Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1942)

September 26, 1942 SHOWMEN'S TRADE R E \^ I E W 25 HOLLYWOOD STUDIO UOIIND-LP Only four new pictures started this week. Following are the details: COLUMBIA POWER OF THE PRESS— Principals : Guy Kibbee, Lee Tracy, Otto Kruger, Gloria Dickson. Director, Lew Landers. RKO-RADIO GREAT GILDERSLEEVE — Principals: Harold Peary, Jane Darwell, Xancy Gates. Director, Gordon Douglas. 20th CENTURY-FOX SEVENTH COLUMN — Principals: Philip Dorn, John Shepperd, Virginia Gilmore, Anna Sten. Director, Louis King. UNIVERSAL WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME — Principals: Allan Jones, Jane Frazee, Gloria Jean, Phil Spitalny Girl Orchestra. Director, Charles Lamont. TITLE CHANGES "Commandos Come At Dawn" (Col. J now COMMANDOS STRIKE AT DAWX. "Bye, Bve. Babv" (Mono.; now RHYTHM PARADE. "Eleven Were Brave" (Rep.) now CROOKED CIRCLE. "Corpse Came C.O.D." (L'niv.) now BEHIND THE 8 BALL. Sand Storms, Heat Too Much Unseasonable sand storms and intense heat in the desert area in the vicinity of El Centre resulted in cutting short location sequences for the 20th-Fox drama of Lybian desert warfare, "The Immortal Sergeant." The company, headed by Director John M. Stahl. Henry Fonda, Thomas Mitchell, Allyn Joslyn, ^lelville Cooper and Morton Lowery, returned to the studio. The picture is being produced b}' Lamar Trotti, who wrote the screenplay from the novel by John Brophy. When the picture is finished, Stahl will begin producing-directing "Blindman's House," based on the Hugli W'alpole novel. Lesser Signs Katherine Cornell The distinguished Broadway star. Katherine Cornell, until now able to resist the pleas of Hollywood producers, has finally relented and will be seen on the screen for the first time in Sol Lesser's forthcoming "Stage Door Canteen." Miss Cornell joins a long list of celebrities who will appear in the picture, including Katharine Hepburn, Helen Ha\-es, Gertrude Lawrence, Kay Kyser, Edgar Bergen. Ray Bolger, Jane Cowl and Peggy Wood. Pal Purchases '500 Hats' Purchase of the screen rights to the story. "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins," written by Dr. Seuss, one of America's foremost humorists, has been announced by George Pal, producer of the Puppetoon series of shorts for Paramount. Pal will produce the story in a Technicolor cartoon with a special musical score. Also under consideration by Pal : "And to Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street," by the same author. Gloria Dickson in Republic Pact Gloria Dickson has been signed to a threepicture deal by Republic studios. She has in the past appeared in two pictures for Republic. "Mercy Island" and "Affairs of Jimmy Valentine." 'Mission to Moscow' Beset by Difficulties Finding a technical adviser for Warner Bros.' projected "Mission to Moscow'' is an acute problem, reports studio research chief Dr. Herman Lissauer, because "thousands of people speak, read and write the Russian language fluently, but most of these are Russian emigres who have not visited their native country since they fled 25 years ago ; they haven't the slightest notion of what the Soviet Union looks like today." Of the press correspondents who served in Moscow during the period around which the book was written, none are presently available. Further woe is added to an already difficult situation by the casting of extras. Infinite care in this regard must be exercised if accuracy is to be maintained. There is no "typical Russian." The Soviet Union, according to Erskine Caldwell, embraces 180 different nationalities, including Georgians, Caucasians, White Russians. Great Russians, Tartars, Alongols, Ukranians. Cossacks. Armenians, Turkomans — to mention only a few. Therefore, each extra must be selected to fit a particular nationality. MGM Buys Rights to 'Gaslight'; Staged on Bdwy. as 'Angel Street' Metro-Goldwyn-AIayer has bought from Columbia the American screen rights to "Gaslight,'' an English play by Patrick Hamilton. Arthur Hornblow has been assigned the property for production. The melodrama had been acquired by Columbia who purchased a British him version of it starring Diana Wynyard and .\nton Walbrook. The projected ^IG^I picture will co-star Irene Dimne and Mehwn Douglas. After revising the third act. Shepherd Traube staged the Broadway production of "Gaslight" under the title "Angel Street." Hornblow is scheduled to go to New York within the next few days to see the play, but it is not known whether he will attempt to buy for his studio the new title and new third-act material from Traube. It's in the Congressional Record Representative Sol Bloom of New York, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has read the Ronald Colman courtroom speech from "Talk of the Town" into the Congressional Record. The speech, which so impressed Bloom, is on democratic processes, and is made to an ungovernable mob bent on lynching. Comedy Team Welcomed Home When Abbott and Costello returned to Universal from their nation-wide whirlwind bond-selling tour, the studio was patriotically bedecked to welcome them home. Bud and Lou were met at the train by 30 A.W.V.S. members and paraded through Los Angeles' shopping center in Army jeeps. Their next comedy is "It Ain't Hay." W A i\ D E n I i\ G A K O U i\ « nOLLYWOOD To see a loyal and conscientious worker rewarded delights the spirit. That's how it is to see Bernie Kamins elevated to Publicity Director for Harry Sherman Productions. And for Bernie it's none too soon. What would his son of ten days say about it if Bernie hadn't been moved up? They were quite careful zcho they allovjed OH the "For Whom The Bell Tolls" set, but after zi-e passed muster, U'e zx.vtched ProducerDirector Saiii Wood z^'ork out the next scene z^'ith Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper, Katina Paxinou and Fortunio Bononova; only he called them Maria, Robert and Pilar, the story names, for mood and accuracy. Those handles might stick after the picture, like Scarlet did to Vivien Leigh. Lonnie D'Orsa, assistant director and official worrier, explained that after this picture, any other will be a cinch. The}' have a cast of 15 players. Cooper and Bergman speak clear English, the others a dialect that would confound the League of Xations. The set represented a cave. Everything else had been shot on location, but the cave there had been too small for very effective shooting, or to accommodate the entire group necessary in the scenes. The stonez^'ork z^'as reproduced by covering canvas zz'ith plaster and coloring to match. The "roof" consisted of 15 slabs, suspoided by piilleys. \\'hen thev took a long shot they would lower the blocks into a semblance of the cave roof, shifting the slabs around as the camera angle changed. For a close-up where the camera and mike boom had to move in, the slabs were raised and the floodlights eyed between. On the Cliarlcs R. Rogers lot where "The Pozvers Girl" is being shot, they had a bevy of beauties that z<.'0uld make an old man w/n (J hundred-yard dash. If there zi'as any doubt about the collective beauty, zee visited the "Rhythm Parade'' set at Monogram, where the Xils T. Granlund chorus and collection z>.'cre being filmed. X.T.G. told us they were the most beautiful in the zi'orld, but they couldn't hold a candle to the "Pozcers Girl" collection. And w-e're not fond of very beautiful girls because of the intense competition .' Baker Signed for Ice Spectacle One of radio's most popular singers, and for years a featured member of Fred Allen's show. Kenny Baker has been signed for a leading role in Monogram's ice spectacle, "Silver Skates," now being prepared for filming under the direction of Leslie Goodwins. A large cast has been lined up for the film, which Lindsley Parsons is producing. John Gunther's Whirlwind Month After the intensive work of preparing three such best-sellers as "Inside Asia," "Inside Europe" and "Inside Latin America," tossing off a few scripts for the films was just a holiday for John Gunther. During a whirlwind month at 20th-Fox, the noted author wrote one complete script, one complete film treatment, and a lengthy foreword for a third film.