Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

THIS WEEK in PRODUCTION . . . Started — 4 Columbia — 3:10 to Yuma. Independent — Johnny Trouble (Clarion). Warner Bros. — The Pajama Game (WarnerColor); The Black Scorpion (Melford-Dietz). . . . Completed — 3 Allied Artists — Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (Film Venturers, Inc.). 20th Century-Fox — Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (CinemaScope, DeLuxe Color). Universal-International — Night Passage (Techirama). . . . Shooting — 28 Allied Artists — Attack of the Crab Monster (Roger Corman Prod.); Love in the Afternoon. Columbia — The Brothers Rico (William Goetz Prod.); The Haunted; Garment Center; The Bridge on the River Kwai (Horizon-American); The Admirable Crichton (London Films); The Golden Virgin (Valiant Films). Independent — II Crido (Robert Alexander Prod.). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer — Action of the Tiger (BlauMeyer Prods.); This Could be the Night; The Seventh Vow (CinemaScope); Gun Glory (CinemaScope, Metrocolor); Silk Stockings (CinemaScope, Metrocolor). Paramount — The Tin Star (VistaVision); The Joker (VistaVision). RKO Radio — Escapade in Japan (Color). 20th Century-Fox — Conquest (CinemaScope, DeLuxe Color); Island in the Sun (Zanuck, CinemaScope, DeLuxe Color); Boy on a Dolphin (55mm, CinemaScope, Color); Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (CinemaScope, DeLuxe Color). United Artists — Last Gun in Durango (Peerless Prod.); The Sweet Smell of Success (Hecht-HillLancaster Prod.). Universal-International — Joe Dakota (Color); The Man of a Thousand Faces (CinemaScope). Warner Bros. — The Story of Mankind; Shoot-out at Medicine Bend; Lafayette Escadrille. HOLLYWOOD...BUREAU With four pictures starting and three others finishing, the producion week wound up with 32 in camera stage. Two of the four new projects are for Warner release. “The Pajama Game” was started, in WarnerColor, with a cast headed by Doris Day, John Raitt, Carol Haney, Eddie Foy, Jr., Reta Shaw, Ralph Dunn, Jack Straw and Barbara Nichols. Producers are George Abbott, Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince. The director is Stanley Donen. “The Black Scorpion” got under way in Mexico City, with Frank Melford and Jack Dietz producing and Edward Ludwig directing. Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas and Arturo Martinez are principals. Columbia is represented in the new undertakings by “3:10 to Yuma,” presenting Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr and Leora Dana. David Heilweil is producing, with Delmer Daves directing. John Carroll, entering upon a 15-pic ocl c cene “BRAVE” YOUNG MAN WITH IDEAS Esteemed Editor: Possibly the severest test of the widely advocated but rarely applied “new faces” production policy is being made by Stephen Apostolof, now scoring his first American production and preparing his second, who employs totally unknown players exclusively. He states his policy thus: “It is entirely unnecessary to have established box office names in your casts when you have an unusual story and a top-quality entertainment. The public is mainly interested in sound entertainment — preferably something new, timely and progressive in the way of subject matter — and the fans always welcome fresh faces in fine pictures.” These are, to be sure, brave words, but Mr. Apostolof is a brave man, by proof. He is, further, a brave young man, which is the best kind to be when you’re setting out to do battle with the firmly entrenched star system. He is 28 years old by the calendar, far older by experience, and he tried out New Faces policy in Europe before venturing into this sterner production climate. His 28 years embrace youthful service in the Bulgarian Underground fighting Soviet domination and three-and-a-half years of service in a Soviet prison for same. They include escape from that prison to Istanbul, Turkey, where he earned a living by playing night club piano, a talent acquired during student days at Sofia University, and after that the financing, production and direction, in Paris, of an independent feature entitled “The Last Mile to El Diablo,” with, of course, unknown actors. That film was produced in 1950, the year he shipped to Canada, where he waited out, pleasantly, the two years it took him to arrange for permission to enter the United States. Arriving here in 1952, he went to work in the production departments of 20th-Fox and ACB-TV, and rounded out in those employments the production experience he felt he should have before forming Apostolof Productions. The first production is titled “Journey to Freedom” and its story does not completely parallel his own life story but does include some of the incidents he lived through to get here. He says, with tre ture program of pictures by Clarion, launched “Johnny Trouble,” with Ethel Barrymore, Stuart Whitman, Carolyn Jones and Cecil Kellaway in top roles. John H. Auer is producer-director. Release channel will be determined after completion of one or more of the 15 pictures. mendous earnestness, that the story of this or any picture is the secret of its success or, unhappily even more often, its failure. His next picture is to be “From Out the Darkness,” an original by Howard Estabrook, dealing with modern methods of treating mental illness. Producer Apostolof is, as mentioned before a “brave young man.” — William R. Weaver Studio Heads MeetDec.l3on "Sweepstakes" The board of directors of the Motion Picture Association of America, meeting in New York Tuesday, voted to submit a definite and detailed proposal of the “Oscar Sweepstakes” to Hollywood after hearing an appraisal of the contest plan by Roger H. Lewis, chairman of the MPAA’s Advertising and Publicity Directors Committee. A meeting with officials of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, headed by president George Seaton, and possibly other West Coast groups, has been tentatively set for Dec. 13. According to an MPAA official, either Mr. Lewis or a member of his committee, will go to Hollywood for the meeting which will be set up by Mr. Seaton and his associates. The board also heard Mr. Seaton, Y. Frank Freeman, vice-president of Paramount Pictures, and Fred Metzler, also of the Academy, in a discussion of the full Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences program. Academy activities, plans, position in the industry and worldwide recognition, proposal for the establishment of an industry museum, cinema art courses, and its international activities were outlined. Mr. Seaton also brought up the subject of the industry sponsorship of the “Oscar” presentation on television. He asked for support. Makelim Sets Next “Valerie,” Hal R. Makelim’s second of a series of pictures for United Artists release, will start shooting December 10 at the RKO-Pathe studios in Culver City. The picture is a post-Civil War drama starring Anita Ekberg, Sterling Hayden and Anthony Steel, and will be co-produced with Robert Fellows, Mr. Makelim announced. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER 8, 1956 33