Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

OF PEOPLE AND EVENTS LEVINE & DAVIS given way to demi-tasse, the openhanded host and Ponti rose to answer questions from the press. Combined budget on the four pictures: in excess of $8,700,000. The entire quartet will be produced this year in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England and Switzerland. Embassy will release the films, during 1963 and 1964, throughout the world, outside of Italy. Titles: "The Empty Canvas" and "A Ghost at Noon," both based on bestselling novels by the noted Italian author, Alberto Moravia, "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" (tentative title) and "Casanova," both original screenplays. Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot and Marcello Mastroianni will star in individual pictures, and the directors will include Vittorio De Sica, Jean-Luc Godard, Mauro Bolognini and Damiano Damiani. Levine concluded by paying tribute to Ponti: "Carlo Ponti, more than any other producer on the international motion picture scene, undeniably has true insight into what the public demands in motion picture entertainment." Their lavish Four Season lunch hardly settled, members of the press corps were at 21 Club two days later for announcement of another Levine coproduction deal, this one with singeractor Sammy Davis, Jr. The immediate project will be "Burn, Killer, Burn", based on the true-life story by Paul Krump about the young Chicago Negro who was convicted for murder and recently reprieved. Films on TV Called Industry 'Suicide' "Sunday Night Suicide!" In an open letter to the press, to producers, distributors and fellow exhibitors, theatremen David E. Milgram thus termed the release of relatively new features to television for home showing at prime hours on weekends. Asking, "Was the TV sale really that rewarding?", Milgram cited the experience of his Fox Theatre in Phila delphia, playing "Taras Bulba" and competing with "Solomon and Sheba" on TV. "The Fox Theatre boxoffice Sunday, January 6, 1963 (Taras Bulba) in perfect theatre-going weather, was $3,792.00 against a gross on Sunday, January 3, I960 (Solomon and Sheba) of $6,859.00. This drop, three years later," the letter states, "can be traced directly to the adverse effect of the free showing on TV of top pictures on prime time. "Multiply the Philadelphia experience by the number of theatres throughout the country playing 'Taras Bulba' and the losses can be reckoned in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Consider the thousands of theatres playing other quality attractions and hurt just as hard by 'Solomon and Sheba' on Television, and losses are in the millions." Calling the policy "economic madness", Milgram questions whether film company stockholders, as well as producers really understand the facts. Producer Bites Actor! Mirisch vs. Ustinov During the past year or so, events in Rome, in Tahiti, and in Hollywood attracted wide attention to what is termed filmdom's "star problem". The hi-jinks of the "Cleopatra" stars, Brando's conduct in the making of "Mutiny on the Bounty", and the absenteeism of ill-fated Marilyn Monroe on the set of "Something's Got To Give" provided juicy fodder for the gossip columnists and drew such references as "the lunatics are running the asylum". Of late, however, the news is being made by film men biting actors who misbehave. Studio heads and independent producers seem determined to follow a businesslike, "get tough" policy in dealing with performers charged with recalcitrance or frivolous failure to meet contractural obligations. The Mirisch Company, for one, has taken off the kid gloves and announced last week that it is bringing suit against Peter Ustinov for allegdly failing to report for work on "The Pink Panther ", now being filmed in Rome. Suing for damages "thought to be in the area of $175,000, the independent production company claims that Ustinov's failure to honor his commitment required Mirisch to substitute Peter Sellers on short notice and necessitated a "complete reorganization of the production schedule HAROLD MIRISCH to conform with Sellers' availability." President Harold J. Mirisch stated his company's position on the central issue that "the motion picture industry exists on the strength of agreements" and that "the basis for production activity will be seriously impaired if this point is not upheld publicly for all to see. "We had reached a point in our dealings with Mr. Ustinov", Mirisch declared, "where we would have felt obligated to pay him for his services if, for any reason, we would have been forced to alter production plans for 'The Pink Panther'. It follows that he should be required to recognize a corresponding obligation to us." On the other side of the street, Marlon Brando, who had come in for some sharp criticism for his conduct during the filming of "Mutiny on the Bounty", entered a suit for $5 million against the Saturday Evening Post for its June 6 article titled "$6 Million Down the Drain". The actor's brief claims that the article made eight false charges against him, from constantly flubbing his lines to fomenting a mutiny on the "Bounty" set in Tahiti, all at a cost of an extra $6 million to M-G-M. ECA Cracks Big Time With Top Best-Seller Sporting a new Max "look" — sleeves rolled down, coat on and buttoned — Max E. Youngstein, president of Entertainment Corporation of America, held his new production company's first press conference to announce ECA's first venture, the filmization of the nation's current best-seller, "Fail-Safe". It was an imposing kick-off for a fledgling production company. The natty appearance was not intended to fool anyone, for it was the same, direct, staccato Youngstein usually seen in shirt-sleeves. He was there, he immediately told the reporters, only to talk about "Fail-Safe" — thereby cut ting off any intended questions concerning ECA financing, distribution plans, etc. "This first project will be an image( Continued on I'age H) Film BULLETIN January 21, 1943 Poqe 7