Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 30, 1943)

Page 6 ALEXANDER KORDA Presents Sanders of the River With the Golden Voice of Paul Robeson Story by EDGAR WALLACE With Leslie Banks Nina Mae McHinney and a cast of thousands * The most amazing thriller makes new boxoffice records You Must See CORREGIDOR Producers Releasing Corporation LIMITED Executive Offices: 277 Victoria St., Toronto, 2, Ont. © Canadian FILM WEEKLY Television Set tor Peacetime Sweep Television is pacing victory and it has become apparent that it will sweep the amusement field shortly after the war is won. Just how it will affect motion picture entertainment, supplementing or rivalling it, however, have come to accept® it as inevitable and are preparing as much as possible for the day when the relationship of television to theatre entertainment must be determined. Motion picture executives are distinctly not asleep. A number of studios and theatre chains have stepped into fleld and made preliminary arrangements. Experimental licenses are held by Balaban & Katz, a USA theatre chain; the Allen B. DuMont Laboratories., a Paramount affiliate; RCA and General Electric, which companies have film connections, and others. Both 20th Century-Fox and Paramount are large stockholders in the Scophony Corporation of America, headed by Arthur Levey, and the company is going straight ahead for the day of change. RKO and MGM are said to have a finger or two in the television pie. Television was given its first theatre tryout at the Rialto, New York, in May, 1941, before a full house and it was hailed as highly successful. Back in 1935 D. EB. Aylesworth, then president of both the National Broadcasting Company and RKO, predicted that it would be only a matter of months before television revolutionized the entertainment world. Now William Baltin of DuMont announces that because of the newest laboratory developments ‘“‘television will electrify the amusement world after the war, in the same manner as talking pictures did when they were introduced 15 years ago.” Just how theatres will get the television “product” has everyone guessing. If the screen fare is projected from a central source, in the manner of radio, it will upset the structure of exhibition and distribution as we know it today. Nor is it known what changes in theatre construction will be made necessary. It may be that those theatres erected during the building boom that will follow the war will have the advantage. From here television seems a hybrid art, a cross between films Pat Drohan’s Son In England Flight Sergeant Arthur Drohan, son of popular Pat Drohan, manager of the Capitol, Chatham, Ontario, has arrived in England. He's the second of Pat’s boys in the services. is not clear yet. The studios, and radio. The custodians of both parent arts are each anxious to control the future of the offspring. At the same time there is a distinct group of televisionists who | want to be its legal guardians. The three-cornered race for a place in post-war entertainment should cause the biggest amusement boom since motion pictures captured the public fancy. But exhibitors and studios have their defences ready while scouts range far afield to examine the territory and what it hides. Columbia Has Record Agenda Columbia announces the biggest Summer production schedule in its history, Fourteen features will be shooting between now and Fall, in addition to two serials and several comedies. A number of the studio’s top productions are set for rolling within the next few weeks, including ‘Cover Girl,” Rita Hayworth starred in Technicolor, which Arthur Schwartz produces, Charles Vidor directing. “Tropicana,” with Victor Moore, Bill Gaxton and Mae West, produced by Gregory Ratoff and Harry Goetz, with Ratoff direct ing. “Mr. Winkle Goes to War,” a Harold Lloyd production, and “My Client Curley,’ which is being readied as a Cary Grant starring vehicle. Now in the last stages of preparation are “Life of Al Jolson,” which Sidney Skolsky will produce, ‘Ten Percent Woman,” Rosalind Russell vehicle, and “Heart of a City,” which co-stars Rita Hayworth and Janet Blair in a screen adaptation of the celebrated play about a little theatre during the London 1940 Blitz. Also on the Columbia program are “There’s Something About a Soldier,’ O. C..S. training story which will be filmed largely on location in North Carolina; ‘‘Footlight Glamor,” latest in the Arthur Lake-Penny Singleton ‘Blondie’ series; ‘‘When My Baby Smiles At Me” Ted Lewis feature; ‘‘Doughboys in Ireland,” A. E. F. musical about the men in Service overseas, ‘Jam Session,” all-band production which will feature a number of top-name orchestras, leading radio entertainers and _ singers; “Nine Girls,” mystery comedy with an aJjl feminine cast, and “The Gamble of Boston Blackie,’’ which Wallace MacDonald will produce. June 30, 1948 | 20th-Fox Lot Is oe A Busy Place In the two remaining months before the end of the 1942-43 season, 20th Century-Fox will have completed enough product to give the company a 30 per cent headstart on next year’s total output. Ten films are being edited and scored awaiting release and four additional pictures will be finished soon. The stages will be busy with four films during July. Completed films in or near release, part of the biggest backlog in this studio's history, are Ernst Lubitsch’s Technicolor comedy, “Heaven Can Wait’; ‘Jane Eyre”; “Coney Island”; “Claudia”; “Holy Matrimony,” directed by John Stahl and produced by Nunnally Johnson; “Sweet Rosie O'Grady,” Technicolor musical; “Stormy Weather,” Negro musical produced by William LeBaron; ‘“Bomber’s Moon,” produced by Sol Wurtzel; Lee Marcus’ “Roger Touhy, the Last of the Gangsters”; and a Laurel and Hardy comedy, “Jit terbugs.” Films nearly ready include “The Song of Bernadette,” directed by Henry King; a Sonja Henle icemusical, ‘‘Wintertime,” produced by William LeBaron, and “The Night Is Ending,” produced by Andre Daven and directed by Leonid Moguy. Three other films are now before the cameras and the company will start four more before July 19. Funny Man Holtz Signed by MGM MGM has signed Lou Holtz, noted comedian, to a two-way contract under which he will act as actor and producer for one year. When he’s not acting he'll be coproducing with Arthur Freed. “Zeigfeld Follies’ will be his first acting job. The contract starts when Holtz finishes an eastern tour July 6th. Columbia Has Strong Financial Report Net profit for Columbia Pictures Corporation for the first 39 weeks of the company’s fiscal year was $1,032,000 as compared with $942,000 in the same period last year, The gain is equal to $2.39 per common share as compared with $2.15 in the corresponding period @ year ago. The company’s operating profit before taxes was more than double last year’s sum, amounting to $3,320,000 as against $1,590,000 last year. The tax increase comes to $1,600,000, being $2,280,000 in the first three quarters ending March this year as against $648,000 in the previous period.