Nevada Smith (Paramount Pictures) (1966)

Suzanne Pleshette Hates Snakes —But Business Is Business Suzanne Pleshette hates snakes! But the beautiful star who plays the leading feminine role in Joseph E. Levine’s “Nevada Smith,” a Paramount Pictures eocveee release opening at the Theatre, and which also stars Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith and Arthur Kennedy, and was produced and directed by Henry Hathaway, had to get along with them while making the picture. In the Panavision and color production, based on the memorable character created by Harold Robbins in “The Carpetbaggers,” Suzanne plays a Cajun girl named Pilar. She becomes involved in a torrid romance with Nevada Smith, played by McQueen, and helps him to escape from prison. During their flight, however, she is bitten by a poisonous snake, and dies tragically. The dark-haired, husky-voiced actress has never had a more difficult —and in some ways, terrifying— assignment in her motion picture career. Her scenes were shot on location in the back bayou country about seventy miles from New Orleans, and in that area there really are poisonous snakes. Several crew members even quit the movie when they witnessed the local reptile community. It was a very real ordeal for Suzanne, for she has a horror of snakes that she readily admits is almost pathological. Nevertheless, her every step on location was haunted with twigs, roots and even steel cables suddenly transformed into slimy enemies ready to coil about her ankles. “T can’t even bear to look at them,” the actress commented on her antipathy to snakes, “I'll never die of snake bite because I would have a coronary occlusion from fear before the venom could ever get into my bloodstream.” Despite her intense panic, the plucky trouper did all of her own stunts for the sequences, including falling into the treacherous swampy water, earning the admiration of her co-stars and the crew. Perhaps she behaves in such a professional manner because the lovely Miss Pleshette had her acting career in mind ever since she was a child. A native of New York, where her father was Executive Managing Director of the Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn, she attended the High School of Per forming Arts and has been acting Still NS-ART 3 Mat 1B Still NS-ART 5 Suzanne Pleshette, top feminine lead in Joseph E. Levine’s ‘“Nevada Smith,” based on the character created by Harold Robbins for “The Carpetbaggers,” which opens ..... at the. .. . Theatre under Paramount Pictures release in color and Panavision. as long as she can remember. She made her Broadway debut in “Compulsion,” and later appeared in “The Cold Wind and The Warm,” “The Golden Fleecing,” “Two for the See-Saw” and replaced Ann Bancroft as the teacher in “The Miracle Worker.” Since her starring role in the film “Rome Adventure,” in 1962, she has been one of Hollywood’s busiest performers. Some of her most recent pictures were “The Birds,” “A Distant Trumpet,” “Fate is the Hunter” and “A Rage To Live.” She has also starred in almost every top television show from both New York and Hollywood. “Nevada Smith,” co-starring Raf Vallone, Janet Margolin, Pat Hingle, Howard Da Silva and Martin Landau is from a screenplay by John Michael Hayes based on the Robbins character in “The Carpetbaggers,” and has a musical score composed and conducted by Alfred Newman. It is a Solar Production, for which Mr. Levine was executive producer. Mat 2C Suzanne Pleshette and Steve McQueen share the love interest in Joseph E, Levine’s epic western “Nevada Smith,” based on the character created for “The Carpetbaggers” by Harold Robbins which opens ...-.... at the Theatre in color and Panavision through Paramount Pictures release, 8-Oscar-Winner Penned Music For ‘Nevada Smith’ Eight-(count ’em-)-eight Academy Award Winner Alfred Newman, one of the top names in film music, wrote the score and conducted the full symphony orchestra for the background music in Joseph E. Levine’s “Nevada Smith,” a Solar Production for Paramount Pictures release which opens ....... at the eae resiae Theatre in color and Panavision. Newman began accumulating Oscars for his movie music away back in 1936 when he won the high award for his music in “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” He has since won the coveted gold figure for his work in among others, “Tin Pan Alley,” “Song of Bernadette,” “Mother Wore Tights,” “With a Song in my Heart” and “Call Me Madame.” “Nevada Smith,” termed as in the “High Noon” western tradition, is from a story by John Michael Hayes based on the character created for his “The Carpetbaggers” by Novelist Harold Robbins. Its huge cast includes Steve McQueen in the title role; Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy and Suzanne Pleshette. It was produced and directed by Henry Hathaway. ‘Carpetbagger’s’ Nevada Smith Rates Film of Own If you’re one of the millions who were fascinated by the character “Nevada Smith” in Joseph E. Levine’s recent “The Carpetbaggers,” your place is in the ...... Theatre ONeseere Ries next, when a film, written by John Michael Hayes from the character created by novelist Harold Robbins, goes on view. The new film, Levine’s “Nevada Smith,” is a Solar Production for Paramount Pictures release in color and Panavision and instead of telling what happened to “Nevada” after “The Carpetbaggers,” it devotes itself to telling how he got that way before he is met in “The Carpetbaggers.” The film, produced and directed by Henry Hathaway, was lavishly produced and is ranked by many who have seen it in the “High Noon” class of western. Steve McQueen plays the fascinating “Nevada,” and he’s starred with Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy and Suzanne Pleshette. Co-starred are Raf Vallone, Janet Margolin, Howard Da Silva, Pat Hingle and Martin Landau. ‘Nevada Smith’ Rides Again The fascinating “Nevada Smith” of the novel and film hit “The Carpetbaggers,” is the hero of Joseph E. Levine’s “Nevada Smith,” Solar Production for Paramount Pictures release which opens ....... at the si Seeeare Theatre. Based on the creation of Harold Robbins, the new film traces the career of the lone gunslinger before we meet him in “The Carpetbaggers.” The exacting role is played by Steve McQueen and the film was produced and directed in the “High Noon” tradition by Henry Hathaway. Star Brian Keith In Films Despite Himself In movies in spite of himself! That’s Brian Keith, starring in Joseph E. Levine’s “Nevada Smith,” Paramount Pictures release opening Theatre. the Eure ae Soe area Keith, who ironically had early ambitions to avoid all actors and acting, stars in the Panavisioncolor production, produced and directed by the distinguished Henry Hathaway, with a brilliant cast which also stars Steve McQueen, Harold Robbins— A Success Story Second To None Two years ago Embassy Picture’s Joseph E. Levine made movie history by announcing he had acquired the motion picture rights to a novel by Harold Robbins which hadn’t even been written yet! It was a fine token of the faith of a master showman in a master author. It was not misplaced. Levine has since acquired five Robbins stories, including the enormously successful “The Carpetbaggers,” and out of that 1964 top money-maker has come Levine’s forthcoming “Nevada Smith,” in color and Panavision, which opens al thes soe. Theatre as a Solar Production and Paramount Pictures release. The character Nevada Smith, as created by Robbins, was one of the fascinating personalities in “The Carpetbaggers” and stirred up so much public interest that the present movie “Nevada Smith” was written around the character by John Michael Hayes not as an epilogue but as a prologue to “The Carpetbaggers!” This, it is believed, is another Levine “Famous First.” Enormously successful Robbins is a native New Yorker. He quit high school at 15 to become an errand boy, soda jerk, counterman, bookie’s runner and ice cream yender at Coney Island. By the age of 19 however, be had a food factoring business of his own. But when it went bankrupt, he got a job at $15-a-week with a movie company. In time he became that company’s Executive Director for Budget Planning, having the final say-so on the expenditure of $40,000,000 a year. But, he felt, that was not the job he wanted. He tried writing in his spare time and his first novel “Never Love a Stranger’ was an immediate and unqualified success. “The Dream Merchants,” “A Stone for Danny Fisher,” “79 Park Avenue” and “The Carpetbaggers” followed. None sold less than 2,000,000 copies and some have sold 6,000,000. All are among the bestsellers in 18 countries. This places Robbins among the world’s most successful writers of popular fiction of all time. Although he has tried his hand at movie making successfully, Robbins found it not to his liking. He has devoted all his time since 1959 to writing on his farm outside of Norwalk, Connecticut. The role of “Nevada Smith” is played by Steve McQueen. Also in its cast are Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy and Suzanne Pleshette. Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy and Suzanne Pleshette. In the film, written by John Michael Hayes who based it on the memorable character created by Harold Robbins in “The Carpetbaggers,” also an _ outstanding Levine-Paramount screen success, Keith plays Industrialist Jonas Cord, friend and mentor of “Nevada Smith.” Cord is the only character, aside from Nevada, who appears in both pictures. Ruggedly handsome Keith admits his hostility to acting was acquired when he was a small boy. His father was a prominent actor, and his mother an actress. His resistance to acting continued as he was growing up, but World War II made a marked change in his attitude on the subject. After his discharge, he found that four years in the Marine Corp had not exactly trained him for hum-drum civilian life. So, somewhat reluctantly, he turned to the “family trade,” first in radio. He soon was making so much progress as an actor, that he began to land parts in Broadway shows, and appeared in three long-run hits “Mr. Roberts,” “Darkness at Noon” and “The Moon is Blue.” “Every actor dreams of a longrun play,” he explains. “It means security, regular meals, a good table at the best restaurants. Poppycock! To me it was just a treadmill. Slavery. It means you’re tied down. Nothing to do every afternoon, can’t go anywhere or do anything. You have to keep yourself fresh for the evening show. However, it did one thing for me—I saw more movies than anyone else in New York!” He is married to the former Judith Landon, at one time an actress-ballerina, and has a five-year old daughter, Mimi; four dogs, three cats, two squirrels and one parrot. “Nevada Smith,” co-starring Raf Vallone, Janet Margolin, Pat Hingle, Howard Da Silva and Martin Landau, was written for the screen by John Michael Hayes. The Solar Production, for which Mr. Levine was executive producer, has a musical score composed and conducted by Alfred Newman. : Still NS-ART 8 Mat 1B Brian Keith is co-starred with Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy and Suzanne Pleshette in Joseph E. Levine’s “Nevada Smith,” an epic western opening ..... atthe osc. Theatre in color and Panavision through Paramount Pictures release. Page Three