Boxoffice-March.06.1948

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Seven Manuscript Sales
Reported for the Week
While the production picture remains definitely
bearish, with no signs that it will be
otherwise for some time to come, the studio
market for literary wares paradoxically continues
on the bullish side—indicating that
although the filmmakers are currently reluctant
to start the cameras turning, they
still retain sufficient faith in the industry's
future to risk their bankrolls on building up a
stockpile of story properties for future production.
The period just ended was no exception,
since a substantial total of seven manuscript
sales were completed. To Metro went "Remembrance
Rock." Carl Sandburg's new historical
novel of America from Revolutionary
da,vs to the present, which will be published
in September and thereafter will be made
into a motion picture by Sidney Franklin.
The work was five, years in the writing . . .
Hal Walhs, whose film output is released by
Paramount, snagged "The Soimd of Years,"
a first novel by Merriam Modell. and signed
Lucille Fletcher to write the screenplay. Barbara
Stanwyck will have the pivotal role as a
married woman whose life is complicated by
the arrival of her adolescent daughter by a
previous marriage . Nice to Emily," a
romantic comedy by Matt Taylor, went to
Warners, where it will be produced as a
Viveca Lindfors vehicle by Alex Gottlieb. It
concerns a Swiss girl who shelters three Yank
fliers and comes to visit them in the U.S.
after the war . purchased "The
Fabulous Hoosier," a biography by Mrs. Carl
Fisher of her late husband, who developed
the Indianapolis speedway and Miami Beach.
It will be produced under the title of "The
Miami Beach Story," . . . Roger D. WiUiams'
original, "Postoffice Investigator," went to
Republic, where it will be produced and directed
by Allan Dwan. It will reveal the activities
of postoffice agents who track down
criminals who use the federal mails in their
activities . . . Robert Frost's Equity Pictures
purchased "Lillie of Six-Shooter Junction,"
Katherine Phillips' biography of Mrs. Lillie
Drennan, who built up an oil empire in Texas
two decades ago. Eagle Lion will release .
Alfred Noyes' new novel, "The Devil Goes to
Santa Barbara," was picked up by Picture
Plays, Inc., independent unit recently organized
by Tim Whelan.
Gary Cooper to Portray
Orville Wright Next
Gary Cooper, who has played everybody
on the screen from Sergeant York to Lou
Gehrig, goes up in the air for his next biographical
assignment. He's been cast as
Orville Wright in Warners' projected film
story of the famed aviation pioneers, be to
produced by Henry Blanke ... On the same
lot Jane Wyman replaced Joan Crawford
as David Niven's co-star in "A Kiss in the
Dark," with Miss Crawford instead going into
"Mi,ss O'Brien,
" story of a school teacher .
Dick Powell draws another tough-guy assignment
as the male lead opposite Marta
Toren in Universal-International's "Rogue's
Regiment"
. . . Title role in "Michael O'Hal-
By
IVAN SPEAR
loran," which Windsor Pictures is making
for Monogram release, goes to Scotty Beckett
Radio and Vanguard are splittii-^
a long-term contract set with Betsy Drake,
young Broadway and London stage actress
Frank Seltzer lined up John
Emery and Tamara Geva for the leads in
"The Gay Intruders," his second for 20th
Century-Fox release . . . Ilka Chase goes into
Paramount's "The Tatlock Millions." with
Henry Hull set for the same studio's "The
Great Gatsby" . additions to Columbia's
"Winner Take Nothing" included Blake
Edwards, Jane Nigh and Henry O'Neill.
Big-League Scale Plans
For SRO Coast Offices
In the David O. Selznick tradition, the
pending transfer of his company's home offices
from New York to the film capital is
being planned on a big-league scale. The
blueprints as whipped up by J. McMillan
Johnson, production designer for SRO, call
for complete reconversion of the former Western
Airlines building in Beverly Hills—which
covers more than a half-acre of space.
One of the purposes of the current Hollywood
visit of Neil Agnew. SRO president, was
to check over the final plans for the structure,
which will be strictly modern in decor.
Columbia to Distribute
'Knock on Any Door'
Columbia added another subject to its
schedule via the sharecropping route when
it arranged to distribute "Knock on Any
Door." film version of the Willard Motley
novel about adolescent dehnquency, which
will be turned out on an independent basis
by the new unit headed by Robert Lord and
Humphrey Bogart. Lord recently checked
out of a producing berth at Metro to become
associated with the outfit, an outgrowth
of the Bogart-Mark Hellinger company which
dissolved with Hellinger's recent death.
RKO Signs H. C. Potter
To Long-Term Contract
H. C. Potter has been signed to longterm
directorial ticket by
a
RKO Radio, at
which studio he recently completed "Mr.
Blandings Builds His Dream House," produced
for distribution by SRO . . . William
Selwyn replaces Lew Kerner as executtve
talent director for Samuel Goldwyn, moving
over from a similar spot with Walter
Wanger. Kerner recently submitted his
resignation.
Douglas Morro'w Returns
To MGM As a Writer
Once under MGM contract as a leading
man, Douglas Morrow returns to that studio,
this time as a writer, to develop the script
of "The Life of Monty Stratton," on which
he turned out the original . . . Edward
Small borrowed Gordon Douglas from Co-
Contracted Players
Reduced to 463
Just about everybody in Hollywood
agrees lugubriously that times are tough
and that there is widespread and increasing
unemployment among studio
toilers. Considerable of the talk has been
in the scuttlebutt category, however, and
the conversation among the alarmists
has sometimes tended to draw a gloomier
picture than actually is the case.
Partially confirming such conflicting
and unofficial guesses, at least so far as
employment among actors is concerned,
the Screen Actors Guild now bobs up
with an authoritative compilation of the
number of contract players as of March
1, 1948, compared' with the same date a
year ago. The figures as released are
not cheerful ones.
Guild records show 463 players under
studio contracts, compared with 742 a
year ago, for a reduction of slightly
more than 37 per cent. In addition to
this decrease, Guild spokesmen said,
"there unquestionably has been a still
greater decrease In employment of freelance
actors." The breakdown shows 2G2
men and 201 women currently under
contract, compared with 401 men and
341 women a year ago.
lumbia to pilot "G-Men vs. Scotland Yard,"
which Small will make for Eagle Lion release
. . . Charles Lamont was booked by
Pi-oducer Harry Joe Brown to meg "The
.
Wrangler," sagebrusher to be released
through Columbia assigned
scenarists on two upcoming Henry Blanke
productions. Ranald MacDougall went to
work on "The Hasty Heart," with Stephen
Longstreet set on the film story of Wilbur
and Orville Wright.
Jesus Productions, Inc.
To Produce in Italy
Although the company was incorporated
here, production headquarters will be established
in Italy for a new independent unit,
Jesus Productions. Inc., which will turn out
a series of religious pictures. Heading the
unit is Lady Maria Korda. former wife of
Sir Alexander Korda, and one-time British
and American film actress, with whom A.
James Roche and Hallie M. Daniel are associated
in the project.
Sol Wurtzel Schedules
7 Films for 20th-Fox
There may be a picture-making slowdown
in some quarters, but not at the Sol Wurtzel
unit. The 20th Century-Fox sharecropper
has set five properties to start within the
next five months, which with two pictures
ready for release will give his company a
total
of seven subjects on 20th's current program.
Completed is "Arthur Takes Over,"
which will be followed by "Fighting Back,"
"Big Dan," "Trouble Preferred," "Tucson"
and "Ticket to Nowhere.'
24 BOXOFFICE :: March 13, 1948 i