Canadian Film Digest (Mar 1973)

The Canadian Film Digest MARCH 1973 Page 13 Budge Crawley: “We've got to look for world markets.” In a recent magazine article, the question was posed as to whether Budge Crawley is really sixty years old. Age is calculated in a pretty straightforward fashion, but in Crawley’s case it’s different: you really don’t believe he’s that old. F. R. “Budge” Crawley is very definitely a Canadian film Pioneer. His name ranks up there with McLaren and Grierson. Maybe not in quality of product or technical genius, but certainly in vision. In the dark ages of Canadian film, Crawley made a feature called Aminita Pestilens. It was in the early sixties, no one had heard of the featured player, Genevieve Bujold, and no one in Canada was foolish enough to make a feature. It has never been released. In 1964 Crawley made another feature. He took an almost-leading English actor named Robert Shaw and filmed a Canadian novel set in a Canadian city about a_ specifically Canadian incident. The Luck of Ginger Coffey. He feels it may recoup its costs through TV sales, If that isn’t vision, what is? In these days of euphoric CFDC money, American money, and private money, its hard to believe that at that time there was only Crawley money. And the money came from Canada’s truly main film industry, the sponsored documentary short. Crawley shot in the Arctic, in Newfoundland, anywhere he could raise ideas into film and cash. And then he made features. They were slightly too provincial, a fault he tries to avoid today. For Crawley is as enthusiastic as any new film maker, and his credo now states: Look for world markets. His projects illustrate his directions fully. Recent success with The Rowdyman — he Says the backers will make 50% on their money — in which he invested $50,000 and provided services, prompted the acquisition of two othe properties and the creation of a third. | Murray Markowitz was in debt on August and July, Crawley stepped in, got CFDC backing, and arranged exhibition. Now the picture is scheduled for $150,000 investment, including promotion, it was edited for six months by Andy Hernan in Quinn Labs, and the result, while not what Crawley calls ‘‘a big grosser’’ will be a film saved and shown. Crawley also grabbed the remnants of the Festival Express film disaster. He had it recut, acquired the correct rights, and now has a full film on Janis Joplin almost ready for release. And taking advantage of an opportunity, he had director Rene Bonniere film a local theatre adaptation of Hamlet. The THOG Hamlet will be ready for release soon, too. Any one of these films may not be vast audience grabbers, but they can be marketed anywhere in the world. That’s Crawley’s goal for all his projects. Speaking of projects, there are so. many in the fire that he feels relieved that Ginger Coffey has finally let him financially breathe. His money was so tied up for so long in that film ‘that he was truly inhibited. 1973 holds promise of a Crawley feature boom. One film is an adaptation of a story that won the Maclean’s prize in 1958. Called Florencia Bay, Crawley is trying to get Robert Shaw (Shaw says that Ginger Coffey is his favorite film) and Olivia Hussey. A project of truly major size — budget 1.5 to 2 million dollars, is a film of Fred Bodsworth’s The Strange One. “‘It’s set in the Hebrides and sub-arctic. There are parallel stories of a Scottish goose and a Canada goose and a Next Month: First in a series on film and education Scottish boy and an Indian girl. The theme is that every living thing on this planet must come to its accommodation with the planet. “Peter Carter is producing and _ he’s Struggling with a screenplay. “I'd like to shoot it in IMAX.”’ And finally, in the meantime, another world project. Recently a Japanese skiied all the way down Mount Everest. His journey was filmed, and Crawley is now raising money to knock the film into feature shape. “‘It’s fantastic! It'll sell anywhere.”’ Of course the industrial market is. still booming, even more so today. And to top it all off, not only is Crawley asked to advise and lecture, but also Imperial Oil has asked him to make new prints of movies done twenty years ago. Some of those movies were made by Crawley himself. He’s an elder statesman. But as he sits at a long desk, littered with papers, in a huge room adapted from an old house which now serves as the headquarters for Crawley in Toronto, he talks into the phone, scribbles messages on envelope backs, and then turns to look out the window. The view is into the Rosedale valley, and it’s deep and wide. It seems fitting. He knows what we need. ‘‘World properties. Some English language successes. Of course the biggest lack is in producers and writers. “The movies have to be commercial. We can’t be making art films. We’ve got to zero in on something that will bring people in off the street to pay $2.50. “Films should have a moderate budget and a Sir. dae wet Z + 4 ’ og}! * G ta PE a oe ° ‘ shes Pyne en 7 ae DP ew — a i OO RE eee ee i unique story. Publicity is important, too. We’re pretty gauche here, too retiring. “Film companies are small businesses and should be treated as such. Certainly we need leverage; if the 60% tax benefit is ever cancelled, the CFDC will have to contribute 100%. “Fear of the cancellation has slowed things up now. “But above all we’ve got to look for world properties. We ourselves are always scouting around and developing. We’ve got to — it’s the only way we can grow.” And he sits back, considers for a moment, and picks up the phone to call New York. He’s going to make an appointment to see a man about financing a movie. féme " + Nig ‘ AP SN ~ SERS Cae Alexa de Weil and Sharon Smith in August and July. Warner Brothers to Celebrate 50th in Big Way It all began in 1923, and because it’s been fifty years and over 1500 features since, Warner Brothers is celebrating its Golden year with _ Plenty of ballyhoo. Chairman of the Board Ted Ashley announced a year-long celebration to commemorate the founding of Warner Brothers Pictures in 1923. Included will be retrospectives of past films, a special series of events at Cannes, and various other activities throughout the companies associated with the picture parent, including recording and publishing subsidiaries. Warner Bros. Pictures was incorporated in Delaware in 1923. The four Warner brothers had been in the business for several years, starting with a nickelodeon in 1906, through distributing films in the east and midwest, to making their own. Their first feature was the 1917 hit My Four Years in Germany. They then opened studios in Hollywood and finally organised Warner Bros. pictures, Harry Warner was the firm’s first president, and his brothers, Albert, Samuel and Jack were vicepresidents. Only Jack survives, and he sold out his interest in 1966. He now produces independently and distributes through Columbia. Until recently the company was never financially blessed. If their innovation in sound experimentation had not worked, the company would probably not exist today. But it did work, and the use of sound in the first picture with sound (Don Juan had a score), the first with speech (The Jazz Singer), and the first all-talking film (The Lights of New York), made the company. Then there was the Warner Brothers style: fast-paced, realistic bul with technical experiment, that is found in movies like The Roaring Twenties, Robin Hood, and Little Caesar. Dramas were basic and emotional, always verging on soap opera but succeeding because of first rate directors and stars such as Bette Davis. That was the thirties. Warners entered a slack period through most of the forties, fifties and sixties, but in the mid-sixties a resurgence took place that could be called remarkable. Whoever it was who chose the people to create films, a real feel for the times and audience needs was realised, consciously or not. It can be said that Warners has had more major films during the past four years than any other company. Artistically and financially. Nor was Warners solely interested in film. Vitaphone records and then Brunswick records in 1930 gave rise to the major influence the Warner labels of today have carried forward: Warners, Elektra, Atlantic and Reprise. Warner Bros. Music is the largest music publishing company in the U.S. with Victor Herbert, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Hammerstein and others, all the way to Bob Dylan, on its roster. Warner's cartoon characters are legendary: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the Road Runner among them. The company also is the second biggest supplier of TV programming in the U.S. Among other celebration events will be a major retrospective at Cannes, along with new product shown. Warners execs are planning to attend. And co-incidentally, the new Burbank Studios, which Warners built and shares with Columbia, is one of the busiest production centres on the continent. What Warners really needs now is to bring . back their musical innovator of forty years ago. Can you just imagine what Busby Berkeley would do for an = anniversary celebration? —_ “X we.