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. . . Monogram-Allied<br />
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. . . Carl<br />
. . . Deanna<br />
. . . Mae<br />
. . The<br />
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Four New Companies Join<br />
Independent Film Ranks<br />
The parade of newly formed independent<br />
units is still marching steadily onward. In<br />
the period just ended four more new companies<br />
were added to the list. Apart from<br />
his status as a Paramount contract director,<br />
John Farrow is joining with Cliff Reid and<br />
Carl Leserman In a venture which plans to<br />
film "Son of Man," a story based on the<br />
life of Christ. Farrow will not only write<br />
the script but is slated to direct and co-produce.<br />
Negotiations are now under way for<br />
a major company release, with camera work<br />
set to begin late this summer.<br />
Z. Wayne Griffin has left Cavalier Productions<br />
(the independent headed by Actor<br />
Robert Young and Eugene B. Rodney i and<br />
organizing his own unit to film the Homer<br />
is<br />
Croy novel. "Family Honeymoon." Griffin is<br />
headquartering at the Samuel Goldwyn<br />
studio and has set Dane Lussier on the<br />
screenplay. No distribution arrangements<br />
have been made.<br />
Coliunbia added to its 1948 release schedule<br />
by closing a deal whereby Harry Romm<br />
will make two pictures independently for<br />
the company during the year. The inltialer,<br />
"Ladies of the Chorus," is an original by<br />
Harry Sauber. The second property has not<br />
been selected.<br />
Also announcing plans for an Independent<br />
venture was Edward Finney, who Is readying<br />
"The Life of Henri Dunant," biography<br />
of the founder of the Red Cross. His production<br />
associate will be Stephen Marcus<br />
and John F. Link has been inked to direct.<br />
Armand Deutsch to RKO;<br />
To Make 'Mr. Music'<br />
Reversing the cycle whereby film-makers<br />
have been leaving major companies to hang<br />
out their own shingles, one independent has,<br />
at least temporarily, abandoned his unit to<br />
take on a salaried job as an associate producer.<br />
Such was the action of Armand Deutsch of<br />
Story Productions, who was signed by RKO<br />
Radio and will turn out "Mr. Music," a story<br />
of Tin Pan Alley, as his inltialer on the new<br />
contract.<br />
For several years Eteutsch's Story Productions<br />
had been readying to film Taylor Caldwell's<br />
"This Side of Innocence," but had<br />
consistently encountered difficulties. Whether<br />
that project will be permanently abandoned<br />
was not disclosed.<br />
Five Story Transactions<br />
Completed Last Week<br />
Activity in the story market was somewhere<br />
close to normal, as five transactions<br />
were completed to bring that number of<br />
literary properties into studio possession.<br />
"Katie Called Katje," a novel by Helga<br />
Moray, was acquired by the newly formed<br />
independent, William A. Bacher Productions,<br />
to serve as its initial film . . . Phil Krasne,<br />
producing the "Falcon" series for Film Classics,<br />
purchased "Blue Holiday" from Joel<br />
Malone and Harold Swanton. It will star<br />
John Calvert . . . Another Film Classics pro-<br />
By<br />
IVAN SPEAR<br />
ducer, Martin Mooney, purchased "Women<br />
Without Men," by Irwin Franklyn, and described<br />
as an expose of drinking in bars<br />
and cocktail lounges by unescorted women<br />
Artists acquired "The<br />
Aztec Treasm-ehouse," a novel by Thomas<br />
Janvier, to be produced and directed by<br />
Irving Allen with Michael North in the<br />
starring role. It will be filmed in Anscocolor<br />
... To Republic went Robert Williams'<br />
"Marshal of Amarillo" as a chapter in the<br />
"Famous Western" series starring Allan<br />
Lane. Gordon Kay will produce.<br />
MGM in Deal With Argosy<br />
For Three Godfathers'<br />
Ai'gosy Pictures, the John Ford-Merlan C.<br />
Cooper company which usually does business<br />
distrlbutlonwise with RKO Radio, has<br />
switched allegiance to MGM on a one-pictiu-e<br />
deal. Leo will handle the release of Argosy's<br />
"The Three Godfathers," upcoming western<br />
based on a story by Peter B. Kyne, which<br />
will be directed by Ford. John Wayne and<br />
Pedro Armendariz have been set for the cast.<br />
Originally acquired by Universal-International,<br />
Robert Carson's "Come Be My Love"<br />
has been turned over to Robert Montgomery's<br />
Neptune Productions, with Montgomery<br />
planning to produce, direct and star in<br />
Lewis Milestone's next for Enterprise will be<br />
"Wild Calendar," with Milestone set to<br />
double as producer and director . . Wind-<br />
.<br />
sor Productions, headed by Frank Melford<br />
and Julian Lesser, ticketed John Rawlins to<br />
pilot "Michael O'Halloran," the unit's first<br />
for Monogram release . . . Carol Young was<br />
signed by Columbia to script a forthcoming<br />
Ted Richmond opus, "Son of the Jungle"<br />
Bergman, Swedish playwright,<br />
will do the screenplay of Henrik Ibsen's "A<br />
Doll's House" for David O. Selznlck, who is<br />
arranging to film the subject in Stockholm<br />
... "A Personal Affair," to be made by<br />
Frank Seltzer Productions for 20th-Fox release,<br />
will be piloted by Ray McCarey.<br />
'Documentary' Features<br />
On MGM's 1948 Slate<br />
No less an establishment than the mighty<br />
MGM is the latest to join the ranks of those<br />
filmmakers who have become proponents of<br />
the so-called "documentary" technique in<br />
the manufacture of entertainment on celluloid.<br />
From Leo's lair comes the disclosure<br />
that to the 1948 production schedule has<br />
been added a group of features which will<br />
be built around timely, topical subject matter<br />
with "documentary" exploitation values.<br />
The Metro announcement, without going into<br />
further detail<br />
as to the number of such features<br />
it will make or listing any titles therefor,<br />
indicates that in treatment and filming<br />
technique the new subjects probably wiU be<br />
built along the lines of such previous successful<br />
ventures as 20th-Fox's "The House<br />
on 92nd Street" and "Boomerang" and<br />
Eagle Lion's "T-Men." Sam Marx has been<br />
placed in charge of developing material for<br />
the<br />
series.<br />
King Brothers Abandon<br />
Gangster Film Fare<br />
Henry Ford's grief at having to abandon<br />
his beloved Model T was nothing as compared<br />
to the pangs the Brudem King<br />
must be suffering now that they have decided<br />
not to make any more gangster<br />
pictures. The Kings, who rose to Hollywood<br />
prominence through the manufacture<br />
of cops-and-robbers epics like<br />
"Paper Bullets" and "Dillinger," for release<br />
through Monogram and Allied<br />
Artists, are disowning any further connection<br />
with such film<br />
fare.<br />
They didn't say so, but undoubtedly<br />
their decision was largely influenced<br />
through recent action by the MPAA to<br />
tighten up its production code through<br />
the adoption of clauses forbidding the use<br />
of titles connoting gang violence and<br />
murder, banning films based on the lives<br />
of trigger-men and reiterating that any<br />
pictures in which a mobster is a central<br />
character must conclude with the hood<br />
paying through the nose for his crimes<br />
against society.<br />
Hereafter, maintain the Kings, they<br />
will concentrate on comedies and outdoor<br />
subjects.<br />
Sonny Tufts Goes Western<br />
In Columbia Color Opus<br />
It looks as though a new western star is<br />
in the making over Columbia way, where<br />
Sonny Tufts has been signed to star in a new<br />
Harry Joe Brown sagebrush opus, "The<br />
Wrangler." His co-star in the upcoming<br />
Cinecolor offering will be Barbara Britton<br />
Krueger, independent producer, did<br />
a bit of type casting when he signed Johnny<br />
Lujack, Notre Dame's All American grid star,<br />
for the lead in "Mr. Quarterback," based on<br />
a story by Francis Wallace . . . Maureen<br />
O'Hara will be Melvyn Douglas' co-star in<br />
"The Long Denial" at RKO Radio. That<br />
studio also signed Robert Preston to share<br />
the topline with Robert Mitchum and Barbara<br />
Bel Geddes in "Blood on the Moon" .<br />
In films since 1928, Regis Toomey undertakes<br />
his 450th screen role in "I Wouldn't Be In<br />
Your Shoes," upcoming Allied Artists entry<br />
Durbin's next starring vehicle<br />
at Universal-International will be "Washington<br />
Girl" . same lot ticketed Hugh<br />
Herbert and Tom Conway for top supporting<br />
roles in Lester Cowan's "One Touch of Venus"<br />
Clarke is emerging from retirement<br />
to essay the femme lead in Republic'^ "Daredevils<br />
of the Sky."<br />
Independent Unit to Fihn<br />
John Steinbeck Stories<br />
A roimd dozen of John Steinbeck's stories<br />
will be brought to the screen on an independent<br />
basis according to plans now being drafted<br />
for the establishment of an independent unit<br />
in which Steinbeck, Burgess Meredith and<br />
Lewis Milestone are partners. The inltialer,<br />
for which no release Is set as yet, probably<br />
will be "Cannery Row."<br />
The outfit reimites the triumvirate which<br />
turned out "Of Mice and Men," produced by<br />
Hal Roach, in which Meredith starred and<br />
which was directed by Milestone.<br />
BOXOFTICE : : February 7. 1948 25
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