OCR Text |
Show Rel. .Tby Western Newspaper Union. I By VIRGINIA VALE IT'S really good news that Lieut. Comdr. Robert Montgomery, recently placed on the inactive list by the navy, is being starred by MGM in a picture based on "They Were Expendable." You'll remember it as the book that gave the world the story of the exploits of the P-T boats in one of which General MacArthur escaped es-caped to Australia. This will be Montgomery's first picture since the delightful "Here Comes Mr. Jor- ; t - --pk -i-:- ... : j V - i t I mi iii umi in' 1 I mi ROBERT MONTGOMERY dan." We're told that the cast will be made up almost entirely of men who have been in the service. And Comdr. John Ford, who has been responsible re-sponsible for so many excellent pictures, pic-tures, will direct "They Were Expendable." Ex-pendable." m Martha Scott, who's forsaken movies for the stage temporarily, bad a busy evening the night she did "The Soldier's Wife" on the air; that's the play she's now doing on the New York stage. The "Theater of Romance" broadcast was moved to a CBS Playhouse across the '-"'"street from the theater, the curtain was held that night, and Martha skipped from the broadcast to the stage, to repeat her performance. It's taken Harold Lloyd a long time to take to radio; the immediate imme-diate success of "Comedy Theater" Sunday nights on NBC proves that he should have done it long ago. He's director and host of this unique program unique because it's the only drama show devoted entirely to comedies. The movie moguls are now after Lloyd two companies are urging him at the moment to return to the screen. That's a nice little assignment EKO has for George Raft. In "Johnny "John-ny Angel" he'll play "a two-fisted guy in the middle of mutiny, a missing miss-ing cargo of gold and an affair with a mystery blonde." Signe Hasso has tieen borrowed from Metro to assist. as-sist. Richard Himber and Ken Murray Mur-ray of the CBS "Which Is Which?" are both top-notch amateur magicians, magi-cians, so they're hatching a plot to give a series of magic shows for charity some time soon. Meanwhile their novel Wednesday night program pro-gram is going strong. "Steel Horizons," new Sunday night Mutual program, on which a different girl singer from a different city sings with John Baker each week, is proving a real stepping stone to success. Annette Burford, who 6ang on the third broadcast, bas won a permanent radio assignment assign-ment as soloist on the Friday MBS series, "Music for Half an Hour"; Betty Ellen Morris may be the star of a new winter series. "Dagwood" (Arthur Lake) of the "Blondie" program may be dumb on the air, but Lake, a co-owner of the Plastic Engineering company, recently was awarded an army contract con-tract for an airplane part made by a process his company helped develop, de-velop, i Jh A frlfjigeant recently wrote Paul Whiteri.a'm, saying he'd heard Whitemah had once reduced, fast; the sergeant wanted to know how, because his girl wouldn't marry him till he was thinner. Whiteman's advice ad-vice concluded " Practically, I had to stop living." "The Yearling" has been on the waiting list at Metro since 1941; all sorts of problems were involved, including complications regarding the animal actors in the film. Now it's announced that Metro will produce pro-duce the picture next spring. Bui the boy originally chosen to plaj "Jody" has outgrown the role, sc another 11-year-old, fair-haired, fond of animals, must be found. ODDS AND ENDS So it's Capt Burgess Meredith who gels the corelec chance to play Ernie Pyle in "G. I Joe," based on Pylc's book, "Here It Your War" . . . Among the losers art James Glcason, Walter llrennan, F rec Astaire and Humphrey Bogart. . . . 50( Filipinos, veterans of the Philippine in vasion and other Pacific campaigns, wil appear in RKO'j "The Invisible Army,' since the parts require men proficien with the bolo knife, for the gncriillt fighting sequences. . . . Joan Crawford'. Warner Pros, picture, known as "Mil dred Pierce," apparently is really set u go at last the title has been changet to "House on the Sand." |