Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

FEATURE REVIEW 'The Cardinal7 Abraham Swerdlow Upped To U Regional Manager NEW YORK — Abraham Swerdlow, Universal Pictures branch manager in Los Angeles since 1952, has been promoted to regional sales manager with headquarters in Los Angeles by Henry H. “Hi” Martin, vicepresident and general sales manager. Swerdlow replaces Barney Ross, who died a few weeks ago and who had headquartered in San Abraham Swerdlow Fiancisco At the same time, Martin promoted Robert L. Carpenter, sales manager in Memphis since 1957, to the post of branch manager in Los Angeles, effective October 28, to replace Swerdlow. Lewis Dreisbach, office manager and head booker in Dallas, has been promoted to sales manager in Memphis. Swerdlow joined Universal as a cashier in Los Angeles in 1941 and was branch manager in San Francisco starting in May of 1948 before being promoted to the Los Angeles post. Carpenter started with Universal in August 1949 as a booker in Memphis and Dreisbach has been with Universal since 1958. National General Building Fifth CATS in Biloxi HOLLYWOOD — National General Corp., which now operates five Community Antenna Television Systems in four states with 30,000 subscribers, is building a fifth system in Biloxi, Miss., to cost $350,000, reports Eugene V. Klein, NGC president. The new one will be the first such system to be built from the ground up. The other five systems acquired by NGC from previous owners are in Hattiesburg, Miss., Bluefield, W. Va., Logan, W. Va., Alpena, Mich., and Williamsport, Pa. Robert R. Lee has been named resident manager for Biloxi. Erwin Bernstein Named To TNT Electronics Post NEW YORK — Erwin Bernstein, formerly associated with General Precision, Inc., has been named director of marketing of TNT Electronics, Inc., engineering subsidiary of Theatre Network Television, Inc. Nathan L. Halpern, TNT president, said Bernstein will be in charge of marketing for the new color Eidophor, TNT’s large-screen, color television system. Bernstein, with General Precision for the last five years, previously was associated with Emerson Radio and Bendix Radio. AA Film Gets Big Buildup Chris Noel, costarred in “Soldier in the Rain,” Jackie Gleason-Steve McQueen starrer and a Blake Edwards Production for Allied Artists, is the subject of a tenpage layout in the current Ladies’ Home Companion and a six-page spread in Pageant. The film which also stars Tuesday Weld and costars Tony Bill, Tom Poston and Ed Nelson, was directed by Ralph Nelson for producer Martin Jurow. Columbia By FRANK LEYENDECKER QTTO PREMINGER, whose picturization of the Israeli novel “Exodus” was an artistic as well as a boxoffice triumph, now turns to a best-selling novel about Catholics, “The Cardinal,” for another magnificent, stirring and completely absorbing film, one that deals with a period encompassing both World War I and II yet is extremely timely in view of today’s news headlines about bigotry and racial integration in the South and the current Ecumenical Council in Rome. With all these conflicts and vital issues as background, Robert Dozier’s screenplay, based on Henry Morton Robinson’s novel which was long on the best-seller list a few years back, concentrates on the tender and moving personal tale of a young American who eventually attains the eminence of a Prince of the Church. His devotion to his family, his struggles with a poor country parish, his temporary leave of absence from the Church when he is attracted to a Viennese girl and his championing the cause of a young Negro priest in Ku Klux Klan-ridden Georgia are all fine human episodes, shown as flashbacks as he assumes his robes as a Cardinal. As producer-director Preminger’s finest screen work, the picture will be acclaimed and widely discussed and, while there is no top star marquee name, the players are all familiar and becoming increasingly popular. With its appeal to the huge Catholic audience, plus the fame of the novel, this should be a boxoffice smash, first in its several key city two-a-day runs and later in regular situations. Preminger, who has always been noted for his astute casting, both in the leading roles and his reliance on players of stature for the vital smaller parts, gives the title THE CARDINAL In Panavision and Technicolor Ratio: 2.55-1 Running time: 175 minutes CREDITS Produced and directed by Otto Preminger. A Columbia release. Screenplay by Robert Dozier. Based on the novel by Henry Morton Robinson. Filmed in Panavision and Technicolor. Music by Jerome Moross. Production designer, Lyle Wheeler. Director of photography, Leon Shamroy, A.S.C. Editor, Louis R. Loeffler. Set decorator. Gene Callahan. Art director (Vienna), Otto Niedermoser. Executive assistant to the producer, Nat Rudich. Associate producer, Martin C. Shute. Costume designer, Donald Brooks. Filmed in Boston, Stamford, Rome, Vienna and Hollywood. THE CAST Stephen Fermolye . . . Annemarie Mona Lalage Menton .... Cardinal Quarenghi Renny Rampell Father Ned Halley . . Cardinal Innitzer . . . Celia Father Gillis Cardinal Giacobbi . . . Florrie Frank Monsignor Monaghan Cardinal Glennon . . . Monsignor Tom Tryon and Romy Schneider in a scene from “The Cardinal.” role to Tom Tryon, heretofore a handsome leading man who had never had so important and demanding an acting assignment. Tryon’s sincere and thoughtful portrayal is an excellent one, even if he does not always seem mature-looking enough for the later scenes. Both Germany’s Romy Schneider, becoming popular through her many foreign-made pictures, and Carol Lynley, currently starred in “Under the Yum Yum Tree,” are ravishingly lovely and names to conjure with in the near future. Miss Schneider’s performance is especially captivating. However, Preminger’s master stroke was in the off-beat casting of famed director John Huston in the key role of Cardinal Glennon, the seemingly autocratic and stern prelate, who later reveals his gentle traits. Huston is so outstanding that he might be in line for an Academy Award nomination and he could become a leading American actor, if he ever wants to relinquish directing. Equally fine are Burgess Meredith, as the selfless, ailing priest in a tiny country parish; the Italian Raf Vallone, as the young priest’s mentor in Rome, a gentle, philosophical figure, and Josef Meinrad, as the troubled Cardinal Innitzer of Vienna during the Nazi’s Anschluss — the only real person in this fictional tale. Notable bits are contributed by Dorothy Gish, making her first screen appearance in several years; the Negro actor Ossie Davis; John Saxon and Bill Hayes, both personable young players; Chill Wills, in his first try at a religious role; Patrick O’Neal and Murray Hamilton, Broadway stage actors; Tullio Carminati, leading man of the silent days, and, in a suprise nightclub interlude, Robert Morse, star of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” as a variety star who warbles a World War I tune, “They Haven’t Got the Girls in the U.S.A.” Leon Shamroy’s photography of the actual locations in Boston, Stamford, Rome and Vienna, exquisitely lensed in Panavision 70 and Technicolor, is also of Academy Award caliber. The music by Jerome Moross, including several impressive choral and liturgical chants, is also worthy of mention. Otto Preminger’s masterful picturization of an important novel is a fine, serious drama which must stand with the greatest screen works. Tom Tryon . . .Romy Schneider Carol Lynley Jill Haworth Raf Vallone John Saxon . . Burgess Meredith .... Josef Meinrad Dorothy Gish Ossie Davis . . .Tullio Carminati Maggie McNamara Bill Hayes . . .Cecil Kellaway John Huston Chill Wills BOXOFFICE :: October 21, 1963 13