Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1956)

Lday, December IS. 1956 Motion Picture Daily fVIEW: Battle Hymn Universal-International — CinemaScope Hollywood, Dec. 17 k special studio skills that have made "The Glenn Miller Story" and j> Hell and Back" Universal-International's two greatest box office Issers. in that order, are accountable here for an attraction eminently ilified to challenge those leaders for position in the profits column. ; jmmon with each of them. "Battle Hymn" is a picture backgrounded jwar, and its story is biographical. Also in common with them, it is extremely well made, level-eyed, common-sense presentation of the fual story of a man who served his country well in a war, as did mi Miller and Audie Murphy. These are the onlv similarities linking present picture with the two that have delivered before it the special ie of audience satisfaction it is sure to provide. The storv of "Battle Hymn" is the story of Col. Dean Hess, a minr who relinquished his pulpit to serve in the Air Force in World r II and who came back into uniform to serve again in the Korean fflict. Col. Hess' record of 300 missions over Europe and Korea is of the great stories of the war. His special service in Korea, in mating more than 1.000 orphans by air-lift from enemy-attacked -itorv to safety, is the high point in this admirably balanced account his Korean service. The role of Col. Hess is played with a fine command of values of Rock dson. who neither overdoes the action nor underplavs the spiritual of the character, and the equally difficult role of his chief aide is idled with humor and conviction bv Dan Durvea. Don Defore is ably effective as a former sendee companion of Hudson who differs ti him somewhat as to fighting policy in the Korean conflict but re" 4ns faithful to his leadership. Martha Hver is pleasantly cast as the onel's wife, with little to do in the picture, and Anna Kashfi, an ental actress seen here in her second American film, is excellent as Korean children's teacher. (The children are played bv children " Tn the Orphans Home of Korea). Production, in CinemaScope and with color by Technicolor, is bv ps Hunter, and direction is bv Douglas Sirk, working here with Hudfor the fourth time (after "Magnificent Obsession."' "All That Heaven pws" and "Written on the Wind."). 7he screenplay is bv Charles Gravson and Vincent B. Evans, a splencredit for both. The technical advisor on the picture, whose work may well have had ood deal to do with the fine over-all quality of the production, was 'onel Dean Hess himself. ming time. 108 minutes. General classification. For March release. William R. Weaver twaV Drive (Continued from page^^ Columbia is making "definite adce commitments" with nevvspamagazines, radio and television ions to provide special promotional film footage concerning the HoriProduction, which has a producbudget close to 83,000,000. *We have set up a special press \ip in Ceylon, under the direction l^rady Johnson, to supply promoj-al material on request. Under nston's supervision, a publicity m, complete with photographers artists, will turn out news material tut the film. We have arranged . eight to 10 top flight news pho"aphers, among them John Stewart Life' to go to Ceylon to cover the lal shooting in the jungles and the •ving up of the bridge. Johnson, before going to Ceylon, umber of months ago visited with Bromhead Dies at 73; Founded U.K. Fund LONDON, Dec. 17 (By Cable J.Reginald Charles Bromhead, 73, died here Saturday following a long illness. He was president^md chairman of the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund, which he founded 32 years ago. Bromhead was past president of the Kinematograph Benters' Society: chairman of Variety Theatres Consolidated, Ltd.; a director of the London Pavilion ltd., and director of the Sunderland Empire Palace, Ltd. He established the Gaumont-British Picture Corp., Ltd., with his brother, Lt. Col. A. C. Bromhead, in 1922, and was vice-president and chairman of the companv and subsidiaries until 1929. newspaper and magazine people in New York. London, Paris and Borne to find out what type of publicity and what storv material thev would desire. Television Today Passing in Review If one managed to keep out of the way of the rising tide of synthetic holiday cheer, principally in the form of unlikely gift suggestions and "hoho-ho" Santa Claus commercials, the preceding television week contained several genuine pleasures which might do credit to any season. Of almost historical importance was the return of Mama to CBS-TV Sunday evening. It's now on film and its charm is intact. CBS strengthened its Sunday evening position still further with the back-to-back scheduling of the new Gerald McBoing Boing show right after Mama. Like Gerald, the showis as refreshing as it is odd, and it is odd not only because of its fanciful form and content, but because it is without sponsors. A consideration here, and one that may be important, is that the UPA technique, as far as TV is concerned anyway, is too closely identified with a vast number of television commercials to cut the bold figure it should as strict entertainment. 'The Little Foxes' Scores The most interesting drama of the week was undoubtedly Hallmark's uncertain production of Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes," NBC-TV. Sunday night. Unlike the great majority of television dramas, this offered the viewer the spectacle of a performance that was not up to the script— and the script, sticking closely to the Hellman original, was a topnotch job of TV editing bv Bobert Hartung. As one of the great witches in modern literature, Greer Garson was handsome and poised but onlv occasionally did she suggest the ruthless strength and cruel humor that make the role so fascinating. In less demanding roles, and as a result, perhaps, more consistent, were Sidney Blackmer and E. G. Marshall. The other performers each went their separate, frantic ways, presumably under the direction of George Schae fer. In almost any performance, however, "The Little Foxes" would be an exciting work. There were several circumstances of note concerning CBS-TV's Playhouse 90 adaptation of "Sincerely/ Willis Wayde," Thursday night. Bunning the risk of a charge of chauvinism, it might be well to question the casting of two unmistakably British types, Peter Lawford and Sarah Churchill, in what is essentially American social satire. Mr. Lawford worked hard and, as an actor, quite sincerely, but never once did he register as J. P. Marquand's opportunistic bore (genus Americanus) . Noteworthy, too, is the fact that "Sincerely, Willis Wayde," in its original, was only moderately successful Marquand and that adaptor Frank Gilroy did not make things any better. In at least one New Yorkquarter it was suggested that Mr. Gilroy, a loyal Dartmouth man, was taking oblique revenge on Harvard man Marquand. The latter, in an earlier work, perpetuated the libel that in a famous Harvard-Dartmouth football game a man from Hanover bit the backside of a man from Cambridge. That, of course, is nonsense. Miss Hayes Twice Welcome Elsewhere in the week: Helen Hayes overcame her increasingly formidable reputation as a living theatre to brighten two little one-act plays of pathos and humor on ABCTV's Omnibus Sunday night; Sid Caesar, NBC-TV, Saturday night, precluded any further parodies of the big money shows with a hilarious sketch entitled "Break Your Brains," which included an eight-year-old atomic scientist whose category was comic books and an isolation booth in which the oxygen was inadvertently turned off; and CBS-TV's Sunday morning Look Up and Live segment which explored the work of modern artists in contemporary religious building. -V. C. Films to TV in U.K. Having Difficulties LONDON, Dec. 14 (By Air Mail). —The one-year experimental "arrangement" strongly opposed by exhibitors recently concluded by producers and distributors to supply a limited number of feature films, 20 in the first year, for the BBC ((British Broadcasting Corporation ) television network has already run into difficulties. Following approaches by the BBC, several British companies submitted lists of films available for TV but, to date, American companies here have shown no inclination to do likewise. In some cases the BBC has been turned down flat. Barry, Rittenberg on Board of LA. Station LOS ANGELES. Dec. 17. Appointment of Charles C. Barry, vicepresident of Loevv's, Inc., and Saul N. Bittenberg. M-G-M studio executive, to the board of directors of KTTY. Inc., here, was announced today. Loevv's, Inc., acquired 25 per cent of the capital stock of KTTV last August. At that time, KTTV entered into an agreement with Loevv's whereby it received exclusive television rights to the entire M-G-M feature film library for the Los Angeles area. Barrv has been supervising Loew's entry into the television field since joining the company in April. 1956.