Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

FEATURE REVIEWS Story Synopsis; Exploitips; Adlines for Newspaper and Programs THE STORY: “Tom Jones” (UA-Lopert) In 18th Century England, George Devine, a country squire, returns from a trip to find a bawling infant in his bed. After dismissing the maid accused of being .... the mother, Devine brings up the child as Tom Jones. '/‘ETL Twenty years later, Tom (Albert Finney) vies with his (T.?ior foster-brother, David Warner, for the affections of Susannah York, daughter of Devine’s neighbor. But various ladies, including a lusty servant girl, Diane Ci.ento, and the aristocratic Joan Greenwood, toss him into bed. Tom falls out of favor with Devine, who turns h;m out and he goes to London. Susannah follows him and. after their paths cross, Tom gets into further misadventures, is framed and sentenced to be hanged. At the last minute, Devine arrives with the news that Tom is really the illegitimate son of his late sister. So he and Susannah can wed. EXPLOITIPS: Life Magazine’s two separate color spreads on “Tom Jones” should be put in a lobby frame to attract passersby. Play up Albert Finney as the star of the acclaimed ‘“ Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,” who is currently starring on Broadway in “Luther.” CATCHLINES: It’s Boisterous, It’s Roisterous and It’s the Funniest Comedy of the Year . . . Sex, Seduction and Swordplay in a Classic Film. THE STORY: “Captain Newman, M.D.” (Univ) Gregory Peck is head of the neuro -psychiatric section at a soutnwest Army Air base, where he deals gently with patients even though his commanding officer is con.masi stantiy urging him to return his odd-ball men to duty. Peck receives a new orderly, Tony Curtis, who is untrained in medical arts, but proves useful in handling psychiatric therapy. Among Peck’s patients is Eddie Albert, a career officer with a guilt complex, who eventually goes berserk and throws himself from a high water tank; Bobby Darin, who has been decorated for bravery, but considers himself a coward until Peck’s injection of truth serum makes him blurt out his misery, and Robert Duvall, a withdrawn patient, who regains h s true perspective. With Curtis’ good-humored aid, Peck goes on healing the sick, even if many of them go out and get killed. EXPLOITIPS: The fame of Leo Rosten’s novel, long on the best-seller list, suggest bookstore tieups for window displays. Stress the fact that Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 1963. Bobby Darin is a teenage singing favorite and Tony Curtis is popular with all ages. Jane Withers, former child star, returns in an adult comedy role. CATCHLINES: From the Best-Selling Novel by Leo Rosten About the Strange World of Psychiatry. THE STORY: “The Slime People” (Hansen) Huge, scaly prehistoric monsters from slimy regions invade Los Angeles in the aftermath of nuclear tests, f.ourishing at dew-point and roaming the streets while killing with caveman spears. To overpower the remaining population, they create a dome of fog above the city and attempt to lower the temperature. Six people are trapped behind — Robert Hutton, Prof. Robert Burton, his daughter, Susan Hart; and Judee Morton, Les Tremayne and Marine William Boyce. Tremayne is killed; the five, armed with chemicals, fail in trying to break through. Burton deduces that sodium chloride will dissolve the monster wall. Hutton learns that the monsters’ --insides can be oozed out. Burton destroys the monsters’ machine, turning the wall to vapor, and the monsters <».,*perish. EXPLOITIPS: Get cardboard cutouts of prehistoric monsters from novelty stores for improvised lobby and interior display. Film lends itself most nicely to teaser ads on amusement pages ahead of playdate. CATCHLINES: Up From the Bowels of the Earth! . . . Prepare Yourself for a Scream! . . . Trapped Behind a Wall of Solid Fog — Five Desperate People Struggle to Survive, to Live! THE STORY: “The Passionate Thief” (Embassy) In Rome on New Year’s Eve, Anna Magnani, movie bit-player, is deserted by her friends, but latches on to her long-time admirer, Toto, who gets into accidents to live off the insurance money. Toto has agreed to act as “stooge” for Ben Gazzara, a petty thief who plans to take jewels from the women in the lively night spots. Magnani, unaware of the scheme, thinks Gazzara is attracted to her wnen he is actually signalling to Toto. Later, Gazzara gets friendly with Fred Clark, a drunken American, in order to lift his stuffed wallet. But Clark escapes before they wander into a palatial residence, where they are welcomed until Gazzara steals a cigaret ,r"t case and all are thrown out. Finally, Gazzara steals a VW)” necklace and throws it to Magnani, who is jailed. Six months later, Toto is waiting for her outside the prison. EXPLOITIPS: Anna Magnani, who was an Italian star before she made her Hollywood films, “The Rose Tattoo,” for which she won an Oscar, and “The Fugitive Kind,” is the big selling point, especially in her blonde wig. Ben Gazzara, who was starred in Columbia’s “The Young Doctors,” is currently starring in the TV series, “Arrest and Trial.” CATCHLINES: How That Lady Loved to Be Robbed . . . Anna Magnani’s Hilarious Successor to “The Rose Tattoo” ... A Trio of Petty Thieves on the Loose in Rome on New Year’s Eve. THE STORY: “The Crawling Hand” (Hansen) Space scientists Peter Breck and Kent Taylor are forced to destroy a U.S. astronaut on his return from the moon when he pleads for death over closed-circuit TV, screaming, “It makes me kill, kill!” The next day col’.egiates Rod Lauren and Sirry Steffen find a dismembered arm in a spacesuit sleeve on a deserted California beach; the arm later kills Lauren’s landlady, Arline Judge, and sheriff Alan Hale accuses Lauren of murder. Lauren, meanwhile, shows signs of a terrifying transformation; he is evidently possessed of weird space manifestations. In a dramatic showdown, he rids himself of the arm, and is convinced by Breck and Taylor that he wasn't responsible for Arline’s death. EXPLOITIPS: Get an aide to walk through downtown areas and shopping centers in space costume. Use teaser-ads in classified sections of newspapers — i.e. “This is no crawling matter. Call (theatre number).” Aua L CATCHLLNES: Jolting Space Shocker! . . . Introducing the “Sex Iceberg”— Sirry Steffen! . . . Terrifying Menace From the Moon! . . . She Revealed Her Body — But Not the Secret! THE STORY: “Fire in the Flesh” (Pacemaker) Cruising the lesser-known regions of the South Seas in his laboratory ship, Prof. Theodore Heldt finds himself caught in a typhoon; the professor, his daughter, Claudine Dupuis and aide, Erno Crisa, are sole survivors of the ship’s sinking. Tossed up on an uncharted, deserted island, they have been there about ten years when the story opens. The professor dies, and Claudine and Crisa, long in love, perform a “marriage” ceremony. Crisa realizes that if a passing ship finds them, he’ll lose Claudine to civilization and he neglects to light a huge pile of brush atop the highest cliff when a craft is sighted. Capt. Robert Dupont and a motley crew of smugglers arrive and the Dupont men, quickly sizing up the situation, decide to kill Crisa and take a huge fortune in pearls just off the island coast. Allan Lemarie and Bill Marshall, part of Dupont’s crew, kill each other over the pearls. Dupont, casting off because of a falling barometer and typhoon threat, tells Claudine that Crisa has probably been killed. She jumps into the water, swims back to the island; she has spotted Crisa atop the cliff. EXPLOITIPS: L"' Get travel agencies to set up window and lobby dis ' plays of South Seas. Have girls in hula garb on stage. CATCHLINES: Adult Entertainment! A Naked Look at Island Love! They Lived in a Back-to-Nature Garden of Love! BOXOFFICE BookinGuide :: Nov. 4, 1963