The Independent Film Journal (1954)

Product Horizon: Exhibitors Can Expect 11 Films From Fox Through December A roster of 11 pictures will be released by 20th Century-Fox between August and De¬ cember of this year, with Darryl F. Zanuck’s first personal production in three years, “The Egyptian,” highlighting the line-up. The release line-up includes eight other lavishly-mounted pictures filmed in the im¬ proved CinemaScope medium and a trio of conventionally-filmed vehicles. All pictures, both CinemaScope and with the exception of one standard film, have been lensed in color. Ranging in story content from musical comedy to suspense drama to Biblical spec¬ tacle, the five-month array is led off with the August debut of “Broken Lance” in Cinema¬ Scope and color by De Luxe. Spencer Tracy heads the cast which includes Robert Wag¬ ner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark and Ivaty Jurado in the Sol C. Siegel production directed by Edward Dmytryk. Another August release is “The Raid,” a standard Panoramic Production, print by Technicolor, starring Van Heflin, Anne Ban¬ croft, Richard Boone and Lee Marvin, pro¬ duced by Robert L. Jacks and directed by Hugo Fregonese. September releases are headed by Darryl F. Zanuck’s production of “The Egyptian” in CinemaScope and color by De Luxe, starring Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Gene Tierney, Michael Wilding, Bella Darvi, Peter Ustinov and Edmund Purdorn as the Egyp¬ tian, and directed by Curtiz. “The Egyptian” represents years of prep¬ aration and months of production and the greatest outlay of money and talent in the his¬ tory of the company. Picture boasts 67 major sets, seven stars, two dozen featured players, 87 other speaking roles and over 5,000 extras. Director Michael Cui’tiz spent six months casting and testing before actual production began last March. Since no film had ever before been made of this period in history, the documentation for the 67 sets and for the 5,000,000 separate objects and costumes which were created for the picture had to be researched from scratch and the overall job proved to be the biggest in the studio’s history. Nearly 500 volumes dealing with every aspect pertinent to the life of Akhnaton’s era in Egypt and its six subject countries, were culled for vital information which might lend authenticity to some bit of the production. Pertinent passages were photostated and sent to Producer Zanuck, Scenarists Casey Robinson and Philip Dunne and to Director Curtiz. Other copies went to Art Directors Lyle Wheeler and George Davis, to Ward¬ robe Director Charles LeMaire, to Set Deco¬ rators Walter Scott and Paul Fox and to allied departments. To make doubly sure that authenticity would prevail wherever possible, Curtiz en¬ gaged Mrs. Elizabeth Riefstahl, Assistant Curator of Egyptology at the Brooklyn Museum as Technical Advisor for two months prior to first day of shooting. Three CinemaScope productions will be re¬ leased during October: “Woman’s World,” in CinemaScope and print by Technicolor, starring Clifton Webb, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Lauren Bacall, Fred MacMurray, Arlene Dahl, and Cornel Wilde, produced by Charles Brackett and directed by Jean Negulesco. Also, “Carmen Jones,” a Carlyle Produc¬ tion in CinemaScope and color, produced and directed by Otto Preming’er starring Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte and Pearl Bailey; and Walter Wanger’s production of “The Adventures of Hajji Baba,” in Cinema¬ Scope and color by De Luxe, starring John Derek and Elaine Stewart and directed by Don Weiss. November releases are “Black Widow,” in CinemaScope and color, produced and di¬ rected by Nunnally Johnson, and starring Van Heflin, Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, George Raft and Peggy Ann Garner; and “Desiree,” in CinemaScope and color, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Michael Ren¬ nie, Merle Oberon and Cameron Mitchell, produced by Julian Blaustein and directed by Henry Koster. December releases are “White Feather,” a Panoramic Production in CinemaScope and color, staring Robert Wagner, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter and Virginia Leith, produced Scope-color November release Show Business CinemaScope-color December release by Robert L. Jacks and directed by Robert Webb; and Irving Berlin’s “There’s No Busi¬ ness Like Show Business,” in CinemaScope and color, starring Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe, Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor, Mitzi Gaynor and Johnnie Ray, produced by Sol C. Siegel and directed by Walter Lang." Also to be released by 20th-Fox during the latter part of the year is “A Life In The Balance,” a Panoramic Production in blackand-white, starring Ricardo Montalban, Anne Bancroft and Lee Marvin, produced by the late Leonard Goldstein and directed by Harry Horner. Black Widow Van Heflin, Ginger Rogers, George Raft, Reginald Gardner appear in this mystery, in CinemaScope and color, for November release The Egyptian A Womans World Edmund Purdorn and Bella Darvi are among the Arlene Dahl and Clifton Webb appear with June stars of this spectacle, photographed in Cinema Allyson, Van Heflin and Lauren Bacall in this Scope and color, for release in September CinemaScope-color release, for October 8 THE INDEPENDENT FILM JOURNAL — August 7, 1954