Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 9, 1942)

Page scan 0003 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Dec 9, 1942
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 9, 1942)
Leaf #:
0003
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Canada, Hollywood Studio System, and Global Cinema
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Canadian Picture Pioneers, Paul Moore and Jessica Whitehead
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Canadian Film Weekly

  • Editor: Hye Bossin (1942-64)
  • Renamed Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly (1965-69, editor: Stan Helleur)
  • Renamed Candian Film Weekly(1970, editor: Ed Hocura)

Canadian Film Weekly (1942-70) was edited by Hye Bossin and published by Film Publications of Canada, Ltd., wholly owned by leading exhibitor, Nat Taylor. In the late 1930s, Taylor was head of the Independent Theatre Association and his Toronto-based chain, Twinex-Century (Twentieth Century), was the largest independent circuit in the country. In 1941, however, he negotiated for chain affiliation with upstart Canadian Odeon before leveraging a better deal and greater booking control with nationally-dominant Famous Players Canada, Ltd. No longer independent, he took ownership of the Independent Theatre Association’s semi-monthly magazine, The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (1940-41), installed Hye Bossin as editor, and laid plans to relaunch in January 1942 under a new name, Canadian Film Weekly. This enduring key publication was no longer solely focused on independent exhibitors but instead covered the entire industry on a national scale–exhibition, distribution and production–with some attention given to studio news from New York and Hollywood.

Bossin was a vibrant writer with a canny way with words, admired in the industry in the United States as well as Canada. He was one of a large family who lived above their father’s secondhand shop in the Jewish “ward” downtown in Toronto. His older brother was a bookie with ties to the underground; his younger brother was a famous journalist, protégé of Walter Winchell, and Hollywood screenwriter. In contrast, Hye spent nearly two decades learning the publishing trade in a printers’ shop before trying a stint as a Hollywood publicist, then writing a column for the Toronto Star Weekly before taking Taylor’s offer to edit the Film Weekly. Bossin was central to the creation of the Canadian Film Archive, the Canadian Film Awards, and he wrote some of the first histories of early cinema in Canada, published in the first volumes of the annual Canadian Film Weekly Year Book (1951-70).

In 1957, the Film Weekly had incorporated the rival Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1917-57), and began dating its start to that paper’s earlier start as the Canadian Universal Bulletin (1915-18). Subsequent variants of the Canadian Film Weekly and its yearbooks always claimed their roots all the way back to 1915 and the origins of the film industry trade press in Canada. After Bossin died in 1964, the Weekly’s new editor, Stan Helleur, renamed the magazine Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly, scaling back the pace of publishing but adding a purview for television and broadcasting. The annual was renamed similarly, its subtitle amended to “Year Book of the Canadian Entertainment Industry.” An attempted renewal to weekly format in 1970, edited by Ed Hocura, was short-lived and Nat Taylor decided instead to relaunch under an entirely new title, Canadian Film Digest (1971-77) and Canadian Film Digest Yearbook (1971-86).

– Paul Moore, March 2024

Further Reading

  • Bossin, Hye. “Canada and the Film: The Story of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry.” In Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry, 21-41. Toronto: Film Publications of Canada, 1951.
  • Moore, Paul. “Chronicling a National History: Hye Bossin’s Canadian Film Weekly and Year Book.” In Eric Hoyt and Kelley Conway, eds., Global Movie Magazines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2024.

Date Added:
August 08, 2024
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

moms Canadian FILM WEEKLY . Decoseee oie ONE OF OUR AIRCRAFT IS MISSING (Esquire) It must be that the long years of superhuman endurance by the English is their opposition to barbarism, particularly when they stood alone against the Hun and London became the heart of the world, has bred a deeper realism in them than in any other nation. This straightforward attitude has certainly influenced their film makers, judging by the direct and uncolored quality of their war films. “One of Our Aircraft is Missing’’ has the conviction bred of honesty. That, added to splendid acting and production, has made it an outstanding motion picture. From beginning to end it generates suspense, providing one of the best views yet of the Underground at work. A British air crew, after a raid on Germany, bails out over Holland and, with the help of the Dutch, work their way back to Britain. There isn’t much more to it than that—but that is enough to build a first-class film on. Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, Hay Petrie, Pamela Brown and others do fine work. ICE-CAPADES (Republic) This ice spectacle will have a sure appeal at the boxoffice and is a considerable improvement over the studio’s similar effort last season. There are a number of outstanding production numbers as good as anything attempted elsewhere but which could have been even better with more flexible camera work. The world’s leading skaters are here en masse, among them two very popular in Canada, Megan Taylor and her father. The comedy, handled by Jerry Colona and Vera Vague, is adequate. The story deals with a young lady, Ellen Drew, who inherits a hard-up ice carnival, and Richard Denning, a racko’s stooge, who tries to swindle her out of it for his boss. He falls in love with her and double-crosses the boss by leading it to success. THUNDER BIRDS (20th Century-Fox) Though this flying film moves along in leisurely fashion for the most part, it generates sufficient interest all along the route to make up for the lack of occasional suspense. The Technicolor, though concentrating on sky and desert, is without the slightest glare or overtone and because of this there is an air of friendly animation over everything. The locale is Thunder Bird Field, in Arizona, where United Nations’ flyers are trained. Here Preston Foster, veteran ace, signs on to instruct. His sweetheart, Gene Tierney, lives with her grandfather, George Barbier, at a nearby ranch. She falls for John Sutton, English novice, who is Foster’s pupil. Foster keeps him from being washed out and makes a flyer of him, a noble gesture. Though there is music, none of it is military. ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas” gets plenty of play but no palm-pounding. The mixture of Western and flying ingredients comes off very well. Tierney photogs gorgeously in tints and the whole thing is very worthwhile, @RANDOM HARVEST (Regal) | | Few films have reached as deeply into the hearts of the patrons as will this long story of a man fighting his way back to the world he left behind when he regained his memory. The story, from a book by James Hilton, is powerfully presented by a perfectly cast crew headed by Greer Garson and Ronald Colman. The film gets under way a bit uncertainly but soon hits its stride and drives forward with great emotional intensity, freezing the attention of the audience. The scene is England. Colman is an asylum inmate whose facility of speech has dwindled because of incarceration and his inability to remember the past. Greer Garson is a small-time trouper who encounters him after his escape and adopts him. After she has helped him regain his physical and mental health they marry and settle down. Colman is winning some success as a writer when an accident in Liverpool causes him to regain his memory and return to the life he knew before a war wound caused his amnesia. Garson, forgotten, finds him again and, unrecognized, becomes his secretary. The studio’s attempt to make this one of the big pictures of the year is highly successful. It is crammed with players of firstrate calibre, such as Rhys Williams, Una O’Connor, Charles Waldron, Elisabeth Risdon, Melville Cooper, Margaret Wicherly, Phillip Dorn, Susan Peters, Henry Travers and others. WHISTLING IN DIXIE (Regal) Red Skelton keeps on “whistling in the Dark” in this one. He’s again the radio detective who can’t find time to marry Ann Rutherford and gets mixed up with real crime. Funny periodically. George Bancroft, Guy Kibbie, Diana Lewis and Rags Ragland. ISLE OF MISSING MEN (Monogram) A nice melodrama which maintains a constant interest and develops well. Background is penal island to which Helen Gilbert comes to visit her husband. He’s later revealed as a bigamist and Helen hooks up with the governor. John Howard, Gilbert Rowjand, Alan Mowbray, Dewey Robinson and others keep it going. SEVEN MILES FROM ALCATRAZ (RKO) A well-geared drama about two escapees who get in with a Nazi mob and capture them as part of their debt to society. With James Craig, Bonita Granville, Frank Jenks and Cliff Edwards. TOMORROW WE LIVE (PRC) Lively melodrama about a mobster and tire thief who is killed by the army sweetheart of the man whom he has forced to join his racket. Jean Parker, Ricardo Cortez, Emmett Lynn and William Marshall. CONSERVE YOUR EQUIPMENT eee with Regular Service L theatre will have to last for the duration—and regardless of how long that may be, regular service will help to i i its high°. 4 ° . : Be snore aod oa ieee Dominion Sound kquipments your maintenance problems : that much easier. Branches at LIMITEO Head Office: 1620 Notre Dame Street West, Montreal HALIFAX TORONTO WINNIPEG REGINA CALGARY VANCOUVER