Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1944)

26 November 18, 1944 3TR West Coast Offices 6777 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood 28, Ckilif. Telephone, Hollywood 2055 PRODUCTION NOTES FROM THE STUDIOS Ford Will Direct Montgomery in 'They Were Expenda ble; Hunt Stromberg to Star Jane Russell in 'Young Widow' ►Lieut. Commander Robert Montgomery, USNR, will return to the screen in a starrmg role in "They Were Expendable," from the book by William L. White, and will be directed in the MGM picture by Commander John Ford, USNR, another veteran of the Pacific campaign. ►King Bros., producing the film, "John Dillinger," for Monogram, succeeded in locating an eyewitness to the killing of Dillinger by the FBI in Chicago on July 16, 1934. As a result that scene in the film will be absolutely authentic. Lawrence Tierney, borrowed from RKO, plays the title role, with Anne Jeffreys as the "lady in red." ►Fred Kohlmar is readying "The Well Groomed Bride" with Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland starred. Production should start about Jan. iSth with Sidney Lanfield directing. ►Republic will star Adele Mara as the "International Girl" in the first bi-lingual production ever to be announced "Song of Mexico" which James Fitzpatrick will produce for the studio in Mexico. By bi-lingual the studio means that each member of the cast speaks both English and Spanish with equal facility, so that a scene may be filmed first with an English sound track and then with a Spanish retake for the same scene. ►Russell Simpson has been cast by Gary Cooper to play Loretta Young's father in "Along Came Jones" for International Studios. Other principals are William Demarest, Dan Duryea, Don Costello and Walter Sande. Stuart Heisler will direct. ►Hugo Haas, the Noel Coward of middle Europe, will be Father Pensevecchio in 20th Century-Fox's "A Bell for Adano," which is being produced by Louis Lighton and directed by Henry King with John Hodiak, Gene Tierney and Bill Bendix co-starring. ►Jane Russell, who was discovered by Howard Hughes and starred in his production of "The Outlaw," will be starred by Hunt Stromberg in a forthcoming picturization of the best-selling novel, "Young Widow," for United Artists release. ►Jimmy Cagney and Wallace Ford will work together for the first time in the star's new United Artists picture, "Blood On The Sun," although the two have been friends for years. Producer William Cagney selected Ford for the role of the reporter who works for Cagney, the editor of an English newspaper in Japan. Sylvia Sidney will co-star with Cagney under Frank Lloyd's direction. ►Bonita Granville and Noah Beery, Jr. have been set by Associate Producer-Director Charles Barton to play the romantic leads in Universal's "It's Never Too Late," the Manny Seff-Fritz Rotter story which started last week. ►Camera tests got under way at Warners last week on "Hotel Berlin," the Vicki Baum story which Peter Godfrey will direct for Producer Lou Edelman. Casting thus far stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and feature-spots Peter Lorre, Raymond Massey and Regis Toomey. Production should start this week. ►Switch in casting by Columbia puts Leslie Brooks in one of two feminine leads in "The Fighting Guardsman," costume thriller based on a Dumas story, slated to go into production the first week in December with Michel Kraike producing. ►For two days PRC used its record number of dress extras, 250, in Club Boheme scenes for "Crime, Inc.," featuring Leo Carrillo, Tom Neal, Martha Tilton and Lionel Atwill. Lew Landers is directing the gangland drama, based on Producer Martin Mooney's non-fiction expose of 1935. ►Walter Colmes has started shooting "Johnny March" for Republic, with a cast headed by Richard Arlen, Cheryl Walker, Roger Pryor, Bobby Driscoll, John Forrest, Lola Lane and Ian Keith. ►Edmund Gwenn holds down the lead in MGM's "Alter Ego," a filmization of the Arch Oboler radio play. Phyllis Thaxter has the feminine lead as the woman with two divergent personalities. Film started last week with Oboler directing, and production is in the hands of Jerry Bresler, who is also head of the shorts department. i>Monogram has made two story purchases for westerns. The first, "Hell's Range," by Charles Heckelmann, appeared in Big Book IVestern in October and will be used for Johnny Mack Brown ; and the second, by Lieut. Bennet Foster, appeared in Star IVesfcrn magazine, also to be used for Brown. i>To the imposing array of talent already lined up for their ne.xt Paramount picture, "Scared Stiff," Pine-Thomas added veteran character actors Paul Hurst and George E. Stone. Jack Haley, Ann Savage, Barton MacLane, Veda Ann Borg and Andrew Tombes have principal roles. i>Gustave Machaty, Czech director who directed "Ecstasy" and discovered Hedy Lamarr, will direct "Jealousy" for Republic and the publicity is that this story is as great as the other one. He also claims to have discovered a new star, but won't name her. ► RKO is lining up a cast for "Johnny Angel" that will make the film stand out as strongly as the novel. Thus far they have George Raft, Signe Hasso and Claire Trevor. Edwin L. Marin put his signature to a directing chore on the film, and production will be by William Pereira under the executive supervision of Jack Gross. ^"God's Front Porch," a best-selling novel by Ketti Frings, has been purchased by Sol Lesser and will be used as the basis for a stage play in 1945, after Lesser plans to use it as screen material. This brings to nine the number of stories and plays now in preparation for 1945 production by Lesser. Director Joseph Santley and Constance Moore, the winning combination of "Atlantic City," are shown here strolling toward the set of Republic's "Earl Carroll's Vanities" where Santley is again directing Miss Moore. IN HOLLYWOOD IT'S NEWS... LeRoy Prinz will conduct auditions at Warners every Monday to obtain competent dancers for the studio, where there is a heavy musical schedule and a dearth of terpsichorean talent . . . Leonard Picker has won his spurs as a producer at Columbia ; he previously served in the Legal Department in New York . . . Headed by Hon. Richard V. Keane, Australian Senate leader, a group of officials were honored by the motion picture industry at a luncheon last week . . . Joe E. Brown has been elected to honorary membership in the International Mark Twain Society . . . Bandleader Artie Shaw returns to the boards December 1 with a tour starting in Minneapolis . . . Freddie Steele, middleweight who rose from obscurity to the world's championship, gets a leading role in Lester Cowan's production, "GI Joe" . . . Eddie Bracken and Veronica Lake will get together in Paramount's "Good Intentions" . . . Lou Harris, producer of the Musical Parade Featurettes, has just completed a screenplay on his own called "Jumpin' Jupiter" ... A special sequence has been written into "Tugboat Annie" for eleven-year-old Saundra Berkova, violinist whom James A. Burkett, producer, heard in Carnegie Hall four years ago; P.S. She's his niece . . . Hollywood goes to Broadway for "The Democrats" which wall co-star Ralph Bellamy and Frances Dee, with Jules Dassin of MGM directing . . . An advance construction crew went to Lake Arrowhead to prepare outdoor sets for "One Against Seven" with Paul Muni and Marguerite Chapman ... As a result of a favorable reaction to "The Town Went Wild" Roth, Green and Rouse are preparing "Out On a Limb" for their next picture . . . Harry Beaumont will direct the Wilde Twrins in a comedy called "Twice Blessed" . . . Herman Mankiewicz got a term writing contract at RKO and "The Spanish Main" to begin with . . . Erich Wolfgang Korngold, renowned continental operatic composer, will conduct his own original melodies for Warners' "Of Human Bondage" . . . Alexander ("Wilson") Knox will play the romantic lead opoosite Irene Dunne in "Over 'Twenty-One." Maris Wrixon Back to Screen Maris Wri.xon, former Warner contract player who gave up acting following her marriage to Rudi Fehr, Warner film editor, has returned to Hollywood to resume her screen career.