Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1951)

2 Motion Picture Daily Friday, January 26, 1951 Personal Mention EDWARD L. HYMAN, vice-president of United Paramount Theatres accompanied by Simon B. Siegel, comptroller, have returned here from a visit to Springfield, Mass., where they met with Samuel Goldstein, president of Western Massachusetts Theatres. • Leon J. Bamberger, RKO sales promotion manager, is due to leave here over the weekend for Dallas to address the Allied Independent Theatre Owners of Texas convention there next week. • Alfred E. Daff, Universal worldwide sales director, and Maurice Bergman, home office executive, left here last night for Kansas City and St. Louis. They will return on Monday. ^ Betty Kronfeld of United Artists' foreign department, will be married here on Sunday to Leonard Katz of the New York Post. • Sam Zimbalist, producer, this week observes his 25th anniversary with M-G-M. • Harry Buckley, accompanied by Mrs. Buckley, have returned here from the Coast. Review "Cause for Alarm" (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) Hollywood, Jan. 25 DIFFERENCES of opinion about this little number can be as numerous as the customers, for it's an odd and awkwardly shaped package. Strictly a gimmick story, in point of fact a radio script expanded for picture purposes the picture does in 74 minutes the same kind of job which "Suspense" and similar programs knocked off in 30. Yet it has Loretta Young, who gives one of her top performances, with nobody nameful but Barry Sullivan alongside, and he as a short-lived heavy. Miss Young does a great job in a picture half' her size, but the story, that ends on the gimmick as a radio program does merely builds her admirers up to a letdown which is hard to reconcile with' the use of her talent. Barring the lightning striking, as it struck the intrinsically similar "Sorry, Wrong Number," the picture appears to have slight box-office prospects. . . The radio pattern is followed quite closely, the story depicting one turbulent day in the life of a faithful wife whose heart-stricken husband believes she and their doctor, an old friend of theirs, are trying to kill him off by overdoses of heart stimulant, so they can have each other. To frustrate their fancied designs he writes a letter to the district attorney, struggles from his sick bed to watch from a window as she hands it to the postman, and then tells her what he has done, breaks out a pistol and announces he is going to kill her under circumstances which, with the letter, will establish self-defense as his motive But he dies before he can shoot her, and she sets out m pursuit of the postman to regain possession of the letter before reporting her husband's death. This sets off a series of suspense-building incidents which culminate in the postman's unexpected return of the letter due to insufficient postage and the story flops in a small heap on the screen unrelieved by even the expected sign-off stating a local station's call letters. Others in the cast are Bruce Cowling, Margalo Gillmore, Bradley Mora, Irvin° Bacon Georgia Backus, Don Haggerty, Art Baker and Richard Anderson • but it is all Miss Young's show. Tom Lewis, whose background is radio produced, from a script by himself and Mel Dinelh, taken from a radio' story by Larry Marcus. Tay Garnett directed. _ ttnnnine time 74 minutes. Adult audience classification. Release date, not Kunmiig , William R. Weaver set. Polangin Leaving Buchanan on Coast Hollywood, Jan. 25. — Frederick N. Polangin disclosed here today that he has resigned as vice president in charge of the Hollywood-Los Angeles branch of Buchanan and Co., advertising agency, which handles many motion picture accounts both here and in the East. Polangin, who is well known in motion picture advertising circles on both Coasts, said he will announce his future plans shortly. $12,000 Opening Day For WB's 'Enforcer' United States Pictures' "The Enforcer," starring Humphrey Bogart, which Warner is distributing, is understood to have opened to a $12,000 day's gross at its world premiere yesterday at the New York Capitol Theatre. NEWYORK THEATRES RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL Rockefeller Center Negotiations In UA Deal Still Continue Hollywood, Jan. 25.— It is reliably understood here that William J. Heineman will head up the management of United Artists if negotiations for acquisition of control of UA by the Krim-Benjamin-Heller syndicate are successfully concluded. Heineman is Eagle Lion Classics' vice-president in charge of distribution. Attorneys for all parties today continue their meetings here on terms to be included in a contract, with indications that the conferences will continue over the weekend. Vanguard Motion Is Denied in UA Action New York Supreme Court Justice Carroll G. Walter yesterday denied Vanguard Pictures' motion for a $77,209 summary judgment against United Artists in connection with the former's breach of contract suit filed last August. The action will now go to trial. The plaintiff alleges the amount is due under a contract for re-issuance of "Since You Went Away," "Rebecca," "Spellbound" and "I'll Be Seeing You." Won't Ask Theatre Ad Executives Join TY Control Now NY Exhibitor Talks Albany, Jan. 25.— No legislation to implement the ruling yesterday by State Attorney-General Nathaniel L. Goldstein that the Department of Education can be empowered to regulate television programs shown in theatres will be proposed to the current session of the legislature, Charles A. Brind, Jr., department counsel, said here today. The Education Department and the Board of Regents will study the ruling, which held that "no constitutional barrier" exists to the licensing of TV shows intended for commercial presentation. The final day for the introduction of bills for this session is Feb. 20 and Brind explained that the intervening time is insufficient for preparation of a bill, if one is deemed necessary. The next Board of Regents meeting is scheduled for the latter part of February. The MAGNIFICENT YANKEE" starring Louis CALHERN Ann HARDING A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture plus SPECTACULAR STAGE PRESENTATION Senate Unit Okays New Griffis Post Washington, Jan. 25. — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today approved President Truman's nomination of Stanton Griffis, head of Paramount's executive committee, as U. S. ambassador to Spain Distribution advertising publicity executives met here yesterday with the committee set up by Metropolitan New York area exhibitors to map a cooper ative business-building drive and "lis tened sympathetically" as the exhibi tors presented their plans. The meetings was held at the office of Howard Dietz, M-G-M advertising-publicity vice-president. Oscar Doob, one of the circuit par ticipants, said that the talks were still in the exploratory stage. He and other members of the exhibitor committee declined to discuss any specific steps proposed or discussed. Other members of the exhibitor committee present were Fred J Schwartz, Joseph Vogel, Edward Rugoff and Max A. Cohen. is record week! A Columbia Pitlute VEAN JERRY in person THE ARMY Paramount Picture f STONE Midnight F«otur« Nightly Color TV Appeal To Supreme Court U. S. District Court in Chicago signed an order yesterday allowing the Radio Corp. of America and others to appeal the color television case to the U. S. Supreme Court. The order was signed in resnonse to a petition filed earlier yesterday requesting leave to appeal. Joined with RCA in the petition were National Broadcasting, RCA Victor, and seven interveners, it was announced Press Preview for Lesser's Vistascope Hollywood, Jan. 25. — Sol Lesser's newly-formed Vistascope Corp. of America today demonstrated the French device to technicians and the press, using a test reel produced by inventor Achille Pierre Dufour to show the results obtainable, and later inviting the guests to inspect the invention itself. The yhidlark 'PlVOLI JL HOAOWAY Al »T. Hall Books Skirball Film RKO's "Payment on Demand," starring Bette Davis and produced by Jack Skirball, will follow "September Affair" at New York's Radio City Music Hall. tfZg j& " DISTRIBUTED BY , * 0* RKO RADIO PICTURES GLOBE1 46th ST. amoassaaor 10 opa.ni. aiu^u.^^. MOTION PICTURE DAILY. Mart^, Quigley, ^f^^^^^^^^J^^^S^ C^e F^St&fb^''*^ Sundays and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., . 1270 Six h Avenue Kock et* « | ^ Th j Su livan, Vice-President and Treasurer ; Leo J Brady Secretary New York." Martin Quigley, President; Red Kann Vice-President, Martin Quigley ^r-F^cse,rr^'oaduct on ManJager. Hollywood Bureau, Yucca-Vine Building William R Weaver, Tames P Cunningham, News Editor; Herbert V. Fecke, Advertising Manager, ^us *1 *i ause r rooi ict ion t : » t A 0tten National Press Club, Washington, D. C. EdTtor. Chicago Bureau, 120 South LaSalle Street Urben Farley. 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