Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1945)

36 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW May 5, 1945 PRODUCTION NOTES FROM THE STUDIOS iuc/y Garland to Portray Marilyn Miller in MGM Musical/ Jane Murfin to Produce 'Time Out of Mind' for Universal ►Judy Garland will portray Marilyn Miller in MGM's "Till the Clouds Roll By," based on the life story of composer Jerome Kern, with Robert Walker playing the role of Kern. Arthur Freed will produce, and Lemuel Ayres will make his directorial bow with this assignment. ►Isabel Withers, Charles Coleman and Luisita Triana, 11-year-old daughter of the famous Spanish dancer, Antonio Triana, were added to the cast of Columbia's "The Gay Senorita," new musical romance in which Arthur Dreifuss is directing Jinx Falkenburg, Jim Bannon and Steve Cochran. ►Alan Mowbray and Charles D. Brown have been signed for important roles in "Sunbonnet Sue," Monogram's Scott R. Dunlap production co-starring Gale Storm and Phil Regan. Other cast members include George Cleveland, Minna Gombell and Raymond Hatton. Ralph Murphy directs. ►Virginia Welles, young Wisconsin college girl, was cast for an important role in the Paramount picture, "To Each His Own." Miss Welles will play the girl who marries the son of Olivia de Havilland, feminine star of the picture. Mitchell Leisen will direct and Charles Brackett, author of the story, will produce. ►Eddie Dean has been signed by PRC to play the starring role in their new series of outdoor action pictures, to be made in color. Featured players will be Sarah Padden and Jennifer Holt. Robert Emmett will direct and produce. ►"Lend Lease for Penny," an original story by Harry Gondell with a small-town background, has been purchased by RKO as a starring vehicle for eight-year-old Sharyn Moffett. Gondell has' been signed to write the screenplay and Ralph Dietrich will produce under the executive supervision of Sid Rogell. ►Lynne Baggett and Dolores Moran were assigned top feminine roles in "The Adventures of Don Juan," Errol Flynn starrer at Warners. Victor Francen and Rosemary De Camp are cast as the King and Queen of Spain in "Don Juan," which will be directed by Raoul Walsh and produced by Jerry Wald. ►Grady Sutton has been cast for a comedy role and Bea Allen has a supporting part in "The Blue Dahlia," Raymond Chandler mystery directed by George Marshall for Paramount. Sutton and Miss Allen appear in Malibu Inn scenes with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. ►Jane Murfin has selected "Time Out of Mind," the Rachael Field best-selling novel, as the first story she will make for Universal under her new writer-producer deal. Walter Bullock has been signed to work with her on the adaptation and screenplay. ►Leo G. Carroll and Lydia St. Clair, two Broadway stars, were added to 'the cast of "Now It Can Be Told," a newsdrama of the FBI being produced for 20th Century-Fox by Louis de Rochemont and which is now being filmed in Washington, D. C, under direction of Henry Hathaway. These two join a cast headed by William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso and Renee Carson. ►Ray Nazarro was assigned as director on Columbia's "Texas Panhandle," last of the 1944-45 series of Durango Kid Westerns starring Charles Starrett, with Nannette Parks in the feminine lead. Series is being produced by Colbert Clark. ►Three pictures are in preparation ^or early filming at Republic. First to go before the cameras will be "Love, Honor and Goodbye," starring Virginia Bruce with John Loder and Nils Asther. Al Santell is ready to start direction on "Mexicana," a musical to star Tito Guizar and Constance Moore, with Adele Mara. "A Guy Could Change," to be directed by Williams K. Howard, will star Allen Lane. A fourth picture to star Al Pearce will be ready for the cameras next month. ►John Ireland, young leading man, has been signed to an exclusive long term contract by 20th Century-Fox and his first assignment will be an important role in "Enchanted Voyage," the picture Oliver Morosco will produce under the direction of Lloyd Bacon. Ireland joins a cast headed by John Payne, June Haver, Clem Bevans, Anne Revere, and Connie Marshall. ►Edmund Gwenn and Reginald Owen, veteran character actors, will appear in comedy roles in MGM's "She Went to the Races," featuring James Craig and Frances Gifford, with Willis Goldbeck directing and Frederick Stephani producing. >Teresa Wright has been signed to co-star with Ray Milland and Brian Donlevy in the romantic Paramount comedy-drama, "Too Good to Be True." Sidney Lanfield will direct, with the picture starting in several weeks. ►Yakima Canutt, Republic's ace action director, with Virgil Hart and Al Podlasky, assistants, leave to do pre-production location work on "The Plainsman and the Lady," at Mammouth Lake, tlien at Monument Park and Kaibab Forest, Arizona. John Bourke, location manager, leaves later for the Arizona spots. "Plainsman and the Lady," in the top-budget bracket for 1945-46 production, is scheduled as John Wayne starrer, with Joseph Kane as producer-director. ►Del Lord was lianded the directorial assignment on Columbia's jive jamboree, "I Love a Bandleader," which Michel Kraike will produce with Phil Harris, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Leslie Brooks in the leads. Musical is scheduled to go before the cameras immediately. >Lester Horton was signed by Producer-Director George Waggner to create and stage the dance numbers for Universal's "Alibi in Ermine," which co-stars Susanna Foster, Charles Coburn and Robert Paige. New Capra-Briskin Firm Incorporated at Million Officially launching Hollywood's newest major production company. Col. Frank Capra and Samuel J. Briskin have filed $1,000,000 articles of incorporation for Liberty Films, Inc. with the corporation commissioner in Sacramento. Attorney David Tannenbaum of the firm of Swarts and Tannenbaum organized the corporate setup. Liberty Films, the name under which Capra and Briskin plan to produce some of the screen's most important independently-made product, has a capital stock of $1,000,000, represented by $750,000 preferred and $250,000 common, with a par value of $100 per share for each block of stock. While Capra remains in the Army, completing his assignments, Briskin is going ahead with organizational plans. The partners have not indicated the organization through which they will release. It is known that Capra-Briskin have been negotiating for rights to the stage hit, "Harvey," and that either this or "The Flying Yorkshireman" will be their first production. RKO Radio Selects James Warren As Its New Western Star James Warren, college athlete signed by RKO Radio on a long-term contract, will be this studio's new western star, making his bow as a sagebrush hero with that company in a screen version of Zane Grey's "Wanderer of the Wasteland." As a sort of a dress rehearsal for his new role. Warren will first appear as a movie cowboy, one of the leading roles, in "Ding Dong Williams," screen version of the Richard English magazine stories. Robert Mitchum, who recently completed "Nevada" and "West of the Pecos," two of the eight Zane Grey stories to be filmed by RKO Radio, has been called into the U. S. Army and is now at Fort McArthur. Set Camera Date for 'Diary' "The Diary of a Chambermaid," starring Paulette Goddard, which Burgess Meredith and Jean Renoir will respectively produce and direct for RKO Radio, will face the cameras on the first week in June, provided strike problems do not interfere. Conflicting commitments prevent Dudley Nichols, originally identified with the project, from doing the dramatization of the Octave Mirbeau classic. Fox to Make 'U' Westerns Wallace Fox has signed a term deal at Univeral as a director-producer of westerns. He will have charge of the program of westerns, of which Universal makes seven a year. The first two will be "Rodeo Cyclone" and "Man From Powder River." Two More for Wallace Richard Wallace, who recently completed "Kiss and Tell," has been signed by Columbia to direct two films during the coming year.