Daily News from New York, New York • 103

03 mm c-t- 3 By KATE CAMERON TjOR 30 YEARS, motion picture producers here A and in England have yearned to put Mrs. P. L. Travers delightful creation of that high-flying nanny, Mary Poppins, on the screen. Mrs.

Travers protected her property from movie production because she into iconoclastic hands and be I 3 wa afraid Mary might fall through VI C7 1 1 CVl lIUlUll HOC IIol tive handling on the screen. However, the author couldn't hold out against the persuasive argument of Walt Disney when aha met him in England a couple of years ago. Knowing Disney's work, ahe felt that if anyone in tha motion picture industry could isney do justice to Miss Poppins, it would be this American producer-director. So she agreed to let him bring Mary to the screen to please the myriad readers of the Poppins stories. Next at Music Hail Many of Mrs.

Travers' devoted addicts have infected their children and grandchildren with the "Mary Poppins" virus and the stories about her are still selling in the book marts. Now a "Mary Poppins" film is due to follow "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" on tha Music Hall screen this month. When Disney was preparing to maka his film, he recruited some of the top creative talent in Hollywood, the Broadway stage and the London film studios. For pH 1 Walt This Week's Openings THURSDAY Toho Cinema "Bushido," Na- kamara-Kishida. FRIDAY Casino "Vertauschtes Leben," Prack.

he wanted to make a "Mary Poppins" picture that would satisfy the creator of the enchanting nanny. It must have been a heavenly inspiration that led the producer to select Julie Andrews to play Mary. Although Julie created the Bernard Shaw character of Eliza Doolittle in the Lerner-Loewe stage production of "My Fair Lady" and the role of Queen Guinevere on Broadway in "Camelot" and is among the top musical stars of our time, she was passed over by movie producers until Disney had the good sense to secure her for the title role in his duction. 'Mary Poppins" pro- Husband's Contribution Later, 20th Century-Fox signed her for the top role in "The Sound of Music" and MGM placed her in their production of "The Americanization of Emily." But it is as Mary Poppins that Julie Andrews makes her film debut. Her husband, costume and set designer Tony Walton, has created the costumes for the Disney film and he served as set design consultant on the over-all production.

Among Walton's stage credits are the sets and costumes for the Broadway and London productions of "A Funny Thing Happened on tha Wav to the Forum." Besides Miss Andrews, the cast of the Disney picture presents Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson (recruited from England), Glynis Johns, Ed Wynn, Hermione Bad-deley (also from England), Elsa Lanchester, Arthur Treacher, Julie Andrews plays the title role Si books. Dick Van Dyke romps with i "Mary Poppins," the delightful character in Mrs. P.L. Travers' -her in movie, produced by Walt Disney. Picture is 4u nest at Radio City Music Hall.

7- I II il From Drunk To Teetotaler Lee Remick, who won an Oscar nomination for her performance as an incurable alcoholic in "Days of Wine and Roses," is doing a complete switch as the leader of the temperance women in John Sturges' "The Hallelujah Trail," a comedy Western for U.A. road show release in Cinerama. Her propaganda includes placards proclaiming: "Gin Is Sin," "If You Lava Your Daughter, Drink Water," "Refuse Booze" and similar advice to hard-bitten, ever-thirsty Westerners. Others starred in the film are Burt Lancaster, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin, Donald Pleasence, Brian Keith and Martin Landau. book is fictional, it does follow in a broad outline Moore's struggle, as an immigrant from Ireland, to make ends meet while getting a firm foothold in Canada.

The interior scenes of the film were staged in the Crowley studios in Ottawa and the exteriors were photographed in Montreal, the locale of the story. Natural Co-Stars The Shaw-Ure husband and wife duo is bound to go on further co-starring roles on tha screen, since they have indicated to interviewers that they would like to work together. Miss Ure was nominated for an Oscar award for her splendid performance in the 20th Century-Fox production of "Sons and Lovers," in which ah had stiff competition from Wendy Hiller, Trevor Howard and Dean. writer on BBC and later as a film star, has the distinction of being a popular novelist. At the same time, he is one of the top actors in England today.

His work in the two artistic mediums seems to mesh smoothly for him. He will soon be seen here in a film, "The Luck of Ginger Coffey," and is now in New York rehearsing for the Broadway production of Friedrich Duerren-matt'a play, "The Physicists." His three popular novels, "The Hiding Place," "The Sun Doctor" and "The Flag," will be followed by a fourth. He intends to write it while he is performing in "The Physicists" on the New York stage. "The Sun Doctor" won the Hawthenden Award for Literature. Fight to Remember Shaw was the big blond bruiser in the film version of Ian Fleming's spy thriller "To Russia With Love." He and Sean Connery, as James Bond, put on a fist fight that is apt to go down in film history as on a par with the famous hand-to-hand battle in "The Spoilers" many year3 ago.

Shaw and his wife, Mary Ure, play opposite each other for the first time on the screen in "The Luck of Ginger Coffey," which will have its U. S. premiere at the Baronet Theatre later in the month. Each has enjoyed success on Broadway Shaw in Pinter's play "The Caretakers" and Mary in "Look Back in Anger," a play by her first husband, John Osborne, and in "A Duel of Angels." An Immigrant's Story "The Luck of Ginger Coffey" was produced by Leon Roth and Irving Kershner, with Kershner directing tha players through Brian Moore's screenplay adapted from his own novel. While the Reginald Owen, Reta Shaw and Jane Darwell.

Robert Stevenson directed the screenplay which Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi adapted from Mrs. Travers' books. Walsh also acted as assistant producer of the film. The music and lyrics are the work of Richard M. and Robert B.

Sherman, and the musical score was supervised, arranged and conducted by Irwin Kostel. In speaking of Julie's performance in his picture, Disney describes her as one of the brightest musical comedy stars of Broadway and London and calls her "vivacious and talented." Second Film Soon Miss Andrews has been on the stage since she sang an operatic aria in a revue at the age of 12. She has been in other revues, has sung on the concert stage and has made guest appearances on radio and TV. Her first hit show was in the London production of "The Boy Friend" and she continued in the role when the show moved to Broadway. It was toward the end of the run here that Alan Le ner offered Julie the part of Eliza Doolittle in his production of "My Fair Lady." And during her ap pearance in "Camelot," with Rich ard Burton and Robert Goulet, Disney offered her the title role in "Mary Poppins." On Tuesday, Oct.

27, she will be seen on the screen in her sec ond film, the MGM production of "The Americanization of Emily," at Loew's State Theatre. MANY writers have become moving picture producers and directors, but an actor rarely develops into a prize-winning novelist. Robert Shaw, who made his mark on the stage in England and on Broadway, then as an actor- Robert Shaw and his wife, Mary Ure, play a young married couple in the movie "The Luck of Ginger Coffey." It is a romantic drama of a flamboyant Irishman who migrates with his family to Canada. Film opens later this month at tha Baronet Theatre. A.