Evening star., 1950-04-15


Well, for one. not John Wilson.
The English producer-director is
reported still going around with
Woolcott Gibbs Season in the
Sun" in his pocket. The volume
Of short tales dealing with summer
life on Fire Island-and other
collected works of the magazine
.drama> critic and parodist-iS
several seasons old now.
That Wilson still broods upon
! 1t is not surprising. In addition toI
its own acidulous merits. 1t comes
from the proving ground which in
the past has yielded Life With
Father" by Howard Lindsay and
Russell Grouse out of Clarence
Day; Junior Miss" adapted from
Sally Benson's short stories by
= Edward Chodorov; pal joey"
John OHara's musical taken from
his stories of night-club heel;
and MY Sister Eileen" the
comedy Ruth McKenny made out
of her tales of adventure in New
York.
The records show New York
adaptations are solid and profit
able hits with the exception OF
the play made out Of John
Cheever's wartime tales of three
couples who found themselves un-
der a common roof in a most un-
common house.
This one. of course, could be the
exception that proves the rule
that New Yorker material is sure
fire In the theater.
. Mr.. Wilson perhaps had better
make a deal with Mr.. Gibbs.
Ralph Meeker, the Viking type
who plays the Polish-American
principal male in "A Streetcar
Named Desire" has fine summer
job. The Minneapolis actor who
got his acting education at North
western University in Chicago
will go to Florence. Italy. to work.
He will play the male lead in
Teresa the motion picture to be
directed by Fred zimmerman whose
heaviest previous impact as a
movie-maker was with The
Search" Like the latter, Uhe new
picture will be multi-lingual, and
the Meeker role will be that of an
American sergeant. 1t is not un-
like the part which Montgomery
Cliff played for Director Zinne-
man in The Search"
Naturally, Meeker would not
mind If it worked out as we'll for
him as the other sergeant role did
for Cliff.
RKO which has been out of the
big musical picture trade since it
had the top team of Rogers and
Astaire working for it Is about
to give the type another whirl.
It will go all out on 1.-TWO Tickets
to Broadway" with Betsy Drake
and Robert Young as stars, Ken
Englund as scriptist, music by
Julie Styne and Leo Robin. and
Technicolor by Natalie Kalmus.
Nothing around the lot is exc;t-
ing more enthusiasm.
X *
Oriental = International Films,
Inc, keeps sending long letters to
the drama department addressed
to the "Sahib" in charge. The
information therein has to do
with, THE River" not the one
Pare Lorentz made in the late 30s,
but a new The River" which pre-
sumably will turn out to be the
GangeS.
Oh films. American in backing,
is not finding things entirely per-
feet in this location shooting, but
its master minds are working out
each dilemma as it comes up
A recent problem of keeping
private airplanes out of the shoot
ing area was solved pretty easily.
The company just posted a purse
for big airplane race with the
proviso that every time the silence
was violated. 100 rupees would be
deducted from the amount do
mated. The planes few away and
stayed.
X X X X
Ethel Barrymore who has beer
stealing movies from stars ever
since she went to Hollywood will
step soon out of character roles