Boxoffice (Jan-Mar 1962)

FEATURE REVIEWS Story Synopsis; Exploits; Adlines for Newspapers and Programs THE STORY: "No Love for Johnnie" (Embassy) Peter Finch, 42-year-old Labour Party member, is re-elected to Parliament from a working class district, but he is passed by when Cabinet posts are given out. When his unfeeling wife leaves him, Billie Whitelaw, his upstairs neighbor, offers him love. At a party, Finch is immediately attracted to Mary Peach, a young model, and, after several meetings, they fall in love. Meanwhile, Finch has been persuaded by several party members to take part in a move to discredit the government but, when Mary returns to her home town, he follows and fails to appear at an important House of Parliament meeting. Mary finally breaks off the affair, his fellow-members are against him and even Billie refuses to resume their friendly relationship. The lonely and unhappy Finch is surprised by his wife's offer to return to him, but when the Prime Minister finally offers him a Cabinet post on condition that he renounce his Communist-inclined wife, he accepts. Although Finch is neglected romantically, his political career is set. EXPLOITERS: Play up Peter Finch, who was costarred in "The Nun's Story" and "The Sins of Rachel Cade" for Warner Bros., and mention that his portrayal of "Johnnie" won the "best actor" award at the Berlin Film Festival. CATCHLINES: There Was No Love for Johnnie When Ambition Won Out Over Romance. THE STORY: "Twist Around the Clock" (Col) Johnny Cronin, ex-manager of a has-been rock 'n' roll band, discovers a group of young people doing a new dance, the le Twist, in a small mountain town. He books them into New , — York where they are an immediate hit, but are kept from ^ getting further bookings by a top agent whose daughter is in love with Johnny who spurns her advances. The agent finally has to give in to the new Twist craze which suddenly sweeps the country, but signs Johnny's group on the condition that Johnny and his star performer, Mary Mitchell, will not marry for three years. They agree to the terms. Meanwhile, Johnny and the agent plan a nationwide jamboree featuring the Twist. It's a howling success, and during the show Mary thanks "her husband" for his help. It's then revealed that they were married before signing the contract, and all ends happily with the agent's daughter deciding to pursue some other male. EXPLOITIPS: Exploitation should center around Chubby Checker, the Twist King and the other well-known entertainers in this field. Ask disc jockeys and music stores to cooperate on tunes from the show with theatre plugs. Play the music through loud speakers for street attraction. Hold Twist dance contests. CATCHLINES: Everybody's Twistin' With Chubby Checker in This Twistin' Tornado! . . . See the King of Twist Himself. THE STORY: "Something Wild" (UA) On her way home from choir practice, Carroll Baker is attacked and raped. She drags herself home and tries to erase all evidence because she is afraid to tell her mother and stepfather. The experience has its emotional impact and she runs away from home and takes a shabby room on the lower east side where she gets a job in a five and ten cent store. Still haunted by her ordeal, she is dragged away from a bridge rail in an apparent suicide attempt by Ralph Meeker, a garage mechanic, who takes her to his basement flat. She does not tell him the reason for her act. It is apparent that he is as lonesome as she is. He keeps her a prisoner and his nightly drunken escapades keep the girl in terror. But he does not molest her and tries to convince her ■ he loves her. When he does let her go, she leaves for only a brief time and comes back to him, realizing that she loves him, too. Ultimately, her mother comes to the flat and after the first shock of her daughter's environment, there is a reconciliation by all. EXPLOITIPS: A special screening for psychiatrists might result in press comments on mental injuries from such an experience which the girl had. Solicit the interest of social welfare groups. CATCHLINES: Such Stark Realism Has Never Been Seen on the Screen Before . . . She Was Afraid to Tell Her Parents What Happened . . Physically Ravished, Her Entire Life Was Changed. THE STORY: "Sadi a Crooked Ship" (Col) Robert Wagner inadvertently disposes of a mothball freighter to Ernie Kovacs, a blundering gang leader, who has a plan to use the ship as a getaway after a Boston bank holdup. Wagner and Dolores Hart are shanghaied on the trip from New York to Boston. Nobody knows how to run the ship and it has a number of near accidents en route. The Boston bank, to be the victim, is celebrating its Founders' Day and the staff and local citizens are dressed in Pilgrim costumes. This makes it necessary for the gang to do likewise. They stumble through the holdup, return to the ship where Gorshin has decided to take command and keep Kovacs, Wagner and the girls as prisoners. But a Coast Guard cutter is attracted and the gang is rounded up. Ci EXPLOITIPS: Stress the wild antics and broad comedy of the picture. Dress ushers in sailor suits or arrange for them to wear sailor hats or caps, with suitable selling copy. If a local pet shop has monkeys, arrange for window display with sign reading: "These Monkeys Are Not as Crazy as the Crew of the Crooked Ship." Nautical equipment in the lobby should attract. CATCHLINES: A Thousand Laughs in 88 Minutes of Fun . . . Shanghaied Lovers on a Ship Manned by Stumble-Bums . . . Sail With a Crew That Doesn't Know a Compass From a Thermometer . . . There's a Message in This Picture: Laughter Is the Best Medicine . . . The Funniest Picture Since Pictures Were Bom. THE STORY: "Pagan Island" (Cinema Syndicate) A South Seas schooner comes across a life raft containing Edward Dew and the body of young and beautiful Nani Maka. Dew relates an almost unbelievable story of what happened after his ship exploded. This is his story: He lands on an island, seemingly populated by females and no males. During a feast in his honor, he's overpowered, stripped of his knife and gun and bound to a crude cross to die. The island queen tells him that he is to die because pirates destroyed the temple of the sea god where they buried a treasure many years ago. Nani Maka, destined as underwater sacrifice for the sea god, falls in love with Dew, freeing him so that he can aid the girls, who are being attacked by tribesmen from a distant island. He's given his life for the brave deed, but is cautioned that Nani is already promised to the sea god. He joins her beneath the waves, both swimming to an underwater cave containing the treasure As they emerge into the water again, a giant clam crushes Nani. Dew Diaces the body on the raft and leaves the island forever. Nani's body is committed to the ocean, consummating her marriage to the sea god EXPLOITIPS: Photo Lab, Inc., 3825 George Ave., NW. Washington 11, ( D.C., has some slides appropriate for a lighted lobby display. V— CATCHLINES: One Man Alone . . With 30 Beautiful Native Girlsl . . . Shipwrecked — on an Amazing Island Paradise! THE STORY: "Karate" (Joseph Brenner) The brutal slaying of a blind man by an unidentified exponent of the Japanese art of karate sets off a chain of violence and intrigue. Joel Holt is discovered to be in Japan and in possession of a mysterious coin known to have been carried by the murdered man. Trying to learn the coin's significance, Holt is followed from a coin shop to his hotel by Frank Blaine, 6-ft, 8-inch former secretary to the murdered man. Blaine offers to buy the coin, but Holt refuses. En route to an appointment at the home of his late sweetheart, Holt is set upon by thugs and beaten when he's unable to bring himself to use his hands in battle. Later, Holt learns that the mysterious coin is the key to the location of over a million dollars worth of platinum, stolen by the murdered man (a former Nazi official) from a German research project and smuggled into Japan. Holt eventually does battle, karate-style, with his late sweetheart's brother, now unmasked as the guiding power behind the fantastic smuggling operation. The brother is killed and Holt leaves the country, knowing someday he will return to woo his late sweetheart's vounger sister. EXPLOITIPS: Tie in with your local bookstores (numerous books have fi been published on the art of karate). CATCHLINES: Men Feared the Death in His Hands . . . Women Lived for Their Embrace! ... A New Powerful Dimension in Terror! BOXOFFICE BookinGuide :: Jan. 1, 1962