Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

Opinions on Current Productions Feature reviews Symbol © denotes color; © CinemaScope; ® VistaVision; ® Technirama; © other anamorphic processes. For story synopsis on each picture, see reverse side. The Cardinal 0Drama@ Columbia ( ) 175 Minutes Rel. Dec. '63 Otto Preminger, whose picturization of the Israeli novel, “Exodus,” was an artistic, as well as a boxoffice, A * triumph, now turns to the best-selling novel about Catholics for another magnificent, stirring and completely absorbing film, one that deals with the period encompassing botn World War I and II yet is extremely timeiy in view of today’s news headlines about 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, concentrates on the tender and moving personal tale of a young American who attains the eminence of Cardinal. The picture will be acclaimed and widely discussed and, with its appeal to the huge Catholic audience, should become a boxoffice smash. Preminger’s astute casting results in an outstanding performance by director John Huston, in the key role of Cardinal Glennon, plus fine portrayals by Burgess Meredith, as a selfless, ailing country priest, the Italian Raf Vallone and Josef Meinrad, as Cardinal Innitzer — the only real person in this fictional tale. Leon Shamroy’s Panavision 70-Technicolor photography is of Academy Award caliber. Preminger produced and directed. Tom Tryon, Romy Schneider, John Huston, Carol Lynley, John Saxon, Raf Vallone, Burgess Meredith. Summer Holiday 2““; c”“" American Int’l (813) 100 Minutes Rel. Oct. 26, ’63 This is a boisterous, teenage musical with enough real talent to satisfy more discriminating audiences, The improbable plot gives lots of occasion for song and nance numbers, directed by choreographer Herbert Ross, that make for completely convincing entertainment. Director Peter Yates is to be commended for adroitly sustaining a situation fraught with possibilities for sexual exploitation without once succumbing to the obvious. Four boys, touring Europe in a double deck bus with hotel facilities, pick up four girl entertainers and the result is wholesome comedy. The title song is whistling material and all the tunes and lyrics, written by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass, who authored the original story and screenplay, are good. Lauri Peters, a little girl with a very big voice, is refreshingly unglamorous, costarring with Cliff Richard, doubly blessed with looks and talent. In Technicolor and CinemaScope, much of the scenery is breathtaking, particularly while the bus labors through Switzerland. One scene alone — a hilarious “wedding feast” in Yugoslavia — makes the picture worth seeing. The Shadows and their guitars are bonus entertainment. The excellent Britishmade film was produced by Kenneth Harper. Cliff Richard, Lauri Peters, David Kossoff, Ron Moody, The Shadows. The Old Dark House """ CI”'i, Columbia (007) 86 Minutes Rel. Oct. ’63 J. B. Priestley’s “The Old Dark House” was made into a classic horror thriller by Universal in 1932 but William Castle’s hoked-up 1963 remake is played broadly with a tongue-in-cheek approach to the extent that the picture is rarely frightening and never more than mildly amusing. Two well-known British comics, Robert Morley and Joyce Grenfell, mugg outrageously and get a fair share of laughs, and their names, plus that of America’s Tom Poston, will help sell it to horror devotees although the latter will find the companion film, “Maniac” (reviewed in this issue) far more to their taste. Castle, who directed and produced (with Anthony Hinds) uses the a.es! properly eerie setting of an old castle on a stormy night ir> for the goings-on, which include a dead man in his coffin, a deep-voiced siren a la Vampira and two brutal slayings, but these are never believable and therefore lacking in shudders. The identity of the killer is revealed in a surprise ending, but only after a long sequence in which Poston runs madly about the old house disconnecting time bombs set to go off in a few moments time. Poston is more frantic than funny but Peter Bull and Mervyn Johns, two other British reliables, contribute weird characterizations. Tom Poston, Robert Morley, Janette Scott, Peter Bull, Joyce Grenfell, Mervyn Johns, Fenella Fielding. Passion Holiday ££ Davis Distributors 75 Minutes Rel. Nov. '63 This Flamingo production, filmed within metropolitan Miami, is going into worldwide release via Boston-based Davis Film Distributors, and, with sufficient exploitation endeavor, can be depended upon for peak boxoffice performance. In addition to a provocative title, it contains spirited delineations, particularly by as lissome a foursome of lady thespians as has emerged from the sunkissed Florida beaches in lo! these many moons. Producer Hal Marsh and director Wynn Miles have wisely incorporated a profusion of location scenery long accepted rf , by hinterlanders as very much part and parcel of the Flor,7' ida tourist atmosphere and appeal. Four girls find romance 'M1 and resolutely resounding adventure with four bachelors, while vacationing in plush Miami Beach. Hal Carrington’s photographic effects are adequately aware of basic motif, while Jack Johnson has contributed a fair quota of special effects. Gloria Izzo served as production coordinator. The film has been enhanced and embellished with fetching Eastman Color. A location-trek highlight is footage on Miami’s famed Place Pigalle, featuring exotic dancing of Wynona, Habibi and Kismet. Abbreviated running time necessitates a strong supporting bill of either featurettes or companion attraction. Christy Foushee, Linda Hall, Yanka Mann, Stella Palma, Bruce Brown, Harry Hooker. Maniac JJJ; CHme Drama Columbia (008) 86 Minutes Rel. Oct. ’63 A superior thriller, written and produced by the indefatigable Jimmy Sangster for Hammer Films in England, this is comparable to those made by Alfred Hitchcock and is lacking only in marquee value to attract the horror-action devotees. Filmed on location in the wild, white-cave section of Cammargue in the south of France, the backgrounds are stunning and add a macabre beauty to the unusual tale which, for the first time, has an acetylene torch killer as a terrifying menace. For thrills, this is far better than “The Old Dark House,” (also reviewed in this issue) with which it is being paired for Halloween bookings. Kerwin Mathews, who played in “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” and “The Three Worlds of Gulliver,” turns in a forthright acting job as an American painter who stumbles into a web of intrigue in a rural cafe run by a sensuous woman and her lonely stepdaughter. These roles are well played by Nadia Gray (remembered from “La Dolce Vita”) and Lilianne Brousse while the British Donald Houston is effective as a fiendish killer. The picture’s chase climax inside a gigantic cave will keep patrons on the edge of their seats. Directed by Michael Carreras. The title is the best selling point but 's> e a name cast would have put this in line for top bookings. Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Gray, Donald Houston, Lilianne Brousse, George Pastell, Norman Bird, Arnold Diamond. Common-Law Wile Cinema Dist. of America 81 Minutes Rel. M. A. “Mike” Ripps’ burgeoning Cinema Distributors of America, gearing all efforts for mass market consumption, has latched on to a winner. The Fred Kadane production, dramatically handled by director Eric Sayers (he was Killed in an automobile accident shortly after completion incidentally), from a Grace Knowiand script, contains some mighty potent emotive qualities, pronouncedly projected by Lacy Kelly, a “comer,” if there ever was one in me promising newcomer ranks; Annabelle Lee, Shugfoot Rainey, Jody Works and Bull Connors. Accent, understandably, is on the shock-and-suspense atmosphere generated by abrupt appearance of Rainey’s physically endowed niece, Miss Kelly, in the backwoods country. The gal’s actions set off a chain reaction, climaxed in death and poisoning. Along the way, director Sayers has incorporated some sharply incisive touches of a lone woman’s effect on a remote community; his black-andwhite photography is very much in keeping with the mood and manner of the primary premise. And, for good measure, he has a sequence — a wildly careening automox bile — strongly mindful of Ingmar Bergman’s memorable imp “Wild Strawberries.” The more discriminating critics should be alerted to this release. Lacy Kelly, Shugfoot Rainey, Annabelle Lee, Jody Works, Bull Connors, Emma Lou Watkins. 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 stan dard 3x5 card index file; or (3) in the BOXOFFICE PICTURE GUIDE three-ring, pocket-size binder. The latter, including a year's supply of booking and daily business record sheets, may be obtained from Associated Publications, 825 Van Brunt Blvd., Kansas City 24, Mo., for $1.00, postage paid. 2774 BOXOFFICE BookinGuide :: Oct. 28, 1963 2773