Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1953)

2 Motion Picture Daily Friday, July 24, 1953 Personal Mention MOREY GOLDSTEIN, Allied Artists general sales manager, will leave here Monday for the Coast. • Gerald Shea, president of the Shea circuit, returned to New York today from a two-week tour of Western theatres. • Dick Wright, Stanley Warner district manager in Cleveland has been inducted into the Sioux Indian tribe. • Alice Crain, head booker of Motion Picture Service, San Francisco, was married to Michael Bielan at Long Beach. Erwin Nbuman, Putnam, Conn., executive of Interstate Theatres, and Mrs. Neuman, are parents of a baby daughter. Milton Harmon, manager of the Fox Wisconsin Uptown Theatre, Milwaukee, has left there for Hollywood. • Max E. Youngstein, United Artists vice-president, will return to New York today from Europe. • Herman Hoffman, M-G-M associate producer, left New York by plane yesterday for Hollywood. Reviews Return to Paradise" (Aspen Productions — United Artists) Hollyzvood, July 23 Herman Ripps, M-G-M assistant Eastern sales manager, has returned to New York from Albany. • Howard Dietz, M-G-M vice-president, returned here yesterday from Cleveland. • Arthur Schwartz, composer, is in Chicago from New York. • John Guilfoyle, of the Paramount advertising department, starts his vacation today. • L. D. Netter, Jr., Altec general sales manager, has left New York for Providence. • Jack O'Connell, Toledo theatre owner, is in St. Vincent's Hospital there being treated for a broken leg. • Pandro S. Berman, M-G-M producer, will arrive in New York from Hollywood on Sunday. • Everett Olsen, Paramount advertising field representative, has returned here from Atlanta. • Jerry Zigmond, United Paramount Western division manager, is in San Francisco from Los Angeles. • Ben Sharpstein, producer, will leave New York today for Europe aboard the S. S. United States. • Oscar Doob, M-G-M executive, left New York by plane yesterday for Hollvwood. A LOT of years and pictures have demonstrated repeatedly the power of the Gary Cooper name to pull a crowd and of the Cooper personality and/or talent to carry a picture. The marquee meaning of the word Technicolor is about as well established. And just now, by pleasant coincidence, the name of James A. Michener, the "South Pacific" man and the author of the currently best-selling "Bridges of Toko-Ri" and of the book from which this picture is taken, is red-hot in reader circles and among the followers of mass-circulation magazines. These are three good reasons why this Aspen production presenting Cooper as a white man who cases himself on an island in the Polynesian group to get-away-from-it-all or something, and finds he can't, should prosper. The fact that he plays a decidedly unadmirable character, in a story that requires of its audiences a heap of sympathetic understanding, is a good reason for shooting the exploitation works at getting the utmost out of a smash opening. _ The character played by Cooper is never clearly explained in Lnarles Kaufman's otherwise quite explicit screenplay. It is that of an unhappy, irritable and two-fisted drifter who lands on the island determined to stay m spite of ouster orders given at once by the white son (Barry Jones) of a revered missionary, long dead, whose religious teachings the natives are forced by the over-zealous son to follow to exaggerated lengths. Cooper shoots the windows out of the meeting house by way of venting some neverclear emotion, and in time carries his resistance to island rules set down by Jones to the point where the natives revolt, overthrow Jones control, and continue in a combination of churchly devotion and their own original moral system. . . , , 1: .„ Under these circumstances Cooper accepts a native girl who comes to live with him and, when she dies in their unsolemnized state while bearing him a baby, he gives the baby to friendly neighbors and leaves the is and. Years later, when the abandoned baby is grown up, he returns to the island, in response to a message citing need of petrol for war watchers, and meets his daughter in time to prevent her from repeating with a Marine the mistake her mother made with him years ago. (That sounds like a formula reformation story, but there is nothing formula about it— nor reformation either — as presented.) .... , j The film photographed on the islands, is nice to look at, as to color, and has some information of interest concerning early island customs and culture to convey Dialogue describing some of these— as when the girl m the case tells Cooper about the custom by which, before the missionary came island -iris had babies before marriage as a means of proving they would make good mothers— isn't quite as suitable for tender ears as it might have been, for instance in a documentary film, or a text book. . The production is by Theron Warth, and the direction by Mark Robson. In the cast other than those named above, are Robert Haynes, Moira MacDonald, John Hudson, Va'a, Hans Kruse, Namea Mataumma, Herbert Ah Sue, Henrietta Godinet, and others. „ , , . T , Running time, 100 minutes. Adult audience <^ssl^°^f g^AVER 3 Companies Add Stock Holdings Three industry companies have reported increases in the amount of stock held in their respective firms to the New York Stock Exchange. American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, which previously reported holding 58,022 shares of its five per cent preferred stock, has increased the amount by 2,300, bringing the total to 60,322. Big Paramount Increase Paramount Pictures, previously holding 5,700 shares of common, has increased the total by 10,200, for a total of $15,900'. Universal Pictures has added 130 shares of its 4^ per cent cumulative preferred to the previously reported 1,270 shares, bringing the total to 1,400 shares. Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (Universal-International) -TWO known values can be exploited in this latest adventure In the 1 careers of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello: the comedy stars and the drawing power of Boris Karloff as the original screen schizofremc The net result of this combination provides some pleasing nonsense and horror, as buffoonery and bestiality join hands. Abbott and Costello fans should enjoy the proceedings but pure horror enfhusSL^aybe a trifle disappointed, ^^^^^ w lano-lnq Karloff slinks and growls as the animal Mr. tiyae ana. is most uav at the good doctor. Th? magic of motion pictures not only transforms Karloff Into a monster right before your eyes but, as an added attraction turns Costello into a playful prototype of the killer. The story is set in London at the turn of the century,_ a time when a mysterious monster is terrorizing the populace The comics are members of the London police force-at least until they become involved in a brawl with a group of suffragettes. Deciding they must make a daring arrest to return to the good graces of the department, they go out to trap the monster. As expected, fury breaks loose. The trials and tribulations of the boys involve secret doors, weird serums, chases through, around and up the sides of buildings, and the final capture of the villain. During the course of events, Costello is turned into a huge mouse and then into a monster with a contagious bite. Competently supporting the principals are Craig Stevens, as a young reporter Helen Westcott, as Karloff 's ward; Reginald Denny, as a police inspector, and John Dierkes. Howard Christie produced and Charles Lamont directed from a screenplay by Leo Loeb and John Grant. Running time, 76^ minutes. General audience classification. For August release. Film Stars in GE Series of Video HOLLYWOOD, July 23.— Stuart Reynolds has closed a deal with General Electric, acting through the Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne agency for the filming under his Reynolds Production banner, of a new series of 13 half-hour TV films featuring top motion picture stars. Each presentation in the new series will be a complete dramatic show, with different stars featured. The first will be telecast on Sunday, Sept, 27, over the CBS television network at 9:00 P.M. (EDST). Hodes Testimonial Is Set for Aug. 5 Phil Hodes, who is retiring on Aug. 1 as New York exchange manager for RKO Radio, will be given a testimonial luncheon at the Hotel Astor on Aug. 5 by approximately 250 friends. Harold Klein of J. J. Theatres is in charge of arrangements. Hodes, except for the years between 1916 and 1922, when he was with Universal, has spent his entire industry career with RKO and its predecessor, FBO. 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