Footlight Glamour In Pittsburgh

Stars Shine On Hometown Stage

Here are legit offerings for Pittsburgh from December 1955 into January 1956. A very big name on this occasion is Tyrone Power. He's star of A Quiet Place, which had taken aim at Broadway via New Haven, Boston, Cleveland, and later Washington, but fizzled out of town. It was "matrimonial problem drama" wherein Ty as restless husband gets involved with ingénue Susan Kohner. A Quiet Place was set for a week in Pittsburgh, but lasted four days. Time Limit was military trial spun around incident from the Korean War. Richard Widmark would star in and produce a screen adapt in 1958. Biggest noise was The Bad Seed, which couldn't boast Power, didn't need him for having been a sock on B'way, thanks to talk far and wide of shocker content (a little girl who kills!). Nancy Kelly would do a film version for Warners near the time of her Pittsburgh performance. She and Ty just missed rendezvous here that would have reunited Jesse James' pair. Considering that 1939 pic still ran heavy in reissue (Fox's top evergreen), a joint press or radio interview might have boosted respective plays for both. Power could have sat on laurels and done movies for big money, but he was more about family tradition on boards and testing himself as an actor, all much to good at the time, though we've got no visual record other than odd stills and a playbill here and there. There are recordings Power participated in, notably one for John Brown's Body, a Charles Laughton-directed play he travelled with during the 50's that would prove a fountain of prestige for an actor branded to then as a mere matinee movie idol. No one wanted to improve his game so much as Power. Did he succeed? A matter of opinion ... but no one presented better as a matinee movie idol, and there was plenty value in that, not only pecuniary, but also in terms of joy he brought so many viewers. Truth then as now: Personality paid more than range. So what if Power couldn't (or chose not to) play Hamlet? Who needed that? But there wasn't a better Zorro, or Eddy Duchin, or a more persuasive Mississippi Gambler. Power was another who didn't realize how effective he was, or how his work would sustain unto present-day, and dedicated, fan following.  

Warren William Deals Raw Again

The Match King (1932) Based On Fact and Fancy

More serious than usual for precode Warren William because this time he commits murder, and there's a suicide ending, which always leaves bitter taste. Still, we get fun along the way, WW lording over the worldwide matchstick business. Someone had to do it, I guess, The Match King based, or at least distorted, from fact. Best thing about these programmers is brevity; most of us bothering to turn on the set have at least 70 minutes to give it. Interest is tweaked for Lili Damita getting mid-way prominence as paramour to William, their courtship overdrawn story-wise, but a lure because it's Damita. Any Warren William cad had limits, as we prefer victims who have abuse or betrayal coming; when he scams sympathetic sorts, we feel guilty for pleasure in it. Warners was adroit at disguising sloppy with speed, William staying enough on the move so we don't discern how little sense The Match King makes. He could make business success look simple as exercise of bravado. I wonder if anyone used his example and achieved tycoon status. At least William put spring back in step for a few Depression-troddens. The Match King is part of Warner Archive's Volume Ten of the Forbidden Hollywood series.

Greenbriar is guest for Nitrateville's first podcast, hosted by forum founder Mike Gebert. Topic is The Art Of Selling Movies. Go and hear it HERE.

Crawford On Fire Again After Warner Slump

Sudden Fear Sockeroo Thanks To Turner and TV

Cleveland is Blitz-Ville For TV Fear Saturation

Another Turner triumph, as in Terry. He was RKO’s selling genius who brought Snow White and King Kong back to 1952 triumph and made the case for television as essential bally adjunct. He’d go on to render Hercules and Gorgo unto mobs of moppets sniffing glue that was daily broadcasting, Turner hep to radio and newspapers as most valued help to pics seeking a public. Sudden Fear was for him a summer project, it and King Kong the RKO pair to oppose major company wares better budget-equipped to blitz a ’52 marketplace. Turner saw Kong’s TV-driven wallop, but admitted the “trick picture” might have been mere “accidental” success (Variety, 7/23/52). Sudden Fear would give the truer forecast of TV’s merchandising future. Turner test drove vid push for its saturation in New York (at Loew’s State plus 150 Gotham venues) and Cleveland (the RKO Palace and surrounding environs). TT knew you couldn’t sensibly buy television time for a single theatre, as ads on the tube “cost five times as much as radio,” thus risk you’d spend more than could be got back in paid admissions. Best bet was product that had plenty to exploit, Sudden Fear chock full of that, according to those who’d snuck a peek.

Sudden Fear was all the more a hit for being “brought in for $600,000” (Variety), a B/W bargain on top of toughening up a tired suspense genre w/ women as endangered focal point. Big help, and change of pace, from past femme gothics was letting the worm turn and begin stalking would-be killers, in Fear’s case, Crawford v. reptile-face Jack Palance and slut-on-prowl Gloria Grahame. What I suspect moderns like best about Sudden Fear is empowered JC getting lethal best of opponents, device of which kept me revved for a second half. Cohen Film Collection, heir to the Rohauer library, supplies a Blu-Ray to lift onus of past releases (Sudden Fear has never looked a tenth this good). Given pick of 50’s melodrama, or any of Crawfords after Mildred Pierce, this may be readiest to spring on civilians. Sudden Fear has been clicko at noir fests, where applause meets Crawford hysterics, as in appreciative rather than camp/derisive. Fact the film was buried makes Sudden Fear fresh meat for revival before crowds blasé to known JC’s.

Breakfast Free? Wonder If They Served Pancakes

It’s known that she did Sudden Fear for percentage, a gamble Crawford would take again with Baby Jane. Both times she’d roll seven. Unlike rival Bette Davis, I doubt Joan saw a broke day (though she'd plead poverty, and often, to turn tides in her direction). Crawford worked for work’s sake, less for the cash. To latter, JC was in early-’52 receipt of $200K from Warners to let them off hook for remaining four vehicles earlier committed to. Pay-off would be “doled out over a period of years,” said Variety, her last for WB having been This Woman Is Dangerous, which like others with the star, arrived snake-bit. Were customers tired of Crawford, or flaccid product out of Burbank? It seemed sure WB would not go bold direction of Sudden Fear, nor share % of receipts w/ Crawford, reasons enough for her to want out. Stars went free-lance in the 50’s largely to evade sameness of studio work, and hope for greater cash from tax schemes a substitute for salary checks gov't took big bite from. Independents and even low-budgeters seemed the more adventurous route. For Crawford, that meant Johnny Guitar in addition to Sudden Fear, plus Autumn Leaves. If she hiccupped now, it would be for coasting on past formula, like Torch Song, a hark-back customers cooled toward.

There's a thumping fun series on FX called Bette and Joan where Susan Sarandon plays BD and Jessica Lange does Joan. Both actresses are terrif and most facts are got right in the telling. At last Hollywood has tumbled onto Davis/Crawford lives as richer source for melodrama than movies they made. Watching these episodes (eight in all) lends texture to Sudden Fear and what Crawford did to stay busy in those pitiless 50's and worse 60's. Seemed by then that woman pics with older stars got by only where killing was afoot or leading men (always younger) had mercenary, then deadly, design on a Crawford or whoever past prime. It was cruelly like saying no man could want such women lest there were dollars involved. Crawford had to know that and be demoralized by it, another reason age bit deep, but she'd do the dance again with Jeff Chandler in Female On The Beach. Stardom for never-say-quit sisterhood was less harder got than harder kept during postwar where all of industry struggled to stay afloat.

UPDATE: 3/27/17 at 3:00 PM: The Art Of Selling Movies is reviewed by David Robinson in today's Washington Post.

When 1931's Falcon Flew First

New York's Winter Garden Preems The Maltese Falcon (1931)

It was Warners 'round the town as May 1931 closed out and hotter weather attractions waited turn. Here then is footnote to previous Greenbriar visit with The Maltese Falcon of precode translation, and chance to see how the Winter Garden put it across in first-run ads. I like how the Falcon itself is a hovering threat, with web-encased Bebe Daniels the focus of sell. The novel was known and well-received, so copy puts emphasis there, Dashiell Hammett getting proper mention. Extras include a Bobby Jones golf short, these at a peak of reception by a public gripped with then-golf craze. If they couldn't afford clubs nor link membership, at least there was Jones and star guests to be viewed in single-reel play. The 1931 Falcon is gravy we take for granted now (TCM and DVD), but try seeing it from 60's through 80's as retitled Dangerous Female ... a relic near-as-hard to find as the gold-encrusted bird itself. For curiosity, I just checked a 1975 United Artists 16mm catalog where Falcon rented at $35 per day (the 1941 classic was $125). How many takers do you suppose UA had?

Part Two and RKO The Bring-Back Champ For 1948-49

A Five Week Rush on New York's RKO Palace for Late '48 Combo of Pompeii with She

Postwar Lines A-Plenty For The Last Days of Pompeii and She

Merian Cooper and most-of-time partner Ernest Shoedsack were the team to make magic of movies during early-to-mid 30's. Nascent fan culture of that decade saw rapture in each they did, King Kong to remain a near-religious experience for boys born soon enough to know it new, and chase reissues from there on. Ray Harryhausen was among them, and Ray Bradbury, Forrest Ackerman, their circle of friends. I read somewhere that one would call the others on sighting of fantasy revived, She at a far-flung venue, or Kong back, either but an L.A. bus ride away. The group would gather and go, as we might thirty years later when there was more of this stuff to chase. Among senior class of fandom was George Turner, who loved She enough to hunt down principals involved in its making and interview them for what later became a splendid American Cinematographer piece (June 1995). Then there was super-fan and eventual writer Alan Barbour, who looked longingly back (in his book, A Thousand and One Delights) to boyhood 40's when he caught She with The Last Days Of Pompeii during their 1948 revival. For this generation, She/Pompeii was brocade to savor where and when possible. I wish there were more of their recollections left. What's there lies most between covers of OOP books or old magazines, as fewer of these fans would last unto blogging and forums generation. An online loss we feel is limit to first-hand recall of moviegoing and fan culture, the 50's for most part as far back as Internet participants go.

Boston Braces For The Mighty Pair, Shows From Early Morn Till Late Into Night

She and The Last Days Of Pompeii made big industry news in 1948, their reissue a resounding vote for viability of old pics. Encores were crutch to postwar biz hobbled by higher production costs and product shortage. Short-run theatres and burgeoning drive-ins were knives through butter of available stock. Distribs figured oldies for tonic, so back came stuff of yore, including She/Pompeii in Chicago and New York to gauge viewer interest. Encores never were offered on faith. All had to be vetted at regional level to make sure a wider audience was there. Only then and with B.O assurance did vaulties venture beyond test ground. November saw the pair getting business to top even first-runs in Gotham and the Windy City, the Palace in New York, former legendary vaude address, decking out its lobby with an active volcano toward "circusing" the show (Variety). Results were a best gross since Sinbad The Sailor two years before. Final tally saw She/Pompeii pulling $97K over a 30 day stand at the Palace, with $72K a total after a month at Chicago's Grand. By mid-November, decision was made to send She/Pompeii countrywide.

Merian Cooper noted the splash and took initiative. He and Argosy producing partner John Ford, the two having hung independent shingle, "moved quickly on behalf of Argosy to clear other works of Ryder Haggard and Edward Bulwer-Lytton" (Variety, 11-16-48). These included "three other (Haggard) properties in the high imagination vein of She," and an "unpublished sequel" to Last Days Of Pompeii from Bulwer-Lytton's heirs in possession. Ford-Cooper had concocted a "Special Adventure" concept to go forward with these and similar properties. Was John Ford as enthused for such lavish plan, or was the trade announcement mere fruit of Cooper's over-excitement? Whichever way, nothing along adventure lines happened beyond Mighty Joe Young being "raced" toward May 1949 release, Argosy's newest a beneficiary of the reissue combo's success. Cooper had confidence that his gorilla-on-loose would click for audiences that thrilled to the vintage duo.

Chicago First Week Sees 34,000 Admissions to the 1100 Seat RKO Grand Theatre, Lines "A Block Long"

Trades applauding them saw She/Pompeii as "extra gravy" for RKO, the venerable pair reaching "a completely new audience" not around when the pics were new. She/Pompeii continued to astound as they crossed country, gross at L.A.'s Hillstreet Theatre taking in one day what the shows individually got in a week back in 1935. RKO had let Last Days Of Pompeii go non-theatrical route prior to the new dates, schools and churches in receipt of 16mm prints --- these would now be called back in favor of paid admissions. Variety acknowledged that certain oldies, "like whiskey, improve with age," all the sweeter for mere $25K it cost RKO to make new prints plus fresh paper. Rivals sniffed dollars and wanted their share, Warners sending out Angels With Dirty Faces and They Drive By Night to fight fire with B.O. fire. MGM would float The Wizard Of Oz again, and Paramount, whose only 1948 revival was DeMille's The Crusades, began the new year with expanded list of vaulties.

Plover, Wisconsin Gets Open Air Dose of Combo Action

So what was explanation for She/Pompeii's mop-up? Variety cited teens as eager patronage, plus "public's desire to see the costly spectacle films which current sky-high production costs have ruled out for most of the majors." RKO searched shelves for more that might click: a Tarzan pair from earlier in the 40's, six of George O'Brien westerns dating back to the 30's, a Disney two-fer of Dumbo with Saludos, Amigos, and encore of Top Hat plus maybe more of Astaire/Rogers to ride wake of MGM's re-teaming of the pair as The Barkleys Of Broadway. Brightest of RKO ideas for follow-up reviving was Gunga Din with The Lost Patrol, a handshake to make evergreens of both (they'd be back yet again on 50's safety stock and stay in some territories for years after). All told, She/Pompeii would take nearly a million in worldwide rentals, ultimate profit a joyous $550K, more gain than any new release for RKO in 1949. As previous noted, She is available on Blu-Ray, while The Last Days Of Pompeii streams in HD at Vudu and Amazon.

Sensations For Two Generations

November 1948 --- Socko Broadway Revive for Twin Spectacles from Merian Cooper and RKO

Pompeii and She Click Best Where Paired --- Part One

She and The Last Days Of Pompeii are for those who’d relive King Kong by way of his apostles. A same team did both, but wouldn’t succeed to Kong level with either. She was out of circulation and a collecting grail for years, Pompeii around to pique interest for volcano finale by fx-wizard Willis O’ Brien and reuse of Max Steiner Kong cues. Ray Harryhausen made late-in-life project of colorizing She, his mission to in-part fulfill Merian Cooper’s dream of Technicolor for the 1935 release. There is a Blu-Ray of She in black-and-white plus the colorized version. A ten minute chunk in the middle is from 16mm elements. That footage had been lopped from a reissue RKO did in 1948. Idea at the time was to pair She with The Last Days Of Pompeii, and to keep total run-time below three hours. She would later end up with Raymond Rohauer. It appears he snaked ownership through buyout of H. Rider Haggard story source. RKO successors in interest should have challenged RR on this. They probably would have beat pants off him (along with other distribs, had they stood up to yard bully that was Rohauer). Maybe RKO figured She wasn’t worth the beef. Meanwhile, nobody got to see the thing. It was stills and Ackerman-applause in Famous Monsters that kept eternal flame lit. Did She ever play television back in the day? Not to my knowledge.

There was a bootleg LP of the Max Steiner score at a time the movie was scarce. Teacher/historian William K. Everson ran She to his class in March 1972, noting that it had been out of circulation for twenty years. He added that not even producer Merian Cooper had a print (so where did Everson acquire his?). Thanks to the more/less vanish, She became a pretty obscure picture. A last big noise it made was indeed decades before, in 1948-49, when the She-Pompeii parlay made trade headlines as second coming for postwar reissues. More on that later. Again to collecting quest, someone in the 80’s told me that Brit historian and TV producer Philip Jenkinson had a 16mm neg of She, but he was famed and unknown personally to me or anyone that could vouch for me, so I let it alone. It was tricky in those days to approach collectors out of clear sky. Who might you be other than a film narc? More than one contact I’d make would deny having prints or just hang up on me. A particular problem with She was Rohaeur looking under rocks for bootlegging, keen threat because he knew so many lizards. One supplier of She who was hands-down a right guy was Charlie Vesce, who's gone now, but a friend to all collectors. There ought to be a book to salute people like him. Men like Charlie kept lights burning for otherwise lost or neglected films.

She stayed in our consciousness thanks to a Hammer remake in 1965, plus Blackhawk selling 8mm prints of a silent version with Betty Blythe. I was blithe about Blythe because Blackhawk's She was a feature and expensive, me limited then to comedy shorts. The Hammer show had Ursula Andress as titular threat, her also a threat to neighborhood parents, one of whom told my mother that She was nothing more nor less than pornography, this as I was moments from heading downtown to see it. That plan scuttled, it would be forty-five years before I saw She. Hammer had a biggest haul from any of their so far exports to the US ($1.5 million in domestic rentals). It was sex that sold, Andress in varied degree of Undress for all of posters and art. This was where Hammer Glamour was truly born. For a first time, they'd get kids plus teens plus Dad. She being good or bad was beside point. I didn't like billing at the time, Peter Cushing and especially Christopher Lee somewhat down a list of participants, but no one could fault Hammer and stateside distributor MGM's commercial instinct. This She put Hammer in a money class they'd build on with following year's One Million Years B.C.

She and The Last Days Of Pompeii were 1935 magic carpets flown by Merian Cooper, who had lately managed RKO into a nervous breakdown for himself (or heart attack --- take your pick of historical accounts). The company was snake-bit by Depression. Cooper’s King Kong was a help, but a flock of Kongs couldn’t put RKO right. Cooper thought higher volume an answer, but this just meant more pictures a public didn’t care to see. Ideas that engaged Cooper went fantastic ways of Kong, and given better times than these, he’d have got a higher ceiling to stage further wonders for a picture world. Trouble was 1935 being near-nadir of industry health, RKO in receivership and breathing on an iron lung. Cooper got a contract upon otherwise quitting the place, two projects along spectacle line, each, he understood, to cost a million. Run-up to shooting saw those numbers halved, along with abandon of Technicolor that Cooper planned for She and The Last Days Of Pompeii. Had such promises actually been made, or was Cooper’s grandiosity on overdrive?

The Technicolor he envisioned was not the old two-color which was done deal in any case by 1935 (except for cartoons trying to buck Disney). The process had not caught on as hoped, viewers put off by limits to the spectrum and it being no enhancement to filmgoing. Cooper was, however, a champion for Technicolor, plus investor, promoter, and pied piper to rich friends who came aboard with cash enough to give a new and improved three-color technique the decisive boost. RKO was just too cheap an outfit to back a pair of already expensive shows with added cost of multi-hues. Should Cooper have known better than to imagine they could? She and The Last Days Of Pompeii were expensive beyond custom of RKO in any case, She at $521K, Pompeii costing $818K.

All-Night Gulp of AIP

Jim and Sam Sell Exploitation In Bunches

Sam Arkoff said in a 70's interview that no American-International picture ever went out of release. As long as there were prints, any of them could be booked. Solution to wear and tear was to cannibalize stock on exchange shelves, a bad reel tossed from one print substituted by better reels from another. Ongoing mix-match kept oldest product in service for years, until finally there were no good reels left of anything. Theatres used AIP backlog to supply a kiddie bill, late show, all-nighter, wherever there was need, and limit of cash to fill it. Latter half of the 50's saw emergence of AIP as exploitation's handmaiden, their black-and-white combos a hopeful ticket's worth of entertainment. That couldn't last as the market became oversaturated and other companies took to a same scheme. Sam and partner Jim Nicholson knew they'd have to upgrade the product in order to compete ... no, make that survive.

With House Of Usher underway, plus imported gladiators ("a turning point," said Sam), the team knew color was a future toward single bookings and an end to double-barrel cheapies. Still laid the dogs in depot kennels, however, and though played out as pairs, these might yet service need for marathon or dusk-to-dawn use. Why not group them as four now that they'd lost value as two? The B/W bunch had been announced to TV in June 1963. Five ABC owned-and-operated stations got exclusive run through a first year, then twenty-five more markets bought in for 1965 and onward play. The package was lush, 69 titles, with seven in color. Whatever the exposure on TV, showmen could still book the lot as whatever porridge they pleased, rentals cheaper for the more they took. AIP did fresh one-sheets to boost the foursomes, plus ad art to serve a theatre or drive-in's pick of genre. Themed programs were a standby, especially on outdoor screens, so what better than a "Mighty Blood and Guts War Show" or a "Hot Rod Riot Thrill Spill Show"? With five groupings offered, possibilities seemed endless.

Drive-ins especially were big on "Fright Nights." Never mind that parking lots were fairly bare by the time a fourth feature wound down. Mere promise of a feast would form the line, and who cared what individual titles made the cut? All seemed the same to average viewership. Customers were there for fun beyond what a screen showed. Playgrounds, a cafeteria grill, maybe even pony rides for the kids ... it mattered not a hoot if it was Night Of The Blood Beast or Dragstrip Girl illuminating a white surface. AIP was ideal for these jamborees because their stuff wasn't even made to be watched attentively. Distraction was factored into all of what Jim and Sam put out. I'd have found a chili dog with fries and ice cream lots more engaging than The Headless Ghost, then or now. Maybe it's fitting that most of these AIP's can't be accessed today. Imagine being home alone and marathoning four at a sit.

Thanks to longtime poster collector and expert Bill Luton for the pressbook that was basis for this posting.