Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1947)

6 Motion Picture daily Friday, March 7, 1947 I Big Spurt in Production as 12 Films Start Hollywood, March 6. — Production has surged strongly upward, with work starting on 12 new films. Five other have been finished and one — M-G-M's "The Pirate" — temporarily suspended. The shooting index stood at 38, compared to the previous level of 32. The production scene follows : Columbia Finished: "Lady from Shanghai," "Three Were Thoroughbreds" (Cavalier). Started : "The Man from Colorado," with Glenn Ford, William Holden, Ellen Drew; "The Lady Knew How," with Franchot Tone, Lucille Ball, Jonathan Hale. Shooting: "Assigned to Treasury" ( Kennedy-Buchman) . Eagle-Lion Finished : "Repeat Performance." Started: "Out of the Blue," with George Brent, Virginia Mayo, Turhan Bey, Carole Landis, Ann Dvorak; "Love from a Stranger," with John Hodiak, Sylvia Sidney, Ann Richards. M-G-M Shooting: "Song of the Thin Man," "The Hucksters." Monogram Started: "Sarge Goes to College," with Freddie Stewart, June Preisser, Alan Hale, Jr., Noel Neill. Shooting: "Louisiana," "The Gangster" (Allied Artists). Paramount Started: "The Big Clock," with Ray Milland, Maureen O' Sullivan, Charles Laughton, Rita Johnson, George Macready. Shooting : "Road to Rio," "Albuquerque" (Clarion). PRC Finished: "Silent Voice." Started: "Gangway for Murder," with Robert Lowery, Anabelle Shaw. RKO Radio Shooting : "Tycoon," "Indian Summer," "If You Knew Susie," "The Bishop's Wife" (Goldwyn). Republic Shooting : "The Trespasser," "Springtime in the Sierras." Selznick Started: "Portrait of Jennie," with Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten. Shooting : "The Paradine Case." Independents Honor Price at Dinner Hollywood, March 6. — The Independent Motion Picture Producers Association last night gave a farewell dinner to Byron Price. Speakers were IMPPA president I. E. Chadwick, SIMPP president Donald Nelson, Jean Hersholt, Joseph I. Breen and IATSE representative Roy Brewer. A luncheon to Price was given by the AMPP today at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Price will leave here for New York on March 15 to assume new duties as U. N. assistant secretarygeneral. Top Showmen (Continued from page 1) Theatre for Gaumont British. Judges comprised executives in distribution and exhibition. Twenty-two finalists had weathered the quarterly awards competitions, and their exhibits, which were on view at the Hotel Astor, here, this week, were examined by hundreds from the industry. Sol A. Schwartz, vice-president and general manager of RKO Theatres, principal speaker at the awards luncheon, said he found particular merit in campaigns conducted by managers of smaller theatres without the aid of a publicity department or exploitation director. Stoltz Nominated To Head AMPA N. Y. Tax Bill (Continued from page 1) where a fight could be waged." A Republican Assemblyman declared: "If the bill were to come to a vote today, it would be defeated, I think, but the situation will change by next week. There may be amendments. Some localities will not wish to levy such taxes. This kind of bill puts every legislator on the spot." State lawmakers expect a protesting deluge of mail and wires over the weekend. Approve U. S. Tax Bill Washington, March 6. — The House today approved a joint Congressional conference committee report continuing indefinitely the Federal wartime excise taxes, including the admissions tax. Immediate Senate approval is expected. 20th Century-Fox Finished: "Miracle on 34th Street." Started: "Scudda Hoo, Scudda Hay," with June Haver, Lon McCallister, Walter Brennan. Shooting : "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "Captain from Castile," "Forever Amber." United Artists Shooting: "Atlantis" (Nero) ; "Body and Soul" (Enterprise). Universal-International Started: "Jeopardy," with Edmond O'Brien, Ella Raines, William Bendix, Vincent Price; "For the Love of Mary," with Deanna Durbin, John Dall, Donald O'Connor; "Singapore," with Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner, Richard Haydn. Shooting: "The Secret Beyond the Door" (Diana) ; "Brute Force" (Hellinger). Warners Shooting: "Voice of the Turtle," "Two Guys from Milwaukee," "Wallflower," "The Unfaithful," "The Unsuspected" (Curtiz). Arnold Stoltz has been designated by the nominating committee of the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers to succeed Rutgers Neilson, whose term of presidency will expire shortly. Nomination is tantamount to election. Others nominated are : Vice-president, Phil Williams ; treasurer, Max Stein; secretary, Marguerite Weyburn. Nominated for the board of directors are: Neilson, Joel Swenson, Harry McWilliams, Hap Hadley and Don Velde. Charles Alicoate was nominated to fill a vacancy on the board of trustees. Nominating committee chairman Robert Wile announced the selections at yesterday's AMPA luncheon-meeting at the Town Hall Club, here, which was addressed by George T. Delacorte, president of Dell Publications ; Muriel Babcock, editor of Ideal Publications ; O. G. Elder, president of MacFadden Publications; Ralph Daigh, Fawcett Publications, and David Brown, editor of Liberty magazine, all of whom reviewed progress made by fan magazines. Maurice Chevalier, guest of honor, was welcomed on his return to the U. S. Some 200 AMPA members and guests were present. Curtis Mitchell, Paramount's advertising-publicity director, was master of ceremonies. Irving Schriffrin was chairman of the luncheon arrangements committee. Bidding Stay (Continued from page 1) July 1. The other two, Paramount and United Artists, could obtain stays only by applying separately for them, according to informed legal opinion here. M-G-M, RKO Radio, 20th Century-Fox and Warners have not appealed from the bidding provision. UA has appealed on bidding but has stated it will not ask for a postponement. Paramount, which also has appealed on bidding, has made no decision on a stay. Louis Frohlich, Columbia counsel, said yesterday that his application would seek a stay of all the provisions from which the company has appealed. These include, besides bidding, injunctions against multiple sales and against "arbitrarily refusing" to license a feature on a run selected by an exhibitor instead of licensing it to a competitor on such run. Universal's application, filed by attorneys Thomas Turner Cooke and Charles D. Prutzman, asks, in addition to the stay of bidding, that the Supreme Court exempt the company temporarily from those injunctions of the New York court "which forbid the performance of existing contracts or invalidate certain provisions thereof." Thus, Universal, pending action on its appeal, accepts the local tribunal's order of single sales after July 1 and its ban, beginning April 1, on new contracts fixing minimum prices, granting clearance between theatres not in substantial competition and "unreasonable" clearance between competitive houses, and making franchise agreements, formula deals or master agreements — but seeks the right to continue all such pacts now in effect. This would provide, of course, exemption of any existing sales of the company's season's product as a whole. Hollywood By THALIA BELL Hollywood, Mar. 6 "HpENDER Is the Night," reA garded by many critics as one of the late F. Scott Fitzgerald's most distinguished novels, will be brought to the screen by David O. Selznick, with Jennifer Jones in the sta^L; p role. . . . Arrangements have „, _n completed whereby Universal-International will release Monte Shaft's production "Man-Eaters of Kumaon," based on a book by Jim Corbett. . . . Steven Vincent, Young French actor, has been signed to a long-term contract by Warners. • A Story built around the United States Postal Inspection Service — the little-publicised "police force" of the Post Office Department, will be the basis for one of the pictures on Benedict Bogeau's 1947 program for United Artists release. . . . Nicholas Ray, who directed the New York stage play, "Beggars' Holiday," has joined RKO Radio under a writer director deal. His first assignment in the film version of Edward Anderson's best-seller, "Thieves Like Us." • Glenn Ford, William Holden and Ellen Drew will co-star in Columbia's Technicolor outdoor action film, "The Man from Colorado." Charles Vidor will direct, Jules Schermer will produce. . . . Peter Lorre has been signed by Republic for a leading role with Vera Ralston and John Carroll in "Crime Passionelle." . . . George Brent has been signed by Eagle-Lion for a starring role in "Out of the Blue." • "My Own True Love" will be the title of Paramount's film version of the Yolanda Foldes novel, "Make You a Fine Wife." British actress Phyllis Calvert will be starred, and Val Lewton has been assigned to produce. . . . Allen Rivkin has been signed by Independent Artists to a producer-writer contract. . . . Screen rights to "The Tin Flute," Gabrielle Roy's novel whose locale is modern Montreal, have been acquired by Universal-International. • Art Gardner has been appointed executive assistant to Frank and Maurice King, and will work with them on "The Gangster," their current production for Allied Artists. . . . That unpredictable bird, the stork, caused a lot of confusion in Hollywood castings last week. Teresa Wright, forced to withdraw from Samuel Goldwyn's production, "The Bishop's Wife," was replaced by Loretta Young, and Miss Young, who had previously been announced for a stellar role in RKO Radio's "Memory of Love," was in turn replaced by Merle Oberon. Mr. Exhibitor: Investigate! Filmack's NEW Prevue Trailer Service before signing any trailer contracts. Write, wire 1 or phone Filmack 1327 S. Wabash, Chicago 5, III. and receive full details. Why are they after the Girl with the Little Black Book r