The Moon-Spinners (Disney) (1964)

WALT DISNEY’S surpnise in suspense! Starring ELI WALLACH JOAN GREENWOOD HAYLEY MILLS PETER McENERY IRENE PAPAS With John le Mesurier Pau! Stassino Sheila Hancock Michael Davis Andre Morell George Pastell Tutte Lemkow Steve Plytas Harry Tardios Pamela Barrie And Starring POLA NEGRI Screenplay by MICHAEL DYNE Based on The Book “The Moon-Spinners” by Mary Stewart Co-Producer BILL ANDERSON Associate Producer HUGH ATTWOOLL Directed by JAMES NEILSON Director of Photography PAUL BEESON, B.S.C. Additional Photography John Wilcox, B.S.C. Michael Reed Music Composed and Conducted by RON GRAINER “The Moon-Spinners” Song by Terry Gilkyson Art Director TONY MASTERS Costume Designer ANTHONY MENDLESON Editor GORDON STONE Second Unit Director Production Manager Assistant Director Camera Operator Continuity Casting Make-up Hairdressing Sound Editor ........ Sound Recordists Animals 35). 3 ae. Arthur J. Vitarelli . Peter Manley . John Peverall . David Harcourt Yvonne Axworthy Maude Spector . Harry Frampton ..... A. G. Scott . Jonathan Bates Dudley Messenger Gordon McCallum .. Jimmy Chipperfield Filmed in Crete and at Pinewood Studios, London, England Technicolor® ©1964 Walt Disney Productions Distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Co., Inc. RUNNING TIME: 1 HOUR, 59 MINUTES MLLLLLLLLILLLLILILLLLLLLLLLLILL LLLLLLLLLLLLL LLL LLL LLL Hayley Mills Has First Adult Role In ‘Moon-Spinners’ Hayley Mills, the hottest item to emanate from England since James Watt invented the steam engine, has played her last little girl role. Eighteen now, and as pretty as she is talented, the immensely popular actress plays her age in Walt Disney’s suspense mystery, ‘“‘The MoonSpinners.” As Nikky Ferris, an English lass on vacation in romantic Crete who finds adventure—and a young man to share it with her — she is bussed by a handsome young fellow countryman, Peter McEnery. To make things even more interesting, the big deal comes during the height of a Cretan carnival while the two are fleeing for their lives in, of all things, a hearse. For Hayley, the emergence into adult roles is a great pleasure. “T’d hate to go into my twenties playing sweet little girls,” she says. “T loved making ‘Pollyanna’ and ‘The Parent Trap’ and all the others, but I’m growing up now, and I love my role as Nikky, a sharp teen-ager, in “The MoonSpinners.” In color by Technicolor, “The Moon-Spinners” stars Miss Mills, Eli Wallach, Peter McEnery, Joan Greenwood and Irene Papas. Also, Pola Negri returns to the screen. Bill Anderson co-produced with Walt Disney, and Hugh Attwooll was associate producer. James Neilson directed the Buena Vista release. ROARING 20’s MEET SIZZLING 60’s IN DISNEY FEATURE When Pola Negri was batting her big, black, false eyelashes around before talkies came along, Hayley Mills wasn’t even a twinkle in her father’s eye. Yet these costars of Walt Disney’s “The Moon-Spinners” have much in common. First, they both have made an impression with their toes; Pola’s as the first to have them painted, and Hayley’s in the cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Next, both find crazy twist music relaxing between takes. Of course, Hayley practically grew up with the dance, but Pola, the scintillator of the silents, was forced to take it up — she couldn’t find a partner for the Charleston. Miss Mills displays her prowess in the twist in a scene from “The Moon-Spinners,” but Miss Negri reserves hers for “remedying the blues.” The darling of the Sixties, and the teen-queen of the Twenties, get along so well that they formed a mutual admiration society. “She is such a darling, and so very, very talented,” says Pola of Hayley. “She’s simply fantastic — just as I imagined a legendary star to be,” is Hayley’s answer. In color by Technicolor, “The Moon-Spinners” stars Miss Mills, Eli Wallach, Peter McEnery, Joan Greenwood and Irene Papas. Also, Miss Negri returns to the screen. Bill Anderson co-produced with Walt Disney, and Hugh Attwooll was associate producer. James Neilson directed the Buena Vista release. WALT DISNEY PUTS HAYLEY MILLS, ROMANCE AND SUSPENSE INTO ‘THE MOON-SPINNERS’ For his first suspense-mystery, “The Moon-Spinners,”’ Walt Disney mixes the talents of Hayley Mills, romance, and a spine-tingling story, with the opulence of ancient Crete, and comes up with one of his best efforts to date in the field of family entertainment. Based on Mary Stewart’s recent best-seller, the lavish production is as colorful as it is exciting, and is certain to be one of the strongest attractions in studio history. Besides Miss Mills, the outstanding cast includes Eli Wallach, Pola Negri, Irene Papas, Joan Greenwood and Peter McEnery. Historic Crete, with its azure waters, ancient customs and mountain vistas, provides an opulent setting for Walt’s first whodunit. The tale is about an English girl who accompanies her musicologist aunt to an outof-the-way village in Crete, falls for a handsome young stranger, and shares a series of hairraising adventures with him in his search for valuable jewelry and the thief who made the youth suspect by stealing it. Hayley has been showered with almost every important award including a special Oscar, a British Academy Award, a Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear and a Hollywood For eign Press Golden Globe during her meteoric career. Now that she has added glamor to her vivacious personality, there should be no stopping her. THE LOCATION Not since “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” has Walt Disney offered so much opulence in a picture. The rugged mountains, ancient ruins, colorful customs, dance festivals, snow white beaches and deep blue waters provides a spectacular setting for a suspenseful plot in which a brutal jewel thief hunts down young lovers who would expose him. The hair-raising chase is played against splendrous sights like great, ornate caves dating back to the fabulous Minoan civilization — circa 1600 B.C., — a church built by Venetians during the thirteenth century, roads constructed by the Romans in 100 A.D., temples built by the Byzantines during the second century, and plenty of vivid blue sky and mountain vistas. THE CAST Hayley Mills, in five years and eight feature motion pictures, has become one of the best liked and most renowned young actresses of all time. Now, at eighteen, the bubbly young lady with the button nose and pixie ways has blossomed into svelte maturity — a pleasant development which Walt Disney takes full advantage of in “The Moon-Spinners.” Eli Wallach, a method actor who has long been one of Broadway’s most admired dramatic performers, is rapidly achieving the same reputation in Hollywood. The stocky, intelligent actor won Broadway’s highest honors — the Antoinette Perry and Donaldson awards — before appearing in his first motion picture, “Baby Doll.” Although he now intentionally alternates between stage, screen and television work to “exercise all my acting muscles,” Wallach has starred in four major pictures in the past year, including “The Moon-Spinners,” “The Victors,” “Kisses for My President,” with Fred MacMurray and Polly Bergen, and “Lord Jim” with Peter O’Toole. Pola Negri, whose name is synonymous with the exotic day of the vamp, comes out of a twentyyear retirement to play her first role for Walt Disney in “The Moon-Spinners.” Still trim, brunette and comely, she remains one of the _ best-remembered names in show business. A product of the long-gone silent days, she steps into the limelight once more to play the part of Madame Habib, a wealthy and eccentric jewel fancier who travels to Crete in her yacht to do business with a murderous thief, played by Wallach. Mat MS-2B SOLOS Mat MS-2A SUSPENSE AND ROMANCE are provided by the adventures of Hayley Mills and Peter McEnery in Walt Disney's “The Moon-Spinners."’ The Technicolor feature also stars Eli Wallach, Joan Greenwood, Irene Papas and Pola Negri, in her return to the screen. Buena Vista releases. Sra 9) oy Ea jae cai JES Bally Buel RS dy ree ee een Walt Disney unveils a gifted British actor for America moviegoers in Peter McEnery, the latest in a long line of Disney discoveries. The English public took note of the handsome actor when he landed the lead role in “Flowering Cherry” for a touring company. TV appearances came next, followed by his first movie, “Victim,” and then a part in “Tunes of Glory.” By 1962 he was established as one of Britain’s most popular young thespians, and won acclaim in London’s West End in “Next Time I’l] Sing to You.” Take away Joan Greenwood’s voice, and all you’ve got left is a very fine actress — a point she made as the mute heroine of the British picture, “A Girl in a Million,” a few years ago. But with her voice — and what a resonant, beautifully modulated one it is — the petite English leading lady makes an indelible impression. Her classic Greek beauty is familiar around the globe, but it is her impact as a dramatic actress that has won Irene Papas worldwide acclaim. American audiences best remember her for her roles in “Attilla the n” and “The Guns of Navarone,’® both opposite Anthony Quinn. Sheila Hancock, who plays a difficult inebriate in her first role for Walt, is noted as one of England’s finest all-around actresses es STARS’ PATHS CROSS — Hayley Mills, favorite of millions of moviegoers of today, shares the spotlight with Pola Negri, silent film idol, in Walt Disney's ‘‘The MoonSpinners.” Eli Wallach and Peter McEnery also star in the Technicolor suspense-mystery. A Buena Vista release. as well as being a beautiful, shapely blonde. Last year she was named the best stage actress by Variety Club of Great Britain for her nearly 400 performances in “Rattle of a Simple Man” at London’s Garrick Theatre. Young Michael Davis, who plays the engaging and fun-loving Cretan lad, Alexis, in “The MoonSpinners,” is not only a veteran actor, but one of the most promising flamenco dancers in the world. The wiry, dark-complected youngster toured Europe as a headliner with the famous Jose Greco company several times before he was twelve, and has played featured parts in half a dozen motion pictures as well as many of the top television shows. Paul Stassino, an intense actor of Greek parentage who has played scores of villains in British productions, has his biggest part to date as Lambis, the murderous accomplice to a jewel robbery, in the spine-tingling story. John LeMesurier, a top English character actor with many fine stage and screen credits, plays a phony British consul who dupes two desperate youngsters’ into trusting him. THE DIRECTOR Some of the choicest directorial assignments are going to Jimmy Neilson these days a World War II Marine Corps battle photographer with Gung Ho in his veins who with “The Moon-Spinners.” wrapped up his second Hayley Mills starrer for Walt. Jimmy came to Disney Studios during the “Zorro” and “Texas John Slaughter” television days to direct a series or two and stayed on to try his hand at a feature, “Moon Pilot.” It was his first go at the feature department although his pre-Disney background included the reining of some hundred TV shows, including a few for “Wagon Train” and “Alfred Hitchcock.” Versatility seems to be Jimmy’s middle name. He can — and does — jump from television to motion pictures and back to_ television shows like “Johnny Shiloh,” “Mooncussers” and in England, “Dr. Syn,” with Hayley Mills and “Summer Magic” sandwiched between the latter two. In color by Technicolor, “The Moon-Spinners” is directed by James Neilson from Michael Dyne’s screenplay. Bill Anderson co-produced with Walt Disney. Buena Vista releases. Page 3