Boxoffice-January.24.1953

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FIRST SIX MONTHS OF '52-53
TO SEE 172 FILMS RELEASED
30 Less Than Same Period
In '51-52; More in Color,
28 Features in February
By PRANK LEYENDECKEB
NEW YORK—With the addition of 28
features for February 1953 release, the
first six months of the 1952-53 selling
season will see a total of 172 features, including
12 reissues, released by the 11
major companies. This is 30 less than the
202 released by the same companies during
the first six months of the 1951-52
selling season. Only five of the pictures
in the 1951-52 period were reissues, but
there were considerably more westerns or
minor programmers.
BIG BOOST IN COLOR
However, pictures in Technicolor and other
color processes again showed an increase
during the first six months of 1952-53, when
59, or more than one-third, are in color, compared
to the first six months of 1951-52
when only 42 were in color. For the 1952-53
period, 46 are in Technicolor, four each are
in WarnerColor, Trucolor and Cinecolor and
one is in a process known as Exotic color.
The total of 28 releases for February 1953
is only one less than the 29 released in February
1952 but eight of the 28 are in Technicolor
and one in Cinecolor, compared to only
seven in color in February 1952.
The Technicolor pictures for February 1953
will include the prerelease of Walt Disney's
cartoon feature, "Peter Pan," another musical,
"The Jazz Singer," and six in the costume-adventure
category, "Mississippi Gambler,"
"Treasure of the Golden Condor,"
"Ivanhoe," "Niagara," "The Naked Spur" and
"Last of the Comanches." "Kansas Pacific"
is in Cinecolor.
LIST IMPORTANT DRAMAS
Other important dramas for February 1953
will include the prerelease of "Come Back,
Little Sheba," "I Confess," "Girls in the
Night," "Limelight," "The Silver Whip," "The
Tall Texan," "Rogue's March," "Jeopardy,"
"The Hitch-Hiker," "Angel Face," "Sword of
Venus," "Bandits of Corsica," "San Antone,"
"The Magnetic Monster," "Tangier Incident"
and "Target—Hong Kong." The only comedy
is "The Stooge." "The Homesteaders" and
"The Marshal of Cedar Rock" are the only
program westerns.
Broken down by companies, the February
1953 releases will be:
ALLIED ARTISTS — "Kansas Pacific," in
Cinecolor, starring Sterling Hayden, Eve Miller
and Barton MacLane; "Tangier Incident,"
starring George Brent with Mari Aldon, and
"The Homesteaders," a Wild Bill Elliott western
with Barbara Allen.
COLUMBIA — "Last of the Comanches," in
Technicolor, starring Broderick Crawford, and
Barbara Hale with Lloyd Bridges and Johnny
Stewart, and "Target—Hong Kong," starring
Richard Denning with Nancy Gates and Richard
Loo.
BOXOFFICE :: January 24, 1953
Signing of Grainger
Now a 'Formality'
HOLLYWOOD—While at midweek no
statement had been forthcoming from
Howard Hughes, RKO Radio board chairman,
as concerns the signing of James R.
Grainger as president of the company, informed
spokesmen for the organization
made it known that the deal has been set
beyond recall.
They pointed out, however, that one
minor detail must be taken care of before
official announcement can be made.
Before Grainger, who is leaving his post
as Republic vice-president in charge of
sales and distribution, can become RKO's
president he must be elected a member of
the directorate. Such election, said these
informants, is a mere technicality.
Just how soon Grainger can a.ssume the
RKO presidency appeared to hinge upon
the length of time required to clean up
his affairs at Republic and upon when the
RKO board will schedule a session at
which he will be elected thereto. Grainger,
in what probably will be his last official
function as a Republic executive, left for
Chicago to preside at a two-day regional
sales conclave, following which he will
continue to New York and Miami for
similar meetings.
LIPPERT—"The Tall Texan," starring
Lloyd Bridges, Marie Windsor and Lee J.
Cobb.
METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER—"The Naked
Spur," in Technicolor, starring James Stewart,
Janet Leigh, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan
and Millard Mitchell; "Rogue's March," starring
Peter Lawford and Richard Greene with
Janice Rule: "Jeopardy," starring Barbara
Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Ralph Meeker,
and the general release of "Ivanhoe," in
Technicolor, starring Robert Taylor. Elizabeth
Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders and
Emlyn
Williams.
PARAMOUNT—"The Stooge," a Hal Wallis
production, starring Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis, with Eddie Mayehoff, Polly Bergen
and Marion Marshall, and the prerelease of
"Come Back, Little Sheba," a Hal Wallis
production, .starring Burt Lancaster and Shirley
Booth with Terry Moore and Richard
Jaeckel.
RKO RADIO — "Angel Face," starring Jean
Simmons, Robert Mitchum and Mona Freeman;
"The Hitch-Hiker," a Filmakers production,
starring Edmond O'Brien, Frank
Lovejoy with William Talman; "Sword of
Venus," with Catherine McLeod, Robert
Clarke and Dan O'Herlihy, and the prerelease
of Walt Disney's
feature,
"Peter Pan," in Technicolor.
REPUBLIC—"San Antone." starring Rod
Cameron, Arleen Whelan, Forrest Tucker and
Katy Jurado, and "Marshal of Cedar Rock,"
an Allan "Rocky" Lane western with Phyllis
Coates.
TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX—"Niagara,"
in Technicolor, starring Marilyn Monroe.
Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters; "Treasure
of the Golden Condor," in Technicolor, starring
Cornel Wilde, Constance Smith and Walter
Hampden with Finlay Currie, Fay Wray
and George Macready, and "The Silver Whip,"
starring Dale Robertson, Rory Calhoun and
Robert Wagner.
THREE ON UA LIST
UNITED ARTISTS—"Bandits of Corsica,"
an Edward Small production, starring Richard
Greene and Paula Raymond with Raymond
Burr and Dona Drake: "The Magnetic
Monster," an A-Men production, starring
Richard Carlson with Jean Byron and Harry
Ellerbe, and the general release of Charles
Chaplin's "Limelight," co-starring Claire
Bloom with Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton and
Andre Eglevsky and Melissa Hayden.
UNIVERSAL - INTERNATIONAL — "Mississippi
Gambler," in Technicolor, starring
Tyrone Power, Piper Laurie and Julia Adams
with John Mclntire and Paul Cavanagh, and
"Girls in the Night," with Glenda Parrell,
Harvey Lembeck, Patricia Hardy, Glen Roberts
and Joyce Holden.
WARNER BROS.—"The Jazz Singer," in
Technicolor, stan-ing Danny Thomas and
Peggy Lee with Mildred Dunnock and Eduard
Franz, and "I Confess," an Alfred Hitchcock
production, starring Montgomery Clift, Anne
Baxter, Karl Maiden and Brian Aherne.
MGM Making Tests of Ten
Reissues on Dual Bills
NEW YORK—MGM is trying test runs of
five twin-bill reissues under a "Hall of Fame"
title. If they work out as hoped the releases
will be spaced about a month apart.
The tests are to be in Loew houses in Nashville,
Akron, Rochester, Richmond and Dayton.
The bills are "David Copperfield" and "Tale
of Two Cities"; two Technicolor musicals,
"Meet Me in St. Louis" and "Easter Parade,"
"A Woman's Face" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde," "They Gave Him a Gun" and "The
Last Gangster," and "Billy the Kid" and
"China Seas."
Johnston to Talk at Meeting
Of Newspaper Ad Heads
NEW YORK—The value of
newspaper advertising
to the industry will be discussed by
Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture
Ass'n of America, during a three-day
meeting of the Newspaper Advertising Executives
Ass'n to open Monday (26) at the Edgewater
Beach hotel, Chicago. Johnston has
previously criticized the newspaper policy of
charging a premium rate for theatre advertising.