Boxoffice barometer (1954)

M-G-M (Cont'd) who has been dodging marriage for years. Not until Esther is pursued by Tony Martin, a handsome nightclub singer, and John Bromfield, her muscular partner in the water-ski ballet, does Van realize that he loves her — and wants her for his wife. In Technicolor. Dec. 25, 1953. ESCAPE FROM FORT BRAVO (Western). Stars: William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe. Producer: Nicholas Nayfack. Director: John Sturges. Original: Michael Pate, Philip Rock. Screenplay: Frank Fenton. • William Holden is the brutal commander of Fort Bravo, Union stronghold in Arizona territory during the Civil War, where Confederate prisoners are held. He falls in love with Eleanor Parker, a southern sympathizer, who helps the prisoners escape, but she in turn summons aid when Holden and his men are ambushed by Indians, and they plan to marry. In Ansco Color. Dec. 4, 1953. HALF A HERO (Comedy). Stars: Red Skelton, Jean Hagen, Polly Bergen. Producer: Matthew Rapt. Director: Don Weis. Original Screenplay: Max Shulman. • Jean Hagen, confident, extravagant wife of modest, aspiring writer Red Skelton induces him to buy a suburban home. His editor orders stories showing new subdivisions as the slums of tomorrow, causing trouble between Red and his wife, which is later resolved. Sept. 4, 1953. KISS ME KATE (Musical). Stars: Kathryn Grayson, Ann Miller, Howard Keel. Producer: Jack Cummings. Director: George Sidney. Original: Sam and Bella Spewack. Screenplay: Dorothy Kingsley. • Howard Keel's ex-wife, Kathry Grayson, agrees to co-star with him in a new Broadway show being produced by Cole Porter, and finds herself competing with Ann Miller, also of the cast, for Keel's affections. At the last-act curtain of the opening night, Howard and Kathryn realize once again that they love each other, and are romantically reunited. In 3-D, 2-D and Technicolor. Nov. 26, 1953. MOGAMBO (Drama). Stars: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly. Producer: Sam Zimbalist. Director: John Ford. Original: Wilson Collison. Screenplay: John Lee Mahin. • Clark Gable, white hunter in Africa, captures animals for zoos and circuses. Stranded show girl, Ava Gardner, and British scientist's wife, Grace Kelly, compete for his affections in wild jungle settings. In Technicolor. Oct. 9, 1953. TAKE THE HIGH GROUND! (Drama). Stars: Richard Widmark, Karl Malden, Elaine Stewart. Producer: Dore Schary. Director: Richard Brooks. Original Screenplay: Millard Kaufman. • Richard Widmark, hard-boiled army sergeant, is tough on inductees because of personal bitterness over his father's failure and because he knows good soldiers don't come out of kid glove handling. An unhappy love affair softens him somewhat. In Ansco Color. Oct. 30, 1953. TERROR ON A TRAIN (Drama). Stars: Glenn Ford, Anne Vernon. Producer: Richard Goldstone. Director: Ted Tetzloff. Original and Screenplay: Kem Bennett. • Glenn Ford, bomb-disposal expert formerly with the British army, has five hours to locate a time bomb among a trainload of mines. He and his estranged wife are reconciled when he again risks his life removing a second bomb. Sept. 18, 1953. TORCH SONG (Drama). Stars: Joan Crawford, Michael Wilding, Gig Young, Marjorie Rambeau. Producers: Henry Berman, Sidney Franklin jr. Director: Charles Walters. Original: I. A. R. Wylie. Screenplay: John Michael Hayes, Jan Lustig. • Perfectionist Joan Crawford is rehearsing new musical comedy with blind veteran song arranger, Michael Wilding. Firing him because of his frank criticisms, she persuades him to come back and later forces him to admit he loves her. In Technicolor. Oct. 23, 1953. Coming ATHENA (Comedy With Music). Stars: Jane Powell, Janet Leigh, Debbie Reynolds. Producer: Joe Pasternak. Director: George Sidney. Original Screenplay: Leonard Spigelgass. o This romantic comedy in Technicolor, deals with the three pretty daughters of a large, gay family of health fiends. BABYLON REVISITED (Romantic Drama). Stars: Elizabeth Taylor (incomplete). Producer: Jack Cumfnings. Director: Richard Brooks. Original: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Screenplay: Richard Brooks. • A love story of the "lost generation" of the '20s, with a Parisian background, this is adapted from one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's widely-read tales. BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (Western). Stars: Spencer Tracy (incomplete). Producer: Charles Schnee. Director: George Sidney. Original: Herbert Breslin. Screenplay: Don McGuire. • This outdoor action drama concerns the arrival of a stranger in a drowsy southwestern town, and his dramatic impact upon the fear-ridden citizens. BEAU BRUMMEL (Costume Drama.) Stars: Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov. Producer: Sam Zimbalist. Director: Curtis Bernhardt. Original: Clyde Fitch. Screenplay: Karl Tunberg. • Planned for filming on location in England, in Technicolor, this involves romance, intrigue and adventure during the reign of King George III. BEN HUR (Historical Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Sam Zimbalist. Director: not set. Original: Gen. Lew Wallace. Screenplay: Karl Tunberg. • Filmed previously as a silent, this is a new version of the widely-read novel about life in Rome during the early Christian era. In CinemaScope. BERMUDA (Musical Comedy). Stars: Esther Williams (incomplete). Producer: Joe Pasternak. Director: not set. Original Screenplay: Dorothy Cooper. • A tunefilm in Technicolor. A BRIDE FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (Musical Comedy). Stars: Jane Powell, Howard Keel, Steve Forrest. Producer: Jack Cummings. Director: Stanley Donen. Original: Stephen Vincent Benet. Screenplay: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett. • This hillbilly musical, in Technicolor, is an adaptation of "Sobbin' Women," a short story by Stephen Vincent Benet. BRIGADOON (Musical Comedy). Stars: Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Barry Jones. Producer: Arthur Freed. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Original: Alan Jay Lerner. Screenplay: Alan Jay Lerner. • In CinemaScope and Technicolor, this is a film version of the Broadway musical stage hit. THE CASE OF THE JOURNEYING BOY (Drama). Stars Greer Garson (incomplete). Producer: Henry Berman. Director: not set. Original: Michael Innes. Screenplay: not set. • To be made in England and Ireland, and based on the suspense novel, this casts Greer Garson as a woman hired to tutor the son of an atomic scientist. She takes him on a holiday and thwarts two attempts by an international spy ring to kidnap the lad as a means of forcing the scientist to reveal his atomic discoveries. CREST OF THE WAVE (Drama). Stars: Gene Kelly (incomplete). Producers-Directors: John and Roy Boulting. Original Screenplay: John and Roy Boulting. • Filmed in England, this is a story of the British navy, produced with the full cooperation of that organization. DEEP IN MY HEART (Biographical Musical). Stars: Jose Ferrer, Howard Keel (incomplete). Producer: Roger Edens. Director: Stanley Donen. Original: Elliott Arnold. Screenplay: Joseph Fields, Leonard Spigelgass. • Which traces the career of Sigmund Romberg, the noted composer of operettas and musical comedies. In color. DIGBY (Drama). Stars: Spencer Tracy (incomplete). Producer: not set. Director: not set. Original: David Walker. Screenplay: not set. • This is the story of Digby P. Ross II, business tycoon, who finds himself losing interest in life, in the daily challenge of big business, and even in his charming wife. THE DONNYBROOK FIGHTER (Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Armand Deutsch. Director: not set. Original: Irene Winston. Screenplay: Robert Buckner. • Concerns an Irish fighter brought to London in 1804 for a ring career. EMPRESS OF THE DUSK (Historical Drama). Stars: Ava Gardner, Vittorio Gassman (incomplete). Producer: Sam Zimbalist. Director: not set. Original: John W. Vandercook. Screenplay: Sonya Levien, William Ludwig. • From the historical novel, this deals with the romance of Empress Theodora and Emperor Justinian, who together ruled with kindness and courage the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century A.D. In CinemaScope. EXECUTIVE SUITE (Drama). Stars: William Holden, Deborah Kerr, Fredric March. Producer: John Houseman. Director: Robert Wise. Original: Cameron Hawley. Screenplay: Ernest Lehman. • When the president of the Tredway Corp., a farflung industrial empire, dies, a parade of emotions — love and hate, loyalty and fear, sorrow and envy, honesty and greed — are brought out among the lives of the people close to him. Management is thrown into a turmoil, but the election of a new president assures continuing prosperity for the firm. FLAME AND THE FLESH (Romantic Drama). Stars: Lana Turner, Carlos Thompson, Pier Angeli. Producer: Joe Pasternak. Director: Richard Brooks. Original Screenplay: not set. • Lana Turner, an adventuress, arrives in Naples — broke. She meets Carlos Thompson, a cafe singer who has just become engaged to Pier Angeli, and romance bursts into flame. Lana and Carlos run away together, but Lana finally realizes that Carlos belongs with Pier and, although knowing in her heart that she loves him, sends him back to the other girl. FLIGHT TO THE ISLANDS (Drama). Stars: Spencer Tracy (incomplete). Producer: not set. Director: Gottfried Reinhardt. Original: Elizabeth Enright. Screenplay: Garson Kanin. • Spencer Tracy, a family man who becomes irked at the routine nuisances of everyday home life, tries to find happiness by escaping to a land of unfamiliar faces and places. FRENCH QUARTER (Musical Comedy). Stars: Fred Astaire, Dolores Gray (incomplete). Producer: Arthur Freed. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Original Screenplay: not set. ® A tunefilm with a Parisian background, to be filmed in color. THE GALVESTON FLOOD (Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Dore Schary. Director: not set. Original Screenplay: Herman Hoffman, Christopher Knopf. • A story of the disaster and debacle which overtook Galveston, Texas, in 1900. GIVE A GIRL A BREAK (Musical Comedy). Stars: Marge and Gower Champion, Debbie Reynolds, William Ching. Producer: Jack Cummings. Director: Stanley Donen. Original: Vera Caspary. Screenplay: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett. • When the temperamental leading lady walks out on a new Broadway show, a search for a newcomer replacement ends with the signing of Helen Wood — but she in turn bows out because of impending motherhood, and Debbie Reynolds gets the assignment, In which she is a smash hit. Filmed in Technicolor. THE GLASS SLIPPER (Romantic Drama). Stars: Leslie Caron (incomplete). Producer: Edwin Knopf. Director: not set. Original: Anatole de Grunewald. Screenplay: not set. ® An adaptation of the London stage success. THE GREAT DIAMOND ROBBERY (Comedy). Stars: Red Skelton, Cara Williams, James Whitmore. Producer: Edwin H. Knopf. Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Original: Laslo Vadnay. Screenplay: Laslo Vadnay, George Oppenheimer. • Red Skelton, a diamond-cutter, has two ambitions— to cut the $2,000,000 Blue Goddess diamond and to find the parents who abandoned him as an infant. Crooks use Skelton as a pawn in a scheme to steai the gem by introducing him to his long-lost "family" — thieves, all of them — but he outwits them and they land in jail. GREEN FIRE (Action Drama). Stars: Eleanor Parker (incomplete). Producer: Armand Deutsch. Director: Richard Thorpe. Original: Peter Rainier. Screenplay: Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts. e To be filmed partially on location in South America, this deals with an emerald mine in Colombia. GREEN MANSIONS (Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Arthur Freed. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Original: W. H. Hudson. Screenplay: Alan Jay Lerner. o From the novel, localed in the South American jungles, this deals with a young political fugitive who takes refuge in the remote wilderness and falls in love with a beautiful girl, the last of a strange, isolated race. GYPSY COLT (Outdoor Drama). Stars: Donna Corcoran, Ward Bond, Frances Dee. Producer: William Grady jr. Director: Andrew Marton. Original Screenplay: Martin Berkeley. «t Donna Corcoran, daughter of Ranchers Ward Bond and Frances Dee, regards Gypsy, her colt, as her best friend. In dire need of money, Bond sells the colt to a racing stable, but the horse undertakes a 600-mile trek back home to his little mistress. Almost worn out, Gypsy arrives to be reunited with Donna — just as rainfall ends the drouth that had brought hard times to the ranch. THE HOUSE ON HUMILITY STREET (Drama). Stars: Ava Gardner (incomplete). Producer: Sam Zimbalist. Director: Gottfried Reinhardt. Original: Jo Eisinger. Screenplay: not set • An American preparing for the priesthood endeavors to save the life of a girl threatened by gangsters in Paris. I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN (Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Dore Schary. Director: Charles Vidor. Original: Dore Schary. Screenplay: Dudley Nichols, e Against the broad canvas of war and civilian life, this is concerned with the problems of today's young men and women, and the effect upon their lives and their families of World War II and the Korean conflict. INVITATION TO THE DANCE (Musical Fantasy). Stars: Gene Kelly, Claire Sombert, Igor Yousekevitch. Producer: Arthur Freed. Director: Gene Kelly. Original: Gene Kelly. Screenplay: not set. e In ballet form, this tells the story of a clown, Gene Kelly, who can make everyone laugh but whose own soul is sad because of a love that can never be fulfilled. Finally he meets a tragic death in order that the love of the other two people in the triangle can be kept alive. Filmed in Technicolor. KISMET (Musical Comedy). Stars: Cyd Charisse (in complete). Producer: Arthur Freed. Director, not set. Original: Edward Knoblock. Screenplay: Alan Jay Lerner. • A musical version of the Arabian Nights story and stage musical, this will be filmed in Technicolor. HER TWELVE MEN (Romantic Comedy). Stars: Greer Garson, Robert Ryan, Richard Haydn. Producer: John Houseman. Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Original: Louise Baker. Screenplay: William Roberts. • Greer Garson becomes a teacher at an exclusive school for boys and is bewildered^ at the apparent hostility of Robert Ryan, her immediate superior. Almost defeated in her attempts to win over her 82 BAROMETER Section