Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1948)

28 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 23, 1948 Hollywood Newsreel West Coast Offices— 6777 Hollywood Blvd.. Hollywood 28. Calif. — Ann Lewis. Manager PRODUCTION PARADE By Ann Lewis Pandro S. Berman gets the choice assignment of producing MGM's "Battleground," story of the historic American defense of Bastogne. Acquisition of the property from RKO was announced recently by Louis B. Mayer and Dore Schary. Berman, who is presently readying "Madame Bovary," for the screen, already has Robert Taylor, Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Keenan Wynn and Ricardo Montalban set for cast toppers in "Battleground." * * * Adele Jergens and Jon Hall will be teamed in Columbia's "The Mutineers," which Sam Katzman will place in production the end of this month. Action of the story, an original, takes place on a ship bound from New York to Lisbon. Jean Yarbrough will direct. sf: % s)i First of the new Monogram western series starring Whip Wilson will be titled "Crashing Through." Marking the screen debut of Wilson, former rodeo champion and Marine hero, the picture goes before the cameras the latter part of this month. * * * Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride of Universal-International's "Egg and I" fame, have been signed to portray the same characters in a follow-up picture called "Ma and Pa Kettle." Richard Long, who played their oldest son, will again portray the same role. Film is to be produced by Leonard Goldstein and directed by Charles Lamont. * * * Warners assigned Kent Smith and Janis Paige to play the leading role in "Deadlock," melodrama by Richard Sale, set to go before the cameras this week. Richard Bare will direct for Producer Saul Elkins. * * * Fred Quimby, MGM Cartoon Department head, has started production on a new Tom and Jerry series featuring foreign locales. First cartoon will be "Cheese Heaven," with locale in Holland. Plans are to have Tom and Jerry "visit" most of the world's popular countries. Quimby will produce, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera co-direct. * * * "Little Boy Blue," an amusing and heartwarming magazine story of a 6-year-old who grows up among cabaret performers, has been purchased by Paramount as a starring vehicle for Betty Hutton and will be filmed as a top musical. The picture has been assigned to Richard Berger as his first production at the studio, and production will follow Miss Hutton's next, "The Broadway Story." * * * Producer Paul Short, presently at work on "Bad Boy" for Allied Artists, has just announced that "Born to Lose," based on his own original story, will be Audie Murphy's next ' starring vehicle. Current picture stars Lloyd Nolan and Jane Wyatt with Murphy. * * * Karl Tunberg was assigned by UniversalInternational to write the screenplay and pro Studio Roundup duce his own original story, "Marriage by Proxy." Story is a sophisticated comedy laid in New England and the South Seas. * * * Hume Cronyri was signed by Paramount for an important role in the Bing Crosby starrer "Top U' the Morning," in which Ann Blyth and Barry Fitzgerald will have co-starring parts. David Miller will direct, with Robert Welch as producer. # # # Old-time screen star Marin Sais becomes the screen's new Duchess in the Red Ryder series Equity Pictures' Jerry Thomas is making for Eagle Lion release. Producer Thomas has optioned Miss Sais for four Ryder-Cii.ecolor films. First of the series "Ride, Ryder, Ride" has already been completed, with Jim Bannon, Peggy Stewart and Emmett Lynn in the leading roles. * * * Lloyd Bacon is awaiting the arrival of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne to discuss with the pair the possibility of their appearing in two of the top roles in "The Glittering Hill," which Bacon will produce and direct as his next independent production. * * * Margaret O'Brien turned scout and discovered a story which MGM is preparing for her next picture. On the set of "The Secret Garden," she told studio head Louis B. Mayer about the "Violet" series in a national magazine. Writers were immediately assigned to whip a screen story from the series, which the studio had purchased several months ago. Audrey as Audrey Audrey Totter has been set for the role of Audrey Quail in MGM's "Vespers in Vierna," slated to start in November with George Sidney directing and Carey Wilson producing. Rumors that independents would cease making films for 20th Century-Fox release were dispelled cn Oct. 18 when action producer Sam Baerwitz started "Triple Cross." This Tom Conway starrer, being rrade at Motion Picture Center Studio, will be distributed by 20th-Fox. Another independent producer, Ron Ormond, finished "Son of Billy the Kid" and immediately began another in the Lash LaRue-Fuzzy St John series. This Western Adventure Pictures' entry for Screen Guild release is titled "Son of a Gunman." Alice White, who hasn't made a picture in eight years, last week stepped in front of the camera for a top assignment in "Flamingo Road," still another independent production, thoueh on a much larger scale. This Michael Curtiz entry is for Warner Bros, release. Radiant young actress Julie London was signed to a long-term contract by Warners and immediately cast in "Task Force." Also set in this history of U. S. Naval aviation was Walter Brennan. After being announced for the top spot in Universal-International's "The Amboy Dukes," Dane Clark refused, and Warners promptly suspended him for refusing the loan-out. CBS engineers accompanied Howard Duff to Kanab, Utah, last week to determine fea ibility of "piping in" Duff's portion of his Sam Spade radio show. The actor is on location for U-I's "Calamity Jane and Sam Bass." Marc Lawrence replaced Richard Rober for the role of the banker in the film, and left with Ann Doran for Utah. RKO continued to bounce back, with the start of "Stagecoach Kid," now on location at Lone Pine. The Tim Holt Western also includes Richard Martin, Jeff Donnell and Carol Hughes. Prominent stage actor James Edwards made his screen debut this week as a boxer on the threshold of championship in the studio's "The Good Westerns Pay Off, Declare Youthful Producers "We believe a good western pays off," John C. Champion and Bla e Edwards told SHOWMEN S TRADE REVIEW. "That doesn't mean, however, we're going to stick to this type of screenfare. Our next will be an adventure film, and for our fourth we're toying around with the idea of doing a comedy satire." That statement comes from Hollywood's newest and youngest producing team; each in his mid 23s. ' 4 They've never found their youth a disadvantage, ■K ^Hffcfc| either. They began their production chores with ■Hk ^pjH a western, "Panhandle," for Allied Artists, and are ■Hk jK9 now making "Stampede" for the same studio. Remember J. Gordon Edwards who made all t^ose big money-makers for the old Fox company? . Blake is his grandson. John C ChamP'on Both Champion and Edwards believe that outdoor films can be "done to death." "But," Edwards hastens to add, "only if they are oroduced badly. A well-done outdoor drama will always have box-office appeal. In r>l«~r,ing our pictures we try to keep in mind what the public wants. If we can please the public, then we automatically plsase the exhib'tors." This unique team was formed in high ~'-ool when the boys became friends. During the war Edwards was in the Navy and Champion in the air force. Afterward, they resumed their friendship and succeeded in getting Allied Artists interested in their first story. — JAY GOLDBERG. Blake Edwards