Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

rHE HOLLYWOOD SCENE. iOMPLETED ijrH CENTURY-FOX ifhere Do We Go from Here? illy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe j NIVERSAL j ^s Never Too Late ong of the Sarong ARNERS dllar to Post obody Lives Forever TARTED OLUMBIA £en of the Deep Guy, a Gal and a Pal MGM Alter Ego PRC Barber of Red Gap REPUBLIC Johnny March (Walter Colmes) RKO RADIO Along Came Jones (International) UNITED ARTISTS Bedside Manner (Andrew Stone) WARNERS Hotel Berlin SHOOTING COLUMBIA Thousand and One Nights Untitled "Crime Doctor" Leave It to Blondie One Against Seven MGM Weekend at the Waldorf Without Love Our Vines Have Tender Grapes Hold High the Torch Son of Lassie Valley of Decision MONOGRAM Make Way for Kelly PARAMOUNT The Virginian Scared Stiff Lost Weekend Love Letters Affairs of Susan Duffy's Tavern PRC Crime, Inc. RKO RADIO Invisible Army Body Snatcher Enchanted Cottage Wonder Man (Goldwyn) REPUBLIC Three's a Crowd Jealousy (Gustav Machaty) Swingin' on a Rainbow Earl Carroll Vanities 20TH CENTURY-FOX Bell for Adano Molly, Bless Her Circumstantial Evidence Royal Scandal UNITED ARTISTS Walk in the Sun (Bronston) Blood on the Sun i (Cagney) UNIVERSAL Romance, Incorporated Salome — Where She Danced Here Come the Co-eds WARNERS The Big Sleep San Antonio Production Actiyity Cains; 45 New Pictures in Work Hollywood Bureau ; Production activity increased slightly last veek as eight pictures went before the cameras l.nd work was completed on three. The total rjumber of features in work at the weekend Ivas 45. I Columbia launched "A Guy, a Gal, and a l?al," with Lynn Merrick, Rose Hunter, Ted Donaldson. It also started work on "Men of Jie Deep," with Chester Morris, Victor Mi-Laglen, Jean Rogers. MGM had one new entry, "Alter Ego," first directorial assignment for Arch Oboler, with Phyllis Thaxter, Edmund Gwenn, Kathleen iLockhart. Jerry Bresler is producing. ' PRC started "Barber of Red Gap," with JBuster Crabbe and Al St. John, j At Republic, work began on "Johnny plarch," with Richard Aden, Cherly Walker, Roger Pryor, Bobby Driscoll, Lola Lane, John Forest and Ian Keith. Ve«7 Gary Cooper Film Started by International International Pictures started on "Along Came Jones," which RKO Radio will release, with Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest, Dan Duryea, Frank Sully, Russell Simpson. Andrew Stone's new venture which United Artists will distribute is "Bedside Manner," Nvith Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Ester Dale. Before the cameras at Warners went "Hotel Berlin," with Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Peter Lorre, Helmut Dantine. Personnel Intelligence About Hollywood A new writer-director contract has been given John Larkin, by Twentieth Century-Fox. He is currently directing "Circumstantial Evidence" for that studio. . . . Leslie Brooks, previously announced for one of the leading roles in Columbia's "Men of the Deep," goes into "The Fighting Guardsman" instead because of conflicting shooting schedules. . . . Peter Coe, Universal contract player, has returned to that studio after having received a medical discharge from the Marines. Adele Mara arrived in Mexico this week to play the feminine lead in Republic's "Song of Mexico." James A. Fitzpatrick is producing and directing it as his first full length feature. Jane Russell has been borrowed by Hunt Stromberg from Howard Hughes to star in a production based on the novel, "Young Widow." The PRC producing unit consisting of Bernard Roth, Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse, which produced "The Town Went Wild," is preparing a second comedy starring Freddie Bartholomew and Jimmy Lydon. Miles Connolly, MGM writer, is back at his desk following a leave of absence spent in New York. . . . Ilona Massey has signed a long-term contract with MGM and will appear in "Holiday in Mexico" as her first. John Miljan, recently seen in "Bride By Mistake," is cast in RKO Radio's "The Invisible Army," which stars John Wayne. Players already announced are Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Abner Biberman, J. Alex Havier, Philip Ahn, Richard Loo, Robert Stevens and Ducky Louie. Goofy, Walt Disney's champion hollowhead, returns to the screen in "Tiger Trouble," Technicolor short for RKO Radio release. Don Costello has been signed to a long-term contract by Gary Cooper, whose first independently produced feature for. International Pictures, "Along Came Jones," is now under way. V Jack Larue has been signed by RKO Radio for the featured part of the Spanish officer in "The Spanish Main," in Technicolor. Paul Henreid, Maureen O'Hara, and Walter Slezak are also in the film. . . . Mary Gordon has been added to the cast of RKO Radio's "The Body Snatcher," screen version of the Robert Louis Stevenson story, starring Boris Karloff. Columbia has assigned Anita Louise to one of two leading feminine roles in the forthcoming "The Fighting Guardsmen." . . . Fely Franquelli, former Manila ballet dancer, has been cast by RKO for the romantic lead in "The Invisible Army." . . . Glen Langan will portray Irving Netcher, the husband of Rosita Dolly, in "The Dolly Sisters" at Twentieth Century-Fox, instead of Randolph Scott, as previously announced. Mikhail Rasumny has the comedy role in Paramount's "Masquerade in Mexico," in which Dorothy Lamour and Arturo de Cordova are teamed. . . . MGM has given a contract leave of absence to Captain Robert Hartzell, former flying hero, in order that he may appear with Ruth Chatterton in the proposed New York stage production of Patsy Ruth Miller's "Windy Hill." . . . Joseph Pasternak, MGM musical producer, was scheduled to leave Hollywood this week to spend several weeks in New York. . . . James Lydon and Jean Porter have been added to the cast of MCjM's "Twice Blessed." ... At the same studio, Sara Haden has been added to the cast of "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes." Jerome Kern Jubilee Week Will Honor Composer At a luncheon in New York last week, arrangements were made to organize a "Jerome Kern Jubilee Week," beginning December 11, in commemoration of Mr. Kern's 40th anniversary as a composer. Paul Whiteman is chairman of organizing the committee. One of the highlights of the "week" will be the playing of Mr. Kern's music featured in Universal's Technicolor film "Can't Help Singing." Among those at the luncheon were : Morton Gould, Raymond Paige, Jay Blackton, Lyn Murray, James Fassett, Raymond Scott, Richard Halliday. Jack Capp, Manie Sachs, John Chapman, Robert Garland, Burton Rascoe, Abel Green, Ton> Carlile, Henry Souvaine, Lester O'Keefe, Paul De Fur, Roger White, M. H. Shapiro, Al Steen, Sherwin Kane, Ben Gross, Charles Butterfield and Paul Mickelson. Sistrom Leaves for Coast On Production Survey William Sistrom, producer for J. Arthur Rank's Two Cities Films, London, who arrived in New York from England recently, left last week for Hollywood to survey American production methods for possible adoption by Mr. Rank's several producing companies. The first of the Rank film.' which United Artists will release in this country will be Mr. Sistrom's Two Cities production, "Mr Emanuel." Joyce in UA Post Fred Joyce, member of Twentieth Century-Fox exploitation staff in Chicago, resigned last weekend to become midwest publicity head for United Artists. He succeeds Claud Morris, who left to become easier exploitation director for Samuel Goldwyn. 20th-Fox Signs Neilan Marshall Neilan has been signed by Twentieth Century-Fox as an assistant producer in the Bryan Foy unit. He was given as his first production, "Days Are Dark." MOTION PICTURE HERALD. NOVEMBER 25. 1944 45