Cinema (1963)

PREVIEWS MY GEISHA THE LONGEST DAY STATE FAIR First made in 1933 with Norman Foster, Janet Gaynor, Louise Dresser and Will Rogers, and again in 1945 with Dick Haymes, Fay Bainter, Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews, “State Fair” is now up before the cameras again with Tom Ewell, Alice Faye, Pat Boone, Pamela Tiffin, Ann-Margret, and Bobby Darin. The Rodgers and Hammerstein music is still excellent and the new cast may provide some fine performances. The cast seems set for a teen-age audience but it will be fun to watch Alice Faye in her return to films after a long absence. 20th Century-Fox has been grooming Ann-Margret, shown here, for stardom in their production. SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE IN EARLY SUMMER. A huge international cast is being recruited by Darryl Zanuck to film D-Day, June 6th, 1944. New names are still being added to it almost every week. Altogether, the credits will boast 27 important parts, not to speak of vast numbers of smaller roles and extras. Stars who are set, and who in many cases have already worked, include William Holden, Peter Lawford, Robert Wagner, Paul Anka, Fabian, Tommy Sands, Red Buttons, Curt Jurgens, Richard Todd, Christian Marquand, Frangoise Rosay, Arletty, Bourvil, Georges Wilson, Jean-Louis Barrault, Madeleine Renaud and others. The film will introduce a charming newcomer, Irina Demich, shown here: Outstanding directors are working on the film, for which Ryan wrote the script, with James Jones and Romain Gary as the literary advisors. The directors include Andrew Marton (famous for his chariot race scene in “Ben Hur”); Elmo Williams, whom Zanuck considers the best second unit director in the business; Gerd Oswald, Britain’s Ken Annakin and Germany’s Bernard Wicki. The latter will handle all major sequences involving German actors. He has won international acclaim with his latest hit, “The Bridge.” THE FILM, FROM THE BOOK BY CORNELIUS RYAN AND PRODUCED BY 20TH CENTURY-FOX, IS NOT YET SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE. BILLY BUDD Peter Ustinov has provided many a pleasing scene for the filmgoer in the past and in Melville’s symbolic story of good and evil he intends a lot more. As producer, director, writer and star, he will have more than a little to do with each frame of film. “Billy Budd” is a difficult story to tell at best; the symbolic nature of the Master-at-Arms Claggart (Robert Ryan) and Billy (Terence Stamp) demands believable but arch types. In Stamp’s case, Ustinov selected him from thirty-six screen tests given. Ustinov first saw him on the London stage in “Why the Chicken?” The inventiveness of Ustinov as Captain Vere will most likely provide some exciting moments and we hope that he will be as successful in his other responsibilities. NOT YET SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE • EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, RONALD LUBIN FOR ALLIED ARTISTS RELEASE • CINEMATOGRAPHER ROBERT KRASKER • PRODUCTION DESIGNER DON ASHTON • ALSO FEATURING MELVYN DOUGLAS, JOHN NEVILLE, RONALD LEWIS, LEE MONTAGUE, PAUL ROGERS, NIALL MACGINNIS AND SUZANNE CLOUTIER. In short, this is a story about a very famous Hollywood actress who lets ambition trample her marriage. In the end, as “My Geisha” spins toward what appears to be an inevitable bad ending, gentle Japanese philosophy makes itself known from an unlikely source, an exotic geisha girl, and the actress discovers happily that she infinitely prefers being a wife and a woman to being a star. The players are Miss Shirley MacLaine, who is celebrated for doing what comes naturally to Shirley on screen but who, this time and for the first time, does an impersonation — a geisha, which is about as far-fetched as you can get from Miss MacLaine in person. ..Yves Montand, the electrifying French dramatic actor and song-and-dance man . . . Edward G. Robinson, distinguished star and character player and ex-gangster type ... Bob Cummings, the deft and lupine television star... and an Asiatic-French beauty in miniature, Miss Yoko Tani. The director is Jack Cardiff of London, who made the realistic, almost documentary “Sons and Lovers,” nominated for an Academy award, and who before that was an Academy award-winning photographer, which leads us to believe there may be stimulating visual concept. SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE IN JUNE • PRODUCED BY STEVE PARKER FOR PARAMOUNT PICTURES • SCREENPLAY BY NORMAN KRASNA • MUSIC BY FRANZ WAXMAN • CINEMATOGRAPHER SHUNICHIRO NAKAO.