Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1960)

sday, July 19, 1960 Motion Picture Daily . Y. Wage Bill ( Continued from page 1 ) It. That is, general for all indus REVIEW: The 39 Steps 20th-Fox — Rank — CinemaScope he public hearings will run iugh Aug. 16. First is in Buffalo Hi Thursday. Later hearings for spell businesses are slated including I for the "amusement and recreaI: industry" here on Aug. 4. A I ilar hearing will take place in New h City. 'he amusement and recreation infltry is one of 10 now covered by rjiimum wage orders which the in% trial Commissioner promulgates, on commendations of boards appointed In within an industry. Public hear|s are held by these boards or panI consisting of employers and emayes, before they act on minimum -. 'S. J^he last directive of the board for ■j amusement and recreation indusI increased the "floor" for motion iture theatre cashiers, ticket takers, jprmen and matrons to $1 an hour Active April 1. Left unaffected by 1 $1 hourly minimum were ushers, sip attendants, children's matrons ijl messengers. k 22-page rules committee bill intiiuced on March 14, approved by I Assembly March 30 and by the State on March 31 under a "mes|e of necessity" from the governor, kn Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller's abroval April 18. I'n a memorandum accompanying k signature, he stated the measure Mends minimum wage coverage to «),000 workers not covered by either M;tate minimum wage order or by 4 Federal minimum wage law, and ejablishes for them a minimum wage 4$1 an hour." It also "establishes a rjre expeditious wage board procure by reducing in a reasonable rnner, the time-delay between the eivening of the board and the effect e date of new wage orders." aramount Names ( Continued from page 1 ) n, Charlotte; Charles W. Howell, ;kd booker, Atlanta; Richard A. igan, head booker, New York; RobJ. Moore, head booker, Boston; in J. Serfustino, salesman, Buffalo, d John C. Stock, booker, Milwau J,bany Dinner for Susse ALBANY, N. Y., July 18.-Edward Susse, who has been promoted to 5 post of M-G-M branch manager Detroit, will be honored at a dinx of the Albany exchange district tributors representatives, circuit in and independent exhibitors, on ig. 15. The committee on arrangers includes: Herbert L. Gaines, arner Brothers branch chief; Elias hlenger, Fabian division manager; d Joe Miller, Menands Drive-in opitor and one-time Columbia branch mager. Susse, who has been associated th M-G-M for more than 25 years, cceeds in Detroit Lou Marks, adnced to central division manager, placing John J. Maloney, retired. the John Buchan spy thriller, initially filmed two decades ago by Alfred Hitchcock, has been produced anew by the Rank organization, and, while, inevitably, there will be comparisons with the first-time-aroundeffort, the enterprising showman, regardless of his locale, can point reassuringly at contents of this handsome, resplendent color-CinemaScope presentation and cite improvements on all counts. The foregoing is not, by any stretch of the imagination, to poke antiquity status at the Hitchcock-Robert Donat-Madeleine Carroll version; what went before has Served, nobly indeed, as a brilliant format, a working blueprint, of what to do and what not to do as regards a strikingly effective suspense story. Where the Hitchcock forces used black-and-white for effect, producer Betty E. Box and director Ralph Thomas (working from a Frank Harvey screenplay, as based on John — Lord Tweedsmuir — Buchan's novel) turned to modern-day CinemaScope and Deluxe Color. The contrast is something for the screen's historians to fully chronicle. And where the earlier Hitchcock story brought the hero (Donat then, redoubtable Kenneth More now) to a music hall to hear the significant phrase, "What are the 39 steps?" the integral setting of 1960 is a sunny afternoon in Regent's Park. More discovers that a nanny's baby-carriage contains not a gurgling infant but a gun. It develops that More is wanted for murder and about all he's certain of at the moment is that the governess* frantically-whispered "39 steps" will lead him to a lonely village in the picturesque Scottish Highlands. Subsequent sequences bring More into forceful encounters with character players as only our British film-making cousins can provide. It's suspense drama, brilliantly, logically, compellingly produced, directed and enacted. Europe's Taina Elg, seen in a number of top-grossing U.S. attractions over the years, is the girl of the moment; Barry Jones, one of England's best featured delineators plays a scientist; and Brenda de Banzie completes the first echelon of acting command, as a crystal-gazer with an imaginative twist. P The Ralph Thomas-Betty Box touches are masterful, ever remindful that they are working with an acclaimed legend of the modern screen. Ernest Stewart's photographic effects and Clifton Parker's music are something to write home about. There should be a waiting market for this one! Release, July, 1960. Running time, 95 minutes. Allen M. Widem British Pay-TV (Continued, from page 1 ) man of the National Advisory Council for Education for Industry and Commerce. Among the many problems the committee will have to consider are whether Britain should have a third, or fourth TV channel; whether the present limitation on the hours of TV broadcasting should be removed; and whether Britain should have commercial radio stations. The Postmaster General also announced that the present BBC Charter, due to expire in June 1962, is to be extended to July 1964. This brings the BBC into line with the ITA (Independent Television Authority) whose present term expires on that date. The committee is expected to take two years compiling its report. Chicago 'Black' Debut Examined by Press A long, complimentary look at the extensive publicity and exploitation aids used by Universal when it premiered "Portrait in Black" in Chicago last month was taken last Saturday in the magazine supplement of the Chicago Daily News. Three pages of text arid photographs were employed by writer Dick Christiansen, who explained why Chicago was chosen as the site of the "Portrait" premiere. He wrote that New York and Hollywood have become "jaded" by too many premieres in the past, but in the midwest and Chicago, such an event is 'relatively new and likely to get maximum attention and excitement. The author said producer Ross Hunter himself chose Chicago, largely because two of his earlier pictures, "Imitation of Life" and "Pillow Talk," had "tremendously profitable" opening runs in the Windy City. Christian W.B. Engages Brumberg For Coast Exploitation From THE DAILY Bureau HOLLYWOOD, July 18. William W. Brumberg has been appointed to the newly-created position of western exploitation and co-operative advertising and publicity director, in line widi moves to expand and implement promotional operations of Warner Brothers. He will make his headquarters at the Warner film exchange here. 'Scoundrels9 : $14,600 A first-week gross of $14,600 was racked up at the Sutton Theatre here for "School for Scoundrels," it has been reported by Continental Distributing, Inc. sen reported that Chicago's role as a good film town has been a growing force in Hollywood economics for several years. Final Argument Heard In S.F. Embassy Suit Special to THE DAILY SAN FRANCISCO, July 18.-Closing argument in the 10-year-old Embassy Theatre eight million dollar monopoly suit got under way today with Embassy attorney, Robert D. Raven occupying the court's full day with a recapitulation of charges of a "rigged market" in the allocation of product by the defendants. Chief defendants in the case, being heard by Federal Judge Lloyd H. Burke, are the eight major distributing firms and National Theatres, including its main subsidiary, Fox West Coast Theatres. Product Pooling the Issue Basic point of Raven's argument was a detailed description of alleged pooling of product by FWC and its rival circuit operated by Blumfeld Theatres in San Francisco, Stockton, Sacramento, Berkeley and Oakland. When the Embassy suit first was filed in 1950, the Blumfeld circuit also was named as a defendant, but in the interim, the Blumfeld suit was separated from the current court action and thus will provide another judicial issue to be heard when the current case is finished. Daniel McLean and Leland Dibble are the Embassy owners who filed the original suit in 1950 with the claim that their Market Street house was the victim of a conspiracy by the assorted defendants to deprive them of first run product. Judge Burke is presiding over the non-jury trial after reading the transcript of the previous evidence heard by the late Judge Edward P. Murphy, who died near the conclusion of the case argued in 1958. Record for '13 Ghosts9 William Castle's "13 Ghosts" broke the house record at the Paramount Theatre, San Francisco, with a gross of $21,000 for its first three days, it is reported by Columbia Pictures.