Daily News from Los Angeles, California • 34

1 34 daily fletci LOS ANSCUS. CALIFORNIA THURSDAY, OCTOIIR IS. IMS I'ik EDarr mi I Independent producers Evere, and Robert Riskin take a rather logical viewpoint in launching their Equitable Pictures Corp. They say a producer cannot gamble everything on a single plctura venture. If it fails, the producer is out of business.

So to overcome this prospective danger the Riskins plan to do three pictures in their first year each budgeted at 31,200,000. This, of course, is ail very well if you know where you can get your hands on the 33,600,000. Presumably if you could scare up an initial 31.200,000 you should slice that three ways and spend only 3400,000 per picture. At least we can hear some Indies screaming that theyd like nothing better than assured financing for a whole string of pictures. Everett Riskin, who appears to be the production man in Equitable, whereas Robert is the writer, lines up with those who say stars' salaries have to be cut.

Everett says the days are gone when stars can threaten to ruin independent producers by taking all the gravy off the top and leaving the producer to pay the bills. He says his stars will be on salary, all right, but also on a participation of profits basii. Their main cut will come out (. the net not gross profits. This is a most estimable view, but we wonder how many stars will go along on such a gamble.

By and large they havent shown much of a tendency to do so. Riskin is opposed in his theory on stars' salaries by a school of thought headed up by David O. Selznick, who says simply you gotta Invest money in stars before you can lure audiences past the box-offices. Actor Berry Kroeger ends his seventh picture in seven months this week and goes to New York for a vacation and to complete ar- rangements to star in Everyman at the 1 Salzburg Festival in April. He did the role here in 1840 in English, hopes to do it twice in German, once in English in Germany Fox West Coast theaters have made arrangements to announce presidential election returns to their audience Tuesday Actor James Nolan signs with Hal Wallis for Bitter Victory.

and Ludwig Donath becomes third of the cast of The Jolson Story to be signed for Jolson Sings VALLI portrays Mrs. Paradine who dominates the murder trial proceedings as she tells the story of her life in "The Paradine Case," today at Loew'sv Chinese, Uptown, Loyola and Carthay Circle. -r tAt Fra Fug As. a rul few make the biff tin in the hop-eklp-and-Jump that has landed David Miller in the director berth on the forthcoming Bing Crosby-Barry Fltz-gerald film at Paramount, Top the Morning. Anti again, contrary to the surface appearance, Millers feat is jo miraculous than it is the years of comparatively unsung work he put in before the war at MGM among other lots and in the postwar Academy Award-winning short, Seeds of Destiny.

Since his. release some SO months ago from the Army nal Corps after completing that documentary that was so honest that exhibitors in this country deemed it too grim for general consumption, Miller has been practicing the favorite GI (or Hollywood) pastlmer-waiting. The Marx Bros, and producer Lester Cowan brought him out of practical retirement to direct their latest, Love Happy." a Man romp that Miller Insists is different" in that story line and character actually predominate over the routines. That film has been completed but is undergoing some final added scenes, with people like Xlona Massey, Vera-Ellen and Raymond Burr in support Brief encounter As for how Miller got his current Paramount assignment and his non-exclusive two-a-year tract there, it reportedly sprang from Crosby's own insistence that this time a young man" with enthusiasm should be called in. Miller, among others, was recommended through the usual channels.

Now 38, he was 21 when he started back in 1831 as an assistant cutter at Columbia, Miller is as busy as he is excited about this new opportunity. Before the war, he had directed such films as the Robert Taylor Billy the Kid" at Metro after graduating from the shorts department, and had taken his hand at such melodramas as the John Wayne vehicle, "Flying Tigers at Republic. In the service for four years, Miller worked with Capra, but It is his own Seeds of Destiny" which still strikes sparks of indignation from him as he contemplates its career in retrospect. Labor of necessity Seeds of Destiny," says Miller, was not a labor of love it was a labor of necessity. His documentary about the plight of children in all war-ravaged areas was assembled, to show the world that in such inhuman chaos, the dragons teeth are replanted in fertile soil.

Those children can only turn bitter and vengeful under such circumstances, says Miller. And the demise of UNRRA was he emphasizes. His present assignment la much more pleasant if less earth-shaking, but he does insist that the old Crosby-Fitzgerald team will attempt a variation on their theme' of crusty sentiment this time. Richard Breen and Edward Be-loin have scripted an original and extremely "Irish yam, with Ann Blyth and Hume Cronyn on hand to help stir things up as Crosby Impersonates an American insurance agent sent to investigate the theft of the Blarney Stone while Fitzgerald plays an officer of the Ouid Sod law. After this Robert Welch production, which starts Monday, Miller says he would like to try his hand at a drama again even though he admits that the world needs laughter and good will now.

JANE GREER greets Gordon Oliver in "Station West," RKO's historical western drama starting today at Paramount Hollywood and Downtown. "Jungle Goddess," with George Reeves also on bilL Film review 'Hamlet By MILDRED NORTON Contrary to an increasingly popular impression, Laurence Olivier did not write Hamlet. That task fell to an earlier British thesplan named Shakespeare, who labored over some rather well-shaped prose around the turn of the 18th century. I mention this, not to detract a-in any degree from Mr. Oliviers sterling achievement in transferring the locale and personnel of Elsinore to the screen, but to relieve him at the outset of any blame that might arise from the authors dramatic ambiguities.

Hamlet, however well it may have served both the theater and the classroom, is something less than the perfect play, and the fact that any number of well-favored gentlemen have chosen it as their vehicle to histrionic glory does not heal the essential breach between Its motivation and its central character. The spectacle of a man ap- reaching 30 who skulks around Iting his knuckles like a sulky Idolescent over his mother's remarriage is not that of a man Who thinks too much but one who thinks on an intra-uterine level. Nor does Hamlet's emotional I. Q. show any appreciable rite after his father's ghost (speaking with difficulty through astral dentures in the film) has demanded that his son avenge his murder.

Fortified by an impressive ledger of oaths in this direction, Hamlet thereupon goes about his filial chores by such indirection as manhandling the women of his household, generally 'making an ass of himself, and churlishly dispatching Polonius, a man whose every word makes sense despite posteritys Insistent typing of him as a nosey old fool. The necessity for Informing these sundry antics with a purposeful dignity not immediately manifest in the script has challenged more than one fine actor. In the film which had its West Coast premiere yesterday at the Four Star Theater, Olivier has met this challenge with a rare dramatic instinct, taste, and imaginative resource that establishes him as one of the most brilliant theatrical Intellects of our time. Perhaps the most striking feature of the Olivier production is the extreme simplicity with which some of the plays mQst eloquent strophes are uttered. Unlike his Henry large portions of which were unintelligible to English speaking audiences, every word in Hamlet is clearly spoken, and often given fresh pertinence by ingenious bits of business (I am glad to see thee well ls a refreshingly young, unspoiled Ophelia, Opera By MILDRED Wagners fair-haired forest hero night on the Shrine stage.

He dragon, rescued Brunnhilde and and without missing a single syllable vocal score. All of which added up to a substantial dose of undiluted Wagner, sung by one of the San Francisco Again. Hell play Ala father.yh 'n-JJ'I' Night club business did an up? turn during the last few days. Siapsy Maxies did capacity trade for four days with a return, fill-in engagement- of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Last night the house brought in singer Jack Hilliard, comedian Eppy Pearson, comedian Shavo Sherman, dancer Inesita and singer Mary Martel.

Nov. 8 Slapsys starts Spike Jones on an unlimited engagement and hopes to bring Martin and Lewis back after Spike leaves. Ciros has been packing them in for two shows nightly with Les Compagnons de la Chanson nine French boys who sing and dance precision routines. They have charm and freshness not usually seen in a night spot. Their engagement ends Nov.

12 when Morton Downey comes in, but Clro's wants them back for a stand later. Across the street Gina Janss, the Champagne Chanteuse, has been filling Mo-cambo with the white tie and car I review Siegfried NORTON Siegfried had a busy forged the magic sword, slew generally raised hell all around of Wagners highly aggressive 7 minable rehashing of ne endless LOUIS HAYWARD and Louise Allbritton appear in "Walk a Crooked Mile," story of international spy ring, now playing at the Pantages and Hillstreet Theaters. The film has a local setting. Film review 'Kiss the lllood Off My Hands9 By FRANK ENG The provocatively titled Kiss the Blood Off My Hands" brings a strictly standard American formulation of melodrama into a British setting and as such melodramas go it is distinguished at least by comparative understatement and a sustained attempt at endowing the action with the A-B-C of social psychology. SHS TjL' eta, culminating i cl.l the tastes and riage ket and no end is in' sight for her engagement.

feud between gods and men! Never a character enters or departs without recounting from, beginning to end the whole dismal story of the Rhine gold. By the third installment of the Ring saga, even Wagner felt some new twist was needed, so in Siegfried he brings up the matter so obliquely you find you have slept through half the first act before realizing that Mime and Wotan are going through the whole thing again, this time via the mighty silly business of a guessing contest. Both Herbert Janssen as Wotan and the extremely able John Garris as Mime did admirably by their roles, while Walter Olitzkis Al-berlch completed the gruesome twosome of Niebelung troglodytes. The redoubtable Fafner, however, proved a pretty sorry dragon last night, poking his head pettishly from the cave and succumbing to Siegfried's sword in his left ear with merely a mournful protest'. Brunnhilde.

while this was going on, slept on her flame-fijjf rock more comfortably tharEFS possible in a Shrine seat, "9Sn arose as the morning at Siegfrieds kiss. As the disfranchised warrior maiden, Astrid Varnay got to sing only in the last act, but managed to leave her vocal marks with some fine ringing tones. Tonights opera Is Den worker nurse Fontaines room, where Lancaster takes refuge. The homicide was witnessed by a spiv (Cockney for neer-do-well) none other than Robert Newton, master of the eyebrow grimace. The remainder of the film deals with Miss Fontaine's efforts to reform Lancaster and Newtons efforts to use him in a black market scheme, holding the pub-keeper's death over him.

Norman Fosters direction and the' editing of the piece is crisply I to the point, while Miss Fontaine frTp Part withjl strolls1 through Opera's finest casts, conducted by the estimable Erich Leindorf, and loyally reinforced by the whole kit and kaboodle of the Niebelun-gen Zoo the captive bear, the garruloiti dragon and the gossipy bird. Fortunately the tedium was measurably lightened by the singing of Svanholm in the role of Siegried, another versatile characterization that can now triumphantly join his increasing stable of heroes. He made a superlative showing as the young forest hero, ardent, imperious, buoyant and demonstrably bold, as he vigorously attested in every scene. His singing was among the finest we have ever heard from him, his voice dominating the orchestral swells with true heroic force, his tones sure, vibrant and commanding. As always, his gestures have a sure affinity with the musics downbeat, and even in a role so stylistically barbarous he managed to Invest his part with a certain ingenuous charm.

As a character, the Siegfried of the Ring" is an exuberant young savage whose whoops of boyish glee jar your back teeth loose, and whose hyper-thyroid zest for life Invariably causes this listener's spirit to droop in folds of unrelieved gloom. How dedicated one has to be to Wagner to sit through his inter to the Players' poodle, for example, or the kings jealous Co mi, my queen, as she embraces Hamlet overlong). Stem editing has further snipped from it every speech or character not essential to its stark unfolding. This has successfully whittled down a four-hour play into one of two and a half hours, but it has also sacrificed Rosencrantz and Gulidenstern, the second gravedigger and young Fortinbras, as well as such pregnant passages as Hamlets one true moment of self-evaluation in the soliloquy, what a rogue and peasant slave am while retaining almost entire his speech to the Players. Oliviers choice of black and white photography further adds to the severity, enhancing the bleakness of the chilly castle, the cold northern sea against gaunt cliffs, and the pervading somberness of the tragic tale itself.

Nor do the costumes eclipse the characterizations as they might have done in color. As it is, all the protagonists emerge in high relief, tortured human figures as well as ambulant vessels for Shakespeare's sublime poesy. Desmond Dickensons photography has a stern grandeur that frequently recalls Eisenstein, while William Walton's superb musical score frames the drama in terms of its own dimension. One of the eye on prejudices of the market-place, the Joan Fontaine -Burt Lancaster film that opened yesterday at the United Artists, Guild, Ritz, Iris, Studio City and Culver, probably wont make any reputations. Neither is it likely to 1 se any money.

Lancaster fans will find their boy in good and typical shape as he struggles, with a romantic assist from the ever gracious Miss Fontaine, to redeem his reflexes and his social standing from that of slum-bred bully to citizen of responsibility. Leonardo Bercovlci has fashioned a smooth screenplay, admirably geared to the needs of the roving camera, and if the situations are familiar as the characters are two-dimensional that is probably all to the boxoffice good. Lancaster is a Canadian GI, trigger-happy from two years in a prison camp and jumping ship in London. As a pub-keeper closes up, the bellicose young man takes issue and hits the former, who ts killed as his head strikes the floor or some object That set the stage for an en- pleasant ease. Lancaster, it seems to us, keeps showing 9 flashes of warmth and ability beneath that cold exterior that delights the heart of juvenile America.

Outside of Newton, the support-! ing cast has practically nothing to do, and as for Newton, his scheming rascal is stamped all over with ham the seasoned variety, complete with authority and that extra flourish. Similarly, no matter how you Biles this one, it's melodrama. MARIKA ROEKK In "The Life and of Tichaikovslcy," opening tomorrow at Laurel.