HITS AND MISSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26848, 12 August 1948, Page 2

HITS AND MISSES

It is the custom of the New York critics about this time of the year to look back over the theatrical season just completed and list the hits and misses, together with their vital statisics. As mentioned in this column last week, “Oklahoma!” closed during this period with (on a recount) the world’s record for musical comedy longevity to its credit. It was, however, topped by “ Life With Father” (3213 performances) taking the year’s theatre as a whole. Investors in these highly-successful theatrical projects would no doubt be envied by the unlucky speculators who backed the year’s major misses. These were “ Doctor Social ” (five performances), “I Gotta Get Out” and "The Rats of Norway ” (four each), and “ The Men We Marry,” which was mercifully “ killed ” after three dismal sessions. On the musical side, “ Caribbean Carnival ” dragged out through 11 evenings, but “ Louisiana Lady ” called it a day after only four. Without doubt, the last successful attempt at reviving a show on Broadway was the “ Topaze ” venture. The doors were closed after the first night. Every season the movie magnates spend a great deal of money for the screen rights to Broadway stage properties, unproduced works and other grist for the Hollywood mill. This past season being no exception to the rule, the West Coast picture-makers expended 4,130,000 dollars, the amount not including prices which were not made known. The major purchases were Columbia’s 1,000,000-dollar fee for the rights to “ Born Yesterday ’’ and a similar sum provided by Universal for the rights to the fabulously successful “ Harvey.” Columbia also found 850,000 dollars to peg claims on “Anna Lucasta.” The tremendous sums paid were unusual in the face of the film industry’s retrenchment policy brought about by a drastic curtailment in the foreign trade. • • • Benjamin Britten’s operas continue to be performed abroad. His " Rape of Lucretia ” had its French premiere in June in His “Albert Harring ” had its 'first foreign language production last month in Brussels. And his “ Peter Grimes,” presented this year in Copenhagen, is being prepared by the Helsinki Opera for performances later in Finland. * • * Compton Bennett, who directed the British success, “ The Seventh Veil,” has just signed an M-G-M contract. His first will be “The Forsyte Saga,” based on the Galsworthy novel. Greer Garson will star. • • • Walt Disney’s schedule of feature pictures, as it now stands, includes two films that are nearly complete, “So Dear to My Heart,” a combination live-action animation picture about a boy and a black sheep, and “ Three Fabulous Characters ” (Ichabod Crane, Mr Toad and Casey Jones). Then will come "Cinderella” in pure animation at Christmas time, 1949. Other pictures due at six-monthly intervals, in approximately the order indicated, include " Treasure Island,” “ The Three Wishes ” (a story about Irish leprechauns), "Hiawatha,” "Peter Pan.” "The Sword and the Stone,” and " The Story of Mankind." Despite the fact that Lou Bunin has produced a rival animated “Alice in Wonderland ’’ in France, Disney’s “Alice ” is going ahead at its normal rate, and should be ready for release late in 1950.

A Holywood footnote to the world’s sickness was written the other day by Roy Del Ruth, an independent producer. Del Ruth has planned a sequel to his film, “It Happened on Fifth Avenue,” for nearly two years. His story involved a tramp who moved into the untenanted Japanese Embassy in Washington during the war. Now Bel Ruth has announced that the script is being rewritten to change the locale to the Russian Embassy.

The acts and habits of screen stars are justly regarded as significant because of their influence on a susceptible public. Greer GarsOn wears a “ delicate" number six shoe, according to M-G-M. Her footprint was recorded for posterity nine years ago in the concrete forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Last January Mrs Tillie Spiegel slipped and fell in the forecourt of the Chinese. Now she has filed a suit against the theatre in the California Superior Court for 5000 dollars damages, claiming that a footprint, filled with water from a recent cleaning, had been a trap which caused her to stumble. The dangerous footprint, Mrs Spiegel disclosed, was Greer Garson's.

* • • Will Rogers, jun., may, after all, impersonate his father in Warner Brothers 1 projected biography of the cowboy humorist. The company’s intention is to make the biography on a grand scale —in the tradition of “ Yankee Doodle Dandy.” A justifiable approach considering that it paid Rogers’s widow 140,000 dollars for ” Uncle Clem’s Boy,” her biography of Rogers, back in 1941. The casting of the gum-chewing philosopher is of paramount importance and thus far candidates have not made the company’s grade. Warners, by the way, recently cast Rogers, jun., as his famous father in ” Silver Lining,” a forthcoming musical based on the career of Marilyn Miller.

Carmen Miranda, who has Just finished her role in M-G-M’s “ Date With Judy,” is planning a European personal appearance tour.

The financing problems facing independent producers during the last year have kept Hunt Stromberg inactive since the completion of his United Artists production, “ Lured,” early in 1947. Recently, however, Stromberg concluded an unusual deal with Republic Pictures to provide him' with studio facilities and financing for another United Artists project, ” Too Late for Tears.” The agreement is unique in Republic’s history, since Republic, itself, is a distributing company and yet it will, in effect, be producing a picture for a U.A. release. Stromberg obtained the loan of Lizabeth Scott, Wendell Corey and Don Defore to head the cast and Byron Haskin to direct the film in a package deal with another independent producer, Hal Wallis. The photoplay, based on a suspense novel by Roy Huggins, was acquired from Milton Sperling, still another independent producer.