Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 4 January 1947, page 9


Australia's Favorite Stars

And Movies OfTheYear

By MARY ARMITAGE, Sunday Magazine Film Writer.

IF you wish to know what the public wants in movies, ask the men who show them. Every year Australia's theatre men.

from managers of big circuits to the smallest independent exhibitors, vote for the top money-making movies and the top money-making star.

The 1946 poll resulted: — Biggest money-making star: Gregory Peck. Biggest money-making movie: 'National Velvet' QTHERS filling the first 10 spots in the annual poll conducted ? by the movie men's trade paper, 'Film Weekly,'' were:— Movies— 'Keys of the Kingdom,' 'Spellbound,' 'Smithy,' 'Valley of Decision,' 'Irish Eyes Are Smiling,' 'Song of Bernadette,' 'Madonna of the Seven Moons,' 'Thunderhead, Son* of Flicka,' 'Anchors Aweigh.' Stars — Greer Garson, Ingrid Bergman, James Mason, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Jennifer Jones, Gene Tier ney, Bette Davis, Marga* ret Lockwood and Stewart Granger (tied for tenth place). 'It's interesting 'CH/ITTPHV' to meet AustradMlltll n an - ma d e NEAR TOP 'Smithy' among the top 10 ('Overlanders,' released late in 1946, should be a certainty for next year's honor roll); good to see solid stuff like 'Valley of Decision,' 'Keys of the Kingdom,' and 'Spellbound' 'way up; mighty depressing that Britain should be represented by only one film — 'Madonna of the Seven Moons. That, in my opinion, was one of the trashiest 'big' movies ever turned out by any country. But 'This Happy Breed,' a much better specimen of British moviemaking, was well up among the second 15. It can't be a coincidence that Britain's only entry in the first 10 of 1945 was 'Man in Grey? which was much the same sort ? of noveletteish nonsense as 'Madonna,' only less so. And it certainly isn't coincidence that both 1945's No. 1 movie 'Home in Indiana') and 1946's 'National Velvet' were about horses. No doubt about r TK' 17 it, Australians like Lllvli a movie with a HORSES horse in it particularly if it's a big, colored film. Comparing the exhibitors' poll of 1946 with 1945. I find that Crosby has dropped from top spot to fifth, Davis from third to ninth, Garson has risen from eighth to second, and Jennifer Jones from ninth to seventh. None of the others listed for 1946 appeared among the 1945 leaders, thouRh Bergman, Hope, and Mason were in the second 15. Those who've been dropped from the top 10 since 1945 are Joan Fontaine, Bettv Grable, Alan Ladd, Joseph Cotten, Gary Cooper, and Rita Hayworth. Betty Grable and Gary Cooper are the only two of these who make even the second 15 on the 1946 list.