Harrison's Reports (1962)

8 HARRISON'S REPORTS January 20, 1962 Production Ensue... (Continued from Front Page) go ahead. But, remember Mr. Producer, you can get us all into trouble with educators, the clergy, and other morals monitors if you don't use care, discretion and restraint. Hollywood Sex I tints Won't Emulate Europe'* If that biological alchemy is here to stay with mankind for a long time, and if new freedoms are given movie makers by our own morals monitors (the MPAA) Hollywood is not going to emulate our cinematic brothers across the ocean whose preoccupation with off-beat sex is one of the strong pillars upon which rests their exports to us. Hollywood's approach to sex (for all of the additional freedom given producers) is not going to be an "everything goes" nearorgy of lusty, lascivious, love lollypopping that has smeared the screens of our art houses via the imports. Yes, between the healthy number of foreign films and a goodly number of domestics, there's going to be quite a few sex-themed releases, this year. Let's face it! Whether in movies or books or Broadway plays, the sale of sex can be a profitable business. It's a commodity that knows no seasonal off-timing. It will always be with us. For its emotional return there will always be buyers. Whatever the failings of other nature of wares, at the box office, sex will always bring back more than a penny of profit on its investment. - and yet, standing on the extreme opposite of the release schedule, submerging everything else are the Biblical themes with which production will deal this year. There, really is the very big money, though the original cost outlay is likewise very big. But, these inspiring, spiritually uplifting stories will also be with us in the releasing year ahead. It's a long time before "King of Kings" can tell its story revenue-wise, but already "Ben-Hur's box office take in the United States and Canada alone is well on its way to $100,000,000 mark. "El Cid" is going to be a bell-ringer. Producer* Will Face Moral Re»pon*lbilltu Getting back to the profitable run-of-the-box-office releases blueprinted for the months ahead and carried in the accompanying supplement. Hollywood knows its responsibility and is ready to face it. Every year in our business is a year of decision. These times, each succeeding year becomes ever more challenging. But, the reflection of the unborn tomorrow is in the mirror we're holding up today illuminating the achievements of yesterday. Verily, whether it's in times of plenty or in times of need, the movie industry has never faltered. Off its drawing boards, out of its studios, cleaved from the bedrock of self-sacrifice and devotion of its truly dedicated will come the productional sustenance of the industry's existence. Biblical stories, comedy, drama, fantasy, reality in film form, they'll make their way to the screens of the nation's theatres. Like fires, they'll light up the emotion's of the more than 44,000,000 people every week seeking release, in some movie theatre, from the life of reality into that fabulous, beautiful, romantic one of make-believe created by the product of Hollywood. There'll be good intentions that have innocently gone wrong production-wise. There'll be those ever Suturduy Night T v... (Continued from Front Page) much more out of life by going out, with the whole family, to a neighborhood movie. I t Continue* It* Drain on Uox Olllee Several months ago, when the NBC-Tv campaign got under way to imprison movie-goers in their homes Saturday night, we sought the reaction of Edward L. Hyman, vice president of American BroadcastingParamount Theatres. He was non-commital on the threat, can free Tv keep people away from the theatres on that all-important night, Saturday? Now that ABC-Tv, the electronic arm of AB-PT, is going to emulate NBC-Tv, one begins to wonder whether Hyman won't have reason to go along with the other exhibitors; that it doesn't do the local box office any good, to say the least. "Walk on the Wild Side" (Continued from Preceding Page) woman (Jane Fonda) who hungers for food and love. He holds back on the love stuff. They finally reach New Orleans, and part after she steals a crucifix from Anne Baxter who runs a roadside cafe. Harvey returns the crucifix and stays on at the cafe pumping gas and helping Miss Baxter. He tells her of his search for the woman he loves (Capucine). Miss Baxter puts an ad in the New Orleans paper. Soon a friend of Capucine who is held captive in a plush bordello by the boss-woman (Barbara Stanwyck) phones Harvey revealing Capucine's address. He calls on her but doesn't yet know what kind of a girl she is, nor what nature of place she's working in. It doesn't matter to Harvey. He wants her to come back to him, and get married. She is torn between heartbreaking conflicts. They meet again, and the marriage seems set. Miss Stanwyck hears of this and begins throwing her weight around. The method is not ladylike, to say the least. Miss Stanwyck's henchmen beat up Harvey unmercifully. With the lying help of Miss Fonda, they hope to send Harvey to jail on a trumped-up charge of crossing the state line for immoral purposes with her. She realizes the harm she's done, sneaks out to take the beaten-up Harvey back to Miss Baxter's place. She tells Capucine where he is. Soon, the Doll House hooligans catch up with them at the roadside cafe, a free-for-all follows killing Capucine. She dies in the bleeding arms of the man she loved (Harvey) giving the tale its righted moral deliverance that, the residue of sin is death. Produced by Charles K. Feldman; directed by Edward Dmytryk; screenplay by John Fante and Edmund Morris, based on the Nelson Algren novel. Adults. welcome "sleepers." But, in the main, there should be a good, steady flow of dependable, profitable product. To repeat, Hollywood's production forces have dedicated themselves to this supreme commitment. They told us so in tones of profound sincerity when they gave us the material for the accompanying supplement detailing the picture-making, film-releasing months ahead.