Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1942)

18 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW June 27, 1942 STR West Coast Offices 10424 Bloomfield St. North Hollywood, Calif. Telephone, Sunset 1 -6292 Conference on the Set Discussing a scene from Republic's ice spectacle, "Ice-Capades Revue," now shooHng on the Republic lot, are (I. to r.): Megan Taylor, Assistant Director George Blair, Herbert J. Yates, Vera Hruba. Note M. J. Siegel in background. PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE STUDIOS Fred MacMurray to Co-Star With Rosalind Russell at RKO/ Gabin Set for Perlberg Film/ Two Units Go on Location ► Fred AlacMurray has been signed by RKO to co-star with Rosalind Russell in "Stand By To Die" wliich David Hempstead will produce. The story concerns aviators on a government mission to Japanese-held islands. ► William Pcrlbcrg zvill produce a dramatisation of the adi'enfures of Pierre La Salle during his Mississippi explorations, as a special vehicle for Jean Gabin. 2Qth-Fox has assigned the screenplay for writing. ► Fredric Alarch will have 14 makeup changes, covering half a century, in "The Adventures of Alark Twain," which started this week on the Warner lot, with Irving Rapper directing and Jesse L. Lasky producing. A camera crew is photograohing interiors of Mark Twain's farm at Elmira, N. Y., and his home in Hartford, Conn., both preserved as shrines to America's great humorist. y Ann Lcc "crashed" a stag party when she was cast ill "The Flying Tigers" at Republic. With 200 men in the picture, she is the only woman, and to make it tougher, when she falls into the mire she gets laughs instead of sympathy. ► Director Lew Landers' "Smith of Minnesota" for Columbia which Jack Fier is producing, is a football picture with little football, as there are only two gridiron sequences. Bruce Smith, Ail-American of '41, will play the title role, and Arlene Judge and Warren Ashe will play the leads. y Producers Pine and Thomas have signed Stanley Smith for a role in "Submarine Alert" 'which Frank McDonald is directing for them on the Paramount lot. Richard Arlen and Wendy Barrie rvill co-star. ► Director Fred Zinneman and Producer Jack Chertok are swelling the cast for "Eyes in the Night." Ann Harding-Edward Arnold starrer which is developing over at MGM. New additions include Donna Reed, Reginald Denny, Allen Jenkins, John Butler, John Emery, Bill Nye, Tom Murray and Harold Leseur. y Fhward Hughes, producer of "Hells Angels," plans a tremendous national newspaper campaign to herald the release of his picture "The Outlaiv," 'a'hiiJi stars two unknown youngsters, Jane Russell and Jack Buetel. ► Director Hal Walker is with a unit in New York filming scenes of the big city for "No Time For Love," in which Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray star, with Paul McGrath, Ilka Chase. June Havos, Richard Hayden and Alorton Lowry supporting. Chief director of the film is Mitchell Leisen. y Producers Jielcasing has made a deal with P. R. Tan Duinen, head of Atlantic Pictures, to produce four features. One of them will be "Corregidor," over v'hich title Producers are ready to fight 20fh-Fox and Bryan Foy. who claim the title. ► Paramount Producer Richard Blumenthal, who is now preparing the Virginia Van Upp script "The Crystal Ball," will be the subject of one of a series of profiles on "Movie Makers" now being written for a national weekly by Arthur Steinberg, Jr. ► /oan Woodbury has been signed to play the leading feminine role in Monogram's "Man and the Devil" zvhich William Beaudine zvill direct under the production supervision of A. W. Hackel. ► Director William A. Seiter and Producer Louis Edelman this week welcomed Kathleen Howard to cast of "You Were Never Lovelier," Columbia's Astaire-Hayworth musical. She will play the part of Adolphe Menjou's mother and becomes one of a cast of over 500. y Director Lesley Selander and the Hopalong Cassidy troupe numbering 110, returned from location shooting on Bill Boyd's 44th in the series, "Border Ifatrol." The Harry ShermaA production shows Claudia Drake as leading lady. .She recently did a lead role in "Flying With Music" for Hal Roach. ► Walter Wanger's location for "Arabian Nights" with Maria Montez, Jon Hall, and Sabu, has been set in the Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park areas. y Director Michael Curtis zvill include Melie Chiang, zvife of Chiang Pao, former Chinese consul in Nezv York, in a Euro'^ron cafe drama scene for "Casablanca," Humhhrey BogartIngrid Bergman starrer now shooting at Warners. ► Lana Turner will be starred by MGM in "Seattle," a story of the northwest metropolis during the gold rush era, and will play the part of a belle of the town. John W. Considine, Jr., to whom Seattle is native ground, will produce. Disney Buys Rights to 'Victory Thru Air Power' Screen rights to Alexander de Seversky's new book, "Victory Through Air Power," were purchased this week by Walt Disney, who plans to use the material as the basis for a featurelength cartoon which he expects to have ready for release next fall. With animation of the picture already under way, and in view of the fact that there are no characters to develop, Disney expects to complete the film on a short schedule. Current activity of the Disney organization is devoted, for the most part, to Army and Navy films on aircraft identification, meteorology and flight training. Thus the Seversky project is regarded as an extension of the war work. Movie Technicians Proving They Know How to Conserve More than fifty basic materials necessary in war production are being saved from motion picture production for use in war plants. Studio technicians make this possible without losing quality in sets or wardrobe, and without "cheapening" the quality of the completed pictures. Every trick or device which has ever been conceived for saving is being adopted. The studios have gone so far as to use a machine to pick up nails, straighten them, and sort them for use again. A small thing like cotton gloves, normally used in handling films, have been made reversible, each glove to be worn on either hand. 'Dishonored Lady,' Stage Play, Purchased by Hunt Stromberg United Artists Producer Hunt Stromberg this week purchased "Dishonored Lady," by Margaret Ayer Barnes and Edward Sheldon, for a reported $25,000. The Katharine Cornell vehicle of the 1930 Broadway season, based on the English murder trial of Madeline Smith, has not before reached the screen because of censorship problems. However, it is understood that the Hays office has tentatively approved a means of adapting it devised by Stromberg. 'May I Borrow Your Ballroom Set?' In keeping with the industry's mood of cooperation and need for reducing sets costs to a minimum, Producer-Director Leo McCarey moved his "Once Upon A Honeymoon" company from RKO to Universal studios for a couple of days' shooting on the big ballroom set which the latter studio used in its recent "Saboteur." The set was converted to represent the lobby of a continental hotel. Hall Ready for Exteriors Negotiations for the presentation of "My Sister Eileen" on the London stage have been abandoned, due to the shortage of players. In Hollywood, Director Alexander Hall is all ready for exteriors on the picturization of the play, with Greenwich Village and other New York streets, mentioned but not shown in the original stage play, used in the film version.