Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 29, 1944)

— Reise sing = go nd “2 c ¢ FCN The New And Greater PRC HARVEST MELODY Rosemary Lane Johnny Downs The Radio Rogues The Vigilantes Eddie LeBaron’s Orchestra Even if you don’t play P:R: Cc See it for your own entertainment JIVE JUNCTION Dickie Moore Tina Thayer Gerra Young Jack Wagner The smartest picture The gayest music The most adorable new star of the year You can rely on PRC NABONGA Buster Crabbe Fifi D’Orsay Barton MacLane dJulle London A Showman's Natural PRC DELIVERS Producers Releasing Corporation LIMITED ecutive Offices: 277 Victoria St., Toronto, 2, Ont. Canadian FILM WEEKLY HOnThe Sey vave with Ave Bo vq Laurie’s Fancy Farewell Some 125 filcker slickers took in the last run of Archie Laurie as a bachelor at the Royal York Roof Garden, to which figure may be added a number of friends from beyond the business. Nat Taylor emceed the gab rodeo and the floor show, Earl Lawson, Haskell Masters, Oscar Hanson and others joining in goodnatured denunciations of the groom-to-be. That gentleman, however, got back at all of them in the best speech of the night. He also unwittingly provided the biggest laugh. Referring to the bride-to-be, Archie said: “I think Sylvia is the sweetest girl in the world and I know she thinks the same of me.” That verbal miscue brought hoots. But in these days of the manpower shortage, even the best dressmaker makes a slip now and then. Best item of entertainment during the evening was the recorded radio program along soap opera lines that was whipped up by Frank O’Byrne and Jack Chisholm of Associated Screen News. They reviewed Archie’s life from his natal wail in Guelph to those screen bublichkas he peddles for Cosmopolitan right now through Esquire. If I was Archie I’d hock that Victory Bond the gathering presented him with, acquire that record and break it. Some of the ASN boys mushed in from Montreal for the doings—Ben Norrish, Bill Singleton and Ernie Roberts. The bad weather kept those boys away to whom railroad schedules were unhandy at the necessary time. Most of them sent humorous messages. As the boys came in they were greeted by a large job of art adorned with Laurie’s congenial kisser. It advertised “Goodbye, Mr. Esquire” and warned readers to “Watch For His Coming Reproductions—lIf Any.” One unplanned event was worth the price of admission in itself. That was the prolonged fiddle duet between Harry Painter and Clarence Causton. Clarence, ye olde maestro of Shea’s when vaudeville was in bloom, had been put into a sentimental mood, by Tom Daley. Both boys are Maritimers from St. John and though they have both inhabited the same chunk of earth there and here at the same time, they had never met unfil this very night. What happens when two exiled Maritimers from the same home town get together? They curse the fate that took them so far from their beloved home and they weep enough tears together to start their own Atlantic Ocean right on the spot. While the boys were digging up other days Harry Price was busy trying to rent the rowboat rights to the Roof Garden. It was no wonder that, after Painter borrowed Causton’s standby fiddle, that the duo yielded nothing but tearful ballads. Though in the midst of the din of the refreshment room, the boys heard none of it, being deep in their fiddle duets and stirring up moist sentiment among the listeners. Strictly on key too, and none of your hick fiddle fandangos either. You could see their hair growing longer by the second. I skipped out before they decided to beat out some Bach but I am pleased to report that many a Jad went flat in one way or another before the fiddlers did. During the dinner Sam Fine and Harry Kaufman seized a floor mike and got on Nat Taylor’s wave length with an unauthorized broadcast. ‘Taylor, however, rode through the decibal storm gracefully. Tom Daley, Walter Kennedy, Frank O’Byrne and others worked hard to put the party over. The head chef, maitre d’hotel and his major-domo, all good friends of Archie, pitched in with unprofessional interest. Those who were there will tell you that they had a grand time. eel “TEST FILM, 10,000 cycles 35 mm., with easy instructions, so that you can focus your Sound Lens in absolute precision and secure clear sound and the Maximum from your sound System. Just what many theatre owners have longed for! Bargain. $6.60.” IAN JE 2027 orn MORE OF your MONEY to wicousi ‘hued te Stipa pores hs OK ZELERS e ASK rile (Ale sie “WAC KACKES US: °° COMINION THEATRE EQUIPMENT CO 897 ONVIE ST VANCOUVER BC “ducers Association is March 29, 194 US ‘Graveyard of British Films ? (Continued from Page 1) that “America is the graveyard of British films. There are today at least 25 British films in New York, none of which has got as far as a projection booth of a cinema. Few will if it is left to American distributors—and it is left to them.” Hutchinson quotes an American and a Briton, both connected with the British film industry, as advocating a quota system for USA films in Britain, “according to the degree of resistance or welcome given British films in the United States.” Those quoted suggested that a permanent distribution setup be created in the USA “which will spend hundreds of thousands of pounds in building up pictures in the trade papers in advance of their showings.” Speaking of American trade indifference to British product, they said that “Britain has one real weapon: Bring back to England all the British directors, stars and writers now in Hollywood, and use them to build up prestige of British pictures.” It was claimed that British films which do get a showing in America are allowed to die— “The Stars Look Down,” for example—and that “Desert Victory’”’ would not have been shown but for the insistence of the Ministry of Information. “In Which We Serve,” with Noel Coward’s prestige behind it, was the last British film bought for USA. distribution. “San Demetrio” is still unbooked. It is generally considered that most British films do not fall in with American and Canadian tastes, Canadian exhibitors are only too willing to play British films if they will do business— and such films have their own distribution machinery here. In Knglana recently Spyros Skouras put his finger on it when he suggested that the native product would have no trouble with American distribution if it Was good. Even J. Arthur Rank, in discussing “The Great Mr. Fiandel,” admitted that British film makers were just beginning to guide themselves by international public taste. The critics quoted above said that outside the big cities there is a dislike of the British accent. None of which is preventing British film makers from asking for reciprocity. The British Prosending Isidore Ostrer to discuss proposals with American executives. Possibly the purpose of continual publicity is to have the USA ready and waiting for British films when they have found the key to popular taste, ca