Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

26 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, November 19, 1949 Hollywood Newsreel West Coast Offices — 6777 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 28, Ccdii — Ann Lewis, Manager PRODUCTION PARADE By Rnn Lewis BiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiyuiiHuiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiuiiiiiiiiii^ James Mason and Alarta Toren are being costarred in Universal-International's "Death on a Side Street," produced by Leonard Goldstein and directed by Hugo Fregonese, Argentine director. Productions is scheduled for early December. * * * Jack Schwarz, president of Jack Schwarz Productions, announces a slate of 28 pictures for the coming year, two already completed. Twelve are to be of general content, eight outdoor action features based on James Oliver Curwood stories and the other eight, westerns. The company will distribute its product through franchise deals. Irving Allen and Sam Dembow, Jr., have formed Allen and Dembow Productions, Inc., and scheduled "Man Who Watched The Trains Go By" and "New Mexico" as their first two pictures for the next six months. Both will be filmed in Anscocolor, with Allen handling production. * * * After completion of his role of Sitting Bull in MGM's "Annie Get Your Gun," the studio has assigned J. Carrol Naish to an important part in the Joe Pasternak production "Suzette." Shooting starts late in December. * * * Producer Jan Grippo's next Bowery Boys film for Monogram will be "High Stakes," an expose of gambling, starring Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. Charles Marion is completing the screenplay. * * * Roy Huggins has been signed by RKO Producer Jack Gross to write the script on "Eyewitness to Murder." This drama is expected to roll, under the direction of Alfred Werker, in December. •* * * John Farrow goes to RKO, on loanout from Paramount, to direct "A White Rose For Julie," the film Irving Cummings, Jr. and Irwin Allen will produce at the studio. * * * Samuel Fuller will direct "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea," based upon the Jules Verne novel, for Robert L. Lippert after he finishes his current assignment for Lippert Productions. Fuller will commence shooting late in February, working from his own screenplay. * * * Kay Starr and the Mills Brothers recently reported to Columbia to pre-record two numbers for "Sweet Lorraine," a follow-up to last year-'s "Make Believe Ballroom." "Sweet Lorraine" will have a cast of Columbia players to carry the central story, with individual acts being photographed as they become available. Starting date has not been set by Producer Jonie Taps or Director Ray Nazarro. * * * Joe Newman has signed a long-term directorial contract with Universal-International and has been assigned to "Panther's Moon" as his first picture. Newman recently directed "Abandoned" at U-I and has just completed "Wrong Guy" for Frank Seltzer Productions. * * Writer-Producer I. G. Goldsmith has formed his own independent company, Gloria Film Pro-, ductions. Inc. His first film will be "Three Husbands," to be followed by "The Dungeon" and "Stranger Than Truth." All three will be released by United Artists. MGM Signs Weingarten To Studio Executive Pact Lawrence Weingarten has been signed to a term contract at MGM under which he will be on the studio executive stafY, working on pictures set for the current program. 'Goodbye, U, S. A/ Planned by Paal Alexander Paal, currently producing "A Tale of Five Cities" in London, has planned as his next production, "Goodbye U. S. A.," which will be an episodic story concerning two men and two women who are deported from the United States. The picture will cover the lives of the four people from the time they embark on the deportation train in San Francisco until they are assimilated once again into their "home" environments. As in the case of "A Tale of Five Cities," Paal will make "Goodbye, U. S. A." with five different directors and writers responsible for individual sequences. Production is scheduled for February, 1950. Granger Signs New 5'Year Goldwyn Pact With two years to go on his present contract. Farley Granger has signed a new one with Samuel Goldwyn which will keep him under Goldwyn's management for five more years. Under the terms of the new deal the actor receives an increase in salary and a bonus. The agreement contains no option clauses. Granger made his first screen appearance in Goldwyn's "North Star" seven years ago, before his graduation from North Hollywood High School. The war interrupted his screen career and he did not return to the sound stages until 1947. His next picture : "Edge of Doom." Winners in 'Cute Kids' Contest Studio Guests Winners in the "Cute Kids" contest sponsored by the Chicago Herald-American in conjunction with Paramount and the Balaban and Katz theatres in Chicago are guests at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, escorted by the newspaper's feature writer, Ann Marsters. The winners, eight-year-old Susan Reymond and five-year-old Patrick O'Connor, selected from 103,000 entrants, will spend a day at the home of Alan Ladd, Bob Hope and other Paramount stars and meet those currently appearing in pictures in work. Bogeaus-O'Brien to Do 'Damon Runyon Story' Benedict Bogeaus and Pat O'Brien, who have just completed Damon Runyon's "Johnny OneEye" for United Artists release, have acquired screen rights to "The Damon Runyon Story" from Marshall Grant who had an option on it. O'Brien, who for many years was a close personal friend of the late short story writer and columnist, will play the Runyon role in the film, and Dolores Moran will have the role of Mrs. Runyon. Kay to Score 'Boone' Producer James S. Burkett has signed Edward J. Kay to prepare and conduct the score for "Young Daniel Boone," starring David Bruce and Kristine Miller and filmed in Cinecolor for Monogram. Welch Aims at Family Trade for Big Grosses "The family trade is the source of business that builds the big grosses," says Robert Welch, Paramount's dynamic young producer of highly successful comedies and musicals. , . t> i. n Welch, who in the past three years has produced the Bob Hope pictures, "Paleface," "Sorrowful Jones" and "Fancy Pants," and Bmg Crosby's "Top O' the Morning," pointed to his impressive array of successes to prove his contention. "There are certain basic elements that I believe will be found m every successful picture," he continued. "A first requirement is universality of appeal. Assurance that this element will be in the picture begins with the title. The title should find a response in the emotional pattern common to all humanity, or it should connote a theme that will strike a memory chord. This relation to the emotional or the memory pattern should be as direct as possible. I believe we caught this quality in the Hope pictures. 'Paleface' and the soon-to-be-released 'Fancy Pants,' especially, have an immediate association with memory patterns. "Next, atmosphere can provide a strong audience interest. I like to work with picturesque or unusual settings. The rugged settings of the western film, or the bizarre quality of foreign locales, find a quick response in the spirit of adventure extant in any audience. In more familiar settings, realism can achieve the same interest effect. "And, finally, remember that the impact of any picture will depend on a story that moves and on characters that live. Take the audience into the picture. Make the moments that they live vicariously in the action on the screen real and exciting. Then 'be lucky' and you have the kind of screen fare that pays off." Robert Welch