Boxoffice barometer (1954)

Columbia (Cont'd) • From the novel, this is story of diesel towboats on the Mississippi river, its hero a college-bred youth who signs on as a deckhand and finds happiness, excitement and romance in his job. SUNBURST (Outdoor Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Lewis J. Rachmil. Director: not set. Original: Ranald MacDougall. Screenplay: Charles Peck jr. • An Indian boy, adopted and raised by a white family, has to decide whether to return to his tribe or live the white man's life. VALENTINA (Romantic Drama). Stars: Rita Hayworth (incomplete). Producer: Beckworth Productions. Director: not set. Original: Alfred Hayes. Screenplay: Jo Eisinger. • A modern melodrama, set in Tangiers. WATERFRONT (Drama). Stars: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden. Producer: Sam Spiegel. Director: Elia Kazan. Original Screenplay: not set. • A story of New York's harbor area, filmed on location in Manhattan. THE WHITE STALLION (Outdoor Drama). Stars: Phil Carey, Dorothy Patrick, Roy Roberts. Producer: Wallace MacDonald. Director: Fred F. Sears. Original Screenplay: David Lang. • This action drama deals with a v/ild-horse herd. Phil Carey portrays a young veterinarian. THE WOODHAWK (Western). Stars: Donna Reed, Robert Francis, Philip Carey. Producer: Lewis J. Rachmil. Director: Phil Karlson. Original: Leo Katcher. Screenplay: Frank Nugent. • Robert Francis, a young army doctor, finds the personnel of a frontier post hostile when he arrives, but when Francis begins doctoring the neighboring, warlike Kiowa Indian tribe, he is instrumental in repelling a redskin attack and emerges a hero in the eyes of the soldiers and Donna Reed, a pretty girl who becomes his bride. Filmakers Releasing Organization (November, December 1953) THE BIGAMIST (Drama). Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino. Producer: Collier Young. Director: Ida Lupino. Original: Larry Marcus, Lou Schor. Screenplay: Collier Young. • Unhappily married to Joan Fontaine, who is also his business partner, Edmond O'Brien has a love affair with Ida Lupino and enters into a bigamous marriage with her when she reveals she is to have a child. His double life is exposed, he is arrested and the film ends on the assumption he will go to jail, posing the question as to which wife will wait for him. Dec. 23, 1953. MONTE CARLO BABY (Comedy). Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Jules Munshin, Cara Williams, John Van Drellen. Producer: Ray Ventura. Directors: Jean Boyer, Jean Jerrold. Original Screenplay: Jean Boyer, Jean Jerrold, Alex Joffe. ® British-made, and filmed in France and Monte Carlo. Story of a wild chase by a pair of estranged parents, Audrey Hepburn and John Van Drellen, as they hunt for their infant son in Monte Carlo. The child had been mistakenly given by a baby home to a drummer in a band. Nov. 1, 1953. IFE Releasing Corp. (November, December 1953) THE GOLDEN COACH (Drama). Stars: Anna Magnani, Duncan Lamont, Paul Campbell, Riccardo Rioli. Producer-Director: Jean Renoir (Panaria Films). Original Screenplay: Jean Renoir. • Italian-made with English dialog. Story of the adventures of an Italian Comedia dell' Arte troupe on tour in an 18th century Spanish-American colony. The Columbine (leading lady) has off-stage romances with three rival suitors. In Technicolor. Dec. 1953. THE GREATEST LOVE (Drama). Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox. Producers: Ponti-De Laurentiis. Director: Roberto Rossellini. Original Screenplay: Roberto Rossellini. • Italian-made, with English dialog, this film was formerly known as "Europe '51." Story concerns a woman who loses her ,chi Id, leaves her diplomathusband and international socialite set to search for happiness. Nov. 1953. LURE OF THE SILA (Drama). Stars: Silvana Mangano, Vittorio Gassman, Amedeo Nazzari, Jacques Sernas. Producer: Dino De Laurentiis (Lux Films). Director: Duilio Coletti. • Italian-made with English dialog. Plot deals with the rivalry between a father and son over their love for the same girl who tries to destroy them both to avenge her brother's death. Dec. 1953. SENSUALITA (Drama). Stars: Eleanora Rossi Drago, Amedeo Nazzari, Marcello Mastroianni. Producers: Ponti-De Laurentiis. Director: Clemente Fracassi. • Italian-made with English dialog. Dec. 1953. Lippert Productions (August 7 through December 11, 1953) THE FIGHTING MEN (Drama). Stars: Rossano Brazzi, Claudine Dupuis, Charles Vanel. Producers: Albert Salvatori, Alan Curtis. Director: Camillo Mastrocinque. Original: G. G. Loschiavo, E. Colombo. Screenplay: Lewis E. Ciannelli, Gisella Mathess. • Made in Italy, this is the story of Rossano Brazzi, who returns to his native Sicily to find bandits terrorizing the small landowners. Under his leadership the farmers resist the "black hand" bandits and peace is restored through the establishment of a vigilante army. Oct. 9, 1953. THE LIMPING MAN (Mystery Drama). Stars: Lloyd Bridges, Moira Lister. Producer: Donald Ginsberg. Director: Charles DeLautour. Original Screenplay: Ian Stuart, Reginald Long. • Lloyd Bridges is one of the suspects of a murder committed by a limping man. He works to win a $20,000 reward by linking the dead man with a narcotics ring and the victim's ex-wife is exposed as the murderer. Dec. 11, 1953. THE MAN FROM CAIRO (Melodrama). Stars: George Raft, Gianna Maria Canale, Massimo Serato. Producer: Bernard Luber. Director: Ray Enright. Original: Ladislas Fodor. Screenplay: Eugene Ling, Philip and Janet Stevenson. • In Algiers, George Raft is mistaken for an American detective helping French police seek a cache of gold lost on the North African desert during World War II. With the aid of a nightclub singer, Gianna Maria Canale, Raft and the French police locate the treasure, and Raft and the singer get married. Nov. 22, 1953. NORMAN CONQUEST (Drama). Stars: Tom Conway, Eva Bartok, Joy Shelton. Producers: Bertram Ostrer, Albert Fennel. Director: Bernard Knowles. Original Screenplay: Bertram Ostrer, Albert Fennel, Bernard Knowles. • Tom Conway answers anonymous message to register at a New York hotel and is drugged by Eva Bartok, a spy who has smuggled diamonds in for a war criminal. He is framed when a corpse is left in his room but is saved with help of his girl friend, Joy Shelton. Sept. 11, 1953. PROJECT MOON BASE (Science-Fiction Drama). Stars: Donna Martell, Hayden Rorke, Ross Ford. Producer: Jack Seaman. Director: Richard Talmadge. Original Screenplay: Robert Heinlein, Jack Seaman. • American woman pilot and man co-pilot make first flight around the moon in 1970. Only passenger, a spy, is killed in an accident that forces landing on the moon, where they are married on TV by Madam President of the United States. Sept. 4, 1953. SHADOW MAN (Mystery Drama). Stars: Cesar Romero, Kay Kendall, Edward Underdown. Producer: William H. Williams (Anglo Amalgamated Productions). Director: Richard Vernon. Original: Laurence Mynell. Screenplay: Richard Vernon. • Filmed in England, this casts Cesar Romero as a saloonkeeper who falls in love with Kay Kendall, neglected wife of a gambler. When a girl is found murdered in his quarters, Romero is arrested, and helps the police trap his one-time friend, Victor Maddern, into confessing the slaying and frameup. Oct. 16, 1953. SINS OF JEZEBEL (Biblical Drama). Stars: Paulette Goddard, George Nader, John Hoyt. Producer: Robert L. Lippert jr. Director: Reginald LeBorg. Original Screenplay: Richard Landau. • Paulette Goddard, a wicked Phoenician princess whom the king of Israel wants to wed, uses her sinister charms in an effort to destroy the empire by pitting its men and its armies against one another. When the king is slain by the Syrians, a young soldier becomes king and the princess dies violently. In Ansco Color. Oct. 23, 1953. SPACEWAYS (Drama). Stars: Howard Duff, Eva Bartok. Producer: Michael Carreras. Director: Terence Fisher. Original: Charles Eric Maine. Screenplay: Paul Tabori, Richard Landau. • Wife of rocket expert lent to England romances scientist-spy. When rocket, exploded into space, fails to return and wife and lover disappear, expert is unjustly accused of placing them in rocket. Aug. 7, 1953. TERROR STREET (Drama). Stars: Dan Duryea, Elsy Albiin, Ann Gudrun. Producer: Anthony Hinds (Exclusive Films). Director: Montgomery Tully. Original Screenplay: Steve Fisher. • When his wife is murdered, Dan Duryea, a U.S. air force pilot, is the prime suspect. Ann Gudrun, a worker in a Skid Row mission, befriends him, and together they learn his dead wife was being blackmailed by racketeers. The ringleaders are killed by police, Duryea is exonerated and romance blooms between him and Ann. Dec. 4, 1953. UNDERCOVER AGENT (Drama). Stars: Dermot Walsh, Hazel Court, Hermione Baddeley. Producer: William H. Williams (Anglo Amalgamated Productions). Director: Vernon Sewell. Original Screenplay: Guy Elmes, Michael Le Fevre. • Dermot Walsh, auditor for an engineering firm in England, becomes involved in a plot by international spies to steal secret formulas for jet engines. He is captured by the gang, but his wife. Hazel Court, leads police to the hideout and, after a gun battle, the spy ring is rounded up. Oct. 2. 1953. Coming THE COWBOY (Western). Cast: Non-professionals. Producer-Director: Elmo Williams. Original Screenplay: Lorraine Williams. e This is planned as a semi-documentary approach to the subject of the life and times of the frontier cowhand. BLACKOUT (Crime Drama). Stars: Dane Clark (incomplete). Producer: Michael Carreros (Exclusive Films). Director: not set. Original Screenplay: Richard Landau. • Done Clark, a U.S. army officer in London, is suspected of murder and has to track down the real killer in order to clear himself. Filmed in Britain. FACE THE MUSIC (Drama With Music). Stars: Alex Nicol, Eleanor Summerfield, John Salew. Producer: Michael Carreras (Hammer Productions). Director: Terence Fisher. Original Screenplay: Ernest Borneman. • Alex Nicol, a trumpet player under suspicion in the slaying of a blues singer, has two slim clues to pursue. He narrows the suspects down to four people. After escaping death from poison placed on the mouthpiece of his trumpet, Nicol traps the murderer, who is slain by police while trying to escape. FANGS OF THE WILD (Outdoor Drama). Stars: Charles Chaplin jr., Margia Dean, Frederick Ridgeway. Producer: Robert L. Lippert jr. Director: William Claxton. Original Screenplay: Orville H. Hampton. • While in the woods with his dog, Shep, young Frederick Ridgeway is a witness when Charles Chaplin jr. murders his hunting companion. No one believes the boy's story, and Chaplin contends it was a hunting accident. The boy and dog are pitted against the killer in a furious battle, in which proof of the lad's story is obtained and Chaplin is slain. HOLLYWOOD THRILL-MAKERS (Action Drama). Stars: Bill Henry, James Gleason, Theila Darin. Producers: Maurice Kosloff, B. B. Ray. Director: B. B. Ray. Original: B. B. Ray. Screenplay: Janet Clark. • Bill Henry, groomed as a Hollywood stunt man by James Gleason, formerly in that work, marries Gleason's daughter, Theila Darin and promises to quit stunting. He encourages a pal to take a stunt job; the latter is killed, and Henry does the stunt so the dead man's widow will get the money. After doing the job, he quits the profession — and makes it stick. WHITE FIRE (Drama). Stars: Scott Brady, Mary Castle. Producers: Robert S. Baker, Monty Berman. Director: John Gilling. Original: Paul Erickson. Screenplay: Paul Erickson, John Gilling. • Scott Brady, U.S. merchant marine officer, learns that brother missing six months was involved in smuggling diamonds and is to be executed for a murder he did not commit. With aid of Mary Castle, nightclub singer, he rescues brother and wins girl. WOMAN WITH A GUN (Crime Drama). Stars: Paulette Goddard (incomplete). Producer: not set. Director: not set. Original: George Saunders. Screenplay: Richard Landau. • This suspense drama is scheduled for production in London. M-G-M (September 4 through December 25, 1953) THE ACTRESS (Comedy). Stars: Spencer Tracy, Jean Simmons, Teresa Wright. Producer: Lawrence Weingarten. Director: George Cukor. Original (Stage Play): Ruth Gordon. Screenplay: Ruth Gordon. • Jean Simmons, only daughter of poor factory worker who dreams of sea-faring past but covets security, has stage ambitions. Remembering his own disappointments, the father gives her his treasured telescope to pawn for expenses. Sept. 25, 1953. ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT (Action Drama). Stars: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Director: Richard Thorpe. Original: Ben Ames Williams. Screenplay: Harry Brown. • Brothers and rivals in the operation of whaling ships in the 1850s are Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger. When the latter turns up missing, Taylor and his bride, Ann Blyth, take off for the Gilbert islands to find him, and run into adventure, romance and mutiny. In Technicolor. Nov. 13, 1953. EASY TO LOVE (Musical Comedy). Stars: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Tony Martin. Producer: Joe Pasternak. Director: Charles Walters. Original Screenplay: William Roberts, Laslo Vadnay. • Esther Williams is the star of an aquatic show staged in Florida by Van Johnson, a sharp promoter 80 BAROMETER Section