Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1941)

40 MOTION PICTURE HERALD April 19, 1941 THE HOLLYWOOD SCENE Still Strong Hollywood's production continued at close to peak activity this week, with 47 pictures before the cameras, two less than the week before; 13 completed, four more than last week, and 11 started, two less than the previous stanza. Paramount had the greatest number of films shooting, with seven in work, and RKO and Warners each had six, followed closely by MGM and Columbia, with five apiece. The week's tabulation : COMPLETED MGM RKO Man from the City Sunny Monogram Republic King of the Zombies Sheriff of Tombstone Redhead The Gay Vagabond Pioneers Universal Producers Releasing Tight Shoes Lone Rider Gallops to Hello, Sucker Glory Men of the Timber Paramount lands Night of January 16th Warners Underground STARTED MGM Republic Get Away Angels with Broken Paramount Wings Henry for President The Desert Bandit RKO 20th-Fox Cyclone On Horse Belle Starr back Universal Interlude Beyond the Law The Father Takes a Abbott and Costello in Wife the Navy Half Way to Shanghai SHOOTING Columbia Tom, Dick and Harry Betty Co-ed My Life with Caroline Obituary The Devil and Daniel Prisoner on Devil's Webster Isle Parachute Battalion One Way Street Scattergood Pulls the Blondie in Society Strings MGM Republic Blossoms in the Dust Thunder Over the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Ozarks Hyde 20th-Fox The Uniform Miami Lady Be Good Man Hunt Untitled Marx Bros. Sun Valley Paramount The Man with the The Great Man's Lady Shovel Hold Back the Dawn Universal Buy Me That Town Too Many Blondes Aloma of the South Unfinished Business Seas Warners The Parson of Pana Sergeant York mint The Gentle People World Premier Dive Bomber Nothing But the Man Power Truth Bad Men of Missouri RKO Flight Patrol Before the Fact No short subjects were started or completed. A committee to investigate the erection of a new Academy building was appointed by president Walter Wanger at the first quar terly meeting, this week, of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Authorized by the Board of Governors, Mr. Wanger appointed William Pereira, consulting architect, and director Sam Wood to the committee. They have been instructed to report back to the Board at its next meeting with data regarding locations available, type of building suggested, and similar information. While the idea of an Academy Building has been under discussion for some time, this is the first concrete step taken by the Board. As chairman of the membership committee, Mervyn Le Roy reported that 47 new members had been added to the rolls in the past month, coming from acting, writing, directing and technical branches of the industry. More Stories Star News Gloria Swanson, after a seven year absence from the screen, is to appear in "Father Takes a Wife" at RKO. Cary Grant will next appear in "Bedtime Story" at Columbia. Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sheridan and John Garfield will have top roles in Warners' "Klondike." Madeleine Carroll and Stirling Hayden are to appear together in "Dildo Cay" at Paramount. Thomas Mitchell has been assigned the leading role in RKO's "Unexpected Uncle." Gene Tierney is to star in "Belle Starr" at Twentieth Century-Fox. WRESTLERS DEFEND HONOR OF ART Five "grunt and groan" specialists (wrestlers to ordinary people) last week in Hollywood passed a resolution condemning Paramount and asking studios to refrain from "belittling the wrestling profession and otherwise casting aspersions upon its dignity". Cause for their action was Bob Hope's wrestling scene with a gorilla in "The Road to Zanzibar". The petitioners were George Zaharias, wrestler now turned wrestling promoter; Hard boiled Haggerty, The Golden Terror, Chief Little Wolf, and Jim Londos, all gentlemen of the mat. The resolution set forth that the business of wrestling was a "profession of dignity" and imbues its members with a feeling of pride, "its roster being composed of the Flower of American Manhood". Incidentally, always but incidentally, the picture will open here shortly. Adding to the record number of purchases already made since the first of the year, Hollywood this week acquired 10 more story properties to add to the reservoir it is building up against the day when the Consent Decree becomes operative. A novel which is not yet written, and two originals were bought by RKO Radio ; a current Broadway stage play and a novel by Warners; a Broadway play and an original by Paramount; a novel now being written was purchased by Metro-GoldwynMayer ; a magazine story by David Selznick, and a novel by Twentieth-Century-Fox. I.A.R. Wylie, after verbally presenting her idea for a novel, sold the screen rights to the still unwritten book to RKO. The deal calls for Miss Wylie to write the novel, for it to be published, and for the authoress to adapt it to the screen. RKO also bought "Lady Scarface," a gangster comedy by Arnaud d'Usseau and Richard Collins. The original will be used as a vehicle for Dennis O'Keefe and Frances Neal. Third of the studio's purchases was "Powder Town," a Vicki Baum original. An American munitions plant forms the story background. Screen rights to Emelyn Williams' "The Corn Is Green," which stars Ethel Barrymore in its New York stage version, were bought by Warners. The picture will probably serve as a vehicle for Bette Davis. "Mississippi Belle," a Southern story dealing with the double life of an orphan-heiress, was also purchased by the studio. Written by Clements Ripley, the story is to appear as a Liberty Magazine serial and then be published as a book. Paramount added to its large purchases since the first of the year with "Take a Letter, Darling," an original by George Beck, and "Out of the Frying Pan," a Broadway play written by Francis Swann. The former is a comedy about a modern business woman who has a male secretary, the latter concerns the adventures of a trio of young actors and three young actresses looking for success. "Drivin' Woman," a novel now being written by Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier, was acquired by MGM. Submitted to a firm of book publishers in outline form, the novel will not be published until 1942. The story is woven around a girl who inherits a Southern tobacco plantation, following the Civil War, and is already being compared by MGM to "GWTW." David O. Selznick has bought "Drake's Drum," an original written at the studio by staff writer Peter Viertel. The story has also been sold to Liberty Magazine, and centers around a cross section of life in England today. A novel by Stephen Ransome, "Hearses Don't Hurry," was acquired by TwentiethFox.