Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1960)

W nesday, December 7, Motion Picture Daily The jjl S.W. Phila. House L Roadshow Policy W Special to THE DAILY HILADELPHIA, Dec. 6 roadshow booking for the StanI Warner's Stanton Theatre was ihunced with the booking of f narron" into the house. While a I -run house, it did not show the JL >r films. Cimarron" will open Dec. 29 on J1 served seat policy and two-a-day I ormances. Until now, only the Id, currently playing "Ben-Hur I I "Exodus" to follow, has been pi by Stanley Wamer for roadie bookings. The 3 Worlds of Gulliver CONTINUED FROM PAGE I ree Screen (Continued from page 1) ntury Theatres, as eighth president the Association, succeeding Sol A. iwartz, president of RKO Theatres, 0 becomes MMPTA board chair f|e exercise of responsibility to rrant screen freedom from censorto "is not the job of any one seg"nt of the industry," Johnston said. .'We cannot say that one segment st assume all the responsibility, and 1 others can avoid the obligation, fis responsibility must be exercised producers, distributors and exhibis alike-by everyone associated tjh the industry. ."We must not abuse the degree ot edom which we now possess. The blic may be slow to anger, but the aalty for offending the public is Vays high. And, in the end, penalty Xalways imposed." Compared with Press ^Earlier in his talk, Johnston had Jted that the screen "is not as free ; all other parts of the press." It is ithe midst of a fight for greater freeW now, he said, and the outcome is It as certain as it is for the freedom I| the press itself. Yet the struggle to >n and maintain freedom of the press Is been going on for 225 years, i iereas that waged by motion picres is less than 60 years old. i "Hearst is free," Johnston said. Luce is free. So are Chandler, Cerf, „ nopf, Fawcett, Goldenson, Paley, nillrnoff. Surely, Balaban and Schnei>r and Skouras, Broidy and Disney d Krim, Rackmil and Vogel and arner are as much entitled to free>m of expression as the others. !"So you'd think. But the motion cture must run the gantlet of cen of Lilliput or the giants of Brobdingnag, the adventures of the normal sized Gulliver in these two lands come to life realistically and absorbingly. The result is fascination for children and interest, if not absorption by adults. , , The script by Arthur Ross and Jack Sher, adds a romance to the original Swiftian concept-June Thorburn plays Elizabeth, fiancee ot Kerwin Mathews who is Dr. Gulliver-and has her shipwrecked along with Gulliver. He meets her in Brobdingnag, after he has fled from the land of the Lilliputians, and their adventures there and eventual escape back to England and normalcy form the second half, and most absorbing part of the picture. , While thev are in the land of the giants, they are the pets ot the King and the Queen-Gregoire Asian and Mary Ellis-and are taken care of bv Glumdalclitch, played by Sherri Alberone. While they are in this strange captivity Gulliver incurs the enmitv of Makovan the King's sorcerer, -and is condemned first to fight a lizard and then to be burned. Glumdalclitch rescues the couple by concealing them in a sewing basket and, when the pursuit gets hot, tossing them into a stream from which they ultimately float to the ocean and home. The story construction is clean and logical, having enough substance and action to appeal to young audiences and yet with enough of he Swiftian satire remaining to intrigue adult audiences. The effect of the live actors in surroundings far out of proportion to their size is over WThTphotography is in Eastman color with prints bv Pathe and the projected picture shows little evidence of the trick photography. Schneer produced and Sher directed. . . It is a picture which should appeal to the entire family and paiticularly as a holidav release should fill theatres. Running time, 100 minutes. Release date, December. ^ ^ sorship today in one form or another in four states and a handful of cities. And right after the turn of the year it will be open season once again on motion pictures in many of our state legislatures. There's a new clamor to censor pictures, to classify pictures by law. "Some say we are headed toward more censorship, more classification, not less. Maybe so. But it should not be so without a fight. "Personally, I should like some day to ask a board of censors to appraise their own jobs. I can read their laws for myself. I want to hear their case in their own words. "They might-and I think probably would-say that they were there to protect the public morals from corruption. "The next question then, is, did they ever throw out entirely or rigidly censor a motion picture on the score of corrupting morals? We can presume they would say that they have. "Then, I'd ask: Did you ever have sworn witnesses appear before you who testified that a particular motion picture had corrupted their own personal morals? "I am tired of frightened Americans who want to impose censorship on motion pictures-or any of our media of free communication. What most ot them really want is to escape from freedom and its responsibilities . . . and its privileges. "These people, I say to you, are actually only a minority who make up in noise what they lack in numbers. We can be very sure they are often the same people who are frequently in the grip of some trend, passion or prejudice. It may be an ephemeral obsession, but the danger lies in the evil it can do under the direction ot those who hunger for petty powerand they are always with us. Power feeds on power. Give the power seekers a little to fatten on, and they are back for more, always more. Today, the motion picture is the target. Tomorrow—what?" u Johnston then warned that "Freedom cannot long exist without responsibility. This is the key to its preservation. Without responsibility freedom can degenerate into license." 'Standardization' of Rank Group Names From THE DAILY Bureau LONDON, Dec. 2 (By Air Mail). —To standardize company names throughout the Rank Group, the following changes have been made: J. Arthur Rank Overseas Film Distributors Ltd., has become Rank Overseas Film Distributors Ltd. J. Arthur Rank Productions Ltd., has become Rank Productions Ltd. J. Arthur Rank Organisation (Management) Ltd., has become Rank Organisation (Management) Ltd. The names on numerous overseas companies have been similarly similarly changed. Johnston Fears ( Continued from page 1 ) from Mexico City, made the observation at a luncheon given by the Metropolitan Motion Picture Theatre Ass n. at the Hotel Astor, at which he was guest speaker. Johnston referred to the announcement this week by Mexican Treasury Secretary Antonio Ortiz Mena that the government had purchased the Gold Chain and the Theatre Operating Co., thus putting 329 theatres under government control. Inasmuch as Johnston's subject for his MMPTA luncheon talk yesterday was on winning for the screen the same freedom from censorship and other control that is enjoyed by all other media of communication, it appeared that his reference to the Mexican development was concerned with its possible effect on the freedom of the screen in that counry and its possible influence on governments of other nations and their film and theatre intesests. Claims 'Monopoly' Ended In announcing the Mexican government's action, Secretary Mena asserted it ended an "exhibition monopoly" and that shares of the two theatre companies would be distributed between film producers and distributors, with the possibility of a general public offering. His statement also said that the takeover will result in increasing exhibition time by eliminating needless short subjects, and that producers will be expected to turn out quality films for both the Mexican and export markets. 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