Boxoffice barometer (1962)

3 orei^n idiffn Ijlp trend (Continues in US. By FRANK LEYENDECKER F oreign-language pictures in the U.S., which have shown a steady increase over the past dec- ade — to the extent that more than 800 art houses play them regularly or for special engagements, alternating them with the British or the better-class American films—really broke through in 1961 with the first reserved-seat, two-a-day run for “La Dolce Vita,” the three-hour-long Italian picture distrib- uted in the U.S. by Astor Pictures. “La Dolce Vita,” which completed a 33-week run at the Henry Miller The- atre in New York in December, then moved over to the small Embassy The- atre in Times Square and the east side Beekman Theatre, both at continuous run. “La Dolce Vita” also played nine other key cities at reserved seats and Astor now predicts a total gross of $6,- 000,000. This past year was also the one in which a Greek-made picture, “Never on Sunday,” largely spoken in English but with a few subtitles for the Greek dia- logue, was acclaimed across the U.S., ran for over a year at the Plaza The- atre in New York, won the Academy Award for the “best song” and is ex- pected to gross a total of $4,000,000, also unprecedented for a foreign-made pic- ture which cost less than $200,000 to produce. The picture also made an in- ternational personality of its star, Me- lina Mercouri. BIGGEST DISTRIBUTOR Astor Pictures now looks to become the largest distributor of foreign films in the U.S. with “Rocco and His Broth- ers,” another Italian film which was less successful in its first runs; “Les Liaison Dangereuses,” the daring and controversial French film which played three times daily at the Henry Miller Theatre in New York for a brief run, and the forthcoming “Last Year at Mar- ienbad,” the French film which was awarded top prize at the Venice Film Festival and will open in New York in March, and “Shoot the Pianist,” direct- ed by Francois Truffaut of “The 400 Blows” fame, among the company’s re- leases. “La Dolce Vita” also won the New York Critics Award as “best foreign film of 1961.” Astor’s “Rocco and His Broth- ers” has been English-dubbed for more general showings. In addition to “La Dolce Vita” and “Rocco,” other Italian-language pic- tures which had better-than-average key city first runs during 1961 were headed by “Two Women,” the film which won the “best actress of 1961” award from the New York Film Critics and may win the star, Sophia Loren, an Academy Award nomination. Miss Loren did her own dubbing for the English- language version of this picture, which is being distributed by Embassy Pic- tures and now playing circuit bookings. Of course, the Italian-made action spectacles in color no longer can be classed as foreign films as they are in- variably dubbed into English and placed on the regular release schedules of the majors, notably Columbia, MGM, Unit- ed Artists, American International and others. BIG YEAR FOR BRITISH The British films shown in the U.S. also had a big year with the majority now being placed on the regular release schedules of the majors. The most ac- claimed was “Saturday Night and Sun- day Morning” and “The Mark,” both distributed by Continental; “Loss of In- nocence” and “Scream of Fear,” re- leased by Columbia; “The Innocents,” “The Millionairess” and “Upstairs and Downstairs,” released by 20th Century- Fox; “The Naked Edge” and “Mary Had a Little,” released by United Artists; “Curse of the Werewolf” and “Shadow of the Cat,” Hammer Films for Univer- sal release, and “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” distributed by Warner Bros. The enormously successful farce- comedies, “Carry On Constable,” “Den- tist in the Chair” and “Make Mine Mink,” were released by independent firms. Governor Films, which is distributing “Carry On Nurse,” “Carry On Consta- ble” and the forthcoming “Carry On Regardless” and “Carry On Teacher,” the latter two for 1962, boasts that the first-named, “Carry On Nurse,” reached the $2,000,000 film rental in the U.S. in December, the highest for any British comedy in the American market, accord- ing to Dave Emanuel, president. Gover- nor is also releasing “Doctor in Love,” latest in England’s famous “Doctor” series. For 1962, Pathe-America is releas- ing two notable British films from Al- lied Film Makers, the controversial “Victim” and “Whistle Down the Wind,” Continental has “A Taste of Honey” and “Waltz of the Toreadors,” both from London and Broadway stage hits, and both Columbia and Universal-In- ternational will have Hammer Films, with U-I handling a third remake of “Phantom of the Opera,” in color. Allied Artists will release another big British film, “Billy Budd,” produced by Peter Ustinov, to mention only a few of the important English pictures set for the U.S. SEVERAL FRENCH HITS Regarding French films, in addition to “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” which at- tracted newspaper editorial comment because of its highly censorable theme and situations, several others from France which did strong business in the art houses included “Breathless,” dis- tributed by Films-Around-the-World; “La Belle Americaine,” coproduced by Continental, which is currently doing well at the art houses, and three Phil- ippe de Broca comedies, “The Love Game,” “The Joker” and “The Five-Day Lover,” the last two distributed by Lo- pert Films, subsidiary of United Artists. Currently, “Purple Noon,” which has chalked up long art house runs for Times Film, is playing many regular theatres in its English-dubbed version. Coming up from France, in addition to the two forthcoming Astor releases, will be “The Girl With the Golden Eyes,” from Kingsley International, two Brig- itte Bardot films, one each to be re- leased by MGM and 20th Century-Fox, Maria Schell’s “Une Vie,” from a Guy de Maupassant tale, which Continental will release, and “Eclipse,” starring Alain Delon, which Times Film will handle. FEW FROM GERMANY Except for the highly acclaimed "The Bridge,” which was distributed by Al- lied Artists, few German-language films received wide showings in the U.S. Munio Podhorzer, president of Casino Films, which distributed the majority of German language films here, attrib- utes the lack of interest in German pic- tures to the fact that the German pro- ducers do not try to understand the American market. Some of the leading German film hits in that country are in the operetta vein, a type of film which has long lost favor in the U.S. Two of the pictures, Casino’s “The Spessart Inn” and Atlantic’s “The House of Three Girls,” were musicals in color on period romantic themes. Much more topical was “Roses for the Prosecutor,” a post-war drama. Podhorzer comment- ed that many of the popular German film stars now in Hollywood films rare- ly received international publicity by the German studios. Such stars as Horst Buchholz, Lila Pulver and Curt Jur- gens are better known through their Hollywood pictures, while others, nota- bly Ruth Leuwerick and O. W. Fischer, are still unknown to American au- diences. Miss Leuwerick, who starred in “The Trapp Family,” dubbed into Eng- lish for 20th-Fox release, received very small billing in the posters. For 1962, Casino has two pictures starring Lilo Pulver, “Arms and the Man” and “A Glass of Water,” set for U.S. release, and others starring Hardy Kruger and Najda Tiller, both in recent British films. Japan’s most important film shown in the U.S. recently was “Odd Obses- sion” but several war spectacles are scheduled for 1962. Poland made its first dent, although a slight one, in the U.S. in 1961 with “Ashes and Dia- monds” and “Kanal,” while Denmark can still boast enormous continuing in- terest in Ingmar Bergman’s films, even if “The Devil’s Eye” did not come up to “The Virgin Spring” of the year before. The Russians stepped to the fore with both “Ballad of a Soldier” and “A Sum- mer to Remember,” distributed by Kingsley International in 1961. The lat- ter film even made several “best ten” lists for 1962. 40 BAROMETER Section