Evening star., 1944-10-16
BY HAROLD HEFFERNAN.
HnTI.YWCOn

HOLLYWOOD.
! Studios stumbling on an unex-
pected bonanza are never content
to let well enough alone but always
seek more gravy from the same dish.
That's why Paramount is repeatedly
budding over q sequel to Going
My Way, and nobody can blame
them.
The same combination Director
Leo McCarey, Bing Crosby, Barry
Fitzgerald and Frank McHugh-iS
available, but 1t will cost trifle
more to bring Fitzgerald back this
time. He's getting $4,000 for The
Flying Yorkshireman' and he'll
want at least $25, 900 more than that
to revive the priest.
Strange and said coincidence: The
same major studio that turned down
Going My Way also had first
crack at Gone With the Wind" and
sent it back, too. Same studio also
tore out $500 feet of THE Plough
and the Stars" seven years ago when
Fitzgerald first tried Hollywood, and
had 1t reshot because, as the boss
of the lot then said: THE Barry
Fitzgerald footage spoils the pic
|tlre."
M-G-M still owns the rights to
the Merry Widow" and is said to
be in mood to repeat with a third
film version-this one to co-Star
Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremen
They recently finished "Ziegfeld
Follies" as romantic team.
In the first Merry Widow" Mae
Murray and John Gilbert scorched
the screens with some of the warm
est love scenes of all time jean
nette Macdonald and Maurice
Chevalier didn't do so badly for a
repeater some years later.
AStaire, however, has never
shown the slightest sign of becom-
ing a great lover on the screen.
| Close-ups: Says Ernst Lubitsch
producing "CZarina," at Goth Gen.
tury-Fox: I'VE are running into
material shortages that have cur
tailed our set building, but we're
thankful there are no priorities on
love. We're going to have plenty
of it in this one"
John Payne has bought a big
home in Westwood, just so he can
have suitable shelter for his daugh-
ter Julie Ann, years old. In the
divorce agreement with Anne Shir-
ley he has custody half the year
There's double romantic combina-
ton in Week End at the Waldorf, y
but Walter Pidgeon and Ginger
Rogers, who play one half and Van
johnson and Lana Turner, who do
the other, never come in contact
with each other while the film is
being made Opening OF Holly
wood Park November l will find
Paramount out with camera and
facting crew, including Alan Ladd, to
get race track sequences for Salty
lO'Rourke" There'n be plenty of
other actors there, too, but Ladd
will be the only one with his work
ing clothes on Boris Karloff
who scored his greatest success on
Broadway ("Arsenic and Old Lace')
wants to return soon, as he's re-
covered from his recent illness and
has finished his one-picture deal
for RKO. Karloff would star in
Who Sups With the Devil
y y
When Charlie Bracket and Billy
Wilder started working together as
writing team-their latest hit is
Double Indemnity"-it was Brack-
ett's habit to return to the office
after lunch and enjoy. a brief nap
Wilder objected vigorously for
years; once threatened to break up
the team. Finally Wilder succumbed
to the habit and now it's Bracket
who returns to consciousness first
and Wilder who fingers longest over
his nap
incidentally, Wilder reports, no
picture in recent years has had so
many correspondents write in offer
ing their services as technical ad-
wiser on "The Lost Week End" Its
the story Of q drunk.
Because his high school colors
were RED and white, Derek Cooper
| Whose first name is another story
got a job with the Hal Wallis Co
at Paramount.
| Young Cooper. native Of San