Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1956)

6 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, October 30, 1 In the THEATRE EQUIPMENT and Refreshment WORLD . . . . . . with RAY GALLO JF. "JACK" O'BRIEN" has been s named manager of the RCA Northeastern Region, with headquarters in Boston. As chief executive in that territory, O'Brien will play an important part in determining policies and dealing with problems relating to the sales and merchandising of all RCA and RCA Victor products. Helmco-Lacy, Inc., Chicago, has developed several models in its new line of "Fountainettes." Newly featured in the single pump models are lever action pumps instead of the plunger type previously used. These new stainless steel pumps are adjustable for exact portion control and can accommodate a variety of toppings, including cold fudge. The appointment of Henri/ Schwartz as representative in the metropolitan area was made hy the Bennet Mfg. Co., Alden, N. Y., a leading manufacturer of waste receptacles. Schwartz has been in the janitor supply field since 1935 and is well known to jobbers and dealers around town. Selenium rectifer units are offered by the Kneisley Electric Co., Toledo, to replace conventional 15-ampere bulb tubes of 40-, 50 and 60-ampere tube rectifiers. Called "SelTubes," they fit into the same space and require no external wiring. Doc Fai^e & Associates, New York, have marketed a carbonsaver for 9mm, 10mm, 11mm and 13.6mm positive carbons. Manufactured by Howard Neilson, the new device is adapted to both Ashcraft and Strong rotating carbon lamps. A cleaning agent applicable to many different surfaces inside the theatre has been announced by the Kusiel Chemical Co. of New York. Called "Randu" the compound may he used on all surfaces unharmed by water. Walter Reade, Jr., head of Walter Reade Theatres, has had a "Vieralite" lenticular screen installed in the St. James Theatre, Asbury Park, N.J., for "War and Peace." Three different models of an electrically-cooled pre-mix beverage dispenser have been placed on the market by S & S Products, Lima, Ohio. Called the "Quikold Premix," this manually operated cold drink dispenser comes with a single draft arm for one flavor, a pair of draft arms for two flavors, and three draft arms for three flavors. REVIEWS: Curucu, Beast of the Amazon Universal Producers Richard Kay and Harry Rvbnick have come up with a spinechiller, released through Universal, for the vounger element and those older folk who like to be scared out of their senses. And while this latest example of its genre offers nothing especially new, there is some authentic Brazilian jungle scenerv, in Eastman color, and brawny John Bromfield and shapely Beverlv Garland are on hand as adventurers in the wild area. Curt Siodmak has written and directed the film for fairly suspenseful results, and it is being offered on a "package" basis, commencing in December, with "The Mole People," another horror film item from Universal. Bromfield plays a plantation foreman in the Amazon area who is puzzled by the loss of manv of his native workers to a legendary monster who has the appearance of a huge bird. After obtaining permission from the home office in Rio, he goes up the Amazon to track down the monster, accompanied by a woman doctor, Miss Garland, who is looking for an alleged cancer cure supposed to be contained in the substance used for shrinking human heads. The "monster" turns out to be their guide, Tom Pavne, a native who is secretly the chief of a headhunting tribe. Pavne has devised a kind of Hallowe'en costume made up of colorful bird feathers and a monstrous-looking papier-mache-tvpe head, with which he terrorizes one and all. However, before the protagonists make this discovery they get lost in the jungle, chased bv fierce native tribes, attacked bv snakes and other denizens of the wild, scratched, bitten, captured and threatened with death. Amidst the distractions, Bromfield and the lady medico develop a romance. All ends well for the lovers when a native chief whom Miss Garland had treated for appendicitis rallies his tribe and rescues them from the headhunters. Then it's back to civilization and safety. Running time, 76 minutes. General classification. For December release. Lawrence J. Quirk The Mole People Universal This Universal presentation, which is being made available in a "package" with "Curucu, Beast of the Amazon," is a scarv enough concoction, although the situations strain credibility at times. The suspense quotient, however, is high, and the product should do a goodlv business among devotees of this kind of entertainment. Virgil Vogel directed and William Alland produced. The screenplav of Laszlo Gorog tells of a weird people who inhabit the underground recesses of a snow-covered Asian mountain area. A scientific expedition, headed by John Agar, comes upon them when they investigate the site of an ancient Sumerian civilization. Descending into a deep mountain recess into which one of their party has fallen, Agar and his friends find themselves trapped bv a landslide and forced to seek egress through a series of tunnels. They come upon an underground civilization descended from the Sumerians which had taken refuge in the mountain centuries before and today cannot even stand sunlight. Using the harsh rays of their flashlight to keep the inhabitants at bay, Agar and his associates investigate their surroundings. The king, Arthur Gilmour, and his people, awed by the flashlight, think the explorers are gods, but the high priest, Alan Napier, is suspicious, and eventually is instrumental in ordering their death sentence. The Sumerians keep under subjection a sort of sub-race, the mole men, who are monstrously uglv in appearance and have gigantic claws for digging into the earth. These slaves revolt, and help Agar and partv to return to the upper earth. Cynthia Patrick is on hand as a Sumerian girl for whom Agar develops an attachment, and Hugh Beaumont, Nestor Paiva, Phil Chambers, Rodd Redyving and Robin Hughes lend adequate support. Running time, 78 minutes. General classification. For December release. L. J. Q. Hyman Toun (Continued from page 1) major point in the ten-point j gram promulgated by Leonard Goldenson, AB-PT's president, Hyman, and recently stressed at national conference of the compa affiliates and executives. Hyman has met with manager: theatres operated by AB-PT and affiliates in Detroit, Buffalo and R< ester, urging greater local-level operation between the theatres the distributors in the advertising exploitation of pictures. Woman Producer (Continued from page 1) just completed "The 27th Day," second under a six-film deal with lumbia. The first, "Reprisal," star Madison, is in current release, lumbia is financing the product which will be made over a fiveperiod. "The 27th Day" will be leased next March she said. Asserting that she in interests "science fact rather than science tion subjects," Miss Ainsworth told press at the Hotel Warwick yeste:, that she feels a woman's intuitio important in film-making both selection of stories and their devc ment, and noted that audiences predominantly women. She expre hope of some day making rom; dramas tailored to women's tastes revealed that she is currently end oring to interest women audience action subjects and other filmic n rial usually appealing to men ei sively. This she does by blem in her action and science fact film! gredients that appeal to both sexn Miss Ainsworth rey ealed that cently she showed "Reprisal" to a 1 20 women representing a cross ! tion of distaff organizations inclu. P T.A.'s American Legion auxflil : Gold Star Mothers, etc., and got 1 ly favorable reaction. She beliew "being sold on what you are d(; believing one hundred per cern your project." One subject in w3 she believes is tolerance. Shejj Madison, who is one-eighth In> j have endeavored in their films to sent the Indian in a more human sympathetic light," she said. Cinerama to Miami MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Oct. Jack Caplan of the Roosevelt Th reports leasing negotiations have completed with Cinerama, Inc., fo installation of Cinerama equipme the theatre. Remodeling is expc to cost approximately $100,000 was scheduled to start this week a possible opening on Dec. 5 "This Is Cinerama." 6 Brave9 Big in L.A. HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 29. King Brothers' "The Brave G. which opened Friday at the 900 Four Star Theatre here, rolled m "tremendous" three-day gross of|| 421, RKO, which is releasing it ; ported yesterday.