MODERN

TOP PRODUCT ON HOLIDAY LIST;
COMPANIES SCHEDULE 39 FILMS
Great Variety of Features
On Tap for December;
Six to Be in Color
By FRANK LEYENDECKER
NEW YORK—Approximately 39 features
will be released by 13 companies during the
holiday season of 1949, one less than the
40 released during December 1948. However,
the number may be increased slightly
when Eagle Lion completes its December
release schedule, now only tentative.
Five of the December releases will be in
Technicolor and one in Cinecolor. compared
to four in Technicolor and two in
Trucolor in December 1948. There will be
four reissues, as many as were released
during the first three months of the 1949-
50 season to date.
THE TECHNICOLOR LINEUP
The Technicolor features will be: "On the
Town," "The Gay Lady" and "Holiday Inn,"
the latter a reissue featuring the famous
Irving Berlin tune, "White Christmas," and
"Challenge to Lassie" and "The Inspector
General," while "Fighting Man of the Plains"
Is in Cinecolor.
Important dramas in addition to "Challenge
to Lassie" will be "Prince of Foxes,"
"All the King's Men," "Pirates of Capri,"
"Never Fear," "Conspirator," "The Open
Door." "The Sands of Iwo Jima." "Mrs. Mike,"
"Escape If You Can," "Undertow" and "My
Foolish Heart," which will have pre-release
dates only. The other comedies, in addition
to "The Inspector General." will be: "The
Lady Takes a Sailor," "Tell It to the Judge,"
"The Great Lover," "Adam and Evalyn" and
"Holiday Affair," which has a Christmas
background. The balance are action films or
westerns.
Broken down by companies, the December
releases will be:
COLUMBIA—"Tell It to the Judge," starring
Rosalind Russell, Robert Cummings and
Marie MacDonald: "And Baby Makes Three,"
starring Robert Young, Barbara Hale, Robert
Hutton and Billie Burke: "Prison Warden,"
starring Warner Baxter and Anna Lee:
"Feudin' Rhythm," with Eddy Arnold, Gloria
Henry and Kirby Grant, and "Frontier Outpost,"
a Charles Starrett western with Smiley
Burnette.
PARAMOUNT, WB REISSUES
EAGLE LION— (tentative^ "Never Fear,"
Ida Lupino-Collier Young production, with
Sally Forrest and Keefe Brasselle, and "The
Gay Lady," a J. Arthiu' Rank production in
Technicolor, starring Jean Kent and James
Donald.
FILM CLASSICS—"Pirates of Capri," produced
in Italy by Victor Pahlen and starring
Louis Haj'ward, Binnie Barnes, Alan Curtis
and Mikhail Rasumny.
LIPPERT—'Tough Assignment." with Don
Barry, Marjorie Steele and Steve Brodle:
"Red Desert," with Don Barry, Tom Neal
and Jack Holt, and "Radar Patrol," with John
Howard, Adele Jergens and Tom Neal.
MGM—"On the Town," in Technicolor,
As Goes Pennsylvania,
Hollywood, So Its
PHILADELPHIA—Mrs. Edna R. Carroll,
chairman of the state board of censors, told
an interviewer this week that because onetenth
of the nation's motion picture theatres
are in Pennsylvania, Hollywood producers
now make pictures to pass in that
state. The theorj' behind this practice being,
she said, that filmmakers feel that if
their product gets by the Pennsylvania board,
their pictures can play anywhere. The re-
.sult is nationwide good, she added.
Editor's note: Actually Pennsylvania
has 1,159 theatres, according to the
Motion Picture Ass'n of America directory,
or .057 per cent of the estimated
20.000 theatres in the United States.
Mrs. Carroll's comments on the role of
the censor came after the Pennsylvania supreme
court ruled that the state board had
no control over films being telecast in that
state. The decision will in no way pave the
way for a let-down in the bars on film censorship,
she said.
"No. we don't hurt the industry, we help
starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller
and Betty Garrett, with Vera-Ellen and
Jules Munshin: "Challenge to Lassie," in
Technicolor, with Edmund Gwenn, Donald
Crisp, Geraldine Brooks and Reginald Owen;
"Conspirator," starring Robert Taylor and
Elizabeth Taylor, and "The Open Door," starring
Ann Sothern, Zachary Scott and Gigi
Perreau.
MONOGRAM — "Bomba on Panther Island,"
starring Johnny Sheffield with Lita Baron;
"Square Dance Katie," starring Jimmie I>avis,
and "Range Land," a Whip Wilson western
ṖARAMOUNT—"The Great Lover," starring
Bob Hope with Rhonda Fleming, Roland
Young and Roland Culver, and two reissues,
"Holiday Inn," in Technicolor, starring Bing
Crosby and Fred Astaire, and "The Lady
Eve." starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry
Fonda.
REPUBLIC — "The Sands of Iwo Jlma,"
starring John Wayne with Adele Mara and
John Agar; "Blonde Bandit." with Robert
Rockwell and Dorothy Patrick, and "Pioneer
Marshal," a Monte Hale western.
RKO — "Holiday Affair," starring Robert
Mitchum, Janet Leigh and Wendell Corey:
"The Threat," with Michael O'Shea and 'Virginia
Grey, and "My Foolish Heart," a Samuel
Goldwyn production staiTing Susan Hayward
and Dana Andrews with Kent Smith,
Robert Keith and Jessie Royce Landis. The
latter is for pre-release engagements only.
TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX—"Prince of
Foxes," starring Tyrone Power, Wanda Hendrix
and Orson Welles with Katina Paxinou
and Everett Sloane, and "Fighting Man of
the Plains," in Cinecolor, starring Randolph
So Goes
Censor Says
it. If a movie gets through and arou.ses the
indignation of church people, of the sol.d
family class, that hurts all movies. We don't
let such movies get through, or we clean
them up first," she said.
The board chairman listed some of the
films passed with "minor eliminations" and
their subjects "Hamlet," "Mourning Becomes
Electra," and "Anna Lucasta," which
deal with incest: "Edward My Son," which
deals with adultery: "To Each His Own"
and "Not Wanted" dealing with illegitimacy:
and "White Heat" which deals with sadistic
cruelty.
"Not much inhibition of artists there," she
said, adding "none of these subjects could
be used in films without careful screening
and handling by experts. They are all packed
with dynamite—we have to see that the explosive
of the dynamite doesn't get through."
Mrs. Carroll said she Lsn't worried about
current attacks on censors. "All I need to
do," she said, "is to take the cuts we make
to the state capitol, show them to the legislators,
and we'll get all the support we need."
Scott with Victor Jory, Jane Nigh and Bill
Williams.
UNITED ARTISTS—"Mrs. Mike," a Samuel
Bischoff production, starring Dick Powell
and Evelyn Keyes; "Escape If You Can," an
Edward J. and Harry Lee Danziger production
starring Paul Henreid with Catherine Mc-
Leod. and "Satan's Cradle," a Philip N.
Krasne western with Duncan Renaldo, Leo
Carrillo and Ann Savage.
UNI'VERSAL-INTERNATIONAL —"Undertow."
with Scott Brady. Dorothy Hart and
John Russell; "Adam and Evalyn," a J. Arthur
Rank production starring Stewart Granger
and Jean Simmons, and "Tight Little
Island," also a Rank production with Basil
Radford and Joan Greenwood.
WARNER BROS.—"The Inspector General,"
in Technicolor starring Danny Kaye
with Elsa Lanchester, Walter Slezak and
Barbara Bates: "The Lady Takes a Sailor,"
starring Jane Wyman and Dennis Moi-gan
with Eve Arden and Robert Dougla?: and two
reissues, "Farewell to Arms," originally released
by Paramount, starring Gary Cooper,
Helen Hayes and Adolphe Menjou. and '"The
Hatchet Man." starring Edward G. Robinson
and Loretta Young.
EL Gets Atomic Picture
NEW YORK—Eagle Lion will distribute
'Gates of Hell." a romantic drama based on
the use of atomic energy for healing purposes,
which has been produced in the underground
laboratories of the University of
Upsala in Sweden. It probably will be released
in March 1950.
BOXOFTICE November 19, 1949 19