Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1951)

Tuesday, July 3, 1951 Motion Picture daily 3 National Pre-Selling PARAMOUNT producer George Pal has been honored as the man who contributed the most toward science-fiction in the past year. Pal, producer of "Destination Moon" and the forthcoming Paramount film, "When Worlds Collide" was cited at the fourth Annual Convention in San Francisco of science-fiction writers and editors. He was presented with "The Invisible Man" Award which is made each year. The unique statuette is inscribed with two footprints indicating the presence of the "invisible man." An additional million "David Bathsheba" give-away cards and heralds have been ordered by 20th Century-Fox for nationwide distribution by Walter (Goliath) Talun, now on tour. He has already used 65,000 in the first few days of his trip as souvenirs of the visit of this colorful exhibit for the crowds. The giant was in Altoona yesterday and will be in Pittsburgh tomorrow, where he will highlight a citywide Fourth of July celebration, and then sets off through Ohio cities, including Youngstown, Canton, Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Springfield, Dayton and Cincinnati. • Louella Parsons, in Cosmopolitan for July, now on sale, calls "Show Boat" the best musical of the month, and cites Ava Gardner for the best performance of the month in "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman." She calls the M-G-M picture "a film of startling originality" and says that the star is "the most ravishing 'femme fatale' I've ever seen, who gives a laughing, brooding, amoral portrayal." Metro also reports that the July Vogue carries a photograph of Deborah Kerr zvith credit to "Quo Vadis" and thai the July 18 issue of People Today will feature Esther Williams on its cover. Reviews "Rich, Young and Pretty" (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) A ROMANTIC comedy with music is given a Parisian setting and an ornate Technicolor frame in "Rich, Young and Pretty." The story meanders along gaily without too much concern over credulity. Its prime purpose is entertainment and it achieves this end conspicuously. Vic Damone makes his screen debut in the production and quite naturally he sings a number of songs. As a matter of fact, just about everyone gets into the singing mood and that includes Jane Powell, Danielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey and Fernando Lamas. The story has Corey going off to Paris with his daughter, Miss Powell, and housekeeper, Una Merkel, on a State Department mission. There are some misgivings about the trip for Corey because his estranged wife, Miss Darrieux, is now living in Paris, where she is a nightclub entertainer. It seems that a score of years ago she forsook the drab life on a Texas ranch with Corey and returned to her native France. In departing she left with Corey their infant daughter, now the grown Miss Powell. Paris being the city of romance, it lives up to tradition, insofar as Miss Powell is concerned. She meets and falls in love with a singing government clerk, Damone. She also meets Miss Darrieux, whom she thinks is a charming stranger. In time a rift between Miss Powell and Damone develops, whereupon both parents, after some differences of opinion, get together and engineer the happy ending for the youngsters. There are close to a dozen sock tunes in the film, some new, some old. Norman Taurog directed knowingly and Joe Pasternak produced. Dorothy Cooper and Sidney Sheldon collaborated on the screenplay, from a story by the former. Running time, 95 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Aug. 3. Mandel Herbstman "Three Steps North" (United Artists) NAPLES and Amalfi serve as the marvelous background for this bi-lingual picture made in Italy, with the Italians speaking Italian and the Americans speaking American, and the result is more pleasing than most of the films made under the same conditions. Producer-director W. Lee Wilder has handled well a rather complicated script by Robert Harari, and succeeds in keeping the plot moving. The picture is an obvious bet for art houses, but the action and suspense should enable it to stand up in other situations. The theme is the return of U. S. soldier and blackmarketeer Lloyd Bridges to Italy, after four years in military prison, to dig up his 4,000,000 lire. The place he buried it is now a military cemetery, and the police and all sorts of unsavory local characters, including ex-American gangsters now residents of Italy, are interested also. Bridges is also involved in reviving his romance with local beauty Lida Padovani. He succeeds in the latter project; but fails in the former, for the money has gone to cemetery caretaker Aldo Fabrizi, an allegedly simple soul who used the money to build a chapel. Miss Padovani has little to do, but Fabrizi contributes a delightful characterization, simple, but not dumb, pious, but also sophisticated ; deeply human and powerful. Bridges as the ex-American "G. I." is an unregenerate, money-mad fellow with a strictly limited vocabulary and general approach. American audiences will understand him. Running time, 85 minutes. Adult audience classification. Scores of requests for the free 24-sheet poster offered by 20th Century-Fox to all exhibitors contracting for billboard space are swamping the company's home office, with a special unit assigned to handle the orders. The offer was made as part of the "Greater Showmanship" drive which was announced at the recent Los Angeles sales convention, and will benefit all theatres in extracting the full potential at the box office. • Doris Day and Gordon MacRac, who co-star in Warner's Technicolor musical, "On Moonlight Bay," zvill be seen on seven fan magazine covers during August, September and October. Miss Day will be on the covers of Photoplay, Motion Picture, Silver Screen, Movieland and Movie Stars Parade. • Charles Seiden of the Lewis Supply Co., which manufactures the "Gene Autry" bicycle as a franchised article for promotion, reports that "Gene Autry Day" in Atlanta (without Gene Autry in person) sold 495 bicycles, and that his company has just sold 5,000 bicycles to the Firestone stores, as a result of magazine tieups. — Walter Brooks Sue on 'Alice' (Continued from page 1) on July 26 at the Mayfair Theatre, just one week prior to the opening of the Disney film at the Criterion. A preliminary hearing has been set for Federal District court here on July 10. The papers filed state that Souvaine should be restrained from manufacturing prints of its "Alice" unless it is agreed that all advertising should carry the following legend in large type : "A Souvaine Pictures release produced in France by Lou Bunin Productions and having no connection with Walt Disney Productions." Production cost of Disney's "Alice" are listed as $2,963,465 and print costs at $200,000, with advertising costs already at $325,000, and $275,000 more budgeted. According to the complaint, Disney announced in 1945 that he was starting work on "Alice" for 1951 release, while Bunin's production was not started until Oct., 1946. Bunin originally planned U. S. release through Pathe and Eagle-Lion, according to the Disney-RKO complaint, and Bunin is now facing a $1,000,000 suit by Pathe. In addition, the complaint charges, Eagle-Lion representatives offered the Bunin picture to Disney last year for $16,000. The complaint says that Disney's "Alice" was to be premiered here by Harry Brandt's Mayfair Theatre, but that RKO was unable to reach an agreement on terms with Brandt and Picto Pictures, both named defendants in the injunctive proceedings. As a result, RKO signed with the Criterion for an Aug. 1 premiere and Brandt bought the Bunin "Alice" from Souvaine. A spokesman for Souvaine Pictures said yesterday the company would reserve comment on the RKO-Disney injunction proceeding pending receipt of the court papers. Sherrill in Interim Kansas MP A Post Kansas City, Mo., July 2. — Woody W. Sherrill city salesman of M-G-M, was named by the board of directors of Motion Picture Association of Greater Kansas City as interim director pending election by members of a successor to Robert L. Conn, now 20th Century-Fox branch manager at Des Moines. Price Exemption to Stay for Industry Washington, July 2. — Continued price control exemption for film rentals and admissions seems assured. The one-month stop gap extension of the Defense Production Act preserves this exemption, as does the eightmonth "permanent" extension passed by the Senate on Friday. The House still must finish work on a one-year extension bill, but as it now stands, the bill would preserve the exemption, and no move has developed to change this provision. Add Three to Para. Force; Shift Others In a move to bring Paramount's field exploitation force to maximum strength Jerry Pickman, director of advertising and publicity, has added three to his staff and has shifted the assignments of four others. Bob Bixler, recently with the Interstate Circuit, has been named for Dallas and Oklahoma City ; Ralph Buring has been assigned to Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, and Gabe Sumner, formerly with Schine, has been appointed to the New York branch. All will work under Sid Mesibov, exploitation manager. Israel-Made Film Screened by UJA A special press screening was held here yesterday by the United Jewish Appeal of "Tent City," a 30-minute documentary made in Israel. The story describes the settlement and adjustment of immigrants to Israel from scattered sections of the globe. According to Baruch Dienar, who produced and wrote the screenplay, negotiations are currently underway with a major distributor for the theatrical release of the film. The story unfolds through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy and his grandfather, both of whom arrived from Iraq. The cast is composed of the immigrants themselves. As a result there is a visual integrity to the production which makes it noteworthy in addition to the drama inherent in the narrative. Leopold Lahola directed. M. H. Hit Telecasts (Continued from page 1) complaints have been made to theatre managers. It is not known whether the boycott threats will be carried out, or how long the squawks will continue. The position of the theatre management is that "free entertainment" has never been guaranteed in the sale of television sets. The disposition of video rights to boxing, sports and other events is for the decision by the owners of the events, under conditions and terms they set, and not by the public. It was pointed out that filmed versions of fights have been telecast later.