Boxoffice barometer (1954)

Republic (Cont'd) • A cowboy wins recognition as a future railroad tycoon by defeating an outlaw gang's plot to steal a million-dollar trainload of silk. JESSE JAMES WAS MY NEIGHBOR (Western). Stars: not set. Producer: not set. Director: not set. Original: Homer Croy. Screenplay: Steve Fisher, Barry Shipman. • Based on a short story, this sagebrusher deals with frontier days during the era of Jesse James. JOHNNY GUITAR (Western). Stars: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge. ProducerDirector: Nicholas Ray. Original: Roy Chanslor. Screenplay: Philip Yordan. • Joan Crawford, owner of a gambling house in a frontier town in Arizona, learns almost too late that the love of a guitar-playing gunman who helps her war against anti-railroad-minded ranchers is worth more than the fortune she dreamed of making in the path of the incoming railroad. JUBILEE TRAIL (Western). Stars: Vera Ralston, Joan Leslie, Forrest Tucker. Producer-Director: Joseph Kane. Original: Gwen Bristow. Screenplay: Bruce Manning. • Joan Leslie marries John Russell, a trader from California, then learns he fathered the illegitimate child of the daughter of a wealthy Mexican landowner. The Mexican girl kills herself, Russell is slain by her father, and Joan plans to marry the man she really loves, Forrest Tucker, and go with him to California's gold fields. Filmed in Trucolor. KERRY DRAKE (Action Drama). Stars: William Lundigan, Martha Vickers, Frankie Darro. Producer: Les Hafner. Director: Seymour Friedman. Original Screenplay: Maivin Wald. • William Lundigan is the title-roler in this adventure drama, first in a proposed series based on the syndicated comic strip. LAUGHING ANNE (Drama). Stars: Wendell Corey, Margaret Lockwood, Forrest Tucker. Producer-Director: Herbert Wilcox. Original: Joseph Conrad. Screenplay: Pamela Bower. • In the 1870s Margaret Lockwood and her husband, Forrest Tucker, an ex-prizefighter, drift to the South Seas, where she falls in love with Wendell Corey, master of a trading schooner. Enraged at this betrayal. Tucker shoots her, but is in turn killed by Davidson, who takes Margaret's young son and sails away. MAKE HASTE TO LIVE (Western). Stars: John Derek, Joan Evans, Jane Darwell. Producer: William J. O'Sullivan. Director: William Witney. Original: Todhunter Ballard. Screenplay: Richard Wormser. o This historical sagebrusher is adapted from "Red Horizon," an Esquire magazine serial by Todhunter Ballard. MAN FROM TEXAS (Western). Stars; not set. Producer: not set. Director: not set. Original: Bill Gulick. Screenplay: Horace McCoy. • This Trucolor sagebrusher is based on a Saturday Evening Post serial. THE MIGHTY MELVIN (Comedy). Stars: Mickey Rooney (incomplete). Producer: Maurice Duke (Mickey Rooney Enterprises). Director: not set. Original Screenplay: Blake Edwards. • This comedy is the first in a group of pictures contemplated by the recently-formed independent unit, Mickey Rooney Enterprises, headed by the actor. THE OUTCAST (Drama). Stars: Dorothy McGuire, Mary Murphy, John Howard. Producer-Director: William A. Seiter. Original: Gordon and Mildred Gordon. Screenplay: Warren Duff. • In the scenic splendor of the Colorado cattle country, a young westerner learns — from a deadly range war he wages against his unscrupulous uncle to recover his stolen heritage — that friends are better fighting allies than hired gunmen. REX ALLEN SERIES (Westerns). Stars: Rex Allen, Slim Pickens, Carla Balenda and others. Producers: Rudy Ralston, Edward J. White. Directors: Harry Keller, William Witney. Original Screenplays: Arthur Orloff, Gerald Geraghty and others. • Starring vehicles for Cowpoke Rex Allen during the season include "Red River Shore," "Valley of the Wild Stallion," "Home in Texas," "Mysterious Wagon Train" and "Border City Fiesta." SANTA FE PASSAGE (Outdoor Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Sidney Picker. Director: not set. Original: Clay Fisher. Screenplay: Lillie Hayward, Kenneth Garnet. • Based on the novel, this is a tale of adventure and romance in America's early frontier days. THE SHANGHAI STORY (Drama). Stars: Ruth Roman, Edmond O'Brien, Whit Bisseli. Producer-Director: Frank Lloyd. Original: Lester Yard. Screenplay: Seton 1. Miller. e A rugged American doctor, disillusioned by his years in the Orient, and a Tangiers-born beauty whose romantic ideals have been tarnished, risk their lives to help a group of less-experienced folk survive the brutality of a Communist spy-hunt in Shanghai's international settlement. TIMBERJACK (Outdoor Drama). Stars, not set. Producer-Director: Joseph Kane. Original: Dan Cushman. Screenplay: not set. • A young Canadian lumberman fights to retrieve his heritage from a ruthless timber king. TOBOR (Science-Fiction Drama). Stars: Charles Drake, Karen Booth, Lyle Talbot. Producer: Richcrd Goldstone (Dudley Pictures). Director: Lee Sholem. Original Screenplay: Richard Goldstone, Philip McDonald. o This contribution to the science-fiction category deals with the creation of a mechanical brain. TROUBLE IN THE GLEN (Drama). Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Forrest Taylor, Victor McLaglen. Producer-Director: Herbert Wilcox. Original: Maurice Walsh. Screenplay: Frank Nugent. • This romantic drama, by the author of "The Quiet Man," was scheduled for filming on location in Scotland. THE UNTAMED HEIRESS (Comedy). Stars: Judy Canova, Don Barry, George Cleveland. Producer: Sidney Picker. Director: Charles Lamont. Original Screenplay: Jack Townley. • In which Judy Canova, an orphan giri, inherits a fabulously rich gold mine. THE VANISHING AMERICAN (Western). Stars: not set. Producer: not set. Director: not set. Original: Zane Grey. Screenplay: not set. • One of Zane Grey's best-known stories of frontier days. 20TH CENTURY-FOX (September through December 1953) BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF (Action Drama). Stars: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland. Producer: Robert Bassler. Director: Robert Webb. Original Screenplay: A. I. Bezzerides. « Story of a long-smoldering feud between Greek sponge-divers at Tarpon Springs, Fla., and shallowwater divers of Key West. Gilbert Roland portrays the hard-bitten captain of a sponge-fishing boat and Robert Wagner his son, who dares an expedition to the dangerous Twelve-Mile Reef for a rich cargo. In CinemaScope and Technicolor. Dec. 1953. HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE (Comedy). Stars: Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, William Powell. Producer: Nunnally Johnson. Director: Jean Negulesco. Original: Katherine Albert, Dale Eunson, Zoe Akins. Screenplay: Nunnally Johnson. • Three beautiful New York fashion models — Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall — decide it's as easy to love a rich man as a poor man. They pool their resources, rent a swank apartment and eventually manage to solve their romantic and financial dilemmas. In CinemaScope and Technicolor. Nov. 1953. MAN IN THE ATTIC (Suspense Drama). Stars: Jack Palance, Constance Smith, Byron Palmer. Producer: Leonard Goldstein (Panoramic Pictures). Director: Hugo Fregonese. Original: Marie Belloc Lowndes. Screenplay: Robert Presnell jr., Barre Lyndon. 0 London in 1888 lives in terror because of the depredations of a savage, unknown knife-murderer of innocent women. Suspicion points toward Jack Palance, a young medical pathologist, and Byron Palmer, a Scotland Yard inspector, builds up a convincing case against him. When the net closes in, Palance kills himself after controlling an insane passion to slay the woman he loves. Dec. 1953. MAN CRAZY (Drama). Stars: Neville Brand, John Brown, Christine White. Producers: Sidney Harmon, Philip Yordan. Director: Irving Lerner. Original Screenplay: Philip Yordan, Sidney Harmon. 0 Three girls steal some $28,000 from a druggist in a small town in Minnesota and head for Hollywood for a spending spree. After various adventures, all learn the lesson that crime does not pay. Dec. 1953. THE ROBE (Biblical Drama). Stars: Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Michael Rennie. Producer: Frank Ross. Director: Henry Koster. Original: Lloyd C. Douglas. Screenplay: Philip Dunne. 0 From the late Lloyd C. Douglas book on the birth of Christianity and the mystic influence of Christ's robe on the Roman tribunal who crucified him and all others who came in contact with the garment. Richard Burton is the tribunal, and Victor Mature is Demetrius, the Greek slave. In CinemaScope and Technicolor. Pre-released Sept. 1953. THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE (Drama). Stars: Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, Ken Carlton. Producer: Hugo Haas. Director: Hugo Haas. Original: Oscar Jellinek. Screenplay: Hugo Haas. 0 Suspicious 19th century judge, Hugo Haas, discovers his wife's lover refuses to clear himself of a murder charge to protect her. When her maid, bribed to protect her mistress by saying he came to see her, confesses, the judge strangles his wife. Oct. 1953. VICKI (Mystery Drama). Stars: Jeanne Crcin, Jean Peters, Elliott Reid. Producer: Leonard Goldstein. Director: Harry Horner. Original: Steve Fisher. Screenplay: Dwight Taylor. 0 When popular model Jean Peters is found dead in her apartment, her loyal sister Jeanne Crain and press agent Elliott Reid are suspects. They are hounded by a psychopathic detective who proves to be the murderer. Oct. 1953. Coming BROKEN LANCE (Western). Stars: Spencer Tracy, Dolores Del Rio, Robert Wagner. Producer: Sol C. Siegel. Director: Edward Dmytryk. Original Screenplay: Richard Murphy. 0 Which deals with the struggles of Spencer Tracy, a Texas cattle baron, against the rising tide of changing social concepts at the turn of the century. In CinemaScope. CARMEN JONES (Musical). Stars: not set. ProducerDirector: Otto Preminger. Original: Oscar Hammerstein II. Screenplay: Oscar Hammerstein II. e With an all-negro cast, this is a screen version in Technicolor and CinemaScope of the Broadway stage hit, a modernized treatment of the Bizet opera, "Carmen." DADDY LONG LEGS (Romantic Drama). Stars: Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron (incomplete). Producer: Sol C. Siegel. Director: not set. Original: Jean Webster. Screenplay: F. Hugh Herbert. 0 This hardy perennial among romantic novels has been filmed twice before — once in 1912 as a silent, starring Mary Pickford, and again in 1930 as talkie with Janet Gaynor. DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS (Biblical Drama). Stars: Victor Mature, Michael Rennie, Susan Hayward. Producer: Frank Ross. Director: Delmer Daves. Original Screenplay: Philip Dunne. 0 In this, a sequel to "The Robe," Victor Mature is a fugitive Christian in pagan Rome. Carried over as characters from the former film are Mature (as Demetrius), Michael Rennie (the Apostle Peter) and Jay Robinson (the Emperor Caligula). Susan Hayward portrays the evil Messalina, wife of the emperor. Filmed in CinemaScope. DESIREE (Costume Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Julian Blaustein. Director: not set. Original: Annemarie Selinko. Screenplay: Daniel Taradash. 0 From the novel, this is a story of Napoleon's court, and of the romance between a noblewoman and one of Bonaparte's generals. In CinemaScope and Technicolor. THE EGYPTIAN (Historical Drama). Stars: Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas, Victor Mature. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. Director: Michael Curtiz. Original: Mika Waltari. Screenplay: Casey Robinson. 0 Adapted from the novel, this is the story of an Egyptian physician during the reign of Amenhotep III, 1,000 years B. C., and of his adventures, travels and romances. In CinemaScope and Technicolor. THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ (Drama). Stars: Dale Robertson, Debra Paget, Kevin McCarthy. Producer: Leonard Goldstein (Panoramic Pictures). Director: Henry Levin. Original: Hunt Stromberg jr., James Gunn. Screenplay: not set. 0 In Technicolor, this action drama deals with river pirates in Louisiana before the Civil War. GARDEN OF EVIL (Romantic Drama). Stars: Susan Hayward, Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark. Producer: Charles Brackett. Director: Henry Hathaway. Original: Fred Freiberger, William Tunberg. Screenplay: Frank Fenton. 0 An outdoor drama with a Mexican mining background. In CinemaScope and Technicolor. GORILLA AT LARGE (Drama). Stars: Cameron Mitchell, Anne Bancroft, Lee J. Cobb. Producer: Leonard Goldstein (Panoramic Pictures). Director: Harmon Jones. Original Screenplay: Leonard Praskins, Barney Slater. 0 Goliath, a ferocious gorilla, is the biggest attraction at an amusement park where Anne Bancroft is a trapeze artist and Cameron Mitchell, a sideshow barker. When a carnival worker is found slain, the gorilla is suspected, but it develops that Anne is the real killer and is captured and arrested. HAWK OF THE DESERT (Drama). Stars: Cleo Moore (incomplete). Producer: Leonard Goldstein (Panoramic Pictures). Director: Robert Webb. Original: Albert H. Traynor. Screenplay: Julian Josephson, Charles Kenyon. 0 This Technicolor adventure concerns a young Englishman who journeys to the Sahara desert in search of his brother, reportedly captured by renegade Arabs. HELL AND HIGH WATER (Drama). Stars: Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, Victor Francen. Producer: Ray Klune. Director: Samuel Fuller. Original: Beirne Lay jr. Screenplay: Jesse L. Lacky jr. 0 A French atomic scientist, Victor Francen, and his pretty assistant, Bella Darvi, learn that the Reds are preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Korea and Manchuria, using an American bomber, and blame the deed on the U. S. Richard Widmark, former navy officer, foils the plot and wins Miss Darvi. Made in CinemaScope. JUMPING SISTERS (Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Samuel G. Engel. Director: not set. Original Screenplay: Virginia Kellogg. 0 An action drama, in CinemaScope, based on the exploits of the Royal Canadian air force's parachute-jumping nurses.. BOXOFFICE 87