Boxoffice-December.20.1952

. . For
. .
FEATURE REVIEWS Story Synopsis; Adlines for Newspaper and Programs
:0'
THE STORY:
"My Cousin Rachel" (20th-Fox)
n England in the 1840s, Richard Burton becomes certain
:.st his foster-lather, John Sutton, is being poisoned by the
laller's wife, Olivia DeHavillcmd. When Sutton dies, unsuccessful
attempts ore made to convince Burton that death
was caused by a tumor. Vowing revenge on Olivia, Burton
instead falls in love with her. Alter giving her everyihing
he owns, and becoming jealous of another suitor, he begins
to suspect her of trying to poison him, and tries to kill her"
when she refuses to marry him. He becomes feverishly ill;
Olivia nurses him back to health, but he suffers from the
delusion that he is now her husband. Olivia, fatally injured
when a lootbridge collapses, accuses him of murdering her,
and Burton thereafter is tormented by the unanswerable
question—v/as she innocent or guilty?
CATCHLINES:
Suspense and Romance . . . Intrigue and Tragedy . . .
Here Is the Unforgettable Screen Version of Daphne du
Maurier's Best-Seller ... A Dramatic Milestone in the History
of the Screen.
^.52
THE STORY:
"Ruby Gentry" (20th-Fox)
Jennifer Jones, a swamp girl, is impetuously in love with
Charlton Heston, son of an aristocratic North Carolina
family, but he is compelled to marry Phyllis Avery, a socialite.
Karl Maiden, a wealthy, self-made man, persuades
Jennifer to take care of his dying wife, and after her death
he and Jennifer marry. Maiden becomes jealous of Heston,
who dances with Jennifer at a country club party, and they
fight. The next day Karl is drowned in a sailing accident;
the community believes Jennifer killed him. She seeks revenge
by foreclosing on property owned by those financially
obligated to Maiden, — and ruins Heston. During a hunting
party, Heston '.o protect Jennifer from her brother, a religious
fanatic—is killed. Jennifer gives up her wealth and
turns to running a fishing boat.
CATCHLINES:
Meet Ruby Gentry ... a Torrid, Tempestuous Girl of the
Swamps . . . You'll Never Forget the Story of Her Compelling
Love . the Man She Knew She Could Not Have.
i
THE STORY: "Last of the Comanches" (Col)
THE STORY: •The Star" (20th-Fox)
Broderick Crawford, a cavalry sergeant, finds himself
the leader of a band made up of a handful of survivors of
an Indian massacre, augmented by the passengers of a
stagecoach among whom is Barbara Hale, which is traveling
through hostile Comanche territory toward a distant U.S.
fort. Their meager water supply is almost exhausted when
they meet an Indian boy who leads them to an abandoned
mission where they find an old well. The boy, Johnny
Stewart, rides to summon help from the fort while the group
holds the mission and the water supply against repeated
attacks by the Comanches. In time-honored style the cavalry
rides over the hill in the nick of time.
CATCHLINES:
Ten Men and a Girl Ag '( 'he Comanche Devils . . .
Sheer Will Brought Them Throug:. a Wall of Hate Against
All the Odds . . . He Stood Between Them and the Warring
Hordes.
Befte Davis, once a top movie star, is broke, in debt and
divorced, and her 12-year-old daughter is in her ex-husband's
custody. She is rescued from utter despair by Sterling
Hayden, her leading man in one picture and for many years
in love with her. He tries to convince her she is through in
films but still has a bright future as a woman. But Bette,
determined on a comeback, tests for a new picture. The
test is a flop. At a Hollywood party a young stage producer
tries to interest her in playing the lead in a new venture,
the story of a falling star. Recognizing at last that she is
the counterpart of the character, Bette returns to the waiting
Hcryden, ready to become a woman, not a faded celebrity,
and to make a home for him and her daughter.
CATCHLINES:
A Love Story That No Woman Will Ever Forget ... A
Hord-Hitting Drama That Every Man Will Enjoy ... A
Performance by Bette Davis That Ranks With the Greatest
She Has Ever Made.
THE STORY:
"Target Hong Kong" (Col)
THE STORY: "The Redhead From Wyoming" (U-I)
Soo Yong, owner of a gambling salon in Hong Kong, is
being misled by Red agents into aiding in a plot to conquer
the city for the Chinese Communists. Richard Denning, an
American who loses all his money at her gambling tables,
is persuaded to join the Nationalist underground and is
assigned to watch Soo Yong's place. When Denning is
captured by Red agents, he manages to shoot and light his
way out and rushes to Soo Yong, who is helping the Reds
prepare the attack. Against her will, she reveals the whereabout
of a floating bomb destined to destroy Hong Kong.
Denning manages to release the safety mechanism in time
to save the city.
CATCHLINES:
. . . Blazing Action
Blasting the World's Worst Spy Nest . . . The City's Sitting
on a Bomb—One False Move and Off It Goes ... A Yank on
the Loose in the Hottest Spot on Earth
Where East Meets West.
William Bishop, a crooked promoter, joins with Stacy Harris,
an outlaw, in fomenting a range war between cattlemen
and settlers in Wyoming in the 1870s so they can rustle
cattle and put the blame on the homesteaders. Bishop persuades
Maureen O'Hara to open a saloon and buy and
market unbranded cattle rounded up by the settlers, but
his real purpose is to use her establishment as a clearing
house for rustled beef. Maureen and the sheriff, Alex Nicol,
are attracted to each other, but he suspects her of being
in league with the rustlers. She is framed and jailed on
a charge of murder and rustling, and when a pitched battle
ensues Maureen kills Bishop in self-defense. She convinces
Nicol that she has never been Bishop's woman, and together
she and the sheriff ride out to look at homesteads.
CATCHLINES:
Here's Frontier Drama in All Its Savage Glory ... A
Relentless Tale of Rawhide Courage . . . Powder-Scorched
Conflict . . . And Hot-Blooded Love . . . Thundering Straight
Into Your Heart.
mi
u
THE STORY: "The While Line" (IFE)
THE STORY: "The Berliner" (Burstyn)
In 1947, the International Peace Commission rules that a
while line must be drawn through an Italian town near
Trieste with all east of the wooden markers to belong to
Yugoslavia and all west of the line to Italy. Fanners are
separated from some of thoir land, the church is separated
from the rectory and the cemetery is divided. The children
can no longer ride their wagons down a steep hill and Gina
LoUobrigida is living in a separate country from her fiance,
Emo Crisa. A wounded refugee, Raf Vallone, is helped
across the lino by Gina's little brother and she falls in love
with him. Former neighbor.^ start to quarrel and it is only
whon the little boy is killed by a guard that the people are
drawn together again and barriers are lifted for the funeral.
CATCHLINES:
A V/hito Lino Which Separated Old Friends and Drew
Lovers Arjart . . . Enzo Slalola, Child Star of "Bicycle Thief,"
In Another Stirring Film ol Postwar Italy . . . Torn Between
Love and Duty—on Opposite Sides of the White Line
Diplomats' Decisions Changed Hundreds of Lives.
I
G
In the year 2050, the commentator asks us to tune in
our TV sets on a 100-year-old movie, the story of Gert
Frobe, "Mr. Average Man," who makes his way back from
army service to what he hopes will be a quiet life in
Berlin. He finds that his apartment is firmly occupied by
two tenants, a black marketeer and a woman who runs a
lonely hearts club. He tries several jobs and, in his dreams,
he sees a little pastry girl, whom he later meets in the
lonely hearts club and marries her. Times remain hard and
their married life is full of quarrels. Finally Frobe finds
himself in a coffin and, at his funeral, he hears himself
referred to as "the last of the species of average man."
Frobe leaps out of the coffin and says it is time to bury
fear, egotism, indifference and hate.
CATCHLINES:
An_ Amusing Satire on the Life and Times of "Mr. Average
Man"
. . , Winner of the Venice Festival Award ... A
View of Our World 100 Years From Today . . . Henry
Morgan Laughs at the World of "Mr. Average Man" .
Men and Events of 1950 As Seen on TV Film in 2050.
i
f "IC'