Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 10, 1948)

Page scan 0001 from Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest
Date:
Jan 10, 1948
Volume:
Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Jan 10, 1948)
Leaf #:
0001
Language:
English
Collection:
Canada, Hollywood Studio System, Early Cinema, and Global Cinema
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Canadian Media Magazines Project, Paul Moore and Jessica Whitehead
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Canadian Moving Picture Digest

Editors: Merrick R. Nutting (1917-18), Raymond S. Peck (1918), Ray Lewis (1918-19 and 1920-54), Walter Greene (1919-20), Jay Smith (1954-57)

Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1917-57) was initially a Montréal-based rival of the first film paper in Canada, Toronto-based Canadian Universal Bulletin (1915-18, edited by W.A. Bach 1915-17, J.W. Cambridge 1917-18, Raymond S. Peck 1918). The two periodicals were combined in 1918, keeping the Digest name, but moving production to Toronto with Peck as editor. Canadian Moving Picture Digest assumed The Bulletin’s volume numbering and always claimed 1915 as its year of origin. Ray Lewis (née Rae Levinsky) was a writer and playwright, who spent time in early Hollywood’s publicity departments. She briefly took the Digest helm in 1918, then long-term editor, later owner and publisher, from 1920 until her death in 1954. Under Lewis’s leadership, the trade paper claimed to serve as a voice for independent exhibitors and advocated for a Canadian cultural presence in cinema, particularly emphasizing British films as a way to keep a distance from Hollywood. Lewis's editorials were notable for their advocacy, wit, and critique of American dominance in the Canadian film market. While initially positioning herself as an outsider, she became integrated within the industry and a true insider. She even had an ongoing correspondence with Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, advocating for the industry as a whole and supporting British film imports. She was well-known at Toronto’s Dundas Square film row as well as in New York and Hollywood. Variety’s Sime Silverman called her “the Girl Friend in Canada,” and she delighted when U.S. writers not “in the know” presumed “Ray” was a man’s name. Lewis was later an inaugural member of the Canadian Picture Pioneers, eventually the group’s first female president and Pioneer of the Year. After she died in 1954, her son Jay Smith took over editorial duties until Canadian Moving Picture Digest was bought by Nat Taylor’s Film Publications of Canada in 1957. Taylor incorporated the legacy journal into a joint masthead for Canadian Film Weekly (1942-70), which subsequently dated its roots back to the 1915 origins of the film press in Canada.

– Jessica Whitehead and Paul Moore, March 2024

Further Reading

  • Whitehead, Jessica, Louis Pelletier and Paul Moore, “‘The Girl Friend in Canada’: Ray Lewis and Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1915–1957).” In Daniel Biltereyst and Lies Van de Vijver, eds., Mapping Movie Magazines: Digitization, Periodicals and Cinema History, 127-52. London: Pagrave-Macmillan, 2021.

Date Added:
April 11, 2024
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Page 2 CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST Warner Bros. Increase Production Plan 40 Pictures For Coming Year Warner Bros. motion picture in its history, producers, studio set its sights on the most ambitious year backed up by unprecedented recent signing of additional stars, directors and production units. Jack I Warner, after months of preparation of the 1948 Warner Bros. program, announced that a capacity schedule of top quality productions has been put into work, with twelve productions due to go before the cameras in the first quarter of the year alone. Tinport ant alliances with Cagney Productions, ‘Transatlantic Pictures Corp. of England, Michael Curtiz Productions and United States Pictures are highlights of the new production program. 40 Pictures In Preparation With more than 40 pictures now in various stages of preparation, Warner revealed that Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford, Errol Tlynn, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck, Lauren Bacall, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman and 20 other Warner Bros. stars have been assigned top roles for the coming year. Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Danny Kave, Ingrid Bergman, James Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock head the personalities brought under the Warner Bros. banner within the past few weeks, through long-term contracts and special production-and-release agreements. New additions to the Warner Bros. creative roster include famed directors Bretaigne Windust, Elliott Nugent and Henry Koster and writer-producer Anthony Veiller. Producer and writer lists are being further augmented, Warner disclosed, in preparation for the studio’s new activity peak. Quality To Be imprenee “Weare going allout”, Warner said, “to meet today’s challenge with the most important program of quality motion pictures we have ever undertaken. Solid entertainment will be the watchword of that program. We are going to film dramas, comedies, melodramas and musicals from hit plays, best selling novels and powerful original stories that have the human interest qualities which insure entertainment. To Shoot 12 In January “We expect to have twelve pictures in production or ready to shoot at the studios by January” ‘Those, Warner said, will be: “Key Largo”, which will star Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore and Claire Trevor in the screen adaptation of Maxwell Anderson’s drama under the direction of John Huston, produced by Jerry Wald; “Rope”, first of the ‘Transatlantic Pictures productions in Technicolor which Alfred Hitchcock will direct with James Stewart as the star; “The 49ers”, to be filmed in Technicolor as a Michael Curtiz production with Curtiz directing; “Until Proven Guilty”, to star Joan Crawford and to be produced by Jerry Wald; “Autumn Crocus”, from a play by Dodie Smith, screenplay by Irmgard von Cube and Allen Vincent, to star Viveca Lindfors, sensational new Swedish actress, which Henry Blanke will produce; “The Fountainhead”, continuing best seller by Ayn Rand, which Blanke also will produce; “than Frome”, — starring Robert Davis; “The Story of Seabiscuit”, film biography of the great race horse, to be filmed in Technicolor, with David Butler directing and William Jacobs producing ; “The Turquoise”, by Anya Seton, to star [Errol Flynn, Claude Rains and Dorothy Malone; “Copper Hill”, Gary Cooper's first picture on his new long term contract, which producer Alex Gottlieb is havi ing prepared from a novel by Stephen Longstreet ; ‘Girl From Jones Beach’, to star Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson and Janis Paige, also to be produced by Alex Gottheb; “June Bride’, starring Bette Davis from a story by Eileen Tighe and Graeme Lorimer, written as a screenplay and to be produced by Ronald MacDougall, Bretaigne Windust to direct; and “Sunburst”, by Aleck Block and Dietrich V. Hanneken, also to be produced by Ronald MacDougail. Film Pictures In England After completing “Rope”, at the Burbank Studios, Alfred Hitchcock will direct Ingrid Bergman in “Under Capricorn”, which will be filmed in Technicolor at the Warner Studios in England under terms of the unique agreement made by Warner Bros, and Transatlantic Pictures. Both films, Warner said, will be handled by the world-wide distribution facilities of his company, adding that “both the American and British industries will benefit from such an exchange of talent and facilities.” The newly completed Warner-Cagney partnership brings future James Cagney starring vehicles under Warner release. It will bring immediately two best-sellers to the Warner release schedule. Starting shortly is Thorne Smith’s ‘Phe Stray Lamb”. It will be followed by Adria Locke Langley’s “A Lion Is In the Streets”. Both films will star James Cagney and will have William Cagney at the production helm, According to William Cagney, Warner Bros. also will release the recently-completed film version of the William Sarovan drama, “Time Of Your Life”. ~ After completing the ‘lechnicolor special, “The 49ers”, for Warner release, Michael Curtiz Productions will film “Forever and Always”, a modern January 10th, 1948 musical also in Technicolor to star Jack Carson and Doris Day. United States Pictures, with “My Girl Tisa” completed and ready for release, is preparing “The Long Way Home”, Millard eee drama to reunite Lilli Palmer and Sam Wanamaker, the “My Girl Tisa” co-stars ; Robert Sylvester’s “Dream Street”, Dan Totheroh’s “Distant Drums”, and Jack Kafka’s boomtown tale, “The Apple Orchard”, and “Sister Act’, by Fanny Hurst, with music, for early production. Seven Producers Active The accelerated production pace will be continued throughout the year with seven producers now actively preparing seventeen additional valuable story properties assigned to them by Warner. Most of these are in completed script form with studio writers assigned to polishing jobs where they are not already in “ready to shoot” form. Henry Blanke, presently handling production reins on the Bette Davis starrer, “Winter Meeting’, has been given two additional Davis vehicles to prepare for filming. They are “Ethan Frome”, from the Edith Wharton novel, and “The Two Worlds of Johnny Truro”, by George Sklar. Also on Blanke’s slate is “Return of the Soldier’, by Rebecca West, screenplay by Catherine Turney. Alex Gottlieb will produce ‘The Story of Will Rogers’, an inspirational American annal starring Will Rogers, Jr., to be filmed in Technicolor. ‘The Gay Nineties”, a Michael Curtiz Production, to star Jack Carson, Doris Day and S. Z. Sakall; and “One Last Fling”, an original by Herbert Clyde Lewis. Producer William Jacobs, currently Supervising, editing and scoring on the recently-completed “April Showers”, starring Jack Carson and Ann Sothern, has been assigned an important Technicolor property, “Montana”, to be hlmed in actual locale starring Ronald Reagan; and “When Old New York Was Young”, to be made in Technicolor with a cast headed by Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Lois Maxwell and Dorothy Malone. Harry Kurnitz is preparing and will produce an important American biographical chapter based on the life story of Eddie Cantor, to be filmed in Technicolor ; and ‘ ‘Cleopatra Arms”, from a story by Everett Freeman, screenplay by Kurnitz, to star Dennis Morgan and Lauren Bacall. Seton I. Miller’s schedule includes a drama based on “Bright Leaf”, new novel by Foster FitzSimons; and “Colt .45”, screenplay by Miller, to be directed by Raoul Walsh, to star Errol Flynn. Jerry Wald, with “The Adventures of Don Juan” in current production and-*‘Johnny Belinda” and “To the Victor” both editing, will produce “One Sunday Afternoon”, a musical (Continued on Page 6)