Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

UA Books 300 Christmas Dates for 'Kings of Sun' NEW YORK — “Kings of the Sun,” the Mirisch Co. production starring Yul Brynner, George Chakiris and Shirley Anne Field, will be United Artists’ 1963 Christmas holiday attraction and has already been booked into 300 domestic playdates, according to United Artists vice-president James R. Velde. Beginning December 18, “Kings of the Sun” will be launched in New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta and other U.S. and Canadian key cities, Velde said. For Thanksgiving, United Artists has enlisted the cooperation of 43 key cities to sponsor week-long activities in honor of “McLintock Week,” to alert the public that “McLintock!” starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, has its national release late in November. All local campaigns will be tied to the film’s ad line “McLintock! Is McNificent.” Robert Wise to Produce 'Sound of Music' in '64 NEW YORK — Robert Wise, who won an Academy Award for directing “West Side Story,” will produce and direct Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music,” the first of six roadshow attractions scheduled for filming by 20th Century-Fox in 1964, according to Richard D. Zanuck, vicepresident in charge of production. The screen version of the long-running Broadway musical hit will be a joint venture of 20th-Fox and Wise’s Argyle Productions, the same coproduction team which will also make “The Sand Pebbles.” The starting date of “The Sound of Music” has been advanced from May 15 while “The Sand Pebbles” has been set back from September 1 to October 15. Wise leaves for Austria early in November to select locations near Salzburg, but the interiors will be shot on the 20th-Fox lot. “Music” will be shot in Todd-AO and is scheduled for release for Christmas 1964. Gene Corman to London As 'Patriots' Finishes LONDON — Gene Corman, who coproduced “The Dubious Patriots” with his brother, Roger, in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, has arrived in London for conferences with United Artists executives on the British campaign for the film, which has just been completed. The picture, which will be released by United Artists, stars Stewart Granger, Mickey Rooney, Henry Silva and Edd Byrnes, as well as Raf Vallone from Italy. More than 5,000 extras took part in the World War II drama. Sinatra to Produce and Star In WB's 'Robin and 7 Hoods' NEW YORK — Frank Sinatra will produce as well as star in “Robin and the 7 Hoods,” now being directed by Gordon Douglas at the Warner Bros.’ Burbank Studios, in his new capacity as executive with Warners, according to Jack L. Warner, president. BOXOFFICE :: November 11, 1963 FEATURE REVIEW It s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World United Artists IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD A Stanley Kramer production In Cinerama Filmed in Ultra-Panavision and Technicolor Released through United Artists Running time: 197 minutes, plus intermission CREDITS Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer. Original screenplay, William and Tania Rose. Assistant director, Ivan Volkman. Cinematography, Ernest Laszlo. Production designer, Rudy Sternad. Music, Ernest Gold. Film editor, Fred Knudtson. Sound, John Keene. Production manager, Clem Beauchamp. THE CAST Capt. C. G. Culpeper Spencer Tracy J. Russell Finch Milton Berle Melville Crump Sid Caesar Benjy Benjamin Buddy Hackett Mrs. Marcus Ethel Merman Ding Bell Mickey Rooney Sylvester Marcus Dick Shawn Otto Meyer Phil Silvers J. Algernon Hawthorne Terry-Thomas Lennie Pike Jonathan Winters Monica Crump Edie Adams Emmeline Finch Dorothy Provine Tyler Fitzgerald Jim Backus First cab driver Eddie "Rochester" Anderson Airplane pilot Ben Blue Mrs. Halliburton Barrie Chase Police sergeant Alan Carney Second cab driver Peter Falk Col. Wilberforce Paul Ford Third cab driver Leo Gorcey Dinckler Edward Everett Horton Jimmy, the crook Buster Keaton Nervous man Don Knotts Tower control Carl Reiner Firemen The Three Stooges Union official Joe E. Brown Sheriff Mason Andy Devine Fire Chief Sterling Holloway Irwin Marvin Kaplan Switchboard operator ZaSu Pitts Police secretary Madlyn Rhue Ray Arnold Stang Smiler Grogan Jimmy Durante and Charles Lane, Charles McGraw, Jesse White, Lloyd Corrigan, Selma Diamond, Stan Freberg, Louise Glenn, Ben Lessy, Bobo Lewis, Mike Mazurki, Nick Stewart, Sammee Tong, Norman Fell, Nicholas Georgiade. By DON MERSEREAU PARAPHRASE the title, this Stanley Kramer production is a mad, mad, mad, mad whirl, whipped up into three hours and 17 minutes of madcap fun for all ages. It puts another notch on the Kramer gun handle of superior entertainment. Departing from his usual sphere, Kramer this time turned his sights on what he termed slapstick comedy in a sophisticated manner, resulting in a picture which probably will go down in motion picture history as one of the truly greats of all time. Rarely, if ever, have so much action, suspense, hilarity and comedy of the bellylaugh calibre been brought to the screen. Money-wise, “Mad World” can’t miss. There is a gold mine in the names alone. Even without the stellar cast, the picture would be a powerful magnet after the word-of-mouth reports got around. Kramer garnered 15 stars from radio, television, motion pictures and the stage, plus a galaxy of personalities in minor roles, and put them in an original story by William and Tania Rose, a story which Kramer has envisioned as a “comedy to end all comedies.” That is what is up there on the screen. Kramer, who produced and directed, has extracted the finest performances from both the principals and the featured players. “Mad World” is a “chase” story of monumental proportions of speed, excitement and suspense, which swings the cast from an easterly point in Colorado, across a few hundred miles of burning sands, then jumps the San Bernardino mountain range and races along the coastal plain from Ventura to San Diego, where it comes to a halt in a hangup finale. Considerable credit must go to Danny Lee who headed the crew of special effects experts and stunt men. It was he who had to provide the thrills and breakneck sequences called for in the script and performed by 34 of Hollywood’s greatest stunt men who risked their necks, and lives, in the hair-raising episodes. It would be difficult to single out one performer who overshadows another, inasmuch as each is an artist in his own right, although the popularity stock of Jonathan Winters probably will go up after the public gets to see him in “Mad World.” Basically, “Mad World” is the story of buried loot, more than $300,000 in cash, and the wild scramble by various and sundry persons to get their hands on it. And it’s all told in vivid Technicolor and Ultra-Panavision 70. Midway during production, Hollywood’s optical scientists succeeded in creating a means of converting single-film photography to exhibition on the giant three-panel screens of Cinerama and Kramer was the first to utilize the system. And it will be on Cinerama screens initially, but by virtue of its original UltraPanavision negative, the picture still can be adapted for every other modern motion picture theatre.