Meet Nick Ray (1954) 🇺🇸

When Nick Ray came to Hollywood in 1947, he brought with him years of experience in radio, television.

by Paul Manning

When Nick Ray [Nicholas Ray] came to Hollywood in 1947, he brought with him years of experience in radio, television, and the theatre, as well as a vivid imagination, an intelligence free of the worn cinematic cliches, and a natural talent for film making which marked him from the start as a director to be watched. During the war, he became associated with producer John Houseman, and when Houseman was signed to produce They Live by Night for RKO, he persuaded the studio to sign Ray as a writer-director. Ray’s dual services catapulted him into the top ranks of young directors. His later plans included Knock on Any Door, Bed of Roses, In a Lonely Place, and The Lusty Men. Recently, he completed Johnny Guitar, and right now, he’s megging the new Jimmy Cagney [James Cagney] picture, Run for Cover.

As a result of his wide and varied experience within the industry, he has some very definite ideas on what kind of pictures the public wants. Pictures will have to keep pace with their technological advances, he believes. The public, by now, has accepted the improved, wide-screens. However, they are becoming accustomed to them as but the frame to a picture. Now, with the novelty of the frame becoming more and more familiar, they are chiefly interested in the subject matter. Ray, therefore, believes that pictures must be less maudlin and wishy-washy and carry more solid impact. The drama has to be intensified. It is his opinion that Hollywood has lost some of the punch it carried back in the days when “Scarface” and “Doorway to Hell” really rocked the audiences out of their seats. Too many pictures are listless, lacking in intensity and a heightened sense of audience participation, he thinks. “The important thing to communicate in making any picture,” says Ray, “is lift; to try and give the audience a solid sense of identification. Now that the wide-screen is an accepted fact, let’s widen the dramatic scope of the pictures we are making,” he states. — P. M.

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Good Things to come from Hollywood… Paramount’s “Knock on Wood”

Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, producers of this hilarious Danny Kaye musicomedy film, are two wise film makers who firmly believe that entertainment is what the public wants, first, last, and always.

by Paul Manning

Danny Kaye, as gay and charming as he has ever been, cavorts happily through this terrifically funny picture, which exploits to the very hilt the suitable nuances and the broader side of his impish and inimitable personality. At the trade screening, held at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, a large audience of hardened film reviewers grinned, chuckled, belly laughed, and finally rolled in the aisles. In my book, this can be regarded as a sure sign that Knock on Wood will “kill ‘em at the box office!”

Mai Zetterling, a pert, attractive Swiss Miss who is a newcomer to American films, is excellent playing opposite Kaye. Miss Zetterling, a capable and beautiful actress, has what it takes and shows great promise towards more serious roles. Her future should be bright. The ballet scene in the picture, for posterity, will probably be remembered as “The mad scene from Knock on Wood” and is a show stopper in any language and, what’s more, on any size screen. Dena Production, producer of this hi-jinks entertainment piece for Paramount release, has smacked that tricky box office bell with a great big bong. Sincere congrats are bestowed by this department. — P. M.

Seen are three scenes from Paramount’s gay Technicolor comedy, Knock on Wood, starring Danny Kaye and Mai Zetterling, and, lower right, during the filming of the picture, are Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, who wrote, produced, and directed.

Joan Crawford receives an Exhibitor Laurel Award from Paul Manning for her dramatic performance in Sudden Fear as Ray, directing her in Republic’s Johnny Guitar, looks on.

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Stewart Signed For “Laramie”

Hollywood — Anthony Mann and James Stewart, who have formed one of the most popular and successful director-star combinations of recent years, will be reunited on The Man from Laramie, William Goetz production for Columbia, scheduled to go before the Technicolor cameras in September.

Frank Burt is currently preparing the screen play.

Collection: Exhibitor Magazine (Studio Survey), April 1954