The Exhibitor (1963)

May 29, 1963 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 5051 Phipps, Dub Taylor, Ken Mayer, Iron-Eyes Cody. Produced by Jim Barnett; directed by Leslie H. Martinson. Story: Philip Carey, an oil wildcatter, lands his World War I plane on the farm of Diane McBain, which she has been running with the aid of Indian Iron-Eyes Cody since the death of her father in an oil field acci¬ dent. He is impressed with both the girl and the potentiality of her land, and they agree to try and dig a test well if he can get some working money from the plane. He meets long-time friend, James Best, in town. It also develops that Carey is working for ruthless oil promoter Claude Akins, who was responsible for the death of McBain’s father. When Carey finds that Akins plans on cheat¬ ing McBain out of her share of the royalties on oil found on her farm, he quits and de¬ cides to buck Akins. Best also quits Akins to work with Carey after getting some extra money out of his sweetheart, singer Fay Spain. When Akins reveals that Carey was working for him, relations between McBain and Carey become strictly business. Akins tries to get Spain to marry him to help him in his quest for the position of state senator but she turns him down. The well fails. Best plans on going to Tulsa with Spain, but Akins frames a card game which allows Best to win and miss the bus. Spain is so fed up with Best’s promises that she agrees to marry Akins. Best uses his winnings to help Carey drill another well. Akins orders them stopped, and the sabotage dynamite blast kills Cody and ruins their engine. Carey and Best steal an engine from Akins, who arrives with the law to put them under arrest before they can bring their promising well in. At the showdown, Carey, with the aid of some nitro¬ glycerin, forces Akins to admit his plot which resulted in the death of Cody, his responsi¬ bility for the death of McBain’s father, etc. The sheriff takes Akins and his men in and Carey hits oil. The end has McBain and Carey getting together, as well as Best and Spain after she gets rid of Akins legally. X-Ray: Oklahoma in the early 1920’s is the setting for this search for oil with a cast of relative newcomers. There’s drama, ro¬ mance, intrigue, bits of action, proper atmos¬ phere, as well as okay performances, direc¬ tion, and production. It should serve ade¬ quately as part of the program. The screen¬ play is by Bob and Wanda Duncan from a story by Harry Whittington. Tips On Bidding: Fair program rates. Ad Lines: “Black Gold Meant Trouble With a Capital T”; “The Days Of Rough And Tough Action.” commentary is sophisticated and, for the most part, adult and in good taste. What comes up on the screen for adult eyes is plenty of sex spaced with conventional and beautiful scenic shots of the old-world. For exploitation spots, this should do nicely, particularly if it is stressed that it is made by the creator of “The Immoral Mr. Teas.” Adults only, of course, and the suggestion that exhibitors look at the film before they consider playing it. Ad Lines: “Voluptuous Europe ‘Uncovered’ By Russ Meyer’s Hidden, Candid Camera”; “A Torrid Tour Of Europe Featuring The ‘Ladies’ Of Hamburg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen and Paris Practicing The ‘Oldest Profession’ In The World.” The Fallguy Melodrama Fairway-International Estimate: Crime meller for duallers. Cast: Ed Dugan, George Andre, Lou Gartner, Dan Alderette, Wes Carlson, Made¬ line Frances, Fabian Dean. Produced and di¬ rected by Donn Harling. Story: Teen-ager Ed Dugan witnesses an auto smash-up and shooting of a gang leader and inadvertently learns too much. The syndicate must kill him to shut his mouth. Managing to evade the killers, Dugan looks to the police for help, only to learn that the Chief, Lou Gartner, is one of the gang. When he turns to the newspaper for help, he learns that the publisher, George Andre, is really the head of the gang. Desperate, he hides in the city slums, penniless and being hunted down by “The Indian,” the syndicate’s pro¬ fessional killer. He finally goes to the home of unethical doctor Don. Alderette, where he forces his innocent daughter, Madeline Frances, to permit him to search for evidence that will clear him. The syndicate killers move in. The kids are wounded, and the gangsters wind up killing each other. X-Ray: This is action all the way. Story and screenplay by Richard Adams and George Mitchell holds the interested, though they offer nothing really new or startling. The cast, mostly unknowns, are satisfactory with the film evidently aimed for the lower half of exploitation spots. It is clean enough, al¬ though it it an expose of syndicate vice. Ad Lines: “As Crime Rises, Someone Must Fall”; “Syndicate Vice Traps The Innocent And Makes Him The ‘Fallguy.’” FOREIGN MISCELLANEOUS Europe In The Raw Eve Productions (Eastman Color) Novelty 70m. Estimate: Mixture of sex and scenery for exploitation spots. Credits: Produced and photographed by Russ Meyer. Story: Cameraman Russ Meyer pokes his color camera into familiar and unfamiliar comers of Europe, capturing the usual tour¬ ists’ sights as well as those of infamous night clubs of Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Ham¬ burg, and Berlin, where strip tease artistes are seen performing their erotic specialties. Other shots include Venice and Holland. Then with an alleged hidden camera in a satchel-like briefcase, Meyer visits the prostitutes of Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Berlin. Finally, things get too hot for even the camera, and it explodes for the end. X-Ray: This is a hodge podge of lovely color travelogue of various European coun¬ tries, with frequent excursions into sensual eroticism. There is nudity galore in the miscellaneous footage, while the off-screen The Fruit Is Ripe Melodrama 90m. Janus (French-made) (Dubbed in English) Estimate: Sex-ridden meller for exploita¬ tion spots. Cast: Scilla Gabel, Francoise Saint-Laurent, Eva Damien, Philippe Leroy, Saro Urzi, Michel Lemoine. Directed by Louis Soulanes. Story: Migrant fruit pickers include Scilla Gabel, who takes delight in exciting men; Eva Damien, who is hard and tough; and Francoise Saint-Laurent, who is tender and romantic. The girls and boys work in a fe¬ verish atmosphere, and inflamed by the sum¬ mer heat, youthful passions run riot. Truck driver Philippe Leroy applies the same de¬ gree of ardour to his love-making as he does to his work. His rival is Michel Lemoine, the boss’ son. Gabel derives pleasure in arousing jealousy between the men. A strike breaks out which, in the atmosphere of summer, helps fan the smouldering fires of passion and hatred. Leroy and Lmoine fight over Gabel. Saint-Laurent is found unconscous when the girls return from a dance. A colored handy¬ man in the camp is accused of attacking her, but is cleared when it is proven that Lemoine is the one responsible for her condition. Lemoine dies when the truck in which he is escaping crashes due to faulty brakes. The strike is ended when the boss finally realizes he cannot do all the work himself and gives the workers a raise. X-Ray: Reeking with sex, this meller of passionate migrant workers in Italy is only suited for adult audiences. With the rape sequence between a colored man and one of the girls for a climax, making it especially potent for colored theatre audiences, this will get by in the exploitation spots as well. Director Soulanes also did the scenario, adaption, and dialogue. The cast performs well with the gals a passionate-looking, sexy lot. The title also lends itself to more or less suggestive exploitation possibilities. The dub¬ bing is a good job. Ad Lines: “Passions Aflame When ‘The Fruit Is Ripe’ ”; “Fever Heat Runs Riot In A Migrant Workers’ Camp As The Girls’ Sensual Behavior Causes Rivalry Among The Men.” The L-Shaped Room Davis-Royal (English-made) Drama 125m. Estimate: Absorbing tale of a girl’s prob¬ lem. Cast: Leslie Caron, Tom Bell, Brock Peters, Cicely Courtneidge, Avis Bunnage, Emlyn Williams, Kay Walsh, Verity Edmett. Directed by Bryan Forbes; produced by James Woolf and Richard Attenborough; a Romulus Pro¬ duction. Story: Leslie Caron, a young French girl, leaves her provincial home to come to London where she becomes pregnant by an actor she really doesn’t know too well. She visits abor¬ tionist Emlyn Williams and is disheartened by his conversation, which merely strengthens her resolve to have the child. She moves in¬ to a furnished room that is L-shaped and merely a cubby hole in a run-down rooming house. In a microscopic room next door lives Negro jazz musician Brock Peters, who can hear everything that goes on in Caron’s quar¬ ters. Others in the house are Tom Bell, an unsuccessful writer; Cicely Courtneidge, an old variety artist; landlady Avis Bunnage; and two prostitutes, Kay Walsh and Verity Edmett, who live and work in the basement apart¬ ment. Caron takes a job as a waitress in a nearby greasy restaurant, keeping her preg¬ nancy a secret except from the observant Peters. She becomes friends with the others, and she and Bell fall in love, giving way to a physical relationship on one occasion. Peters is upset, and he tells Bell that she is nothing but a whore and pregnant as well. Caron finds him gone for a while. He returns and pre¬ tends that all is well between them. When the baby is born, his love is unequal to the task of accepting another man’s child, and Caron plans on going home with the child. He has managed to write the story of the L-shaped room. When she reads it prior to leaving, she calls it quite good, only lacking in an ending. X-Ray: Here is a realistic, absorbing, in¬ triguing, and interesting tale that dwells on a girl with the problem of pregnancy as well as on those around her in a London rooming house. It falls into the pattern of the day to which audiences have been attracted — that is the naturalistic presentation of people and their problems — and if others are any indica¬ tion of popularity, then this too is due for its share. It should prove a natural for the art and specialty spots, with adults the most prob¬ able audiences. The story doesn’t stray from its prime subject despite the convenient op¬ portunities offered by the other inhabitants in the house, all of whom do extremely well in the acting department. Leslie Caron is certainly deserving a special mention for her quality of performance. The direction and production are superior, with the release just a bit on the long side. Director Bryan Forbes also wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Lynne Reid Banks. Ad Lines: “No One Told Her The Secret Of ‘The L-Shaped Room’ ”; “Everyone Was Talk¬ ing About The Girl And ‘The L-Shaped Room.’ ”