Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1946)

THE HOLLYWOOD SCENE COMPLETED MONOGRAM In Fast Company (formerly "In High Gear") PARAMOUNT Perfect Marriage RKO RADIO Double Trouble Crack Up REPUBLIC Inner Cirde Man from Rainbow Valley 20TH CENTURYFOX Shocking Miss Pilgrim UNIVERSAL Love Takes a Holiday Dressed to Kill STARTED RKO RADIO Sinbad the Sailor Child of Divorce REPUBLIC Twisted Circle UNIVERSAL Little Miss Big SHOOTING COLUMBIA One Life Too Many Story of Jolson Devil's Mask INTERNATIONAL Dark Mirror MGM Show-Of¥ You Were There Fiesta Till the Clouds Roll By PARAMOUNT O. S. s. Danger Street (Pine Thomas) PRC Avalanche (Imperial) RKO RADIO A Likely Story Desirable Woman REPUBLIC My Pal Trigger Ghost Goes Wild 20TH CENTURY. FOX Margie It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog Three Little Girls in Blue UNITED ARTISTS Mr. Ace and the Queen (Bogeaus) Strange Woman (Stromberg) Angel on My Shoulder (Rogers) UNIVERSAL Fandango (formerly "Shahrazad") V/ARNERS Very Rich Man Sentence . Humoresque 29 Films Now Shooting; Fairbanks in "Sinbad" Hollywood Bureau Unless the beginning of negotiations between the lATSE and the major studios, with increased wage scale the principal issue, is regarded more apprehensively than anyone in authority has chosen to indicate, the week's curtailment of production activity must be ascribed to coincidence. Or perhaps the studios had anticipated more realistically than was professed at the advent of the Conference of Studio Unions strike which didn't materialize. In any case, only 29 features were in the shooting stage last weekend, this figure contrasting with the 34 of the week before. Nine features were completed and four started during the period. The standout among the new undertakings is the RKO Radio Technicolor production of "Sinbad the Sailor," in which Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., resumes the screen career he interrupted to fight in his country's war. Stephen Ames is producing the picture, one of the biggest the studio has turned out, with Richard Wallace directing. The cast includes Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, George Tobias and Mike Mazurki, the towering, powerful former athlete, who came to important notice as an actor in "Farewell, My Sweet." RKO Radio's experience with the likewise Technicolored "Spanish Main" is assurance that no expense will be spared to make "Sinbad the Sailor" a whopping production. RKO Also Starts Work On "Child of Divorce" The same studio, taking things a little easier this time, started "Child of Divorce," a Sid Rogell production directed by Richard Fleischer and with Sharyn Moffet, Regis Toomey, Madge Meredith and Walter Reed in the cast. In the light of N. Peter Rathvon's recent personal statement to the press that, "We will continue to make 'B' pictures — and you can quote me," there appears no reason for refraining from designating this undertaking as a "B." Universal started "Little Miss Big," with Beverly Sue Simmons, Dorothy Morris, Fay Holden, Frank McHugh, Fred Brady and Milburn Stone in the cast. Stanley Rubin is associate producer of the picture, and Erie C. Kenton is directing. Republic, which finished "The Inner Circle," started "The Twisted Circle," which is not meant to suggest that the studio is going around in circles, but does suggest a change of one or the other titles one of these days. The new enterprise is a mystery melodrama, produced by William J. O'Sullivan and directed by Phil Ford, with Adele Mara and William Frawley the first players to be cast. There Shall Be Pictures, Come Strikes or What The week's decline in the number of pictures shooting was not reflected in the story departments, where the purchasing of properties for filming went forward at its usual and sometimes (when one reflects on how many more stories are bought than are produced) surprising rate. Perhaps the most impressive buy of the week was Universal's acquistion of "Up in Central Park," the Broadway musical, which will be filmed in Technicolor as a starring vehicle for Deanna Durbin, who is expected to return to the studio in July. Universal also bought "Mexican Hayride" for Abbott and Costello. Both are Michael Todd shows. Liberty Films, now getting ready to implement its commitment to RKO Radio, purchased "One Big Happy Family," an original screenplay by Joseph Fields, for production and direction by George Stevens. Mr. Fields has such Broadway credits as "Junior Miss," "Louisiana Purchase" and "My Sister Eileen," and this original of his is described as "a romantic comedy set in the background of the governor's mansion of a famous state." (Louisiana, maybe?). On the unique side is Samuel Goldwyn's purchase of James Thurber's New Yorker magazine short story, "The Catbird Seat," which the author is to elaborate for screen purposes, and which is to have another title ultimately. Reeves Espy Says March To Be PRC Peak Month Back from executive conferences in New York and Florida, Reeves Espy, president of PRC Pictures, informs that March will be "the most active month in the history of the studio, with six pictures scheduled for shooting." The plant has been operating at minimum while tax inventory and other processes of seasonal nature were in progress. The first PRC undertaking for March will be James S. Burkett's initial Philo Vance melodrama, not yet titled, which Lew Landers is to direct. Two Alexander-Stern productions, "Queen of Burlesque" and "Sorority Girl," are to follow. Josef Berne will produce and direct "Missouri Hayride," starting March 20, and Sig Neufeld, producer, is down for two pictures, a Buster Crabbe Western and "Crime on My Hands," an item in the Michael Shayne series, both to be directed by Sam Newfield. Hollywood Phenomena Or Man Bites Dog Tay Garnett, who sailed his own boat around the world before the war and got some remarkable shots of China and Japan he wanted to use in a picture but couldn't get a producer to make it, gets his chance, now that the bombs have erased the scenes his camera caught, under a permanent producer affiliation with Hunt Stromberg, and will call the picture "White Jade." . . . Paramount'is shooting "O.S.S." on a closed set, with even the studio publicists sworn to reveal nary a detail about what's going on there, whereas the Army, Navy and Marine Corps set up its own presfe departments to keep people told about what was going on. Man bit dog, so to speak, when Look Magazine, bestowing its annual awards, bought out Giro's for the night and invited all the studio publicity directors in town to be its guests (along with all the top-ranking production executives, stars and other professionals) with the sky the limit; but it was just the old story of dog biting man when 41 guests (unindentified) pocketed bottles of Scotch on their wav out. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 2, 1946 33