Boxoffice barometer (1954)

United Artists (Cont'd) BRONCO APACHE (Western). Stars: Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, John Mclntire. Producers: Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster. Director: Robert Aldrich. Original: Paul Wellman. Screenplay: James R. Webb. • In Technicolor, this is the story of Massai, last of the great Indian warriors, who waged a oneman stand against the U. S. army until he was finally tamed by a woman. Burt Lancaster portrays Massai. CAMELS WEST (Western). Stars: Rod Cameron, Joanne Dru, John Ireland. Producer: Edward Small. Director: Ray Nazarro. Original Screenplay: not set. • This 3-D, Eastman Color feature deals with a government-financed venture in 1850 to cross the nation on camels, an unsuccessful attempt to find a substitute for horses. CAPTAIN KIDD AND THE SLAVE GIRL (Pirate Drama). Stars: Anthony Dexter, Eva Gabor, Alan Hale jr. Producers: Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen (in association with Edward Small). Director: Lew Landers. Original Screenplay: Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen. • Which recounts further fictional adventures of the notorious buccaneer. Captain Kidd. CASE FILE: F. B. I. (Crime Drama). Stars: not set. Producers: Arthur Gardner, Jules Levy (in association with Edward Small). Director: Arnold Lavin. Original: Mildred and Gordon Gordon. Screenplay: Mildred and Gordon Gordon. • This is adapted from the non-fiction tome relating some of the outstanding crime-smashing exploits of the F. B. I. CROSSED SWORDS (Adventure Drama). Stars: Errol Flynn, Gina Lollobrigida. Producers: J. Barrett Mahon, Vittorio Vassarotti (Viva Films). Director: Milton Krims. Original Screenplay: Milton Krims. • Made in Italy, this tells of the adventures and romances of a dashing young swordsman, Errol Flynn, in medieval Italy. Flynn foils a plot by a treacherous counselor to seize the Duke of Sidona's daughter and throne, and wins both for himself. In Pathe Color. DRAGON'S GOLD (Melodrama). Stars: John Archer, Hillary Brooke, Noel Cravath. Producer-Directors: Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen. Original Screenplay: Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen. • John Archer, investigator for a bonding company, is sent to Hong Kong to probe the disappearance of $7,000,000 in gold. He encounters intrigue, adventure and murder and uncovers a scheme by a Chinese warlord, Noel Cravath, to steal the money. DUEL IN THE JUNGLE (Drama). Stars: Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain. Producers: Tony Owen, Marcel Heilman (Moulin Productions). Director: George Marshall. Original Screenplay: not set. • In Technicolor, this drama of romance and adventure on the Dark Continent was filmed on location in South Africa. THE GABRIEL HORN (Historical Drama). Stars: Burt Lancaster (incomplete). Producers: Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster. Director: not set. Original: Felix Holt. Screenplay: A. B. Guthrie jr. • From the novel, this is a story of the pioneer wilderness of western Kentucky. GILBERT AND SULLIVAN (Biographical Musical). Stars: Robert Morley, Maurice Evans, Peter Finch. Producers: Frank Launder, Sydney Gilliat. Director: Sydney Gilliat. Original Screenplay: Sydney Gilliat, Leslie Bailey. • This Technicolor subject deals with the lives and music of W. S. Gilbert (portrayed by Robert Morley), the librettist, and Albert Sullivan (Maurice Evans), the composer, the famed comic opera collaborators. The musical interludes include excerpts from "The Mikado," "The Pirates of Penzance" and others of their widely-known works. GO, MAN, GO! (Sports Drama). Stars: Dane Clark, Harlem Globetrotters, Pat Breslin. Producer: Anton M. Leader. Director: James Wong Howe. Original Screenplay: Arnold Becker. • Dane Clark portrays Arnold Saperstein, basketball zealot, in this story of the formation of the Harlem Globetrotters, famed aggregation of colored hoop stars. He pilots the lads to success, including a tournament championship that is the springboard to world fame and plaudits. GOG (Science-Fiction Drama). Stars: Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall. Producer: Ivan Tors. Director: Herbert Strock. Original: Ivan Tors. Screenplay: Tom Taggert, Curt Siodmak. • Gog and Magog are experimental robots, designed under top-secret conditions by U.S. government scientists as prototypes of machines which will pilot rockets into space to establish man-made satellites. Enemy agents try to sabotage the experiments but are foiled by government undercover men. In 3-D and Eastman Color. THE GOOD DIE YOUNG (Romantic Drama). Stars: Gloria Grahame, John Ireland, Richard Basehart. Producers: James and John Woolf (Romulus Films). Director: Lewis Gilbert. Original: Richard Macaulay. Screenplay: not set. • One of a group of pictures being produced in Britain by Romulus Films for the American exhibition market, and featuring Hollywood casts. KHYBER PASS (Action Drama). Stars: Richard Egan, Dawn Addams, Patric Knowles. Producer: Edward Small. Director: Seymour Friedman. Original Screenplay: not set. • A story of conflict and intrigue on the frontier of India, filmed in color and for wide-screen. THE LONE GUN (Western). Stars: George Montgomery, Neville Brand, Frank Faylen. Producer: Edward Small. Director: Ray Nazarro. Original Screenplay: L. L. Foreman, Don Martin, o A story of the old west, in which respecters of justice and order overthrow proponents of the lynch law. In color. THE LONG WAIT (Crime Drama). Stars: Anthony Quinn, Peggie Castle, Charles Coburn. Producers: Victor Seville, Lester Samuels. Director: Victor Saville. Original: Mickey Spillane. Screenplay: Alan Green, Lesser Samuels. • This is the second in a series of whodunit films based on the widely-read detective novels by Mickey Spillane, relating the amatory and sanguinary adventures of Mike Hammer, two-fisted private eye. MARTY (Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: HechtLancaster Productions. Director: not set. Original: Paddy Chayefsky. Screenplay: Paddy Chayefsky. • This is projected as a theatrical film version of television play which won a New York Critics' award. It was presented originally on video as an entry on the Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse program. NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL (Drama). Stars: not set. Producers: Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse (in association with Edward Small). Director: not set. Original: Jack Lait, Lee Mortimer. Screenplay: Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse. • A film version of the non-fiction tome, a purported expose of the crime rings and vice syndicates operating in Manhattan. NOT AS A STRANGER (Drama). Stars: Edna and Edward Anhalt. Producer: Stanley Kramer. Director: not set. Original: Morton Thompson. Screenplay: not set. • First of a series of features to be produced for this company by Stanley Kramer, this is adapted from a novel about medical ethics. The tome, by Morton Thompson, was a Literary Guild selection. OVERLAND PACIFIC (Western). Stars: Jock Mahoney, William Bishop, Peggie Castle. Producer: Edward Small Director: Fred F. Sears. Original Screenplay: not set. • A sagebrusher dealing with railroad-building in the old west. RIDERS TO THE STARS (Science-Fiction Drama). Stars: Richard Carlson, William Lundigan, Martha Hyer. Producer: Ivan Tors. Director: Richard Carlson. Original Screenplay: Curt Siodmak. • The nation's top scientists are recruited to devise a means of capturing a meteor in flight so that it can be brought down to earth and its molecular secrets analyzed as part of rocket-ship experimentation. Two men die in the attempt, but the test finally proves successful. SCREAMING EAGLES (War Drama). Stars: not set. Producers: Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen (in association with Edward Small). Director: Fred Sears. Original: Virginia Kellogg. Screenplay: George Bruce. • This feature draws its title from the exploits of the 101st Airborne Division in Europe during World War II. SITTING BULL (Historical Western). Stars: J. Carrol Naish, Dale Robertson, Mary Murphy. Producer: W. R. Frank. Director: Sidney Salkow. Original Screenplay: William Bowers. • In Cinemascope and Technicolor, this will trace the life of the Sioux Indian chief whose warriors massacred Gen. George Custer and his U.S. troops at the Little Big Horn in 1876. TIMBUKTU (Action Drama). Stars: not set. Producer: Edward Small. Director: Stuart Heisler. Original Screenplay: Charles Bennett, Frank Cavett. • This romantic action subject is planned for production in Technicolor on location in London and Africa. TOP BANANA (Musical Comedy). Stars: Phil Silvers, Rose Marie, Judy Lynn. Producers: Ben Peskay, Alfred Zugsmith. Director: Alfred E. Green. Original: Hy Kraft. Screenplay: not set. • A film version of the Broadway stage hit, lensed in Natural Vision 3-D and color. TRAPEZE (Drama). Stars: Burt Lancaster (incomplete). Producers: Burt Lancaster, Harold Hecht. Director: not set. Original: Max Catto. Screenplay: Mel Dlnelli. • From "The Killing Frost," a novel by Max Catto, this casts Burt Lancaster as an embittered trapeze performer in a story of circus life. VERA CRUZ (Historical Drama). Stars: Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster (incomplete). Producers: Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster. Director: Robert Aldrich. Original: Borden Chase. Screenplay: Borden Chase, Roland Kibbee. • To be made in Mexico, this casts Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster as gunslinging American freebooters who fight for pay for the Emperor Maximilian against the rebel armies of Juarez. In Technicolor. THE WHITE ORCHID (Action Drama). Stars: William Lundigan, Peggie Castle. Producer-Director: Reginald LeBorg. Original Screenplay: Reginald LeBorg, David Duncan. • William Lundigan, an archeologist, journeys into the jungles of Mexico seeking an ancient civilization. Filmed on location there in Eastman color. WICKED WOMAN (Drama). Stars: Beverly Michaels, Richard Egan, Percy Helton. Producers: Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse (in association with Edward Small). Director: Russell Rouse. Original Screenplay: Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse. • Beverly Michaels, a hardened and predatory girl, gets a job as a cocktail waitress in a tavern owned by Richard Egan. He falls for her and logether they plot to sell the bar and defraud Egan's wife of her share, but the plan miscarries, Egan realizes what a fool he has been, and Beverly drifts on — looking for another victim. WITNESS TO MURDER (Suspense Drama). Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Merrill, George Sanders. Producer: Chester Erskine. Director: Roy Rowland. Original Screenplay: Chester Erskine. • This crime drama has a Los Angeles background. YELLOW TOMAHAWK (Western). Stars: Rory Calhoun, Peggie Castle, Noah Beery jr. Producers: Aubrey Schenck, Howard W. Koch. Director: Lesley Selander. Original: Harold Jack Bloom. Screenplay: Richard Alan Simmons. • Rory Calhoun, an Indian scout in Wyoming, warns Warner Anderson, major in command of an army troop, that the Cheyennes intend to revenge themselves upon Anderson for his wanton slaughter of Cheyenne warriors, women and children. Surviving Indian attacks, Calhoun brings Anderson into a cavalry fort to answer for his crimes. Filmed in Pathe Color. UNIVERSAL (November through December 1953) BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY (Action Drama). Stars: Rock Hudson, Marcia Henderson, Steve Cochran. Producer: Howard Christie. Director: Joseph Pevney. Original: James Oliver Curwood. Screenplay: Tom Reed. • Steve Cochran, in the role of a fur trader who tries to kill Rock Hudson, rival operator of a furcatching schooner in Arctic waters. Hudson's leg is broken in a fight with Cochran, and when his wife takes him by dog sled for medical treatment, the rival follows and tries to sabotage the trek. In Technicolor. Nov. 1953. THE GLASS WEB (Crime Drama). Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Kathleen Hughes, John Forsythe. Producer: Albert J. Cohen. Director: Jack Arnold. Original: Max Simon Ehrlich. Screenplay: Leonard Lee, Robert Blees. • Edward G. Robinson, casting director on a TV crime show, tries to frame John Forsythe, the writer, when Kathleen Hughes, an actress who had been blackmailing Forsythe, is murdered. But Forsythe turns the tables and sets a trap which finds Robinson forced to confess that he himself was the killer. In 3-D and 2-D. Nov. 1953. PROJECT M.7 (Melodrama). Stars: Phyllis Calvert, James Donald, Robert Beatty, Herbert Lorn. Producer: Anthony Darnborough (J. Arthur Rank). Director: Anthony Asquith. Original: John Pudney. Screenplay: William Fairchild. • British-made film about an English scientist, doing secret research on a jet plane project, who is trapped in the plane by a spy from his own unit. James Donald, who plays the role of the scientist, refuses to turn traitor and saves the plane and himself. Dec. 1953. TUMBLEWEED (Western). Stars: Audie Murphy, Lori Nelson, Chill Wills. Producer: Ross Hunter. Director: Nathan Juran. Original: Kenneth Perkins. Screenplay: John Lucas. • Despite all his efforts, Audie Murphy cannot save a wagon train from massacre at the hands of Yaqui Indians. Branded a coward and a traitor, Audie is locked up by Chill Wills, the sheriff of the nearest town, to save him from a lynch mob. Audie manages to escape, clears himself and spearheads an attack which drives off the hostile redskins. In Technicolor. Dec. 1953. THE VEILS OF BAGDAD (Costume Drama). Stars: Victor Mature, Mari Blanchard, Virginia Field. Producer: Albert J. Cohen. Director: George Sherman. Original Screenplay: William R. Cox. • Bagdad in the 16th century, this casts Victor Mature as an undercover agent for the emperor, who encounters danger, romance and intrigue as he foils a plot to overthrow the government. In Technicolor. Nov. 1953. WALKING MY BABY BACK HOME (Musical). Stars: Donald O'Connor, Janet Leigh, Lori Nelson. Producer: Ted Richmond. Director: Lloyd Bacon. Original: Don McGuire. Screenplay: Don McGuire, Oscar Brodney. • After his discharge from the service, Donald O'Connor and his army buddies organize a small band but go broke because their rhythm doesn't BOXOFFICE 89