The Independent Film Journal (1952)

HOLLYWOOD-ON-THE-WIRE Hollywood Offices: 422514 Lockwood Ave., Hollywood 29. Tel.: Normandie 2-6494 RICHARD BERNSTEIN, Editor Columbia Shoots Eight Top Films; Third 3-D Opus Hollywood. — Nine important productions, budgeted in excess of $10,000,000, will be on Columbia's sound stages this month. Fea¬ tures will include the third three-dimensional picture on Columbia’s schedule. Three of Columbia’s biggest for 1953, “P’roni Here to Eternity,” “Miss Sadie Thomi)son” and “The Big Heat,” already commenced shooting. These will be followed by Columbia’s third 3-D, “Renegade Canyon,” as well as “Ten Against Caesar,” “Operation 16-Z,” “Rough Company,” “Last of the Pony Express,” plus a serial, “Adventures of Captain Kidd.” Fred Zinnemann will direct an all-star cast headed by Montgomery Clift, Burt Lan¬ caster, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra in “From Here to Eternity,” part of which will be filmed on location. Rita Hayworth, in the title role, and Aldo Day, as O’Hara, will star in “Miss Sadie Thompson,” Technicolor version of Somer¬ set Maugham’s “Rain.” Glenn Ford has been assigned the top role in “The Big Heat.” Other stars already set for productions in¬ clude John Derek in the Technicolor 3-D “Renegade Canyon,” Edmond O’Brien in “Oi^eration 16-Z,” and Gene Autiy and Smiley Burnette in “Last of the Pony Ex¬ press.” Other Businesses Adopt Flash Preems, ‘‘Sneaks” Big business iised to have the somewhat superior attitude that Hollywood was a bit daffy and given to razzmatazz methods of 0])eration but M-G-M producer George Sid¬ ney takes note that three long-time Holly¬ wood institutions have now been widely adopted by other businesses, i.e. ; (1.) the public opinion sam])ler poll, (2.) the sneak preview, and (3.) the flashy premiere. Sidney, speaking at the Riverside Kiwanis Club stated: “Years before it became a general practice in business, Hollywood was using various forms of polls to check public opinion and to keep its products tailored to the current desires of the pub¬ lic.” Producer-director George Stevens an¬ nounced that his next project will be an adaptation of Paul I. Wellman’s best sell¬ ing novel, “Comancheros.” It will be an independent production. “Comancheros” will be an epic of the American plains. The title, Stevens said, derives from the sinister whites who plotted and organized the giant I'aids of the Comanche Indians through Texas, Kansas and Missouri, and then disl>osed of the loot in Mexico. Stevens exl)ects to enlist the talents of Alan Ladd in one of the three co-starring roles, and A. B. Guthrie, Jr., as the scenario writer. J. R. Grainger, president of RKO, and Sol Lesser, president of Sol Lesser Produc¬ tions, jointly announced that RKO will dis¬ tribute Lesser’s new third-dimension film, “The 3-D Follies.” Walter Wanger is co¬ producer vnth Lesser on the film. . . . Rich¬ ard Brooks has been assigned to direct M-G-M’s “The Flame and the Flesh,” which wiU be filmed in Italy this spring with Lana Turner, Pier Angeli and Carlos Thompson in the starring roles. Film is a dramatic romance which Joe Pasternak will produce and will mark Miss Turner’s first film abroad. Brooks is currently directing the Dore Schary production, “Take The High Ground.” Mi ^ at Wayne Morris returns to Warner Broth¬ ers to play a prominent role in Randolph Scott’s “Riding Shotgun.” Morris, who was with the studio 15 years, concluded his work there four years ago with ‘ ‘ Task Force.” Andre de Toth is directing the film and Ted Sherdeman is producing for the studio. . . . Paramount took up its op¬ tion on Paul Jones, who just completed producing “Here Come The Girls.” As his next assignment, he will produce a Bob Hope starrer not yet selected. . . . “Doe Holliday,” an original story by George Zuckernian, was bought by Universal-Inter¬ national and assigned to William Alland to produce. The stoiy is based on the famous gunfighter-gambler. Doc Holliday. Over at Columbia, “Richard the Lionhearted, ’ ’ the story of one of England’s most j celebrated king-heroes, will be brought to ; the screen by the studio as one of the top i productions of the 1953-54 schedule. Fred I Kohlmar has been assigned as producer and a script wiU be prepared immediately. ... Forrest Tucker was signed to a new three ' picture contract by Republic. The pact marks his sixth ear with the studio. He : just completed a starring role with Wendell Corey and Margaret Lockwood in the Jo i seph Conrad story, “Laughing Ann,” which Herbert Wilcox directed and produced for ' Republic in London. . . . Dan Ullman left ' for Washington, D.C., and Annapolis, Md., to do research for “Annapolis ’53,” thej screen play which he is now writing. The« Allied Artists Technicolor film will be pro¬ duced by Walter Mirisch and is scheduled to go before the cameras in early summer, i ^ Mi ! Wayne-Fellows Productions, Inc., will ; continue its present releasing deal witli ■ Warner Brothers for another four years, it -' was announced by Jack L. Warner. Wayne'! will star in some of the pictures to be pro 1 duced under the new deal. Fellows wdll ■ handle production. “ Island In Tlie Sky, ’ ’ ■ which was directed by William A. Wellman ■ on location at Truckee, Calif., iinder the : Wayne-Fellows banner, will be the first of' the pictures under the new deal. According | to present plans, Wayne’s next will be an i' untitled western spectacle in third-dimen¬ sion and Warren Color. “Plunder of the Sun,” another Wayne-Fellows effort for.! Warners release, which starred Glenn Ford, .i Diana Lynn and Patricia Medina, is now , being completed. ¥ * * William Castle has been signed by Sam i Katzman at Columbia to direct the Paulette t Goddard starrer, “Charge of the Lancers,” which goes before the Technicolor cameras Apr, 7. This marks Castle’s fifth Techni¬ color film in succession for Katzman. The others are: “Serpent of the Nile,” star¬ ring Rhonda Fleming and William Lundi : gan; “Slaves of Babylon,” starring Linda. Christian and Richard Conte; “Conquest of i Cochise,” starring John Hodiak and Rob i ert Stack ; and the three-dimensional film, “Fort Ti,” which stars George Montgomery. Katzman also signed Sam Newman to write the screen play for “Jesse James Versus The Daltons,” a story based on the dra¬ matic moments in the lives of the famous badmen, which will go before he Techni j color cameras in May. Mi Mi Mi Plans for the ]>roduction of two features in Finland and Lapland next summer by the Helen Ainsworth Corp., in association Avih Suomi Films of Helsinki, were an¬ nounced by Helen Ainsworth. Both films will be dramas, with “Lust” as the initial ])icture, and to he followed by a stoiy as yet untitled. . . . Gene Kellv will be starred in M-G-lM’s “Crest of the Wave.” John (Continued on next page) George Seaton, director of Perlberg-Seaton's "Little Boy Lost" for Paramount, goes over lines for the next scene with star Bing Crosby and nine-year-old Christian Fourcade, French actor. 32 THE INDEPENDENT FILM JOURNAL— March 21, 1953