden,” “Giant,” “The High and the Mighty” and “Quietly My Captain Waits.” Producing for United Artists release, Burt Lancaster and Harold Hecht acquired two widely-read western novels, “Bronco Apache” and “The Gabriel Horn,” while — under the banner of Edward Small and also for UA distribution — “New York Confidential” is in the preparatory stages. MANY BIBLICAL STORIES Perhaps stimulated by the record-breaking success of “The Robe,” continued and even increasing interest is being manifested in subjects drawn from Biblical themes. In this category 20th Century-Fox, which, of course, produced “The Robe,” has already completed a sequel, “Demetrius and the Gladiators,” and plans another one titled “The Queen of Sheba.” Cecil B. DeMille is at work at Paramount on his new version of “The Ten Commandments,” much of which will be made on location in Egypt, and Columbia, which did right well last year with “Salome,” has “Joseph and His Brethren” and “The Quest of the Holy Grail” in the works. Planned for production at RKO Radio is “Pilate’s Wife,” while Universal-International lists no less than four — “The Galileans,” “The Holy Grail,” “King Solomon’s Daughters” and “Sign of the Pagan.” MGM will employ the familiar Biblical parable for “The Prodigal,” and Warners is preparing such entries as “Daniel and the Woman of Babylon,” “The Miracle” and “The Silver Chalice” — the last-named also having to do with the Holy Grail. Died-in-wool action addicts and exhibitors whose programming unfailingly includes sagas of the sagebrush need have no fear that 1954 will find them without an ample supply of such product. Not one producing company, from Allied Artists to Warners, and supplemented by a sizable cross-section of the industry’s independent filmmakers, fails to list several gallopers on their respective slates — ranging in treatment from so-called super-westerns on down to modestly-budgeted programmers. Space precludes citing all of the planned and/or completed projects capable of classification as king-size gallopers — to name but a few, there are “The Wood Hawk” (Columbia), “Many Rivers to Cross” (MGM), “Arrow in the Dust” (Allied Artists), “The Covered Wagon” (a Paramount remake), “Jubilee Trail” (Republic), “Broken Lance” (20th-Fox), “Tumbleweed” (Universal-International ) and “The Bounty Hunter” (Warners). SERIES WESTERNS ON WANE Parenthetically, and attributable largely to the inroads of television — via which the small fry can watch six-gun slingers at home for free — the so-called “series” western continues to suffer heavy casualties. Gene Autry, for example, is now concentrating exclusively on half-hour oaters for TV, having completed a long-term commitment whereby Columbia distributed his independently-made theatrical westerns for several years. Departing the Republic range in 1953 was Allan “Rocky” Lane, leaving only Rex Allen on the payroll of that studio. Only Allied Artists, among the trade’s other filmmaking organizations, now schedules such “series” oaters, having under contract a brace of action stars in Wild Bill Elliott and Wayne Morris. On the subject of series films in general — excluding the western variety — again there appears to be a lessening of interest and again, probably, because of the vast number of competing programs available on television screens. Columbia’s “Jungle Jim” features and Allied Artists’ “Bowery Boys” and “Bomba, the Jungle Boy” are outstanding examples of such consistently profitable theatrical entries, but when these have been tallied the list is about at an end. The only others upcoming at this point are three from Universal-International— one in the “Francis” series, relating the adventures of the talking mule in “Francis Joins the WACS,” and a pair of “Kettles” — “Ma and Pa Kettle Hit the Road Home” and “Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki.” TWO NEW CYCLES STARTING It wouldn’t be Hollywood without a cycle or two, and this time around the emphasis appears to be on Egypt. Paced by 20th Century-Fox’s “The Egyptian,” a concentrated preoccupation with that land’s ancient and romantic history includes MGM’s “Valley of the Kings,” Columbia’s “The Last of the Pharaohs,” U-I’s “The Curse of the Scarlet Sphinx” and Warners’ “Land of the Pharaohs.” Likewise there appears to be some stress upon swashbuckling buccaneers, exemplified by U-I’s “Yankee Pasha,” Columbia’s “Pirates of Tripoli,” UA’s “Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl” and Warners’ “Black Ivory.” The international scene being what it is, Hollywood’s film planners are not neglecting one fertile story source — national defense, various branches of the armed services, and out-and-out war dramas. Columbia’s aforementioned “The Caine Mutiny” falls into this classification, as do the same company’s “Paratrooper” and “Those Reported Missing” — the latter a topical subject concerned with GI prisoners of war in Korea. MGM has “Prisoner of War” and “Panther Squadron,” among others, while the AA docket includes “The Annapolis Story” and “Eagles of the Fleet.” Over at Paramount, due for early release, is “The Bridges at Toko-Ri,” a Korean War opus based on a story by James A. Michener, while at RKO Radio reposes the longsince-completed “Jet Pilot.” Warners will film the best-selling novel of World War II in the South Pacific, “Battle Cry,” and also lists “Triple Jet Ace,” a biography of Capt. Joseph McConnell, hero of World War II and the Korean conflict. Also in biographical vein is Republic’s projected “The Gabreski Story,” detailing the exploits of Col. Francis Gabreski. Among the independents, Edward Small plans “Screaming Eagles” and the Aubrey Schenck-Howard Koch unit has completed “Beachhead,” both for United Artists release. History’s annals will provide source material for an abundance of celluloid, ranging from early Roman times (in Columbia’s “Legions of Hannibal” and U-I’s “Sign of the Pagan”) to the era of England’s Richard the Lion-Hearted (in “The Black Knight,” a Columbia entry, and “The Black Prince,” due from Allied Artists). The Revolutionary War is the circa of MGM’s planned “The Scarlet Coat,” while a phase of the War Between the States is detailed in 20th-Fox’s “The Raid.” Any comment upon the year ahead would not be complete without some mention of a growing trend — that of the production by American-based companies of features in overseas locations. FOREIGN FILMING ABUNDANT The year of 1954 will see a substantial quantity of such foreign-made celluloid (usually featuring a Hollywood name among the cast toppers, and frequently employing Hollywood writers and/or directors) on the screens of American theatres. Columbia, for example, is distributing three features made abroad by an independent organization, Warwick Pictures — headed by Irving Allen and A. R. Broccoli — including “Paratrooper,” “Hell Below Zero” and “The Black Knight,” and has arranged to handle three more to be produced by that unit. The Lippert Pictures organization has a multiple-picture joint production liaison with Britain’s Exclusive Films; MGM is shooting “Beau Brummel” in London and “Valley of the Kings” in Egypt; Allied Artists plans to film “The Black Prince” in England. Most of Paramount’s “Elephant Walk” was made on location in Ceylon; Warners will make “Helen of Troy” in Italy. For 20th Century-Fox, “Garden of Evil” was shot in Mexico and “Night People” in Western Germany; RKO Radio will distribute “The Americano,” a Robert Stillman production made largely in Brazil, and “The Carnival Story,” lensed in Germany by the KingBrothers. There will be others, of course — many others — but space shortages will not permit their listing here in toto. To compile a comprehensive list of planned and/or completed attractions in other classifications would be impossible in such limited space. Upcoming, however, are generous quantities of film biographies, melodramas in the crime-does-not-pay motif, action dramas, suspense chillers, science-fiction entries, musicals and comedies, as well as a few (excuse the expression) remakes of past hits and an occasional all-out documentary and exploitation special. BOXOFFICE 17