Cinema: Newsreel, Feb. 4, 1957

When M-G-M Producer Pandro Berman decided to film Feodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, he thought wistfully of blonde Cinemactress Marilyn Monroe, who has often confessed a yen to play the role of Grushenka. “Frankly, I don’t expect her to be in it,” he said. “She would probably want too much money, and besides, I hear she is going to have a baby.” To all questions of diapers and Dostoevsky, Marilyn murmured unsweetened nothings.

¶From Producer Frank Ross, who popularized eye-stretching CinemaScope with The Robe, came a surprisingly frank plug for oldfashioned, small-screen, black-and-white films. Ross noted that CinemaScope is fine for sweeping horizons, but added: “If the subject ¶ has power and the scenes themselves are what you want to show, don’t tinsel it up with CinemaScope.” ¶Sorely beset, RKO peddled distribu tion rights to 44 films (including eleven not yet released) to prosperous rival Universal-International, hoped to save some $7,000,000 by the deal, wearily acknowledged that it is exploring a new source of revenue: the sale of oil under studio lots.