Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

£ekin4 the £cehe* c$ O'dtn Ptcducthn STUDIO SIZ6-UPS Cxclu^e $L BULLETIN feature By JAY ALLEN Volume uud Budgets High for November November promises to equal, if not actually surpass October's peak production record of 64 films. As of this writing, 59 pictures are either shooting or scheduled ro go before the cameras by December 1, with a half dozen more probable starters due to be placed on the schedule as soon as casting difficulties can be ironed out. Most impressive aspect of the current production lineups is the emphasis on higher budget films. It has been distinctly apparent of late that Hollywood's executives are fully cognizant of the fact that our industry's only effective answer to television and other competition for the public's entertainment time is topflight motion pictures. A real, intensive effort is being made to deliver such quality films. 20th-Fox's November production will probably be the most costly, with a half dozen pictures in the million dollar budget class. "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' (Marilyn Monroe-Jane Russell), which rolls on November 10, represents an investment of upwards of two million dollars by itself, and "Nearer My God to Thee'' (Clifton Webb-Barbara Stanwyck), which rolled October 25, is scheduled for seven weeks of shooting — one of the longest shooting schedules for a non-musical in recent years. MGM and Paramount will run Fox a close second in the budget department, followed by Universal-International which is investing heavily in off-the-lot talent to head up a half-dozen of its productions. Paramount, with "Little Boy Lost" (Bing Crosby), "Houdini" (Tony Curtis-Janet Leigh) and "Forever Female" (Ginger Rogers-William Holden), shooting since early last month, has just added one of its biggest and costliest musicals in recent years. It is "Here Comes the Girls", which is being filmed in Technicolor, and which boasts a top-flight cast headed by Bob Hope, Tony Martin, Rosemary Clooney and Arlene Dahl. Metro's big pictures shooting in November will be: "Young Bess" (Jean Simmons-Stewart Granger), "Dream Wife" (Cary Grant-Deborah Kerr), "The Band Wagon" (Fred Astaire-Cyd Charisse) and "Years Ago" (Spencer TracyDebbie Reynolds). U-I, with a total of eight pictures in work, will employ six outside stars to add marquee luster to its product. James Stewart, Loretta Young, Farley Granger, Ann Sheridan, Glenn Ford and Victor Mature all will be working on the lot, at salaries which will undoubtedly force budgets well above normal for the studio. COLUMBIA ild Entry to Columbia ly Resolve Cohn Activity -s was predicted in these columns over months ago, Jerry Wald has moved r to Columbia from RKO. The surprise s his being named vice-president and zutive producer of Columbia Productions vidently there was some brisk bidding Mr. Wald's services and Harry Cohn to make the offer as enticing as pos. 20th Century-Fox and the new RKC igement were both after the 40 year>roducer, who has carved quite a niche limself in Hollywood, first as a screenwriter, then as producer, cculation now arises as to Harry Cohn's future activities. There have been rent rumors for the past year that the mbia president plans to reftire from e direction of the studio. It appeared i a few months ago that Stanley Kramer heir apparent to the top spot here, but it looks now as though he will just contir.uf as head of his own inde unit. And the question arises: Will Kramer stay on at Columbia ? Unhappy boxofnee JERRY WALD An Enticing Offer returns on some of his productions (we hear "Four Poster" is disappointing) are understood to have cooled Cohn's ardor for the Kramer unit, and it is quite possible that he will move on to another lot. Columbia has cleared the decks for production of motion pictures for television, by signing a pact with the Screen Actor's Guild, guaranteeing full compliance with the guild's demands for residual payments to actors appearing in films used on TV. Columbia, along with Universal-International, is the first major studio to thus indicate plans for television production. The new pact calls for additional payment to actors for all subsequent re-runs of television films, as well as further compensation to the thesps if films, originally made for" TV, are released for theatre showings. Columbia had previously signed a basic agreement with the SAG for making its current series of TV shorts under the Screen Gems aegis — a Columbia subsidiary. Whatever the answer to that may be, there can be no doubt that Columbia is trying to meet theatre demands for better (Continued on Page 12) FILM BULLETIN November 3. 1952 Page 11