Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1942)

22 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW September 19, 1942 STR West Coast Offices 10424 Bloomfield St. North Hollywood, Calif. Telephone, Sunset 1-6292 PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE STUDIOS Mitchell Leisen Directing "Lafiy in the Dark^'/ Gruber Now Scripting 20th -Fox Thriller/ Walsh Directing Raft Vehicle ►Producer Lester Cutler has begun to shoot "Permit To Kill" for PRC release. Directed by Alexis Thurn-Taxis, the picture shows a cast headed by Lyle Talbot, Barton MacLane and Charlotte Wynters and is based on an original story written by Herman Ruby and Lou Pollack, the song writer. ^Frank Gruber, the creator of the Johnny Fletcher mystery novels, is busy scripting "French Underground" at 20th-Fox. This first production assignment of Lee Marcus will deal zvith undercover anti-German activity in France. ►Pandro S. Berman's MGM production "Nothing Ventured" with Wesley Ruggles directing has begun to roll. The Robert Young-Lana Turner starrer will include Catherine "Cathy" Lewis in its cast. ^The new East Side Kids picture "Little Mobsters" which Sam Katzman and Jack Diets will produce, ivith Wallace Fox directing, will start September 25. ►Director Mitchell Leisen has been handed one of the year's choicest directorial plums with his assignment to do "Lady in the Dark", hit Broadway musical show, in which Paramount will star Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. ^Frank McDonald will direct the Armand Schaefer production for Republic, in which Don "Red" Barry will be featured, "Eleven Were Brave" . ►Director Leo McCarey is beginning to earn the title of "Iron Man". Writing, producing and directing "Once Upon A Honeymoon" for RKO, co-starring Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant, he employed two sets of assistants and three shifts of secretaries each day. yRobert Fellows production "Pittsburgh" which Lew Seller directs over at Universal, has added Louise Allbritton to the starring cast of Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne and Randolph Scott. ►Raoul Walsh has begun direction on the Jerry Wald, Warner production, "Background To Danger" with George Raft, Brenda Marshall, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre heading the cast. ySig Neufeld's production "Dead Men Walk" for PRC release began under the megaphoning of Sam Newfield. George Zucco, Mary Carlisle and Nedric Young will handle the lead roles. This is Zucco's second of a deal for three. ►William LeBaron will produce a musical comedy for 20th-Fox from an original by Jerry Horwin and Seymour B. Robinson, "Thanks Pal". ySam Zimbalist and W. S. Van Dyke II, producer and director respectively, on MGM's "Gentle Annie" the new Robert Taylor starrer, have taken Bill Lewis as assistant director on the picture. ►George W. Weeks Monogram picture "Dead Men Don't Ride" will be directed by Robert Tansey. John King, David Sharpe and Max Terhune will be featured as the "Range Busters". ySol C. Siegel has won the production assignment on "Caribbean Patrol" , a new Paramount epic in the pattern of "Wake Island". ►Republic studios have announced that they will remake their top boxoffice picture of 1936, "The Leathernecks Have Landed". The plot will be modernized to fit to-day's methods of warfare. yWilliam Wellman has been signed by Hunt Stromberg to direct "G-String Murders" the Barbara Stanwyck starrer, vuith a plot woven around mystery and the backstage of a theatre Kent Smith is expected to play in the cast. Smith, on a long term contract to RKO has been signed by Stromberg to do feature roles when he isn't busy at RKO. ►John Goodman, Universal's new supervising art director, has assigned Ralph DeLacy to design sets for "The Lone Star Trail", seventh and final production on Associate Producer Oliver Drake's 1942-43 program of outdoor adventure films. Ray Taylor will direct the co-stars Johnny Mack Brown and Tex Ritter. ^Howard Hawks, directing Warner's "Air Force" has had to shoot around John Garfield for some time due to the star's illness from fever. ►Arthur Freed will produce "Gentlemen, Be Seated" for MGM in an attempt to recreate one of America's most interesting and colorful eras, the age of minstrelsy, with blackface jesters, dancers and songs. yWar Dogs" the Monogram picture dealing with Dogs for Defense is the first motion picture covering the subject. 12 year old Billy Lee is featured. ►B. G. De Sylva has handed the associate producer assignment on "Mistress Mary", Fred MacMurray starrer to E. D. Leshin with Rene Clair as director. Clair also put in some pen work on the story. ^Republic has bought a story about an outcast typhus carrier who goes to Germany to rescue his mother. The title is "Berlin Papers Please Copy". ►Irving Rapper's additional casting in the Fredric March starrer, "The Adventures of Mark Twain" include Kay Johnson, Kay Francis, Sylvia Sydney and Douglas Montgomery. Biggest $5000 Set Built for "Night Plane for Chungking" The largest indoor set built under the new ceiling rules is now ready at Paramount for the filming of scenes in "Night Plane for Chungking" which Ralph Murphy is directing. The set represents a monastery in Tibet. The courtyard and main buildings cover an area of 13,000 square feet, almost the entire floor space of one of the biggest stages on the lot. The buildings are made of paralite, a plaster substitute half as light and much less expensive than the original. This was sprayed on burlap backings, which had been used previously in lithographing processes. "Johnny Doughboy" Trio John Auer, Jane Withers and Henry Wilcoxon, snapped on the "Johnny Doughboy" set at Republic studios, whither Ann Lewis takes Mr. Exhibitor's Wife for a visit this week in her "Mrs. Showman Goes Studio Strolling" column. Dear Mr. Exhibitor's Wife: Jane Withers has grown up and has reached the "glamor" girl stage, so Republic puts her in a picture called "Johnny Doughboy." We'll go over there today and see what's doing. With our entrance on the set we realize that we've walked in on a private tete-a-tete between Jane and her leading man, Henry Wilcoxon. They're having breakfast together on the terrace of his home overlooking Lake Arrowhead. He's a playwright, and Jane, a youngster, thinks she's in love with him. The table is beautifully set with a sterling silver coffee service, a silver toast rack and the rest of the necessities for a meal. They've been rehearsing and Jane has just finished her lines. The director, John Auer, starts telling the maid, Etta McDaniel, sister of the famous Hattie, what she's to do for she comes on next. In order to make himself clear, Auer plays the part himself, acting it out with chuckles, hands on hips and all the other terpsichorean flourishes. Being a perfectionist, he doesn't give the order to roll until the scene is clear in the minds of all players. With the scene filmed, Auer comes over and we kid him about being a "perfect" maid. Soon Jane comes over and we start discussing clothes . . . the costume she's wearing in particular. It's a cute pink cotton play suit with a separate skirt, the lower half of which is white organdy imprinted with colored flowers. She's all pink from the wedgies on her feet to the bow in her hair. Thrilled with the pair of glamorous lounging pajamas she gets to wear in the picture, she tells us about them. The trousers are black satin, draped and full and caught at the ankles like harem pants. The top is pink chiffon with a pink lace jabot. This is the costume that was especially designed for her "torch" number. Jane and Auer go back to work even though it's lunch time. For us, however, lunch is lunch, so off we go to Republic's commissary with our escort, Sam Abarbanel. Until next week. Ann Lewis Paramount to Produce "China" With Loretta Young, Ladd, Bendix "China," hailed as "a spectacular drama," will be produced by Paramount with Loretta Young, Allan Ladd and William Bendix in starring roles. John Farrow of "Wake Island" directorial fame will direct, and B. G. DeSylva has assigned Richard Blumenthal as Associate Producer. Ladd and Bendix will portray American oil salesmen in China, Miss Young a missionary.