Films to Put Bees, Birds Back in Trees

By W. Ward Marsh

The birds, bees and flowers will be neglected by the movies during 1960. Nor will there be any fatherand-son talks such as the late Lewis Stone and Mickey Rooney had on the screen long before the Mick ever met up with Jack Paar on television.

So, let's put the birds back in the trees, the bees in their hives and the flowers in ‘a handy vase, and openly wonder whether it might not be a good Idea for all the producers, in the event of the actors' strike pack a bag and take a month's

to

trip into the soW. WARD MARSH called grass-roots country, the Bible belt and other possibly important places still located in what used to be satirically known as the sticks.

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The common folk out in these indefinite areas just are not happy about flaming libidos, oedipus complexes and erotopathy on the screen. I sus pect, too, the birds, bees and flowers feel more or less neglected in these times.

"Spartacus" follows the original story, but who will care?

Walt Disney continues to make pictures largely for the family, and the other day Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox, happily announced that his company will have a dozen or so family pic-. tures for 1960, pointing to "The Journey to the Center of the Earth" as its first, the current "Sink the Bismarck!" as the second and then, "A Dog of Flanders," "Masters of the Congo Jungle," "Bobbikins," "The Story of Ruth" and the "Lost World" as definitely catering to the family trade through August.

After that will come "Solo" with Elvis Presley, "High Heels" and a musical version of "State Fair."

But 20th does not intend to neglect the adult trade for it will have Elizabeth Taylor as The gentle souls. and the "Cleopatra," Paul Newman and, birds for that matter are disJoanne Woodward in John' turbed by those films which O'Hara's "From the Terrace," expose unusual animal forces but O'Hara's "Butterfield_8" which too often turn your othwill be released before "Tererwise gentle, middle-age race." And then it will also auntie into a cinder before her have Ingrid Bergman in "O psychiatrist can discover Mistress Mine." whether her egoistic hedonism is tilting to the right or to the

left.

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Imagine, then, how her teenage nephews and nieces react to these situations on the

screen.

Such pictures as "Happy Anniversary," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Never So Few," “On the Beach," "Operation Petticoat" and "Solomon and Sheba" have been listed as the top box-office pictures for January.

It is possible that it will be a long time before the range again extends from a picture like "The Journey" to "Solomon" which had very little relationship to the original text.

I think that "Suddenly, Last Summer" and "The Bramble Bush" will be among the hits

next month.

Perhaps our big screens will begin to curl at the edges if

A few years ago these would not have been considered suitable movie material without a lot of cleaning up; that is, changing, but now we are getting tales in pretty nearly their original forms.

More Changes

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Not too many seasons have passed since such plays as "The World of Suzie Wong" with its world of prostitutes would have been considered scarcely acceptable but now, even though it has lost its original star. France Nuyen, and has a new director, it will still star William Holden.

On the

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written, but it was not sufficiently well written to cause me to finish reading it.

Golly, what nice sunshiny days we lived through when "The Moon Is Blue" failed to get the Johnston Code Seal a half dozen years ago.

Now if you will excuse me, since I know what the movies are up to, I'll go out to see

what the birds, bees and flowother hand who ers think or will be thinking would have thought that Tenin another month or so. nessee Williams' "Suddenly, Last Summer" could possibly have been filmed, let alone become a box-office hit wherever it plays, but Williams is the fair-haired boy of the films these days, and his "Fugitive Kind" with Brando and Magnani will be here before long. His "Summer and Smoke" is about to be filmed. In the future his quite impossible (for films) "Sweet Bird of Youth," which ends on the promise of emasculation of its hero, will be photographed.

Only a couple of days ago I received a special notice from Producer Jerry Wald (who releases through 20th) that he has Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers" in production with DeanStockwell, Wendy Hiller and Trevor Howard. The film version of this semi-autobiographical novel would rock the throne of Oedipus Rex.

→ Soon, too, will the screen have "The Captive" which once made anyone buying a bunch of violets entirely suspect, so strong was its lesbian theme.

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So, you think there was frank dialogue in "Anatomy of a Murder," but look at what is coming, not only all I have mentioned but also "Lolilta," the tale of an adult male and a 12-year-old girl. Well written, to be sure, but there are also good books which are well