Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1950)

Friday, August 4, 1950 Motion Picture Daily 13 Reviews "The Desert Hawk" ( Universal-International) A ROMANTIC outdoor adventure drama in Technicolor is presented in Universal-International's "The Desert Hawk." Fashioned along familiar story lines, the picture has the charm of lush scenery and costumes, pretty girls and clashing swords. Leonard Goldstein's production realizes what it sets out to be — relaxing escape drama. Romance and intrigue are the chief themes of the picture which features Yvonne DeCarlo and Richard Greene in the lead. The story elements involve an evil prince, played with unctuous villainy by George Macready. It is Macready's pleasure to oppress the people of the desert, while the people's major defender is represented by Greene, a blacksmith, who in Robin Hood fashion rides forth with his tiny band of men to avenge evils. The languorous role of Princess Shaharazade, daughter of the mighty Caliph of Bagdad, falls to Miss DeCarlo. Macready's plans to strengthen his position by marrying Miss DeCarlo are completely upset by a strategem of Greene's. Greene poses as the prince, marries Miss DeCarlo, and takes to his heels leaving a mess of complications behind. Fight and flight between the forces of both men ebb and flow until a major crisis is reached when Miss DeCarlo falls into the conspiratorial grip of Macready. It takes considerable feats of derring-do by Greene to rescue Miss DeCarlo. At this point Miss DeCarlo and Greene realize they love each other despite some previous tiffs. Others in the cast are Jackie Gleason, an aide to Greene, and Joe Besser, who provides the clownish touch. Frederick de Cordova directed from a formula screenplay concocted by Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen and Gerald Drayson Adams. Running time, 77yi minutes. General audience classification. For August release. Mandel Herbstman "Vigilante Hideout" (Republic) THE latest in the Allan "Rocky" Lane series offers what the customers expect — an hour of sustained action and gunplay. Eddy Waller as a shrewd but eccentric inventor carries the burden of comedy and is a leavening agent in what might be merely routine Western antics. The story has Lane, a range detective, entering a town where mysterious cattle robberies have occurred. He soon suspects that the miserable herd is not what the robbers want ; that, instead, the repeated raids are to draw attention from something occurring in town. He discovers, too, when mysterious elements seem after him, that one character in particular, Don Haggerty, may be his enemy. He discovers later, in a flurry of action, that Haggerty has been using an abandoned copper mine beneath the town to gain proximity to the bank with a load of dynamite. He foils the plan, and Haggerty inadvertently blows himself up. Running time, 60 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Aug. 6. "Jungle Stampede" (Republic) AS a jungle documentary, "Jungle Stampede" is a cut above par for two main reasons: the photography is excellent and the editing is judicious. The film relates the story of two explorers, George Breakston and Yorke Coplen (they are also associate producers with the former directing), who set out to make a photographic record of animal life, and the lives of certain jungle tribes. The expedition is broken up into three parts — the journey from Nairobi to the Land of the Pygmies ; the trip from the pygmy territory to that of the Masai tribe ; and the Masai tribe itself. As the safari makes its way through thick jungles, swamps, caves, across rivers, etc., it encounters the usual adventures associated with this kind of exploration. Much of the material shown here doesn't appear too new, although it is all very well presented. The fights between the various beasts are exciting. Ronald Davidson does a capable narrating job, and Herman Schopp, as diretcor of photography, gets the most out of his medium. Running time, 60 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, July 29. Hughes^randt (Continued from page 1) I Daily, stem from the fact that there I must be guarantees that Hughes will I be in a position to dispose of his 24 } per cent interests in RKO Theatres J when the circuit is divorced from RKO production-distribution on Jan. 1 and Brandt will be in a position to } take over at that time. Attorneys now are at vv-u putting this into legal terminolo^O Reports^rSit Brandt might not have ; secured complete financing commit1 ments are of no concern to the Hughes 1 side, a spokesman for which said this I is a matter between Brandt and his backers. It was made clear that there [ have been no obstacles yet to materialize of such a nature which would make a collapse of the deal likely, alj though the "deferred delivery" compli! cations might mean more time for completion of the transfer than had been indicated earlier. Backing Brandt is Kuhn, Loeb & Co., New York banking firm, which I is to float a bond issue to cover the j purchase. Based on a formula ar! rangement, the price must be more | than eight dollars per share for Hughes' 929,020 shares. TOA Ties Future (Continued from page 1) Goldenson drew attention to the pictures, which he termed "excellent." TOA's decision to give business a chance to pick up before holding the meeting rests on the conviction that improved conditions would have an important bearing on a number of decisions which the executive group must make. Moreover; conditions as they now stand are said to require the active attention of the executive committee members to the operations of their individual theatre enterprises. A recent addition to the agenda of the committee's next meeting, which may take place this month, is discussion of a proposal for a cooperative arrangement in setting up youth clubs and combatting juvenile delinquency which has been submitted by Junior Americans of the United States, which, like TOA, is a member of the MidCentury White House Conference. JAOUS is headed by Mayor Milton f A. Gibbons of Tuckahoe, N. Y., and has for its executive vice-president Eli Gottlieb, former merchandising counsel for Columbia Pictures. Chartered in 1936 by New York State as a nonprofit, non-sectarian membership corporation, JAOUS has developed over the years ambitious youth recreation promotion plans which it aims to put in force with the cooperation of the film industry, according to Gottlieb. He pointed out that his organization has been tied in with promotion of United Artists' "So Young, So Bad." In addition to the proposal submitted I to TOA, the JAOUS is seeking to | establish independent arrangements I with a number of New York Metropolitan Area circuits. Gottlieb said. He added that one of the organization's ■ aims is to bring about war effort activity, such as tin can collections, through the joint efforts of youngsters and motion picture theatres. Franchise to Federal Film International of America, Inc., has granted a franchise to Federal Film_ Co. of Boston for the distribution in the New England territory of all International product. 4IA' Position (Continued from page 1) future American production in Britain under it. Yesterday Walsh was making preparations here for his departure today for Detroit where he will preside at "IA" board meetings. He was unavailable for comment on the remittance agreement. At a press conference in June he had suggested that it would be "a good idea" to have Coast labor represented in subsequent Anglo-American remittance talks in an advisory capacity, but that never materialized. The sole representative of Coast studio labor on the "IA" board is Carl G. Cooper, the union's seventh vicepresident. Grant Deferments (Continued from page 1) join reserve units of the armed forces. In the event of stepped up draft calls, however, the present list was expected to be whittled down drastically. Radio and television were also listed as essential. The classification "includes establishments producing and distributing motion picture films, exhibiting motion pictures in commercially operated theatres, and furnishing services to the motion picture industry." Walsh will be accompanied to Detroit by members of the union's New York staff, all of whom will remain there for the duration of the biennial convention Aug. 14-18. MPEA Board ( Continued from page 1 ) are no more meetings scheduled to discuss the subject many telephone conversations will follow among the board members and the MPAA chief to iron but various aspects for which there was not time to deal with at yesterday's brief parley. Moreover, it will be necessary for individual company executives to confer among themselves before commitments beyond the "in principle" ones given yesterday are forthcoming, it was understood. One company president said at the conclusion of the meeting that it probably will "take days, weeks or months even" before an unqualified affirmation of the agreement is received from the American industry as a whole. The announcement of the agreement on Thursday stipulated that the so-called Anglo-American "technicians" committee would require considerable time to hammer out the details of the agreement which, in itself, was reached "in principle" by the negotiators. O'Hara with Johnston Johnston and his assistant, Joyce O'Hara, a member of the "technicians" committee, arrived in New York by plane from London late yesterday afternoon. The MPEA board, which is comprised of company presidents and foreign managers, had been alerted earlier to stand by for an emergency meeting. It was barely two hours before the meeting that they knew definitely that the meeting would be held yesterday. Interviewed briefly following the meeting's adjournment, RKO Radio president Ned E. Depinet conceded in reply to a question that the new agreement "does not define" those elements in which Hollywood labor has been interested. In other words, according to Depinet's statement, the question remains whether the bonus provisions relating to American expenditures on film production in Britain will be detrimental to Hollywood labor from its point of view. The details which the "technicians" committee will hammer out in due course will hold the answer to that question, it would appear. 29 Attend Present at the meeting were : Nicholas M. Schenck, Nate Blumberg, Jack Cohn, Harry Warner, Depinet, Paul V. McNutt, Irving Maas, J. Robert Rubin, Arthur Loew, Morton Spring, Al Daff, Samuel Schneider, Joseph McConville, Arnold Picker, John Glynn, Richard Altschuler, John J. O'Connor, William Clark, Phil Reisman, Maurice Silverstone, Francis Harley, Abe Schneider, George Weltner, William Osborne, Theodore Hope, Jr., O'Hara, Francis Harmon, John G. McCarthy and Sidney Schreiber. The Perfect Guest McMinnville, Term., Aug 3. — Congressman Estes Kefauver recently accepted an invitation to spend a weekend at the summer home of Cowan Oldham, local chain theatre operator, on Barren Fork River, near here. The Congressman didn't seem to mind at all when he discovered a six-foot rattlesnake, with 18 rattles, near a swimming hole in the river. He went to the house, obtained a shovel, killed the snake and resumed his swim.