Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1951)

4 Motion Picture Daily Monday, October 29, 1951 NEWS in Brief . . . Reviews Hollywood, Oct. 28. — The number of pictures in production remained the same last week, for a total of 42. Five new pictures were started and five were completed. Started were : "Okinawa," Columbia ; "Hold That Line," Monogram ; "Way of a Gaucho" and "The Girl Xext Door," 20th Century-Fox; "Hear No Evil," Universal-International. Completed were "Whip Law," Monogram ; "Hoodlum Empire," Republic ; "Where's Charley," "Room for One More" and "The Lion and the Horse." Warner. • Hollywood, Oct. 28. — Reub Kaufman, head of sales and distribution for Snader Sales, and Don Fedderson, general manager of KLAC-TV, have concluded negotiations for the payment of $103,000 for rental of 18 British films, including the 14 previously announced from Alexander Korda and four since acquired. The pictures will be available in January, and will be released in order of clearance from local theatre exhibition. The contract gives KLAC-TV exclusive and unlimited use of the films for a two-year period. The four recently acquired are : the Boulting Brothers production for Korda of "Seven Day to Noon," J. Arthur Rank's "Facts of Love" ; the independent production, "Good Time Girl," and "Forever and A Day," filmed by RKO in London. • Louisville, Oct. 28. — The recentlyappointed convention committee of the Kentucky Association of Theatre Owners has selected the dates of Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 5 and 6, for the organization's annual convention. It will be held at the Henry Clay Hotel here. • Hollywood, Oct. 28. — The name of Frontier Pictures Co., producer of Westerns starring Wild Bill Elliott, Johnny Mack Brown, Jimmy Ellison and Whip Wilson for Monogram release, has been changed to Silver Mine Productions, it was announced here by Vincent M. Fennelly, president. • Boston, Oct. 28. — The convention of the Independent Exhibitors of New England will be held here at the Copley Plaza Hotel on Dec. 4. The sessions will be topped by a banquet attended by civic and trade leaders. • Portland, Ore., Oct. 28. — "Show of Shows." the annual event held under auspices of motion picture exhibitors, distributors and affiliated theatre unions here will be held at the Mayfair Theatre Wednesday. The receipts will go to the maintenance fund of the Portland Shrine Hospital. Too Young to Kiss" Correction L'nited Artists' Jules Levey production of "Fabiola" was inadvertently listed as an RKO production in a headline in yesterday's issue of this publication. in a SPECIAL TRAILER HURRY? If-*' 1st l327S.W»b«h rn Mini/ 630 •.CMcajo, Illinois rlLMHUIV Niw York, N. Y. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) LT* VERY unproven artist knows how difficult it is to get an audition with ~ a concert manager. In this instance pretty June Allyson, a talented pianist, refuses to give up when Van Johnson simply would not see her. What ensues is a farce of romantic complications which audiences in general will find pleasantly engaging and worth while. When Miss Allyson learns that Johnson is scheduled to hear an audition for children she put a precocious idea into action. Bedecked as a child, Miss Allyson presents herself as Molly Potter, age 13, and wins the contest. Now Johnson scrambles madly to sign Molly up, even though he can not get along with Molly's presumed older sister, who of course is Miss Allyson without the pigtails and teeth brace. Miss Allyson also has a newspaperman boy friend, Gig Young, and he is not very happy when he learns that the "child prodigy" is going to spend time at Johnson's country estate studying for a big debut. The natural antagonism between the two men is aggravated when Young gets a punch in the nose for giving the "child" a cigarette. As the screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett rolls on, Johnson becomes convinced that the "prodigy" is an incurable brat with an addiction for such adult pleasures as cocktails and cigarettes. When it becomes time for Johnson to present his protege he learns of the hoax, and though angry, allows Molly to play after announcing her real age to the audience. As soon as his anger subsides, Johnson realizes that he is in love with Miss Allyson and has to stop a homeward-bound train to get her back. Paula Corday makes a shapely "other woman." Robert Z. Leonard directed and Sam Zimbalist produced. Running time, 91 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Nov. 23. Mandel Herbstman The Globetrotters" (Columbia) A MORE appropriate season for the launching of this production does not exist, for "The Globetrotters" concerns that widely known aggregation of furiously swift Harlem team of Negro professional basketball players, and the basketball season is here. For once, a Hollywood production dealing with sports completely is spared the injection of the notoriety which has been headlined in newspapers so extensively as has the scandal of the basketball "fix" which threw a pall over schools in the East. A "fix" in sports almost invariably is followed by a "fix" film. "The Globetrotters" is both entertaining and interesting and gives showmen an immediate opportunity to promote it in every medium where basketball is talked about, in print, on the air, in schools, most everywhere. The tale by Alfred Palca is a sharp and efficient one and so the production and direction by Buddy Adler and Phil Brown. It is a more or less simple story, a human story of a great team with fine traditions, and the problem of one of its younger players in ridding himself of cynicism and adjusting to the team spirit. In the role of the young player is Billy Brown, who leaves school, where he is an honor student, to join the Trotters. He soon becomes the star player but it doesn't take long before his teammates find out that he does not share their idealism. Despite the fact that he scores and wins an important game for the team, he has disobeyed orders of the coach, Thomas Gomez, and is released. He returns to college as a chemistry professor and signs a contract for the following season with another professional team. However, he cannot stay away from the Trotters and despite a bad knee, he gets permission to again play with them, this time realizing the importance of teamwork and tradition. Gomez, as the non-Negro coach, is excellent and so is Brown, except in some spots where he shows his inexperience as an actor. However, this is of lesser importance since the real stars are the Trotters, and basketball fans will get more than their money's worth in the generous amount of basketball footage. Others in the cast are Dorothy Dandridge, Bill Walker, Angela Clarke, Peter Thompson and Steve Roberts. Running time, 80 minutes. General classification. For November release. Martin Theatres Get Six Houses in South Atlanta, Oct. 28. — Martin Theatres in Columbus, Ga., has taken over six theatres in Columbus and Phenix City, Ala. Transfer of the six to Martin dissolves a three-way partnership between Martin, George Theatres and United Paramount. Edwards Gets 3 Houses Atlanta, Oct: 28.— W. W. Edwards, from Ozark, Ala., is the new owner of three neighborhood theatres in Birmingham, Ala., the Norwood, Avon and Fox. T. R. Campbell will manage the Avon, Robert Chism will look after Norwood and T. O. Williams will manage the Fox. Lasky Off on A Goodwill Tour Hollywood, Oct. 28.— Jesse L. Lasky, M-G-M producer, and Charles Homan, writer, left here over the weekend by plane on a nine-day tour of southwest and midwest cities to address students of major colleges. The first stop will be at Wichita I ' alls, Texas, where Lasky will address the student body of the Midwestern. University and will then proceed to Des Moines to be the principal speaker at the Des Moines Register and Tribune dinner honoring k'arl King, noted U. S. bandmaster. From there he will fly to Champaign, 111., to speak to the students of the University of Illinois after which he will spend two days in Chicago. Para. TV Plans to Lease Studio Here Negotiations to lease a studio here for two projected Paramount Television Productions, TV shows, are underway. Indications that talks on the deal are soon to be finalized was offered by Burt Balaban, newly appointed Paramount Television programming and production director. He said production at the undisclosed New York studio is expected to be started within a "couple of weeks." American Leaders (Continued from page 1) ture Pioneers in honor of Harry M., Jack L. and Albert Warner. More than 300 of a quarter century or more in the motion picture business will attend the dinner on Nov. IS at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. The tribute to the three Warner brothers as the "Pioneers of the Year," in honor of their many years of motion picture leadership, will be signalized by the presentation of a special plaque from the Pioneers. To date, 75 new members are scheduled for induction into the Pioneers class of '51 at the dinner. Joins TOA Here (Continued from page 1) hibitors on matters like taxation, television, and government controls. "As a service co-ordinator, he will handle grievances from the field and will establish an effective information conduit with our units wherever they require national headquarters support on matters relative to 16mm. competition, complaints on advertising aids, and interchange of information as to theatre construction, maintenance, and operation, and local legislation," said Sullivan. Hollywood Attends 'Movietime' Banquet Hollywood, Oct. 28.— More than 300 film personalities, film executives and others identified with the "Movietime U. S. A." tours, celebrated the success of that project at a banquet given here at the weekend at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Robert J. O'Donnell, national head of the "Movietime" promotion, and Samuel Briskin, Hollywood coordinator, presided. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Coordinating Committee has dispatched questionnaires to all personalities who made the "Movietime" tours, on which they are to furnish information that will be correlated in support of a new plan to be suggested for next year's tours. Sullivan Views Shoreham Gael Sullivan, Theatre Owners of America executive director, left New York last night for Washington, where he will "look over" the Shoreham Hotel as a possible site for the forthcoming meeting of the TOA executive board. He will confer while in the Capital with government tax officials, and will return here on Wednesday.