Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1947)

THE HOLLYWOOD SCENE 20th-Fox Starts Work On "Agreement" As Six Are Completed Hollywood Bureau Production activity slackened somewhat last week, as work began on four new films, while_ six went to the cutting rooms. At the weekend, the shooting index stood at 40, compared to the previous level of 42. At 20th Century-Fox, Darryl F. Zanuck launched "Gentleman's Agreement," the Laura Z. Hobson novel. Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and John Garfield head the cast, which also includes Celeste Holm, Anne Revere, Jane Wyatt and Dean Stockwell. Elia Kazan is the director. Shooting started on "I Remember Mama," the successful Jan Van Druten play, at RKO. Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Philip Dorn and Sir Cedric Hardwicke top the cast. George Stevens directs for producer Harriet Parsons. Also at RKO, work began on "Return of the Bad Men," with Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, George "Gabby" Hayes and Ann Jeffries included in the cast. Jack Gross is producing; Ray Enright directing. Triangle Productions, the Mary PickfordBuddy Rogers-Ralph Cohn company, started its first United Artists release, "Sleep, My Love." Claudette Colbert, Robert Cummings and Don Ameche are starred, with Rita Johnson heading the support. Direction is by Douglas Sirk. June Promises New Production Upswing With 15 new pictures announced to go before the cameras on major lots this month, and others scheduled to follow, the awaited trend of production back to normal seems in motion. Universal-International and Columbia head the list with five films each given June starting dates. Those at U-I are Walter Wanger's "Tap Roots," co-starring Van Heflin and Susan Hayward, with George Marshall directing; "Black Bart," co-starring Yvonne De Carlo and Dan Duryea, with George Sherman directing for producer Leonard Goldstein, and Mark Hellinger's story of the New York police, "Homicide," to be directed by Jules Dassin, with Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor sharing starring honors. This trio of the five films are to start shooting during the first two weeks of the month. The remaining two, "The Senator Was Indiscreet," a Nunnally Johnson production, starring William Powell, with Peter Lind Hayes, and with George S. Kaufman directing, and "Ride the Pink Horse," first starring-directing chore for Robert Montgomery at U-I, will get going during the latter weeks of the month. Universal to Have Eight Shooting by June 30 The fulfillment of that schedule, plus two features currently filming — Douglas Fairr banks' "The Exile," and Abbott & Costello's "The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap" — will give U-I eight pictures shooting simultaneously by June's end, an all-time high for the lot. Columbia's quintet of starters, when once rolling, will give them a new production high for the year — nine pictures filming at one time. Heading their June list is Casey Robinson's production, "The Mating of Minnie McGonigle," starring Evelyn Keyes, di rected by Henry Levin ; "When a Girl's Beautiful," a musical ; "Last Days of Boot Hill," a Charles Starrett-Smiley Burnette Western; a new one for the "Durango Kid" series, "Six Gun Law," and "Strawberry Roan," second of the Gene Autry Western musicals, to be produced by Armand Schaefer. Production reins on three features at Warner Bros, will be in the hands of Alex Gottlieb. They are "Romance in High C," a Michael Curtiz Production for Warner release, to be directed by Curtiz; "Head Over Heels," with Frederick deCordova directing, and "Mary Hagen." Peter Godfrey directs the latter. Walker, Kathryn Grayson Are Teamed at MGM Robert Walker, portraying the composer, Mozart, and Kathryn Grayson as a blind pianist heroine, will share star honors on MGM's "Triumph of Music," which deals with the life of Franz Mesmer, discoverer of hypnotism, as well as with Mozart. . . . Jimmy Durante has been given a new long term contract at MGM and the lead role in the Joe Pasternak production, "You're Beautiful." . . . Immediately upon arriving in Hollywood from his stage acting triumph in "Joan of Lorraine," Sam Wanamaker went before the cameras as co-star with Lilli Palmer in Milton Sperling's production of "Ever the Beginning" at Warners. As an all-star musical, with Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly topping the cast, the lives and song writing careers of Rogers and Hart will be filmed by MGM under the title of "Words and Music," with Arthur Freed as producer. . . . Stella Adler, Broadway actress and member of the celebrated stage family, has started a featured role in the United States Pictures film, "Ever the Beginning.'' . . . Following his screen bow opposite Olivia de Havilland in "To Each His Own," John Lund has been engaged for a top part in Paramount's "Night Has a Thousand Eyes," new Edward G. Robinson film. . . . Hume Cronyn has been added to the featured players in COMPLETED COLUMBIA Buckaroo from Powder River The Lone Wolf in London Assigned to Treasury (Kennedy Buckman) PARAMOUNT Big Town After Dark (Pine-Thomas) 20TH CENTURYFOX The Invisible Wall (Wurtzel) WARNERS Whiplash STARTED RKO RADIO I Remember Mama Return of the Bad Men 20TH CENTURYFOX Gentleman's Agreement UNITED ARTISTS Sleep, My Love (Triangle) SHOOTING COLUMBIA The Last Round-Up The Sea Hound The Double Take It Had to Be You The Prince of Thieves The Man from Colorado EAGLE-LION A Texas Story Adventures of Casanova ENTERPRISE They Passed This Way MGM If Winter Comes The Kissing Bandit Cass Timberlane Alias a Gentleman The Pirate Good News PARAMOUNT Dream Girl Whispering Smith RKO RADIO Memory of Love Mourning Becomes Electra The Bishop's Wife (Goldwyn) REPUBLIC The Red Pony (Feldman) Driftwood On Old Spanish Trails SELZNICK Portrait of Jennie SCREEN GUILD The Burning Cross (Colmes) 20TH CENTURY. FOX Nightmare Alley Off to Buffalo Foxes of Harrow UNITED ARTISTS The Time of Your Life (Cagney) Intrigue (Bischoff) UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL Ride the Pink Horse Wistful Widow of W agon Gap The Exile WARNERS Silver River Treasure of the Sierra Madre Ever the Beginning 28 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JUNE 7, 1947