Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1944)

30 S H O E N ' S TRADE REVIEW November 25. 1944 STR West Coast Offices 6777 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood 28, Calif. Telephone, Hollywood 2055 PRODUCTION NOTES FROM THE STUDIOS 'Counfess of Monte Cristo' Next Film for Sonja Henie/ Booth Tarkingtons 'Josephine' On MGM 1945 Schedule ►Four songs will form a part of "Make Way for Kelly," Monogram comedy now in production with Jackie Moran, Wanda McKay and Sidney Miller featured. Three are to be sung by A'liss McKay, and Jan Wiley sings Where Were You? by Lou and Ruth Herscher. Phil Karlstein is directing and William Strohbach supervises. ►Chubby Jackson, the bass viol ace with Woody Herman's band, introduces his new C-string instrument in Republic's "Earl Carroll Vanities." Standard bass viols have four strings and Jackson added a C-string, making his the only S-string" instrument in existence. ►Jack Yellen and Sammy Fain have been signed by RKO to do the songs for "George White's Scandals of 1945" which Co-Producers Nat Holt and George White will send before the cameras January 4 under supervision of executive producer Jack Gross. Joan Davis has already been set for a starring role. ►Melody Jones is Gary Cooper's character in "Along Came Jones" for International, and the lanky producer-star lives up to his name by singing for the first time on the screen. Cooper's principal song is Old Joe Clark, a folktune of the early West. ►All the "oriental" cast has been completed for "Blood On the Sun," William Cagney production for United Artists release, starring Jimmy Cagney and Sylvia Sidney. The "important" Japanese of the last several decades will be directed by Frank Lloyd. ►Henry S. (Hank) Kesler, who has been functioning as production assistant to Andrew Stone for a year and a half, has been signed to a long-term contract as associate producer on Andrew Stone Productions. Kesler's first picture under the new set-up is "Bedside Manner," currently in production with John Carroll, Ruth Hussey, Ann Rutherford and Charlie Ruggles. United Artists will release. ►.'Vnita Loos turned in her original screenplay "Merry, Merry Marriage," for Deanna Durbin, to Produce Felix Jackson at Universal. Deanna has just completed her first Technicolor production "Can't Help Singing." Her next on the schedule is "Lady On a Train," an original by Leslie Charteris. ►Barbara Stanwyck and Paul Henreid will be co-starred in "The Two Mrs. Carrolls," Martin Vale's Broadway smash hit. Peter Godfrey, who directed Miss Stanwyck in "Christmas in Connecticut," her last starring picture, has been set to direct, and Robert Buckner will produce the Warner Bros, production. ►Marjorie Weaver, long under contract to 20th Century-Fox but now free-lancing, was signed by Columbia for an important role in "Leave It to Blondie," first picture in the newly revived "Blondie" series starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. ►Girl photographers in night clubs will be glamored for PRC by AlexanderStern Productions in "Undercover Girl" with Mary Beth Hughes in the title role. It will be her third picture for PRC. ►"Josephine," a new novel by Booth Tarkington, was purchased by MGM and will be produced by Leon Gordon as one of the studio's most important productions of 1945. Gordon, a playwright and scenarist, for his first picture as a producer, made "Mrs. Parkington." ►William Beaudine has been signed to direct "Fashion Model," Monogram original screenplay written by Victor Hammond and Tim Ryan. Tentative starting date was Nov. 24th with Robert Lowery in the lead. ►Al Pearce, who starts "Night Train to Memphis" at Republic in two weeks, visited the lot for conferences on cast and story with production heads. ►Director John Berry finished his first picture, Paramount's "Miss Susie Slagle" starring Sonny Tufts, V eronica Lake and Lillian Gish, and immediately began preparation of his second assignment, "Too Good to Be True," which co-stars Betty Hutton and Sonny Tufts. Harry Tugend is the producer. ►John Wexley, topflight screen writer of "Last Mile" and others, who has just returned from .\rmy Service, will do the script on "Cornered," an original story by Ben Hecht, Czenzi Ormonde and Herman Mankiewicz, it was announced by RKO. "Cornered" is on Producer Adrian Scott's production schedule for early ne.xt year. ►William Goetz has given Sonja Henie a new contract and announced the purchase of Walter Reisch's romantic-comedy, "Countess of Monte Cristo" as her second International Picture story. George Beck and Frank Tarlof? will write the screenplay, and production is slated for early spring. ►After more than a year of careful preparation, Lester Cowan moved "GI Joe" into production this week for United Artists, with a budget to appro.ximate $2,000,000. Two hundred speaking" parts are written into the script. Film is based on Ernie Pyle's best seller, "Here Is Your ^^'ar," and will cover vast wartime scope of .Africa, Italy and France, but will use no stock shots or newsreel clips. Everything' is to be re-enacted. ►Phil Spitalny, his thirty-two all girl orchestra and a chorus of sixteen feminine singers, wound up their pre-recording of eight numbers for .A.bbott and Costello's current Universal comedy "Here Come the Co-eds" and immediately started their acting chore. >"Stolen Life," Bette Davis' next starring picture for Warner Bros., goes before the cameras December 4 at Burbank studio. Star, now at her New Hampshirre farm, is slated to return 10 days prior to picture's starting date. Studio S ii,aili*t<^ Dear Mr. Exhibitor's Wife: This week's visit takes us to RKO and the "Enchanted Cottage" set where we'll meet Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young and Herbert Marshall working in the picture which concerns the rehabilitation of a soldier through love and understanding. It was a big hit after the last war and RKO is remaking it now because of its timeliness. The set — after we walk through a New England countryside — turns out to be the patio of a small cottage. This little home has always been rented to honeymooners by the owner of the large Manor House to which it is attached. Rehearsing an outdoor scene there are Young and Marshall. There's a huge wind machine (which looks like a dinosaur) blowing a light breeze. Young's makeup (which takes two hours to apply) consists of a disfigured right cheek, the result of a plane smashup. The scar they've put on is so realistic that even at this close range it's hard to believe it isn't real. Marshall, who plays the part of a blind musician, also achieves realism by a frosted lense inserted over his eye, between his lids. Director John Cromwell sits near the camera watching the action, while both men go through their lines. After each rehearsal a trained nurse checks with Marshall to see that he isn't too uncomfortable. The director orders a "take." Young, bitter at all that has happened, starts to speak and Marshall, quietly sitting on a bench, tries to console him. When the "take" is satisfactory, Cromwell permits the men to leave, at which time they head for their dressing rooms to have their "makeup" removed. We ramble through the cottage, peeking into corners, and then head for the dressing rooms. There we meet each star in turn, including Miss McGuire. With her is Edward Stevenson, the dress designer. He tells us about the difficulties encountered in this particular picture when the script called for a beautiful dress to become drab and lifeless before the viewer's eyes. To accomplish this feat, he designed two dresses of fundamental similarities: a crisp white faille blouse top and a black skirt, made glamorous with a black lace jerkin that winds out over the shoulders. The same costume was made lifeless through the use of a soft material which made the blouse hang limply, a heavy fabric skirt that was too long and a lace jerkin cut narrowly. All of which proves, he explained, that in clothes it's imagination and cut that makes them glamorous. After such an interesting visit, we bid adieu with reluctance. Until next week. Ann Lewis Bakaleinikoff to Mexico City Constantin Bakaleinikofif, head of RKO Radio's music department, will be sent by this studio to Mexico City for a month on a combined vacation and research trip. He will collect and study native music, both folk and popular, for use in the film with which Cantinflas will make his Hollywood debut. This will be Bakaleinikofl?'s first vacation in 18 years. Costume Sketches for Two Films Costume sketches to the number of 479 are being made for RKO Radio's two Technicolor features, "The .Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor" and "The Spanish Main." Hundreds of addi. tional sketches of accessories down to such details as the embroidery on handkerchiefs are in work.