Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1943)

January 16, 1943 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW 39 HOLLYWOOD STUDIO ROUND-UP Studios are back to average in new productions starting this week: METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER GIRL CRAZY — Principals: Mickey Rooney, Judy Uarland. Director, Busby Berkeley. FACULTY ROW— Principals: Herbert Marshall, Mary Astor, Susan Peters. Director, Jules Dassin. MONOGRAM NO ESCAPE — Principals: Prances Farmer, Dean J agger, John Carradine. Director, Harold Young. PARAMOUNT GOOD FELLOWS — Principals: Cecil Kellaway, James Brown, Helen Walker. Director, Jo Graham. HKNRY ALDRICH PLAYS CUPID— Principals : Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, Diana Lynn. Director, riugn Bennett. PRODUCERS FIGHTING MEN— Principals: Dave O'Brien, Jim Newill, Janet Shaw. Director, Al Herman. RKO-RADIO PETTICOAT LARCENY— Principals: John Carroll, Kutn Warwick, Walter Reed. Director, Ben Holmes. REPUBLIC CARSON CITY CYCLONE— Principals: Don "Red" Barry, Lynn Merrick. Director, Howard Bretherton. 20th CENTURY-FOX STORMY WEATHER— Principals: Lena Home, Bill Koainson, I' ats Waller, Cab Cailoway & Band. Director, Andrew btone. UNIVERSAL DESTINY— Principals: Allan Curtis, Lon Chaney, i^ouise Alibritton. Director, Robert Siodmak. AIRWAYS A BRIDESMAID— Principals: Andrews Sisters, Patnc is.nowles, Crace McDonald. Director, Erie U. Kenton. TITLE CHANGES •Careless Cinderella" UMGM) now SLIGHTLY DAlNGJiROUS. ■jtorever Vours" (.Liniv.) now AMAZING MRS. HOLLiDAY. Production, Personality Notes From the Hollywood studios {Continued from Page 38) routines for "Riding High," Technicolor musical comedy which Jb'aramount is producing with Dick Powell, Dorothy Lamour, Victor Moore, Cass Daley and Gil Lamb in the top spots, (jeorge Marshall will direct. yDoris Gilbert joins Norman Reiily Raine on the screenplay for Walter Wanger's next Universal production, "Looking for Trouble." The story will be based on the ivork of the Women's Air Ferrying Service. ►Dennis Morgan, John Garfield and Sydney Greenstreet have been assigned the top male roles in "Brooklyn, U. S. A.," shortly to go before the cameras at Warners. ^William LeBarun gave "Stormy Weather" the go signal at ZOth Century-Fox, with Andrew Stone directing. The film, an all-Negro musical, was formerly titled "Thanks Fal," and will feature Bill Robinson, Lena Home, Cab Calloway and Katherine Dunham and her dancers. Monogram Signs Arthur Dreifuss Arthur Dreifuss has • been signed to a fivepicture directorial contract by Lindsley Parsons at Monogram and will start his initial assignment this month. The picture is "Sarong Girl," which will star burlesque's Ann Corio. Phil Krasne and Sam Burkett will produce. They Were Caught Peeking! Don't you wish you could creep up behind four movie folk such as (I. to r.) Director George Archainbaud, Jane Wyatt, Author Frank Gruber, Victor Jory, and get the surprised looks they have here? You could if you had a camera, if you crept slowly up behind them while they were peeking into the big motion picture camera, and then said "Boo!" Miss Wyatt and Jory star in United Artists' "Peace Marshal," based on Gruber's novel. What are those books, Mr.? M16.. Sltammatt Qaed. Studio S t^o.lli*t<^ Dear Mr. Exhibitor's Wife: The first picture Hunt Stromberg is producing under his own banner, but for United Artist release, is "Lady of Burlesque," with Barbara Stanwyck in the leading role. I've been told that today's the day Miss Stanwyck appears in her strip-tease costume, so how's about going there? Hey, you guys, quit pushing! Sure enough, as we enter the set there's Miss Stanwyck all decked out in a very beautiful and very revealing costume made up of two-inch bands of black and silver sequins that hang from the waistline, under which is a pair of black tights. With this she's wearing a bra to match and on her hair is a net snood, with bands of the sequins for trimming in the back and a large bow in the front. Next to her stands Marian Martin dressed in a full-skirted light blue net outfit whose skirt gives us a glimpse of a pair of blue tights underneath. She wears a high poke bonnet of blue, lined in pink with a blue ostrich feather on each side. Gloria Dickson is also there, but she has a bathrobe on, for this scene they're doing takes place on the iron stairway behind the theatre. They've gathered together to discuss the murder that's just taken place. At a command from Director William Wellman, Miss Stanwyck starts speaking and the camera starts grinding to record the action on film. When this is over, the scene shifts to what Wellman calls the "Dinty Moore" set, where a specialty number is to be rehearsed. As we follow the cast we see all around us many gorgeous chorus girls, most of them almost six feet tall and each made more beautiful by the selection of clothes, individually chosen. Being a burlesque show, there's also a clown, who in this case happens to be Pinky Lee of the New York stage. The "Dinty Moore" set is actually the parlor of their boarding house. They are to rehearse a song which they're composing for a special party to be given them by their boss, after he gets them out of the jug. Lee, the clown, starts the thing off with the first line and after that each one offers his or her suggestion . . . until they get what they want. This goes on for some time and it looks like it will continue for quite a while yet, so we decide to leave. With the picture of Miss Stanwyck in tights in our mind, we promise ourselves a "night at the movies." Until next week. Ann Lewis Hollywood at President's Ball Eight of Hollywood's biggest name stars will represent the industry at the President's Birthday Ball in Washington, D. C, January 29 and 30, with all studios actively cooperating, it was announced following a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc. \\ A E R I ]\ G A K O U i\ D II O I. L V \\ O o n witU Cd Haiden When the news about Roger Touhy came out, one of the studios released an item that they intended to proceed with a Roger Touhy picture they had been planning for a long time. Maybe it was just a gag? On the other hand, maybe they meant it? All movie audiences go in for hero worship. Whether the hero is a fighting general or a fighting gangster, he is accorded great respect. Look at the box-office success of the menace type of player. It was Cagney's start, and Bogart and Raft do OK. And now it looks as though a notorious gunman and thug is to be made a hero — and hero he will be, even if he is shown as vicious, dishonest and a killer. However bad he is, if he is a strong character, viciously strong, it is an opportunity for hero worship. And hero worship is respect, and imitation. Unless of course, the studio intends to show him as a weak and ludicrous person, which is bad box-office. Over at W arners tzvo big productions in zvork are "Devotion" and "Old Acquaintance." "Devotion," the story of the Bronte sisters, zvith Ida Lupino as Emily, Olivia de Havilland as Charlotte, and Nancy Coleman as Ann. The settrng ' for mosL'-'of the~scenes in ^the 'home of the girls is a charming 18th Century drawing room, ivhere you feel at home and want to sit dovun. We watched Nancy Coleman do a scene zvith Montagu Love and we zvere considerably impressed with her histrionic talents. The casting of this picture proves that Warners are quite astute in handling their medium. Sydney Greenstreet, zvho has made a terrific hit in mystery pictures, has been cast as William Makepiece Thackeray, the famous author, thereby proving that zvhen a man is an actor, they will use him as such. The other production set we visited was "Old Acquaintance," which co-stars Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins. The story makes them friends who have become bitter enemies over the same love, and, by force of circumstances, they gravitate toward each other in the end. In the scene we watched, they are beginning to show their hatred for each other, and they are so capable that the air on the set is electric with feeling. It must be wonderful to hate like that and come away from the set with such feelings completely forgotten. Then in the morning you start hating again. A professional hatred which exists only during working hours. Columbia had to put stickers on a zmndshield that zvasnt there in "The More the Merrier." The zmndshield of a "taxicab" in the studio had been removed to avoid the reflections that spoiled the take. But it was necessary to show the Federal stickers, so tliey stuck them up on zvires that zvere blackened and invisible to the camera. Alan Ladd Entering Army; 'Incendiary Blonde' Postponed With Alan Ladd scheduled to enter the Army next week. Paramount has postponed production of "Incendiary Blonde," the Texas Guinan picture in which he was to have co-starred with Betty Hutton. Miss Hutton will be given the co-starring assignment with Bob Hope in "Let's Face It," musical film version of the Vinton Freedley-Cole Porter show. Ladd, top male discovery of 1942, is now finishing "China," in which he co-stars with Loretta Young and William Bendix.