Boxoffice barometer (1954)

M-G-M (Coat'd) unmanageable pupils, Greer at length proves successful in gaining their respect — and the love of Ryan. In Ansco Color. HIT THE DECK (Musical). Stars: Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Vic Damone. Producer: Joe Pasternak. Director: not set. Original: Vincent Youmans. Screenplay: Martin Rackin, Herbert Baker. • A film version, in Technicolor, of the Broadway musical success. KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE (Costume Drama). Stars: Robert Taylor, Maureen Swanson, Ava Gardner. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Director: Richard Thorpe. Original Screenplay: Talbot Jennings. • Sir Lancelot (Robert Taylor) helps King Arthur (Mel Ferrer) try to unite England under a rule of peace and justice, which is threatened by the jealous and murderous oppostion of Arthur's scheming sister-in-law and her ambitious husband. When Arthur is slain by traitors, Lancelot vows revenge and pledges his life to the restoration of peace. In CinemaScope and Technicolor. THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (Comedy). Stars: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Original: Buddy Twiss. Screenplay: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich. • Lucille Ball talks her fiance, Desi Arnaz, a traveling construction engineer, into buying a trailer for their honeymoon and as a residence thereafter. Ensues a series of bruises, quarrels, parking tickets and other mishaps, but an "I'm sorry" from Desi after one bitter battle finds him and Lucille united and happy. LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (Musical Comedy). Stars: Ava Gardner (incomplete). Producer: Joe Pasternak. Director: not set. Original Screenplay: not set. • A tunefilm in Technicolor. MANY RIVERS TO CROSS (Outdoor Drama). Stars: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker (incomplete). Producer: Jack Cummings. Director: not set. Original: Steve Frazer. Screenplay: Harry Brown. • Robert Taylor, a hunter and trapper in pioneer Kentucky, is forced into marriage with Eleanor Parker, a mountain girl. Together they battle for survival against warring Indians and the elements, and find enduring love and companionship together. MONTMARTRE (Biographical Drama). Stars: Leslie Caron, Cyd Charisse, Pier Angeli. Producer: John Houseman. Director: George Sidney. Original: Casey Robinson. Screenplay: not set. • A fictionized version of the life of Degas, the French painter. MOON FLEET (Drama). Stars: Stewart Granger (incomplete). Producer: John Houseman. Director: not set. Original: M. Meade Falkner. Screenplay: Jan Lustig, Peggy Fitts. • An action drama about smugglers operating out of a remote fishing village on the English coast, this is based on the novel. MY MOST INTIMATE FRIEND (Comedy). Stars: Lana Turner, Eleanor Parker (incomplete). Producer: George Wells. Director: not set. Original Screenplay: Leonard Spigelgass, Sidney Sheldon. • The heroine of this romantic comedy, to be made in Technicolor, is the mistress of ceremonies of a high-rating TV show. ONE MORE TIME (Comedy-Drama). Stars: Eleanor Parker (incomplete). Producer: Armand Deutsch. Director: George Cukor. Original Screenplay: Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin. • In which a war widow takes another fling at romance. PANTHER SQUADRON (War Drama). Stars: Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin. Producer: Henry Berman. Director: Andrew Marton. Original: Comm. Harry A. Burns, James Michener. Screenplay: Art Cohn. • Dewey Martin, an ensign attached to the Panther Squadron in Korea, is blinded by a direct hit. Van Johnson, a calm, collected and heroic lieutenant, planes to his rescue — willing Martin to stay conscious during a 200-mile flight over jagged mountains to the sea. Johnson manages to guide Martin to an alerted carrier and the wounded aviator lands safely. PRISONER OF WAR (Drama). Stars: Ronald Reagan, Dewey Martin, Steve Forrest. Producer: Henry Berman. Director: Andrew Marton. Original Screenplay: Allen Rivkin. • A semidocumentary drama dealing with the returning American prisoners of war from Korea, who had been held captive by the Reds. THE PRODIGAL (Biblical Drama). Stars: Ava Gardner, Vittorio Gassman (incomplete). Producer: not set. Director: not set. Original: The Bible. Screenplay: Joseph Breen jr., Samuel Larsen. • The Biblical story of the Prodigal Son will be brought to the screen in Technicolor and CinemaScope. QUENTIN DURWARD (Costume Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Director: Richard Thorpe. Original: Sir Walter Scott. Screenplay: Jan Lustig. • A story of intrigue and romance in 1 5th-century France, revolving around the warlike feud between King Louis XI ond Duke Charles. RHAPSODY (Drama With Music). Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Vittorio Gassman, Louis Calhern. Producer: Lawrence Weingarten. Director: Charles Vidor. Original: Henry Handel Richardson. Screenplay: Ruth and Augustus Goetz. • In love with Vittorio Gassman, a young violinist, Elizabeth Taylor studies piano at a Swiss conservatory— just to be near him. His concert debut is successful, but Elizabeth finds herself unreasoningly jealous of his music, marries a brilliant pianist and works out a happy life — in which there is a place for Vittorio as a friend. ROSE MARIE (Musical). Stars: Fernando Lamas, Ann Blyth, Howard Keel. Producer: Arthur Hornblow jr. Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Original: Rudolph Friml. Screenplay: not set. • Howard Keel of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, fulfills a promise to her dead father when he takes Ann Blyth, a northwoods wildcat, to Fort McLeod to live. Ann protests furiously at attempts to turn her into a lady, but falls in love with Fernando Lamas, a French-Canadian trapper, and helps him clear himself of a murder charge. In CinemaScope and Eastman Color. Saadia (Drama). Stars: Cornel Wilde, Rita Gam, Mel Ferrer. Producer-Director: Albert Lewin. Original: Francis D'Autheville. Screenplay: Albert Lewin. • With the support of Cornel Wilde, a young native chief, Mel Ferrer, a doctor in the French colonial medical service,' battles to surmount the tenacious superstitions of Sahara desert tribesmen. Rita Gam, a beautiful native girl, helps Ferrer stamp out an outbreak of plague and marries Wilde, and Ferrer knows that his fight against witchcraft is being won. THE SCARLET COAT (Historical Drama). Stars: Michael Wilding, Robert Taylor (incomplete). Producer: Nicholas Nayfack. Director: Robert Pirosh. Original: Hollister Noble, Sidney Harmon. Screenplay: Karl Tunberg. • A drama of the Revolutionary War. ST. LOUIS WOMAN (Musical). Stars: Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly. Producer: Arthur Freed. Director: George Sidney. Original: Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen. Screenplay: not set. • An adaptation of the Broadway stage musical. THE STUDENT PRINCE (Musical). Stars: Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, Edmund Gwenn. Producer: Joe Pasternak. Director: Richard Thorpe. Original: Sigmund Romberg. Screenplay:, Sonya Levien, William Ludwig. In CinemaScope. • Edmund Purdom is the dashing nobleman and Ann Blyth the beautiful barmaid in this film version of Sigmund Romberg's operetta about student lives and loves at Heidelburg. TENNESSEE CHAMP (Comedy Drama). Stars: Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin. Producer: Sol Baer Fielding. Director: Fred Wilcox. Original Screenplay: Art Cohn. • Keenan Wynn, a conniving fight manager, takes under his wing Dewey Martin, a strong-muscled lad fleeing a murder rap. Dewey, honest and deeply religious, makes a lot of money for Wynn but backs away from a fixed fight. He is cleared of the murder charge, wins one last bout for Wynn, and is free to quit the ring and become a church deacon. THE TRUE AND THE BRAVE (Drama). Stars: Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Victor Mature. Producer: not set. Director: Gottfried Reinhardt. Original: Ronald Miller, George Froeschel. Screenplay: not set. • Produced on location in Holland, this casts Lana Turner as a Dutch refugee girl who becomes involved in underground activities against Nazi occupation forces during World War II. VALLEY OF THE KINGS (Drama). Stars: Eleanor Parker, Robert Taylor, Carlos Thompson. Producer: ( ( im Zimbalist. Director: Robert Pirosh. Original reenplay: Robert Pirosh. Eleanor Parker, a young English archeologist, >es on an expedition to Egypt's Nile River valley id encounters love and excitement when she helps uncover the tomb of a legendary pharaoh. s PARAMOUNT (September through December 1953) BOTANY BAY (Historical Drama). Stars: Alan Ladd, James Mason, Patricia Medina, Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Producer: Joseph Sistrom. Director: John Farrow. Original: Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall. Screenplay: Jonathan Latimer. • Unjustly accused of stealing, and exiled from England, Alan Ladd is sent to Australia in 1790. During a 267-day voyage under the command of James Mason, the cruel and unrelenting captain, Ladd vies with him for the affections of Patricia Medina, one of the passengers, and wins her love. Nov. 1953. THE CADDY (Comedy). Stars: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Donna Reed, Barbara Bates. Producer: Paul Jones. Director: Norman Taurog. Original: Danny Arnold. Screenplay: Edmund Hartmann, Danny Arnold. • Flashback story of the popular comedy team who become favorites through a riotous fight during a golf tournament in which one is competing. The fight makes them famous and leads to their stage success. Sept. 1953. FLIGHT TO TANGIER (Drama). Stars: Joan Fontaine, Jack Palance, Corinne Calvet, Robert Douglas. Producer: Nat Holt. Director: Charles Marquis Warren. Original Screenplay: Charles Marquis Warren. • International black market operators are trying to obtain a $3,000,000 letter of credit being flown to Tangier, but Joan Fontaine, an American girl; Jack Palance, soldier-of-fortune; and Corinne Calvet, French mademoiselle, foil the plot and bring the racketeers to justice. In 3-D, 2-D and Technicolor. Nov. 1953. HERE COME THE GIRLS (Musical Comedy). Stars: Bob Hope, Tony Martin, Arlene Dahl, Rosemary Clooney. Producer: Paul Jones. Director: Claude Binyon. Original: Edmund Hartmann. Screenplay: Edmund Hartmann, Hal Kanter. • Bob Hope, oldest chorus boy in New York, gets star billing and becomes an overnight fluke when the star of a new show is threatened by gangsters. After romantic and other complications, the situation is straightened out and Bob wins the girl he loves. In Technicolor. Dec. 1953. LITTLE BOY LOST (Drama With Music). Stars: Bing Crosby, Claude Dauphin, Christian Fourcade. Producer: William Perlberg. Director: George Seaton. Original: Marghanita Laski. Screenplay: George Seaton. • At start of World War II, an American radio reporter marries a singer and a son is born as Nazis invade Paris. The father enlists, the mother is killed, and the son disappears until found after touching incidents. Oct. 1953. ROMAN HOLIDAY (Romantic Comedy). Stars: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert. ProducerDirector: William Wyler. Original: Ian McLellan Hunter. Screenplay: Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton. • Audrey Hepburn is cast as the beautiful heirapparent to a mythical European throne. Deciding on one last fling before she settles down to the drab business of affairs of state, she is joined in the frolic by Gregory Peck, an American newspaperman on assignment in Rome. Sept. 1953. THOSE REDHEADS FROM SEATTLE (Drama With Music). Stars: Rhonda Fleming, Gene Barry, Agnes Moorehead. Producers: William H. Pine, William C. Thomas. Director: Lewis R. Foster. Original Screenplay: Lewis R. Foster, Geoffrey Homes, George Worthington Yates. • Newspaper owner, conducting a cleanup campaign aimed at a Dawson, Alaska, bistro, is killed shortly before his wife and three daughters arrive from Seattle on a surprise visit. Bistro owner, suspected of the crime, tracks down the killer and romances one of the daughters. In 3-D, 2-D and Technicolor. Oct. 1953. THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (Science-Fiction Drama). Stars: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne. Producer: George Pal. Director: Byron Haskin. Original: H. G. Wells. Screenplay: Barre Lyndon. • Martian machines land, dealing death rays, and panic results when the A-bomb fails to destroy them. Then a miracle happens — a germ infects the invaders, and having no resistance to Earth's diseases, they die. In Technicolor. Oct. 1953. Coming ABOUT MRS. LESLIE (Drama). Stars: Shirley Booth, Robert Ryan, Alex Nicol. Producer: Hal Wallis. Director: Daniel Mann. Original: Vina Delmar. Screenplay: Ketti Frings. • From a novel by Vina Delmar, this is the story of a worldly-wise woman, Shirley Booth, who operates a rooming-house, and of her clandestine romance with Robert Ryan, a Washington governmental power who finds solace with her for his personal loneliness through the years. ALASKA SEAS (Drama). Stars: Robert Ryan, Jan Sterling, Brian Keith. Producer: Mel Epstein. Director: Jerry Hopper. Original: Barrett Willoughby. Screenplay: Geoffrey Homes, Walter Doniger. • Brian Keith and his hard-working salmon fishermen are trying to make a living, while Gene Barry and his salmon thieves rob Keith's traps. Robert Ryan, an irresponsible fisherman, first sides with Barry, but comes to his senses and destroys Barry and himself to rid the fishermen of the menace, although he loves Jan Sterling, darling of the fishing fleet. ANGELS COOKING (Romantic Comedy). Stars: Humphrey Bogart. Producer: Pat Duggan. Director: Michael Curtiz. Original: Albert Husson. Screenplay: not set. • Three convicts imprisoned on Devil's Island set themselves up as guardian angels over a girl whom one of them loves. BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON (Historical Drama). Stars:' not set. Producers: William Pine, William Thomas. Director: not set. Original: Della Gould Emmons. Screenplay: Lewis R. Foster. • Based on "Sacajawea of the Shoshones," a novel 84 BAROMETER Section