Motion Picture Herald (1953)

WARNER PROGRAM: SUIT TECHNIQUE TO FILM STORY DIRECTORS OF THE MEETING, in Chicago, of Warner sales personnel. In array on the dais are Samuel Schneider, vice-president; Benjamin Kalmenson, vice-president in charge of distribution, who presided; Major Albert Warner, vice-president, and Mo rt Blumenstock, vice-president in charge of advertising and publicity. Putting emphasis on top story properties, Ben Kalmenson, Warner Bros, distribution vice-president, declared that every picture on the company schedule “will be marketed so as to reach the maximum possible audience, with whatever type of production best fits the subject” at a sales meeting of district managers and home office executives in Chicago last week. “A variety of product for every kind of theatre situation will be produced for distribution by Warner Bros, in a manner designed to make best possible use of the individual story’s possibilities — whether in wide screen WarnerScope, 3-D, 2-D or anything else. Each picture will be available in the forms which give it maximum box office returns.” He declared, “Under Jack L. Warner's experienced leadership, this company is continually on the alert for the best story properties all over the world, and is producing them with the kind of expenditure of time, talent and resources that the properties deserve.” “You can assure every exhibitor that the aim of Warner Bros, is to produce quality entertainment for the quantity market,” he asserted. “Warner Bros, intends to continue and to expand the policy of top stories indicated by some of the recent Warner deals for current best-sellers like the Bookof-the-Month club selection, ‘The High and the Mighty,’ starring John Wayne, directed by William A. Wellman.” He also cited “Battle Cry,” Leon Uris’ novel; George Stevens’ production of Edna Ferber’s “Giant,” to be directed and produced by Mr. Stevens in association with Henry Ginsberg; Edna Ferber’s “So Big,” starring Jane Wyman, produced by Henry Blanke, directed by Robert Wise; “Mr. Roberts,” a Joshua Logan-Leland Hayward production; and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder” in WarnerColor, starring Ray Milland, which Mr. Hitchcock will also direct. Among the first pictures for distribution in the new WarnerScope process, Mr. Kalmenson told the meeting, will be “Helen of Troy.” This is scheduled for immediate production in Rome with an estimated budget of $6,000,000. A recently acquired Warner Bros, story is “Anastasia,” current London stage hit. It is a romantic drama by Marcelle Maurette, adapted for the stage by Guy Bolton. The play is scheduled for a Broadway opening. Among other important properties which Mr. Kalmenson mentioned as forthcoming productions were : The life story of General George S. Patton, on which the Warner studio has just received priority from the Department of Defense. East of Eden, based on John Steinbeck’s best-seller, to be directed and produced by Elia Kazan. The Talisman, Sir Walter Scott’s story of the Crusades, to be made on a lavish scale including filming in wide screen WarnerScope and WarnerColor, David Butler directing. Triple Jet Ace, Ted Sherdeman's screenplay from the Korean war exploits of Captain Joseph McConnell, America's* triple jet ace. A Star Is Born, which returns Judy Garland to the screen, and also starring James Mason. Sid Luft is producing in color by Technicolor from a script by Moss Hart. George Cukor directs, songs by Ira Gershwin and Harold Arlen. The Eddie Cantor Story, Technicolor, starring Keefe Brasselle, and Marilyn Erskine, produced by Sidney Skolsky and directed by Alfred E. Green. Calamity Jane, starring Doris Day and Howard Keel in a Technicolor musical, produced by William Jacobs, directed by David Butler, with original songs by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. Gown of Glory, from the best-seller by Agnes Sligh Turnbull, to be produced by Henry Blanke for the studio. Black Ivory, from the Polan Banks novel on the exploits of the pirate, Jean Lafitte. Land of the Pharaohs, to be produced and directed by Howard Hawks. It is being developed as a novel by Nobel prize winner William Faulkner, who is also writing the screenplay. Hondo, in 3-D, WarnerColor, starring John Wayne in a Wayne-Fellows production, and introducing Geraldine Page. Daniel and the Woman of Babylon, story of one of the great Biblical heroes. Rear Guard, j. Warner Bellah’s “Saturday Evening Post" story, starring Guy Madison, in WarnerColor, David Butler directing, David W eisbart producing. Them!, a science-fiction thriller, starring Edmund Gwenn, James Whitmore, James Arness, Joan Weldon. Gordon Douglas directs with David Weisbart producing. His Majesty O’Keefe, Technicolor, starring Burt Lancaster with Joan Rice, produced by Harold Hecht, directed by Byron Haskin from the book by Lawrence Klingman and Gerald Green. Lucky Me, starring Doris Day, Robert Cummings, directed by Jack Donohue, produced by Henry Blanke, songs by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. The Boy from Oklahoma, in WarnerColor, starring Will Rogers, Jr., and Nancy Olson, directed by Michael Curtiz, produced by David Weisbart. The Bounty Hunter, in 3-D, WarnerColor, starring Randolph Scott, with Dolores Dorn and Marie Windsor, directed by Andre de Toth, and produced by Sam BischofL Three Sailors and a Girl, Technicolor, starring Jane Powell and Gordon MacRae with Gene Nelson, directed by Roy Del Ruth, produced by Sammy Calm. The Phantom Ape, in 3-D, WarnerColor, inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” starring Karl Malden, Claude Dauphin, Patricia Medina and Steve Forrest, produced by Henry Blanke, directed by Roy Del Ruth. Thunder Over the Plains, starring Randolph Scott, with Lex Barker and Phyllis Kirk, produced in WarnerColor by David Weisbart, directed by Andre de Toth. Kansas-Missouri Unit To Meet October 27 KANSAS CITY : A meeting of exhibitors of the Kansas-Missouri exchange area will be held here Tuesday October 27 starting with a luncheon, under the sponsorship of the Allied Independent Theatre Owners of Kansas-Missouri. An important feature of the program will be reports from delegates of the unit who attended the national Allied convention in Boston. The board of directors will meet that day also. Three Mew Drive-Sns Are Planned in South Three new drive-ins will be added soon to those operating in the South. One of the three has just started, the second is under construction and the third is in the planning stage. Just opened is J. D. Young’s 250-car operation in High Springs, Fla. Plans for a de luxe 500-car drive-in have been completed by B. B. Garner, president of Talgar Theatre, Winter Haven, Fla., with an early December opening scheduled. Martin & Thompson Theatres has started work on a new 400-car drive-in at Blaxley, Ga. 18 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 24, 1953