Boxoffice-January.07.1950
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salaried producers will bring the Marathon<br />
St. lot's starting total up to three for the<br />
period. Wallis will gun "My Friend Irma<br />
Goes West" as a sequel to his recent "My<br />
Friend Irma," and reuniting the cast topliners<br />
of the original, Marie Wilson, Diana<br />
Lynn and John Lund. It's based, of course,<br />
on the network airshow created by Cy<br />
Howard, and which also has Miss Wilson in<br />
the title spot. Also on the docket are "Montana<br />
Rides," a high-budget western to star<br />
Alan Ladd, and "Union Station," with William<br />
Holden and Wanda Hendrix. The<br />
Ladd opus is discussed in detail in the box<br />
on this page; "Union Station," a Jules<br />
Schermer production to be piloted by Rudy<br />
Mate, is concerned with a kidnaping and how<br />
the criminals are apprehended. Much of the<br />
action transpires in a large railway terminal.<br />
Its genesis is a Saturday Evening Post serial<br />
by Thomas Walsh; in the cast, in addition<br />
to Holden and Miss Hendrix, are Nancy Olson<br />
and Barry Fitzgerald.<br />
RKO Radio<br />
Contributions from independent producers<br />
comprise the bulk of the Howard Hughes<br />
organization's January lineup, three of the<br />
four scheduled entries being in that category.<br />
Moreover, two of the quartet are carryovers<br />
from December, when — for one reason or<br />
another — they failed to get before the<br />
cameras as had been scheduled. The independents'<br />
contributions are "The Story of a<br />
Divorce," a Jack SkirbaU-Bruce Manning<br />
production; "A White Rose for Julie," emanating<br />
from Westwood Productions, headed<br />
by Irving Cummings jr. and Irwin Allen; and<br />
"Nobody's Safe," to be co-produced by Collier<br />
Young and Ida Lupino for Filmakers. Rounding<br />
out the list is a studio-sponsored entry,<br />
"Code 3," which is on the agenda for Producer<br />
Herman Schlom. Both "Divorce" and<br />
"Julie" originally had been slated to roll in<br />
December. The former, starring Bette Davis<br />
and Robert Young, tells of a wife who, realizing<br />
her marriage is breaking up, reviews<br />
her past and discovers her own weaknesses<br />
brought about the situation. Curtis Bernhardt<br />
is the director. "Julie" will co-star<br />
Robert Mitchiun and Faith Domergue, with<br />
John Farrow at the megaphone. It is a<br />
romantic melodrama centering around a<br />
young interne, a nurse who loves him and a<br />
wealthy young widow who almost ruins his<br />
career. The Young-Lupino contender, "Nobody's<br />
Safe," was uncast as the month began;<br />
Miss Lupino will direct the semidocumentary<br />
about runaway girls, the story line of which<br />
is taken from tho files of the Los Angeles and<br />
New York police departments. "Code 3" is<br />
cops-and-robbers stuff; Richard Fleischer<br />
holds the directorial reins and Charles Mc-<br />
Graw has been set for the lead.<br />
Republic<br />
Paced by one offering, "Sleep All Winter,"<br />
which got under way in the latter days of<br />
December, this valley lot has carded a gr&nd<br />
total of five starting vehicles for 1950's opening<br />
month. The above-named opus is a<br />
western, an independent offering from<br />
EUiott-McGowan Productions, starring Wil-<br />
Uam Elliott and being produced by Stuart and<br />
Dorrell McGowan, in association with the<br />
actor and William J. O'SuUivan. The Mc-<br />
Gowans, who wrote the script, are also serving<br />
as co-directors. Elliott's supporting cast<br />
includes Marie Windsor and Walter Brennan.<br />
Two other sagebrushers on tap are "The<br />
Vanishing Westerner" and "Hills of Okla-<br />
Paramount, 20th-Fox and Universal<br />
Starting Three Super-Westerns<br />
When three top stars, whose appearances<br />
in super-westerns have been rarities<br />
heretofore, don cowboy garb and begin<br />
ridin' thataway — all in the same<br />
month—it is of more than passing interest,<br />
and a concrete reaffirmation of the<br />
industry axiom that sagebrushers will be<br />
with us as long as there are movies.<br />
The players involved are Alan Ladd,<br />
Tyrone Power and James Stewart; they'll<br />
head for the open spaces in, respectively,<br />
Paramount's "Montana Rides," 20th Century-Fox's<br />
"Rawhide" and Universal-<br />
International's "Winchester .73." All are<br />
of the high-budget, semihistorical variety<br />
and together they constitute a significant<br />
signpost to indicate that westerns will<br />
undoubtedly continue to occupy, in 1950,<br />
the important niche they have already<br />
gained for themselves as production and<br />
exhibition ventures.<br />
homa." The former, toplining Monte Hale,<br />
is to be produced and directed respectively<br />
by Mel Tucker and PhU Ford; the latter stars<br />
Rex Allen, with Franklin Adreon producing<br />
and B. G. Springsteen as the director. Uncast,<br />
early In the period, were "Women Prom<br />
Headquarters" and "Faces in the Sun."<br />
Stephen Auer produces the first-named, a<br />
melodrama about policewomen, with George<br />
Blair set to hold the megaphone ; Allan Dwan<br />
draws producer-director credit on the latter,<br />
a costume piece about Mississippi in the 1850s,<br />
the story of a scheming girl who marries her<br />
sister's fiance, ruins their lives, falls in love<br />
with a gambler and ultimately wipes out her<br />
mistakes by committing suicide.<br />
20th Century-Fox<br />
star power highlights the brace of offerings<br />
being blueprinted by the Westwood studio for<br />
camera work in January, with Dana Andrews<br />
and Gene Tierney lined up as the co-stars of<br />
"Where the Pavement Ends" and Tyrone<br />
Power and Susan Hayward booked for the<br />
toplines in "Rawhide." Otto Preminger produces<br />
and directs "Sidewalks," a portion of<br />
which will be filmed on location in New York.<br />
A melodrama of big-city crime, it is adapted<br />
from William L, Stewart's novel, "Night Cry,"<br />
and was scripted by Ben Hecht. Rights to<br />
the property were acquired by 20th-Fox some<br />
time ago from an independent unit. Colony<br />
Pictures, which thus tabled plans to make the<br />
opus imder its own banner. "Rawhide," a<br />
Samuel G. Engel production, is in the historical<br />
western category and, with Paramount's<br />
"Montana Rides" and Universal-<br />
International's "Winchester .73." is discussed<br />
more fully in the box on this page.<br />
United Artists<br />
The best that could be mustered up productionwise<br />
by filmmakers distributing under<br />
the UA banner was one starting subject for<br />
the month—that one emanating from Producer<br />
Seymour Nebenzal, who was readying<br />
a remake of "M," which he first filmed in<br />
Europe in 1933 as a starring vehicle for Peter<br />
Lorre. For the new version, as the month<br />
began, no cast nor director had been rounded<br />
Ladd, Power and Stewart are not, of<br />
course, complete strangers to the saddle;<br />
Ladd most recently brandished a six-gxm<br />
in "Whispering Smith," Power had the<br />
title role some years ago in "Jesse James,"<br />
and Stewart toplined "Destry Rides<br />
Again."<br />
"Montana Rides," a Mel Epstein production<br />
in Technicolor, is backgrounded<br />
in Texas and New Mexico in the 1860s.<br />
"Rawhide," which Henry Hathaway will<br />
meg for Producer Samuel G. Engel, is laid<br />
in the Arizona territory, with Susan Hayward<br />
cast as Power's leading lady. "Winchester<br />
.73," an Aaron Rosenberg production,<br />
wiU be directed by Anthony Mann,<br />
and lists Shelley Winters as Stewart's<br />
leading lady. It's described as a panoramic<br />
story of the old west dealing with<br />
the important part played by the historic<br />
Winchester rifle in pioneer days.<br />
up, however. The story is a psychological<br />
study of a congenital killer who, despite all<br />
his efforts to control his murderous tendencies,<br />
cannot resist the overwhelming urge,<br />
and is ultimately tracked down and captured<br />
by the law.<br />
Universal-International<br />
Of three projected starters for the period,<br />
one — "Winchester .73" — rates more than<br />
passing attention as an entry from this valley<br />
studio and, therefore, is treated in greater<br />
detail in the box on this page. The<br />
remaining two, "Panther's Moon" and "Rose<br />
Queen," were both being readied by Producer<br />
Ralph Dietrich and, at month's beginning,<br />
were uncast and minus directorial services.<br />
"Moon," adapted from a novel by Victor<br />
Canning, is a story of espionage in the post-<br />
World War II era, laid in Italy and Switzerland,<br />
while "Rose Queen" is a glamorization,<br />
on celluloid, of the world-renowned Tournament<br />
of Roses which is staged on New Year's<br />
Day each year In Pasadena, Calif.<br />
Warner Bros.<br />
Maintaining the same pace as was established<br />
in the final month of 1949, this Burbank<br />
lot laid plans to launch two new films<br />
during January—one a comedy, the other of<br />
melodramatic content. Danny Kaye wlU have<br />
the starring role in "Stop, You're Killing<br />
Me," in which the carrot-topped comic finds<br />
himself involved in adventure and mystery<br />
as he is pursued by a beautiful feminine<br />
private eye, Lauren Bacall. Harry Kurnitz<br />
wrote and will produce the offering and Philip<br />
Rapp, a scenarist, will make his debut as a<br />
director thereon. The other starter is "Lightning<br />
Strikes Twice," first American starring<br />
fiUn for Richard Todd, the young Irish actor<br />
who rose to prominence in Warners' Britishmade<br />
"The Hasty Heart." King Vidor will direct<br />
the Henry Blanke production, in which<br />
Todd portrays a man acquitted of the murder<br />
of his wife and who, although innocent in the<br />
eyes of the jury, is guilty in the opinion of<br />
the townsfolk. Not until he ferrets out the<br />
real slayer is Todd exonerated by the people<br />
of the community.<br />
BOXOFnCE January 7, 1950 19