Screen and Stage

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26770, 13 May 1948, Page 5

Screen and S tage

By lAXON ?ssssssssss&

Monroe Shall and Frank Rosenberg, having abandoned their preliminary plans f, or _. shooting their Indian tiger picture, Maneaters of Kumaon,’’ oil location, are now in the throes of finishing the picture on a Holywood sound stage, where invest’ht'iits are safer than in an Asiatic jungle, then- major problem, naturally, has been animal photography, because of the unpredictable delays it entails. Recently they disclosed, however, that the actual bill for the services of animals and animal handlers for the picture will be only 25,935 dollars. Their leading tiger, which Wj*® under contract for six weeks, cost JOCO dollars, and four supporting tigers, at 200 dollars a week apiece, for six weeks, cost 4800 dollars. A leopard cost 1200 dollars for four weeks, ana a black panther 900 dollars for three weeks. Twenty monkeys cost 800 dollars for four weeks and a bear cost 900 dollars for three weeks. Assorted hyenas, gazelles, wild pigs, wild goats, deer, bullocks, horses and dogs cost 2715 dollars. Birds, snakes, and other small animals cost 1000 dollars, and file bill for horse meat at 20 cents a pound reached 420 dollars. The biggest item on the animal budget, however, was 9600 dollars for the services for a veterinary and eight handlers and wranglers. Finally, there was an item of 25 dollars for the rental of a stuffed tiger, which was used as a lighting stand-in for the leading man-eater.

Columbia is the latest studio to discover the Communist menace, having purchased screen rights to John McPartland’s Life Magazine article, " Portrait of an American Communist.” McPart'land and David Dortort will write the screen version for production in the documentary style.. Twentieth Century-Fox led off the cycle l of anti-Communist films last year with the now completed “ Behind the Iron Curtain,” and other studios which have stated their intention of entering the ideological fray, but have gone no farther, are Warner Borthers, with “Up Until Now” (announced in March, 1947), M.-G--M., with “ Vespers in Vienna ” (jmrehased in December, 1946) and Eagle Lion, with “ I married a Communist ” (purchased in March). * * * John Wayne is anticipating one of his most rigorous assignments in his Republic picture, “ Wake of the Red Witch.” Ilis role in the film calls for him to wrestle an octopus, spend several reels diving for pearls, and engage in three rough-and-tumble brawls.

Charged with the task of finding a story for Korda’s two yc-ung stars, Kieron Moore and Christine Norden, director Leslie Arliss has hit on a subject that he hopes will be a sort of British “ The Egg and I.” The title is “ I Married a Mountain,” and 1 the original book, by Thomas Firbank, describes the author’s experiences when he took his young wife to settle on a farm with grazing land for 3000 sheep on a. mountain in Wales. The fiction that Mr Arliss and 'script-writer Guy Morgan have developed from this authentic tale concerns a young man back from the war who marries a tea shop waitress when his fiancee turns him down, and the efforts of the city girl to adapt herself to the conditions of life on her husband’s lonely mountain farm.

Ira Wolfert, author and newspaper man, whose report on the sea battles off Guadalcanal won him the Pulitzer Prize In 1943, has sold the film rights to his novel, “ Tucker’s People,” to John Garfield and Bob Roberts, producer and star of the currently successful “ Body and Soul.” A first novel, published in 1943 to ample critical cheering, “ Tucker’s People ” stems from the first-hand background Wolfert obtained covering the Hines " policy racket ” trials. “ Tucker’s People ” is not Wolfert’s first contact with the gold coast. “ Guerrilla in the Philippines,” which' he wrote- with Lieutenant I. D. Richardson, was sold to Fox in 1945. ■<

Herewith the plot of a forthcoming film as synopsised in a trade journal re r view: "When the brother of an atomic scientist is reported lost while on an expedition to discover proof of ’ reincarnation.’ the scientist suddenly decides that the dog he found is really his brother. His behaviour with the animal attracts considerable attention, so that his uncle and the young lady he likes are forced to put him ih a sanitorium.” Obviously the best thing they could have done.

Two Jewish musicians, who are touring isolated Jewish settlements in the Negev desert of Palestine, are keeping their families in Xel-Aviv posted of their safety and whereabouts in a unique way. They are using carrier pigeons. They sent their first pigeon from the settlement of Mishmar Hanagev, and it reached their families safely.

Gary Cooper, who only last year was letting it be known that he would not become an independent producer because of the unsettled state of the film market, may be changing his mind. The news is that he has acquired screen rights to " Mama Maria’s,” a novel by Ann Chidester, described as a story set in “ an auto camp and roadside restaurant.”

Maintenance of the huge Madrid palace set for the Errol Flynn film, “Adventures of Don Juan,” is proving considerable. So far the prop men have worn out 300 dust mops keeping a high polish on the 26.000 square feet of flooring. Twelve hundred sheets of chip board have been used to protect the floor while not in use. Over 240,0001 bof plaster-of-paris were used in the construction of the palace sets so far completed.

A survey of the information contained in recent Hollywood gossip columns produced only one item of significant import. The reason that Ella Raines asked for and obtained her release from her contract with Universal was the prospect of her assignment to “ The Brain of Frankenstein.” with Bud Abbott and-Lou Costello, according to a local report. Miss Raines, it was said, did not object to the comedians, but she felt that she could not stand the competition with Dracula. the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s Monster, all of whom are appearing in support o| Abbott and Costello in the picture. A braver actress named Jane Randolph inherited the assignment.

The Central Fire Brigade received a justifiable false alarm from the premises of the Otago Chair Company in King street at 5.24 a.m. yesterday. At 7.20 a.m. the brigade attended a chimney fire in Botha street, Anderson’s Bay, and a call to a chimney fire in Victoria road, St. Kilda, was received at 10.13 a.m.