Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1962)

Opinions on Current Productions Feature reviews Symbol Q denotes color; © ClnemoScope; ® VistaVision; ® Superscope; (g) Ponovision; ® Regolscope; ® Techniromo. For story synopsis on each picture, see reverse side. To Kill a Mockingbird Univ.-Int'l (6306) 129 Minutes Rel. March '63 The combination of Harper Lee's first novel, which was on the best-seller list for two years, won the Pulitzer Prize and s or\ — * has passed 6,000,000 in sales, and Gregory Peck, one of New today's top film stars, in his finest acting role, will insure strong grosses fcr this powerful picturizotion of a compelling tale of anti-Negro prejudice in the South. An Alan PakulaRobert Mulligan production, the film is a fine example of the adult, thought-provoking fare now reaching the U.S. screens. As in the novel, the story is told mainly through the eyes of two youngsters in a small Southern town, whose lawyerfather is assigned to defend a young Negro accused of raping a white girl. Two remarkably talented and natural children, 13-year-old Phillip Alford and nine-year-old Mary Badhom, give extraordinary performances, as does little John Megr.a, their only fault being some inaudibility as they mutter or whisper their lines. Despite these children's importance, the picture is not suited to the kiddies because of its subject matler. Both Horton Foote's screenplay and Robert Mulligan's direction build interest magnificently until it reaches fever pitch in the realism of the courtroom scene, followed by a terrifying climax. Peck's portrayal is of Academy Award calibre. Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Frank Overon, Rosemary Murphy, Paul Fix, Brock Peters. Days of Wine and Roses i"g5°i Warner Bros. (256) 117 Minutes Rel. Dec. '62 Capturing the gentle words of Ernest Dowson: "They are ^f'j^not long, the days of wine and roses, out of a misty dream 365/ our path emerges for a while, then closes within a dream," this Martin Manulis-Jalem (Jack Lemmon) Production for Warner Bros, release brings to the screen the triangle of man, woman and drink — "Days of Wine and Roses." Based on the dynamic story by J. P. Miller, and starring Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick and Charles Bickford, Blake Edwards has directed with a touch of genius. He has enabled both Lemmon and Miss Remick to make their bid for this year's best Oscar performances, as well as paving the road for his own bid! Last year's Oscar-winning team — Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer — hove come up with an equally catching tune and theme that adds well to the overall impact of this powerful drama. Phil Lathrop's photography is intimate and imaginative. Jack Klugman scores well as Lemmon's benefactor who encourages him to join Alcoholics Anonymous. This film has a strong message, especially for adult audiences everywhere, and warrants careful selling — not commercialized or sensationalized, but presented for its TRUE value, otiong word-of-mouth will make this one of the year's top boxoffice attractions. Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, Jack Klugmcm, Alan Hewitt, Tom Palmer, Debbie Megov/an. Joseph and His Brethren J"”; Coloroma Pictures 103 Minutes Rel. Dec. '62 Biblical spectacles usually ore good boxoffice, especially if produced in color and on a lavish scale, and this Italianmade film, produced by Luigi Carpentierei and Ermanno Donati, will appeal to devotees of this type of fore, especially the youngsters and action fans. Several familiar British players, Robert Morley Belinda Lee and Finlay Currie, in addition to Geoffrey Horne, who was featured in "The Bridge on the River Kvrai'' and "Bonjo‘ur Tristesse,'' journeyed to Italy for this English-language version directed by America's 1 Irving Rapper. The story follows the Biblical tale faithfully 1 enough but, except for the scenes between Joseph and his 1 aged father, Jacob, it is rarely moving and the pace is often as slow-moving as a sermon. For more of the action deals with Joseph's life in Egypt as a slave to Potiphar and his licentious wife, whose advances are spurned by Joseph. This port is intensely melodramatic but, because Morley is illsuited in appearance and speech for a Biblical role, his scenes cause unintended laughter. Home is sincere, if too wooden, as Joseph, but Miss Lee is effectively flamboyant as the temptress and Currie's dignified portrayal is a standout. The others, all Italian, hove been effectively dubbed into English. Production values in Eastman Color ore good. Geoffrey Horne, Belinda Lee, Robert Morley, Finlay Currie, Carlo Giustini, Vera Silenti, Mario Girotti, Marietto. Kill or Cure MGM (312) 87 Minutes Rel. Nov. '62 Terry-Thomas, the gap-toothed British coma who has recently been seen in the Hollywcod-made "Bachelor Flat" end "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm " comes to the rescue of a mildly amusing farcical vehicle in which he plays a bungling private detective. With the reliable Dennis Price and Lionel Jeffries, both of them familiar from a score of British films, to contribute humorous portrayals, this will entertain art house patrons or make a fair supporting dualer elsewhere. Produced by George H. Brown and ^ directed by George Pollock, the film is a murder-mystery with ^ comedy overtones, similar to but not as good as the recent "Murder She Said." Terry-Thomas accidentally stumbles on a murder at a health-cure resort and, aided by a blundering health instructor, he solves the killing quite by accident. Meantime, he is forced to drink carrot juice, take part in cold baths, setting-up exercises and other "cures" while his suspicion falls on first one, then, another of the resort's guests or staff. There is no romantic interest although attractive Moira Redmond and Katya Douglas ore involved in the doings. The famed American comedienne, Anna Russell, is seen in the opening scene, before she becomes the murder victim. Terry-Thomas, Eric Sykes, Dennis Price, Moira Redmond, Lionel Jeffries, Katya Douglas, David Lodge, Anna Russell. Bun Across the River Citation Films 74 Minutes Rel. Through a dramatic combination of audience-appealing happenstances, this filmed-on-New York's Greenwich Village locations Shapes up as competent enough supporting feature in those thousands of show cases constantly clamoring for companion product. It is, by no stretch of the imagination, within the category of "sleeper" entertainment, but generates a reasonably satisfying atmosphere of the inevitable chase-and-effect that go hand-in-hand with obviously modestbudgeted program features peopled out by principals not readily recognized by even the regular theatregoers. The Cameo Production, released by Citation Films on the statesright market, teams Joan Calistri and William Lazarus, as two determined young New Yorkers out to ascertain the whys and wherefores behind the '■cruel killing of Miss Calistri's engineer brother, Curtis Conway, newly returned from South African uranium region. A threesome, no less, consisting of Everett Chambers, Charles Weiss and David J. Cogen, produced, Chambers doubling as director, working from a Lee V Gillen screenplay. The obvious right-over-might fadeout hapPi pens soon enough, since the quest for the killer mob is ov3 tipped off not long after the initial sequences. "*’* Joan Calistri, William Lazarus, Shirley Grayson, George Cathery, Gordon Peters, Robert Carricart. Juke Box Racket Jg!) Joseph Brenner Associates 61 Minutes Rel. At best only fair-to-middlin' entertainment, this J. B. Productions effort, going into the states-rights market via Joseph Brenner Associates, can't be touted as the most compact, com'prehensive, dramatic study of juke box racketeering as it may or many not exist in these burgeoning United States. A cast of predominantly unknowns serve a smattering of spiritedness in a tired and trite script of what happens to a small New Jersey community when rough-arm Peter Clune takes it into his greedy little head to toss some v/eight around in the face of a valiant small merchant's (William DePrato) opposition to a juke box syndicate goon-squad. Steve Karmen and Arlene Corwin are the teenagers who don't exactly sit around while the foregoing happens, but one wonders why the producer-director team of Jim Geallis and George Barris didn't bother to strike away from the conventional handling of such an admittedly topical subject matter. Clune grunts and groans in the accepted bad-man tradition but he's a far cry from the better-known delinea1. tors in this particular expressive form. 'The running time — a BU9 minute over an hour's span — mitigates against dotting this solo feature; it will need a supporting attraction or shorts. Steve Karmen, Arlene Corwin, Lou Anne Lee, Beverly Nazarow, Seymour Cassel, Peter Clune. The reviews on these pages may be filed for future reference in any of the following ways: (1) in any standard three-ring loose-leaf binder; (2) individually, by company. In any standord 3x5 card index file; or (3) in the BOXOFFICE PICTURE GUIDE three-ring, pocket-size binder. The latter, including o year's supply of booking and daily business record sheets, may be obtained from Associated Publications, 825 Von Brunt Blvd., Kansas City 24, Mo., for SI. 00, postage ^oid. 2G92 BOXOFFICE BookinGuide :: Dec. 17, 1962 2691