Boxoffice_May.09.1960

Allied Artists Schedules
14 Top Films This Year
CHICAGO—Allied Artists will produce
14 major motion pictures in 1960. a schedule
which will just about complete the
company's transition to a big-picture
policy, president Steve Broidy reported at
AA's sales convention here April 30.
This is the 30th year for the company
which first came into existence as Monogram
and with a policy of making the socalled
bread-and-butter pictures. The shift
to the big-budget attraction has been under
way for several seasons, and the goal
apparently has now been achieved.
"The pictures on our planning boards
are all important properties." Broidy declared.
"The only future exceptions to
this format will be unusual subjects in the
medium - budget category, but whose
strong showmanship qualities offer promise
of wide audience appeal."
Among the productions to get under way
this year is the company's first picture in
70mm— "Marco Polo." to be filmed in the
Orient with W. Lee Wilder producing.
Another big picture will be a film treatment
of Herman Melville's classic short
novel. "Billy Budd." which will star Robert
Ryan. Peter Ustinov and one other star yet
to be named. Ustinov also will direct the
picture which is a first production for A.
Ronald Lubin, former president of MCA.
and Milton Kaufman, writer. A starting
date hinges on termination of the writers'
guild strike.
In the current month, cameras will begin
shooting "The Plunderers." which
stars Jeff Chandler. John Saxon. Dolores
AIP Will Distribute Six
From May Through Aug.
NEW YORK — American-International
Pictures will distribute six new pictures,
plus two reissues during the four month
period starting in May.
They are: "Circus of Horrors," in color,
starring Anton Diffring and Erika Remberg,
in May: "Jailbreakers," starring
Robert Hutton and Mary Castle, and
"Why Must I Die?" starring Terry Moore
and Debra Paget, both in June; "House of
Usher," in color and Cinemascope, starring
Vincent Price, in July, and "Konga,"
produced in England in color, staiTing
Michael Gough, in August. The two reissues
are: "Thunder Over Hawaii," in
color, starring Richard Denning and Beverly
Garland, in May. and "Apache Woman,"
in color, starring Lloyd Bridges and
Joan Taylor, in August.
Billy Wilder on Tour
NEW YORK—Producer-director Billy
Wilder will make a nationwide promotion
lour on behalf of "The Apartment" which
he made for United Artists relea.se. His
itinerary consists of Dallas, May 24: New
Orleans, May 25: Chicago, May 26-27;
New York, May 28-30; Washington. June
1, Philadelphia, June 2; Boston, June 3
and back to New York for June 6 to 8.
Hart and Jay C. Flippen. Joseph Pevney
will both produce and direct. Others on
the schedule include: "Dondi," which Albert
Zugsmith will produce: "The Big
Bankroll," a yarn based on the life of the
notorious gambler Arnold Rothstein, on
the slate for Samuel Bischoff and David
Diamond: "The George Raft Story,"
Pearl Buck's "The Big Wave," "Streets of
Montmartre," to star Lana Turner and
Louis Jourdan in a stoi-y about the French
painter Utrillo: "Armored Command";
"Crash Boat," a drama of Navy rescue
boats in World War II: "79 Park Avenue,"
a story on the lives of party girls, from a
current paperback best-seller by Harold
Robbins; "Confessions of an Opium Eater,"
an Albert Zugsmith production of the
famous classic: "Reckless. Pride of the
Marines," based on the First Marine Division's
famous ammunition-carrying
horse in the Korean War.
Just completed is "Hell to Eternity," starring
Jeffrey Hunter and Vic Damone.
Broidy also reported to the conference
that negotiations have been completed
with Carlo Ponti, the Italian producer, for
"The Capri Story," with Sophia Loren as
the feminine star. Georges Clouzot will
direct, and negotiations are under way
with Burt Lancaster to play the male lead.
Broidy also said that the 14 pictiu-es
which the company intends to put before
the cameras this year is not a final production
figure. The program will not be
limited to any given number, he said, but
will include as many as are warranted.
2-Year 'Spartacus' Date
At Chicago's McVickers
NEW YORK—Universal Pictures has
concluded a deal with the McVickers Theatre,
Chicago, which will bring the Bryna
Production, "Spartacus," into the theatre
October 13 for a two-year roadshow engagement,
according to F. J. A. McCarthy,
director of sales for "Spartacus," and
Aaron and John Jones, owners and operators
of the theatre.
This "Spartacus" booking follows the
deal between Universal and Walter Reade
for the picture to have its world premiere
at the DeMille Theatre. New York City.
October 6 with Reade guaranteeing a
$1,000,000 advance and a two-year run.
Robert M. Gillham Joins
Sindlir.ger & Co. in N. Y.
NEW YORK—Robert M. Gillham has
been appointed a special representative for
Sindlinger & Co.. business analysts of
Ridley Park. Pa. He will make his headquarters
in New York.
For 12 years, Gillham was advertising
and publicity director for Paramount
Pictures. He subsequently became vicepresident
of J. Walter Thompson, advertising
agency, and, more recently, with
Cunningham & Walsh agency.
Columbia Reorganizes
Its Global Promotion
NEW YORK—Direction of the promotional
activities of Columbia Pictures International
has been assigned to the parent
company's advertising
and publicity department
of which
Jonas Rosenfield jr.
is the executive in
charge. That means
that Columbia has
centralized all its
worldwide promotional
activities under
one department and
one top man.
The reorganization
has been in work for Jonas Rosenfield Jr.
several years. It is
said to integrate global merchandising facilities
under one banner as an extension
of Columbia's "Big C" policy of providing
greater service to producers allied with
Columbia, and to give unlimited promotional
power to major pictures scheduled
for worldwide release.
Rosenfield recently returned from Mexico
after a preliminary survey of Latin-
American a dv e r t i s i n g and publicity
planning. He listed the following objectives
at a press conference Tuesday '3>:
1. To make directly available to its officers
everywhere the creative manpower,
ideas and resources of a combined department
headquartered in New York and
Hollywood.
2. To strengthen the autonomy of publicity
directors and branches everywhere
and to create a flexible and unified operation.
There will be a closer relationship
between the homeoffice and publicity outposts
headed by Alan Tucker in Great
Britain. Jack Wiener in Europe and the
middle east, Kevin Doyle in Australia and
Manuel Alonso and Jose Luis Palafox in
Latin America.
3. To develop a better interchange of
showmanship information and planning.
Integration will be in operation at the
studio as well, where Ely Levy of the foreign
publicity department will be working
more closely with John C. Flinn. studio
advertising-publicity director. Rosenfield
said. At the homeoffice the foreign publicity
department has been moved to the
same floor as the domestic department.
Here joint planning with the other staff
members under the leadership of Robert
S. Ferguson, national director of advertising-publicity-exploitation,
will take place.
Texas COMPO Urging
Film Classifications Use
DALLAS—Use of audience cla-ssifications
made by the Texas Motion Picture
Board of Review has been recommended
to the state's exhibitors by Texas COMPO.
as a means of combatting a threat of cen-
.sor.ship. Kyle Rorex. executive director of
the state's overall film industry organization,
said the classifications will be made
available to the membership bi-monthly.
Use of the voluntary classification system
should be the exhibitors' best line of
defense for showing the increasing number
of "adult" films, as well as a welcome
guide for patrons, Rorex said.
BOXOFFICE May 9. 1960
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