Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

PIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1IIIIIIIIIIIIM SCREEN MUST BE MORE MATURE IN TREATMENT, SAYS KOSTER of the year will be "Masterpiece," from the novel Victor Pahlen. "Deadlock," an original by John Patrick and Lou Breslow, will be Sol M. Wurtzel's next production for 20th Century-Fox release. Kent Taylor is set for the lead role, and James Tinling will direct. . . . As a result of their performances in the first Thalia Production, "The Red House," Sol Lesser has given Allene Roberts and Julie London new contracts. . . . Manny Wolfe, head of RKO Radio's story and writing departments, has tendered his resignation, and will vacation in New York before announcing his plans for the future. Gloria Henry has been assigned the feminine lead opposite Michael Duane in Columbia's version of Gene Stratton Porter's novel, "Keeper of the Bees." . . . "Too Young to Die," a factual dramatization of the hopped-up car problem, will be produced for Republic by William J. O'Sullivan. . . . Producer Leonard Picker and his assistant, Ivan Vokman, have left for Mexico City via American Airlines. They will complete plans for the production there of "Casanova," in which Arturo de Cordova will star for Eagle-Lion. Foreign Correspondents Cite Goldwyn Film and Capra Samuel Goldwyn's production of "The Best Years of Our Lives," and Frank Capra for his direction of "It's a Wonderful Life" last Thursday were presented citations by the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association at the organization's annual ceremonies at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Other awards for 1946 were given to Gregory Peck for his performance in "The Yearling," Rosalind Russell for "Sister Kenny," and Anne Baxter and Clifton Webb for supporting performances in "The Razor's Edge." Music Album on "Carnegie" A souvenir album of all the music from "Carnegie Hall," transcribed for piano by Boris Morros and Gregory Stone, will be issued shortly by Omega Music Edition, a New York publishing company. Mr. Morros and William LeBaron produced for UA. by WILLIAM R. WEAVER Hollywood Editor It's time for the screen to go mature, both in subject matter and treatment, in the seasoned opinion of Henry Koster, director of all those musicals starting with "Three Smart Girls," and he's going all out on that opinion by directing William Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life" for the Cagney boys, Jimmy and William. It will be his first undertaking without songs "coming out of a pretty face" since he came over from Europe, where he made other and sterner types of product for German, French and Dutch studios. He says it's a move in the direction indicated by what's gone on in the world during the past few' years and is still going on. "We're in a reconversion period," says the bland, blocky, confident director credited with establishing Deanna Durbin as the first child prodigy to cross successfully over into adult roles without interruption of career, "and the motion picture must reconvert in pace with other industries, arts, sciences, and the people. 'Cinderella' is dead. The public is no longer interested in seeing the underprivileged maiden marry the millionaire, because everybody knows now it doesn't happen. War experiences made adults out of adolescents. Your 18-year-old today has the knowledge and viewpoint of yesterday's 25 or 30-year-old. He's been matured by what he's been through, and is through with childish things." Presentation Must Be Mature Director Koster uses the word "mature" in its dictionary sense, emphatically not as a synonym for hot, forbidden, cehsorable, sensational or provocative, and he says there has never been objection to the presentation of mature themes if the manner of their presentation was professionally mature. In illustration he names "The Best Years of Our Lives," pointing out that such matters as a father's concern for the pre-marital education of his children, an instance of moral laxity, and other story materials which in professionally immature handlings have made up objectionable' pictures, are dealt with by Director William Wyler in such level-eyed manner as to make them engage the intellectual interest of the audience without taking on unnatural proportion or appearing in a false light. He also names other pictures in which subjects of mature interest have been treated in a manner to bring censure, and observe that censure incurred thus by immature or irresponsible handling of themes warranting treatment in key with their importance quickly becomes censure of the artindustry in its entirety. Not Permanent Move Director Koster's forsaking of the musical field, in which he established his American career, is not necessarily in the nature of a permanent move. He may make more musicals later on. Just now, he says, a man who wants to make a musical finds himself confronted with two choices, if he's to stay within the trends observed by studios in general. He may make a biography of a famous song writer, and the supply of these is running low, or he may stack up an array of specialty numbers in a picture which amounts to "no more than a vaudeville show." Later on, he thinks, there may be room for films telling the stories of the great composers, or the immortal compositions. "And where," he is asked, "are the mature stories to be found — the substantial works you say the industry needs to satisfy this reconversion" generation ?" "There are plenty of them, everywhere," he says. "More of them than any other kind, on library shelves, in all literatures, in all languages. They've always been -there, but Hollywood has never bothered to look for them." COMPLETED COLUMBIA Lady from Shanghai Three Were Thoroughbreds (Cavalier) EAGLE-LION Repeat Performance PRC Silent Voice 20TH CENTURY. FOX Miracle on 34th Street STARTED COLUMBIA Man from Colorado Lady Knew How EAGLE-LION Out of the Blue Love from a Stranger MONOGRAM Sarge Goes to College PARAMOUNT Big Clock PRC Gangway for Murder SELZNICK Portrait of Jennie 20TH CENTURYFOX Scudda Hoo, Scudda Hay UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL Jeopardy For the Love of Mary Singapore SHOOTING COLUMBIA Assigned to Treasury (Kennedy-Buchmao) MGM Song of the Thin Man The Hucksters MONOGRAM Louisiana The Gangster (Allied Artists) PARAMOUNT Road to Rio Albuquerque (Clarion) RKO RADIO Tycoon Indian Summer If You Knew Susie Bishop's Wife (Goldwyn) REPUBLIC The Trespasser Springtime in the Sierras SELZNICK Paradine Case 20TH CENTURYFOX Ghost and Mrs. Muir Captain from Castile Forever Amber UNITED ARTISTS Atlantis (Nero) Body and Soul (Enterprise) UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL Secret Beyond the Door (Diana) Brute Force (Hellinger) WARNERS Voice of the Turtle Two Guys from Milwaukee The Unfaithful The L'nsuspected (Curtiz) llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll^ MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 8, 1947 43