Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Sep 1953)

V. A. OFFERS PRODUCT TO A FLOW OF EXHIBITION by the Herald THE SALES MEETING in New York, at which United Artists disclosed its program. Around the table, in left to right order: James Velde, western division manager; Max E. Youngstein, vice-president; William J. Heineman, vice-president; Arthur Krim, president; Robert S. Benjamin, chairman of the board; B. G. Kranze, general sales manager; and Milton Cohen, eastern division manager. Standing, Fred Meyers, New York metropolitan district manager; John Hughes, eastern contract manager; Arthur Reiman, western contract manager; Ralph Clark, western district manager; F. J. Lee, midwest district manager; John Turner, eastern district manager; Harry Goldman, central district manager; Joseph Sugar, New York branch manager, and Charles Chaplin, Canadian district manager. Plan 48 Releases in Next 15 Months at Estimated Value of $40,000,000 Guaranteeing a continuous flow of product, United Artists will release 48 pictures in a variety of film processes during the next 15 months. This was announced in New York last weekend at the close of the company’s sales meeting by William J. Heineman, distribution vice-president, who asserted that 12 of the 48 will be released during October, November and December of this year while the remaining 36 will be released in 1954 at an average rate of three a month. Following the publication of Mr. Heineman’s announcement, Max E. Youngstein, advertising and publicity vice-president, said a record $4,500,000 to $5,000,000 will be expended on all forms of advertising during the next 12 months in behalf of the company’s 48 releases. The biggest one-year lineup in the company’s history, it is said to represent an estimated production value of $40,000,000. 32 Films in Color, With At Least ft to He in 3-D The picture schedule includes 32 films in color and a minimum of six features in 3-D, at least one in CinemaScope, and as many in the wide screen method as exhibitors’ demand requires, it was stated. Among the stars of the forthcoming releases are Gregory Peck, Burt Lancaster, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Leo Genn, Kirk Douglas, Jennifer Jones, Glenn Ford, James Mason, Gene Tierney, Van Heflin, Tony Curtis, Lex Barker, Anthony Dexter and Frank Lovejoy. Among the producers and directors are John Huston, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Anatole Litvak, Elia Kazan, Robert Rossen, Lesser Samuels, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Arthur Lubin, Victor Seville, S. P. Eagle, Edward Small and Harold Hecht. Of the 36 films to be released next year, 12 are now nearing completion, 17 will go into production by the end of this year and seven will be started early in 1954. These seven are: “Vera Cruz,” a Technicolor production starring Burt Lancaster and produced by the Harold Hecht-Burt Lancaster company ; “The Silver Chalice,” a wide-screen, Technicolor version of Thomas Costain’s spectacular best-seller, to be produced by Victor Saville; “Don Quixote,” to be produced by S. P. Eagle in Technicolor and wide screen; a second S. P. Eagle production, “The Witness,” a drama by playwright Arthur Laurents; two Edward Small productions in color, “Timbuktu,” to be directed by Stuart Heisler, and “King Solomon and His Thousand Wives,” and an as yet untitled film to be produced and directed by Anatole Litvak. The 12 productions already completed or nearing completion for release next year in clude two in the 3-D process: “Camel Corps,” producer Edward Small’s Eastman color, wide' screen adventure drama, starring Rod Cameron, Joanne Dru and John Ireland and directed by Ray Nazarro from a screenplay by Harry Essex, and “Ring Around Saturn,” a unique Nassour Brothers Production featuring electrically-animated puppets, filmed in Eastman color and wide screen. The other 10 films in this category are: “The Million Pound Bank Note,” starring Gregory Peck in a Technicolor adaptation of the celebrated Mark Twain story, directed by Ronald Neame, produced by John Bryan and made in association with the J. Arthur Rank Organization ; “Personal Affair,” a suspense drama starring Gene Tierney, Leo Genn and Glynis Johns, produced by Antony Darnborough and directed by Anthony Pelisser from a screenplay by Leslie Storm ; “Star of India,” a wide screen, Technicolor spectacle, starring Cornel Wilde and Jean Wallace, produced by Raymond Stross, directed by Arthur Lubin and written by Seton I. Miller ; “Beachhead,” an Aubrey Schenck drama in Pathecolor, starring Tony Curtis and Frank Lovejoy, produced by Howard W. Koch, directed by Stuart Heisler and written for the screen by Richard Alan Simmons from Richard G. Hubler’s novel ; “Americano,” a Robert Stillman production in wide screen and Eastmancolor, starring Glenn Ford, Arthur Kennedy and Cesar Romero under Budd Boettiger’s direction ; “The Story of William Tell,” starring Errol Flynn and Bruce Cabot in a Pathecolor swashbuckler produced by J. Barrett Mahon and directed by Jack Cardiff in CinemaScope, the first independent production to be filmed in that process ; “Mask of Geld,” a Technicolor adventure starring Van Heflin and Wanda Hendrix, produced by Audrey Baring and Maxwell Setton and directed by Jack Lee; Edward Small’s “Return to Treasure Island,” in Pathecolor and wide screen, written and produced by Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen, directed by E. A. Dupont and starring Dawn Addams, Tab Hunter and Porter Hall; “The Firebird,” Sol Lesser’s Technicolor film featuring ballerina Ellen Rasch, Tito Gobbi and an international cast of ballet and opera stars, produced by Lorens Marmstedt and directed by Hasse Ekman ; “Challenge the Wild,” Frank O. Graham’s unusual Eastman color documentary feature. The 17 films that will go into production before the end of this year include: “Bronco Apache,” a Technicolor Western starring Burt Lancaster, produced by the Harold Hecht-Lancaster company, directed by Robert Aldrich and written for the screen by James Webb from Paul Wellman’s novel of the same title ; “The Golden Warriors,” an original drama of the crime-ridden New York waterfront written by Budd Schulberg, which Elia Kazan is directing and S. P. Eagle producing ; “The Barefoot Contessa,” an original romantic drama written, produced and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with James Mason costarred and an actress for the title role to be selected soon ; “The Purple Plain,” starring Gregory Peck in a Technicolor adventure drama written for the screen by Eric Ambler from the E. H. Bates book, with Robert Parrish directing and the J. Arthur Rank Organization associated in the production ; “Alexander the Great,” the spectacular story of the ancient conqueror, which Robert Rossen is writing, producing and directing ; “Captain Jan,” producer-director Brian Desmond Hurst’s screen version of the Jan de Hartog book; “Sitting Bull,” Technicolor Western starring Dennis Morgan and Boris Karloff and produced by W. R. Frank ; “Smoke Signal,” an Aubrey Schenck adventure drama ; “The Life of Chain Weizmann,” based on “Trial and Error,” the autobiography of the first President of Israel, which Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are producing in association with Meyer Weisgal. Five Edward Small productions, all of them in color, are included in the group of 17 films that will start production during the next four months : “Return of Zorro,” starring Anthony Dexter; “Khyber Pass,” starring George Montgomery; “Screaming Eagles,” starring Rod Cameron and Tab Hunter under Ray Nazar ( Contimied on page 29, column 1) MOTION PICTURE HERALD, SEPTEMBER 12, 1953 27