20th Century-Fox Dynamo (February 1960)

SINK THE BISMARK CONTINUED KENNETH MORE plays the director of oper- ations. He served on a British plane carrier during World War II. At the beginning of “Sink The Bismarck!”, American war correspondent Ed Murrow, now a famed TV-radio newscaster, is pictured broadcasting the following: “Never in the long and stormy history of England have her fortunes been so low as they are this Spring of 1941. Britain is fighting for her existence. The worst news of all comes from the North Atlan- tic where German U-boats and surface raiders last month sank 600,000 tons of shipping ...In this battle Britain’s life-blood is at stake. The battle is being fought at sea, but it is being directed from the Admiralty here in London.” Then, Kenneth More is pictured taking over as director of operations, a highly efficient, solitary, unbend- ing man whose only thought is to trap the Bis- marck and so prevent her from joining the Nazi U-boats in the North Atlantic. DANA WYNTER plays Second Officer Anne Davis. Her first meeting with the director of op- erations is one of disgust, for she considers him an “icicle”, a man withdrawn as a monk, but, in truth, a man with a reservoir of sorrow and pain, damned up inside him, that he is too proud to reveal to a living soul. As time passes and duty brings them closer together, she is appalled by the cold, calm, ruthless decision he makes to risk the lives of 20,000 troops sailing in con- voy by detaching their chief escort to send them into the Bismarck chase. But, she cannot dis- guise her mounting admiration for him when the Bismarck sinks the Hood and sends the Prince Of Wales limping out of battle, badly damaged. It is then that Churchill, from 10 Downing Street, issues his historic message to the Admiralty: “This is a battle we cannot af- ford to lose. I don’t care how you do it, but sink the Bismarck!” CARL MOHNER as the Bismarck’s captain. Born in Vienna in 1921, in “Sink The Bismarck” he breaks away from the romantic roles he has long been portraying on screen and stage for years. He distinguished himself universally in motion pictures with his characterizations in “The Last Bridge” with Maria Schell, in “Rififi”, He Who Must Die” and other European films that have enjoyed success in this country, mostly at its art theatres. Karel Stepanek is another who is co-starred in “Sink The Bismarck”, play- ing the part of Admiral Lutjens. He has played featured roles not only in British, French and German films, but also in such American-pro- duced attractions as “Never Let Go”, “Fallen Idol”, “State Secret” and others. Two technical advisers worked on the picture’s filming. Prob- lem of getting a German advisor was great for only 100 men had survived out of the crew of 2,500 on the Bismarck. NOTHING LIKE IT EVER ON SCREEN! Continued from page 19 Authority for that statement is the pilot of the Catalina, Wing Commander P. R. Hatfield, now a director of Aerial Spraying Company of Colchester, England. The co-pilot was Ensign Rinehart of the U. S. Navy. Although the United States was at that pre- Pearl Harbor time supposed to be neutral. Ensign Rinehart, officially an assistant naval attache at the U. S. Embassy in London, was in fact attached to the British 210 Squadron as a “neutral observer”. Hatfield and Rinehart located the Bismarck at approximately 10 o’clock on the night of May 26, 1941, and shadowed her for most of that night. Later, torpedo-carrying aircraft arrived and the British and American pilots had a grandstand view of the ruth- less onslaught of the British planes on the Bismarck as they unleashed their cargoes of death. On that momentous flight Hatfield and Rinehart set a rec- ord: they stayed in the air 26 hours, 45 minutes. Kenneth More plays Capt. Jonathan Shepard, who takes over as director of Naval Operations deep down under blacked-out London. Shepard’s was one of the early personal tragedies of World War II. His ship was sunk. When he returned to his home in London he found it in ruins. His wife had been killed by a bomb that demolished the home. En- trusted with the job of trapping the Bismarck so the British Navy can destroy her, he is determined never again to place himself in a position where anybody or anything can hurt him. Thus, when he meets Second Officer Anne Davis, played by Dana Wynter, and has reason to repri- mand her, he reveals his credo: “Getting emotional is a peace-time luxury. In wartime it is much too painful.” But, time brings them close and care very much about each other, although never revealing their personal feelings until after the Bismarck is finally sunk. Incidentally, available for promotional purposes is a Columbia record on which Johnny Horton sings “Sink The Bismarck”, for which he wrote a song that could very well be as popular as his “Battle Of New Orleans”, a recording that became one of the best sellers of 1959. THE A Jilted Small-Town Girl Returns A ealthy Woman To Wreak A Sadistic Revenge On Her Ex-Lover Critics are in agreement that the stage has never exposed as devastating a drama about the perfidy of the human soul as “The Visit” in which Lynn Fontaine and Alfred Lunt have been internationally triumphing for several years. During its long run on Broadway, “The Visit” was lavished with unani- mous critical acclaim and went on to win numerous awards. Its success has been so widespread and em- phatic that it returned to Broadway for a third en- gagement. The foregoing should give the reader an idea of the importance and popularity of this story property recently acquired by this company in competition with all major studios. It was written by the Swiss playwright, Frederich Duerrenmatt, who, incident- ally, has provided Broadway with its outstanding dramatic success of the 1959-60 season, “The Deadly Game”. “The Visit” is the second play, in which the Lunts have successfully appeared on the stage, that this company has acquired for picturization in 20 CinemaScope with DeLuxe Color. The other is Terence Rattigan’s “O Mistress Mine” in which, it has been announced, Ingrid Bergman will appear. “The Visit” begins amusingly enough. In a bank- rupt, stagnant village, a delegation of its leading citizens assemble at the railroad station to welcome a fabulously rich lady who, many years previous, had been forced to leave the town under disreput- able circumstances. Every member of the delega- tion hoped she would be bountiful with the town where she was born. But, she had another purpose for returning to the village. Nevertheless, in answer to a welcoming address, she announces that at the proper time she will make an offer to redeem the village. Subse- quently she states she will give a billion marks, if the villagers will exterminate their elderly store- keeper. She had looked forward many years for this opportunity, for when she was a girl the grocer, then a handsome, popular young man, not only seduced her, but, in court, denied the paternity to their child. The scandal that followed was further aggravated when he added insult to injury by marry- ing the daughter of a well-to-do middle class family. Branded a harlot by the villagers, she left the town, determined to one day return for revenge. Cynical and embittered, she, in time, through successive marriages, attains great wealth, a title, fame and enormous power. With her opportunity for vengeance at hand, she proposes to repair her former lover’s act of sadistic injustice—with a sadistic plan of her own; to have him murdered by his friends. The slow, almost imperceptible, hardening of opinion among the villagers, their unprecedented purchase of luxuries on credit against the lady’s offer, their unoctuous politeness toward the grocer, the growing, obvious reasonableness of their deci- sion to take his life and his acceptance of fate make “The Visit” one of the most extraordinarily drama- tic story properties acquired by any studio.