Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1956)

"The Burning Hills" %cui*e4* 'Ratut? O O Plus Past-moving CinemaScope-WarnerColor Western should draw above-average grosses in general situations. A suspenseful, rugged Western arrives from Warner Bros., with young Tab Hunter on the run over some beautifully photographed hill country. While the plot follows well-trod paths, producer Richard Whorf and director Stuart Heisler have turned out 94 minutes of two-fisted action-drama that never lags. Hunter co-stars with Natalie Wood, and this pair enhance the film's attraction for the younger set. Strikingly CinemaScoped in WarnerColor, its warm, young-love aspects should appeal as well to almost all audiences. Miss Wood, the child star who gracefully leaped over adolescence, emerges as a spitfire AngloMexican beauty who nurses Hunter's gun wounds and helps him escape the men seeking to kill him for his land. Fine support is provided by Skip Homeier, Eduard Franz and Ray Teal. Screenplay by Irving Wallace, adapted from Louis L'Amour's Satevepost serial, opens with Hunter gunning for Teal, kingpin land owner who murdered his brother. Teal wounds him and sends his son, Homeier, and foreman Claude Akins, to finish the job. Miss Wood finds Hunter in an abandoned mine. When he is well enough to travel she sends him to a hiding place, and promises to follow. Indian guide Eduard Franz keeps the gang on Hunter's trail until Indians wipe out the gang. Hunter battles it out with Homeier on the rocky cliffs and in a swift river, vanquishes him and rides off with the girl. Warner Bros. 94 minutes. Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, Skip Homeier. Produced by Richard Whorf. Directed by Stuart Heisler. "The First Traveling Saleslady" Broad farce draws fair share of laughs. Exploitables and Ginger Rogers will give b.o. lift. Requires strong support. This lightweight farce, first feature produced by the new RKO regime, is a tepid comedy that figures to draw fair response. Fast-talking Ginger Rogers sells the laughs as corset and barbed wire huckster, with Barry Nelson chasing after her and songstress Carol Channing kidding from the sidelines. As a comedy change-of-pace programmer, it should serve as a good dualler in all except action houses. It would best be coupled with a drama or outdoor melodrama. Arthur Lubin's Technicolor production, set at the turn of the century, moves at a hectic pace from New York to Kansas City to Texas, spoofing women's suffrage, the horseless carriage, business tycoons, and cattle barons. Lubin's direction makes the caricatures broad. "A Corset Can Do a Lot For a Lady" is sung by Miss Channing in her dizzy-dame manner. Corset saleslady Ginger Rogers goes broke and attemps to pay her debt to steel magnate David Brian by selling his barbed wire to Texas ranchers. When Barry Nelson gives her a lift westward in his auto, a friendly feud begins. Cattlemen are afraid barbed wire will bruise their herds, so Rogers, and model Channing are escorted out of town. Rogers sells the local women, gets her orders placed, continues westward in Nelsons' arms. RKO 12 minutes Ginger Rogers, Barry Nelson, Carol Channing. Produced and directed by Arthur Lubin. 5* "The Queen of Babylon' Sct4UtC44. IZcttiHQ O O PIUS Italian-made spectacular with biblical setting loaded with sex and brutality. Big money-maker for ballyhoo houses. Pagan love and barbaric savagery are the magnetic qualities combined by Nat Wachsberger in this ornate spectacle, made in Italy, which 20th Century-Fox is releasing in the U. S. With Rhonda Fleming romping around in scanty costumes as the luscious peasant girl who gets to be queen, and romantic Ricardo Montalban performing amazing feats of daring as the warrior leading the revolt against a lustful tyrant, "The Queen of Babylon" is obviously chockful of exploitation elements. Where these angles are properly promoted, it should sell like French postcards. Adventure and action fans will enjoy it no end. Miss Fleming treats her audience to a provocative cooch dance, a dip in the lake minus suit, and a torrid necking party with Montalban, who overcomes a horde of starved crocodiles. The costumes, huge palace sets, and lush backgrounds are caught in Technicolor with a sweeping majesty. Direction by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia is a hodgepodge of sex and sabers, yet the action is fast and stimulating. Montalban, revolts against Roldano Lupi, who rules Babylon with terror. Fleming, a farmgirl, nurses Montalban when he is wounded, and they fall in love. When Fleming is enrolled in the palace as a concubine, the king, too, finds her irresistible. Carlo Ninchi, a jealous minister, poisons the king and accuses Fleming. As she is being tied to the stake for burning, Montalban arrives with his cohorts to save the day. Miss Fleming is acclaimed queen. 20th Century-Fox. 10? minutes. Rhonda Fleming, Ricardo Montalban, Roldano Lupi. Produced by N. Wachsberger. Directed by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia. "A Cry in the Night" Suiuteu IZattK? Q Q Low-budget dualler about psychopath on the run with captive teenager. Has exploitation angles. For lower half. This low-budget Jaguar production for Warner Bros, release is an off-beat melodrama about a psychopath who kidnaps a teenage girl. Suited strictly for lower-half billing in action and ballyhoo houses, it might be exploited as a "where-are-your-children?" shocker. Performances by a better-than-average cast are better than story material. Neither Frank Tuttle's direction nor George C. Bertholon's production add much to the programmer look of the picture. Teenager Natalie Wood and her boyfriend, Richard Anderson, are necking in Lovers' Lane when psychopathic Raymond Burr socks the boy and makes off with the screaming girl. Her father, Edmond O'Brien, is a hard-hitting police captain. Brian Donlevy, the police officer on duty, starts a relentless all-night police search. Burr alternately threatens and caresses the girl. Police track them down in an old brickyard. Burr runs for it with Miss Wood, after shooting a cop. O'Brien corners him, rescues his daughter, realizes that to keep her out of trouble, he must make her boyfriends welcome in their home. Warner Bros. I A Jaguar production). 75 minutes. Edmond O'Brien, Brian Donlevy, Natalie Wood, Raymond Burr. Associate producer, George C. Bertholon. Directed by Frank Tuttle. Page 8 Film BULLETIN August 30, 1956