Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 22, 1942)

Page 6 ’ Canadian FILM WEEKLY April 22nd, 1942 The National KFiim Board Roly Young, Screen Columnist of the Toronto Globe and Mail, Describes Its Operation In This First of Several Articles About the NFB The business of selling Canada to her neighbors is rapidly becoming a big business, but the business of selling Canada to Canadians is an even bigger business. It’s such a big business, in fact, that there’s a Government agency dedicated to the work. Naturally such an agency is located in Ottawa, and it bears the impressive title, “National Film Board.” To reach the headquarters of this august organization you take a cab and drive down the picturesque winding road that follows the shore of the Ottawa River. It takes only about fifteen minutes from the centre of the city, and the cab pulls into a clearing beside an impressive edifice. That’s not the headquarters of the Film Board, however. That’s the Vichy French Legation. Across the street is an old factory or warehouse. That’s RKO Plans Six Lum and Abners Jock Votion, producer of the “Lum and Abner” features for RKO Radio, is issuing a call for six original stories suitable for filming with Chester Lauck and Norris Goff (Lum and Abner) in the leading roles. First of the pictures starring these radio characters from Pine Ridge, Arkansas, was ‘Dreaming Out Loud.” The second, ‘The Bashful Bachelor,” will be nationally released next week. With subsequent Lum and Abned comedies to be filmed, Votion is eager for new story ideas and invites material to ben sent to him at the RKO Pathe Studios, Culver City, California. Eugene Pallette, Barton McLane and Agnes Moorehead have been added to the cast of “It Comes Up Love,” the Damon Runyon production for RKO Radio based on his popular story “Little Pinks.” This picture, with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball in the top roles, faces the cameras next week. Laid in Manhattan and Miami, it concerns a night club singer and a bus boy, with Runyon’s inimitable characters expressing themselves in choice Runyonese. Erford Gage is the second screen newcomer to be added to the cast of “Name, Age and Occupation,” the picture Pare Lorentz is producing for RKO Radio. Like Robert Ryan, who was picked for the leading role, Gage comes from the Broadway stage. He was last seen in the Maurice Evans production of “Macbeth.’’, The growing position of Canada’s National Film Board in the motion picture world has caused increased curiosity about it at home. The trade knows little about the Board, except that its product is offered to exhibitors much in the same way as that of any exchange. In the estimates for 1942-48 the NFB, under John Grierson, was given an appropriation of $737,000. Roly Young has done a thorough job of examining the NFB. the National Film Board's head-} quarters. an The board, however, has only a portion of this building. The remainder of the place is occupied by some sanitary or public health service whose principal stock in trade, one presumes from a hasty glance, is a prize collection of caged mice and an overwhelming aroma of disinfectant. The mixture of this ethereal disinfectant with the smells characteristic o/ a film studio and laboratory makes for an atmosphere that is ~distinctly ‘heady” ... and I don't mean Lamarr. Spread through several floors of the building are some 14C members of the staff of the board working under the leadership of Film Commissioner John Grierson and his assistant, Ross McLean. To the casual observer it may look like an old warehouse down by the river, but inside it is the beehive which only a film studio can be. The Film Board’s most spectacular and well-known product is the monthly release of the series of pictures known as “Canada Carries On,” but while this may be its most elaborate and professional effort it constitutes only a small portion of the work of the organization. Less publicized, but vitally important, is the board’s endeavors in the 16 mm. field and its vast nation-wide organization of noncommercial “circuits.’”’ These rural’ circuits are opening up a vast unexplored field for motion-picture entertainment, and the Film Board shows are bringing their messages of propaganda and education to a huge audience that hitherto has not been serviced by this medium. Programs are presented free, the board supplying a complete mobile projection unit, with an operator and all the necessary equipment. The local sponsoring committees have only to provide a suitable hall. Some thirty-five or more of the units are equipped! with their own portable power plants so that they can venture into territory not yet reached by electric power lines. Circuits are arranged so that a unit will visit each community on a regular date, usually at intervals of once a month. The shows are presented free. The programs do not contain the type of film that can be described as “entertainment” film, but present the “Canada Carries On” pictures and similar films dealing | with various war efforts and activities. Their showing usually) leads into-an informal discussion, and the board supplies the literature to provide material for the} chairman of the show to open up! a round-table talk based on the film program. Because the films have shown them what they car do and how to do it, they have led to the organization of many concrete war efforts in small communities from coast to coast. Some idea of the importance of]. . the work can be gained from the fact that these many small groups total an audience which ranges from 250,000 to 400,000 per month. (The size of this new movie audience that is being created for the commercial theatre suggests that the commercial industry might well make a_ substantial cash subsidy available for such invaluable missionary work.) Vivid lessons in Canadianism are being brought to new Canadians, and they are being brought graphic and lasting impressions regarding this country and tangible evidence of the benefits and advantages of the democratic way of life in Canada. Thus, through the efforts of this “field division” of the National Film Board, wider horizons are opened to peoples dwelling in the most remote parts of the country, and instead of knowing just their own locality they are now seeing the country as a whole and their place in this vastly larger picture. The activities of the Film Board not only reach the English-speak ing Canadian, age. Units are provided with French-language versions of the films, four in the Province of Quebec, one each in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In Manitoba, too, films are provided with a Ukrainian commentary to reach communities in that language group. These Canadian film programs go into the furthest reaches of the country. A mission boat, for instance, makes a six-weeks tour up and down the British Columbia coast, carrying the film message of Canadianism to thousands who would mot otherwise be reached. The Hudson’s Bay Company is sending a Film Board program along with its annual summer expedition and will show it to many thousands of Eskimos. And so the story of Canada and Canadianism is spread across the land, and all from the shabby old warehouse on the banks of the Ottawa with its population of mice and men. Doings in Hollywood Shooting schedule on ‘Desperate Journey,” at Warner Bros., changed so Ronald Reagan could finish his role before reporting April 19 for active duty as U.S. army lieutenant . . . Walt Disney begins work on another musical cartoon as successor to ‘‘Fantasia’”’ . Jane Wyman, Warner Bros. actress, named ‘1942 National Buddy Poppy Girl’ by Veterans of Foreign Wars .. . Milton Berle rents two nearby homes in Beverly Hills, one for himself and bride and one for his mother. Famed play, ‘Old Acquaintance,” and “Reminiscence,” another drama, placed on production scedule at Warner Bros. ... When young Dickie Jones broke his leg Paramount chose Billy Cook for boy’s role in ‘‘The Major and the Minor.” His first day on the lot Billy came down with the measles ... The Nancy Coleman-Richard Travis friendship ripening, with Travis having dinner with Nancy and her mother... Greta Garbo rides a bus from Beverly Hills downtown before she is recognized . . . The Fuji Theatre, only Jap owned movie house in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, closed with the patrons’ evacuation. _ “Buffalo Bill,” based on the career of America’s most famous scout, announced as new Warner Bros. western epic, with Ronald Reagan starred in fitle role. but are taken to other groups in their own 1anguQOS | |