Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Dec 31, 1955)

oe DECEMBER 31, FORWARD LOOK (Continued from Page 1) Universal executives reviewed production, distribution and promotion plans for 1956 which the company aims to make its sixth record-breaking year in a row. Twelve power-packed pictures, most of them screened for the sales and promotion executives during the course of their meetings, will be released during the four months of the Feldman Drive period. They will be supported in the traditional U-I promotional manner to deliver the most effective selling impact to the nation’s boxoffices. In announcing the release schedule for early °56, Sales Manager Mark Plottel, hailed these pictures as the greatest grossing group of boxoffice attractions in the history of U-I. This schedule of pre-sold properties offering a variety of outstanding screen entertainment with a group of Hollywood’s top boxoffice stars, reaffirms U-I’s policy of confidence in our industry and responsibility to our exhibitor customers. 1955 Another January release is “The Spoilers” in Technicolor starring Anne Baxter, Jeff Chandler, Rory Calhoun, Ray Danton, Barbara Britton and John McIntyre. Based on the Rex Beach classic this is being hailed as one of the most exciting action dramas of the Yukon gold rush. The final January release will be “The Square Jungle” an off-beat and unusual prize-fighting drama starring Tony Curtis, Pat Crowley and Ernest Borgnine and featuring Paul Kelly, Jim Backus, Leigh Snowden and Joe Louis. “The Benny Goodman Story,” in Technicolor, starring television’s top personality Steve Allen and Donna Reed and endowed by Aaron Rosenberg with the same record-breaking boxoffice components as “The Glenn Miller Story,” highlights the February releases. “There’s Always Tomorrow,” a domestic drama _ starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Joan Bennett, Pat Crowley, William Reynolds and Gigi Perreau, will be the second February release. The Universal-International organization in Canada takes great pride in again joining with their cousins in the United States in honoring Charles J. Felderman in the 1956 Feldman Drive. The inspiration, hard) work and leadership of Charlie Feldman have been an example to all of us in Canada. With the all important help and assistance of the great Studio organi. zation certain to make 1956 the greatest production and releasing year ever, we pledge to make this 1956 Drive one of the ‘most successful of all times. It will not be for the want of planning and hard work if we fail to achieve this goal. A. W. PERRY President MARK PLOTTEL General Sales Mgr. Seven of the pictures will be in Technicolor and one in CinemaScope with the group being highlighted by the release in February of “The Benny Goodman Story,” which the company feels is the most pre-sold picture in its history. Already set for Christmas-New Year's release in key situations from coast to coast is “The Second Greatest Sex,” the company’s CinemaScope and Technicolor film production which has been hailed by the trade press as being in the same happy musical and comedy vein as “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” Heading the large» cast are Jeanne Crain, George Nader, Kitty Kallen, Bert Lahr, Mamie Van Doren, Keith Andes, Kathleen Case and Paul Gilbert. It was produced by Albert J. Cohen and directed by the veteran George Marshall. Also scheduled is “All That. Heaven “Allows,” in Technicolor starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson and delivered by the same producer-director team Ross Hunter and Douglas Sirk which was responsible for the record-breaking “Magnificent Obsession.” March releases will be “Never Say Goodbye,” the Technicolor drama starring Rock Hudson, Cornell Borchers and George Saunders, the film which marks the American debut of Miss Borchers, the British Academy Award winning actress and Continental sensation; “Red Sundown” a Western in Technicolor starring Rory Calhoun, Martha Hyer and Dean Jagger; and “World In My Corner” a drama starring Audie Murphy and Barbara Rush and co-starring Jeff Morrow and John McIntire, Murphy’s first film since the record-smashing performance of his current “To Hell and Back.” For April release, U-I will have “Backlash” an impressive Western drama starring Richard Widmark and Donna Reed and co-starring William Campbell and John McIntire; the perennial Springtime favorite “The Kettles in the Ozarks” which stars Marjorie Main with Arthur Hunnicutt and “The Creature Walks Among Us” starring Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason and Leigh Snowden and designed to produce the same shocker results as the previous “Creature” films. ~“RIGECT PAGE SEVEN "1956; ¥. a good whe, year... By J. J. FITZGIBBONS In 1955 motion pictures in Canada experienced the first noticeable impact of television. New stations opened across Canada bringing the novelty of television into thousands of additional homes. The producers of feature motion pictures are meeting the challenge of television by more expensive and higher quality product. In 1955 a temporary shortage in the number of pictures available was created by a limited supply of talent and properties. This added to the difficulties of theatres, particularly those operating on multiplechange policies. It is, of course, impossible to gauge with any degree of accuracy what will be the public’s taste in entertainment and last year the producers’ average was not as high as usual. We are certain that no other form of theatre entertainment has been devised that can be as satisfying as a good motion picture. No other medium has the scope and spectacular possibilities such as can be portrayed on a large motion picture screen with color and new, realistic sound, We are aware of the many unusual and spectacular pictures being prepared in Hollywood, England and Italy. We have seen enough of some of these features to lead us to expect that the earnings of our Company will improve over those of 1955, One such feature is Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” with breath-taking scope and, incidentally, as a result of this scope, a negative cost that exceeds that of any picture ever produced. We have seen this picture in the making and the production beggars description. Famous Players has joined with Paramount Pictures Corporation, its principal shareholder, by branching out into the field of electronics and television and through Paramount has acquired the Canadian rights for the manufacture of the Lawrence color television tube. We recently witnessed a spectacular demonstration of this tube which delivered a color picture of exceptional clarity and color. Our Company also controls the Canadian rights for Telemeter, a pay-as-you-see system of television which is, we believe, destined to play an important role in entertainment of tomorrow. In the face of gloomy predictions Famous Players directors entered another field of mass entertainment—television. We have a 50% interest in two stations—CFCM-TV in Quebec City and CKCO-TYV in Kitchener. Though in operation a short time, both stations are proving to be very satisfactory and profitable investments. Though our company is interested in several subsidiaries such as General Theatre Supply Co., Theatre Confections Ltd. and various electronic devices we are and will continue to be, primarily operators of motion picture theatres. We believe that if the product delivered to us by the leading studios measures up to that we have seen to date, 1956 should be a good year for the Canadian Motion Picture Industry. J. J. FITZGIBBONS, President, Famous Players Canadian Corp. a @