Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 2, 1944)

Page scan 0002 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Aug 2, 1944
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 2, 1944)
Leaf #:
0002
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
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 01, 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.

Vol. 9, No. 31 REVIEWS FROM FILM DAILY, NEW YORK The Kansan It Happened Seven Days with Richard Dix, Jane Wyatt UA 79 Mins. WESTERN IS MASTERPIECE OF ACTION; EXCITEMENT IS STRONG FACTOR IN MAKING FILM A HIT, In “The Kansan” Harry Sherman has delivered another generous and juicy hunk of western entertainment. He has taken plenty of pains to give horse opera fans a world of reason to cheer. His latest offering is right off the top shelf in every respect. George Archainbaud, who directed, and Harold Shumate, who did the screenplay from a book by Frank Gruber, have concocted between them a western which seethes with fury. They have overlooked nothing to make “The Kansan” a masterpiece of action, The picture is an explosive affair that advances from one moment of high action to another, never allowing the interest to slip for a moment in the transition. The action in “The Kansan” takes place in 1870 in a Kansas frontier community which is owned practically lock, stock and barrel by the town banker (Albert Dekker), who will brook no interference with his determination to increase his power. The fellow backs the evil element to keep the citizenry in a constant state of terror and thereby advance his own interests. Into the picture rides Richard Dix, who ts on his way to Oregon. Dix’s fearlessness inspires the people to elect him marshal against his will. He is determined to move on until he meets Jane Wyatt, with whom he proceeds to fall in love. Immediately Dix sets out to investigate the strange power exercised by Dekker. What he finds out makes him determined to win the people back their rights. For a time he also has to contend with Victor Jory, Dekker’s brother, who is Dix’s love rival. Jory eventually does an about-face and helps Dix achieve his purpose at the price of his own life. Dekker and his stooges are overthrown in a tremendously exciting climax. Jory and Miss Wyatt are the best of the players. Dix is a bit too stiff in his part. Dekker plays the top villain in perfunctory manner. Topping the other players are Eugene Pallette, Robert Armstrong, Francis McDonald. CAST: Richard Dix, Jane Wyatt, Victor Jory, Albert Dekker, Eugene Pallette, Robert Armstrong, Francis McDonald, Clem Bevans, DIRECTION, Good, PHOTOGRAPHY, Tomorrow with Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie VA 4 Mins. IRONIC, SATIRICAL COMEDY IN RENE CLAIR’S CUSTOMARY MANNER OFFERS SOMETHING DIFFERENT. An odd, fanciful story with many fresh twists is unfolded in Arnold Pressburger’s new production for United Artists release. As written and directed the picture resolves itself into diversion out of the usual, a venture into the realm of light entertainment that never asks to be taken literally. If the film is taken for what it is meant to be, a pure frolic that makes no pretense at actuality, it is certain to please its audiences hugely. Following no set pattern, “It Happened Tomorrow” concerns itself with an intriguing thought, a thought that has occurred to almost every person to wit: “What if we were able to know today what’s going to happen tomorrow ?” The one who poses the question in the film is Dick Powell, a young newspaper man of the 1890s so anxious to make good that he'd give anything to know tomorrow’s news today. His wish comes true when thé aged custodian of the paper’s morgue places in his hands a copy of his paper carrying the next day’s events. For several days he experiences this good luck. Each time he is enabled to score a news scoop for his paper. The complications that result are numberless and extremely hilarious. Powell's advance knowledge of what is going to happen involves him with the police and gets him into a number of escapades that result in his being reported dead. Before it is all over Powell has gotten himself inextricably tied up romantically with Linda Darnell, assistant to Jack Oakie, her uncle, in a clairvoyant act. Powell, Miss Darnell and Oakie are standouts in the cast. Of the others John Philliber, the morgue attendant, is the best. CAST: Dick Pewell, Linda Darnell, Jack Onkie, Edgar Kennedy, John Philliper, Edward Brophy, George Cleveland, Sig Ruman, Paul Guilfoyle, George Chandier, Eddie Acuff, Marion Martin, Jack Gardner, Eddie Coke, Robert Homans, Robert Dudley, Emma Dunn, DIRECTION, Good, PHOTOGRAPHY, Ashore with Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Marcy McGuire RKO Radic 74 Mins. TIMELY POP MUSICAL-ROMANCE WITH RAPID-FIRE ACTION. WILL APPEAL SOLIDLY TO THE FANS. Here is a feature on which no Superduper sums have been spent, no awe-inspiring stars hung in its firmament, no hypnotic color permitted to glow from even a single frame of its footage. Yet it eclipses a great many of its more grandiose contemporaries. It reminds, to be both practical and philosophical, that a Senator from Texas is not necessarily better than a Senator from Rhode Island. “Seven Days Ashore” is light entertainment. Its story could make no serious claim to originality. But it has prodigal pace, onthe button timeliness, content thoroughly escapist, plus easy-tolook-at principals and supporting players, and is garnished by a bevy of singable tunes and some electrifying dancing. In short, it’s a musical romance whose action is unflagging. Gordon Oliver, esSaying the romantic lead, is a handsome, fickle and wealthy lad serving in the Merchant Marine. When his ship comies into San Francisco for repairs, he takes two of his side-kicks, Wally Brown and Alan Carney, who have the comedy assignment, along on shore leave. Oliver, actually engaged to the comely Elaine Shepard, becomes involved, because of his philandering, in two breach of promise suits initiated by two eye-filling femmes in a night club’s all-girl orchestra. These pretty plaintiffs he plays-off on his two shipmates, amid rapid-fire complications. When all the romantic scheming is over, Oliver and his true love, Miss Shepard, are wed, and so are his pals and the ork lovelies. Freddie Fisher (Colonel Corn) and His Orchestra do an excellent job musically, as does Marcy McGuire and Dooley Wilson with their songs. A girl in the cast turns in a spectacular dance routine. CAST: Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Marcy McGuire, Gordon Oliver, Virginia Maye, Amelita Ward, Elaine Shepard, Deoley Wilson, Marjorie Gateson, Alan Dinehart, Miriam LaVelle, Margaret Dumont, Emory Parnell, lan Wolfe, Freddis Fisher (Colonel Corn) and His Orchestra. DIRECTION, Solid, PHOTOGRAPHY, Goed, REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS . $2.00 Per Annum Double _. Idemnity with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson Paramount 106 Mins. THIS IS TOPS AS MELODRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENT; ACTING, DIRECTION, PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERLATIVE. “Double Indemnity” those unusual productions, a melodrama that succeeds in reaching for quality and intelligence without the slightest sacrifice of audience appeal. It is a distinguished film of its kind without a weakness discernible in any department. How it can possibly miss hitting top grosses is difficult to conceive. It wouldn’t be at all surprising when all the chips are in to find it acclaimed as -the top melodrama of the year. The film version of James M. Cain’s novel about an attempt to engineer a perfect crime is a spellbinder that doesn’t permit the interest to waver for a second. The production overwhelms with the sheer power of its mood and its suspense as it follows Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stamwyck through every step leading to the murder of the latter’s husband and depicts their attempt to escape detection. MacMurray, an insurance salesman, and Miss Stanwyck, having fallen for each other, conspire to murder the latter’s husband (Tom Powers) after tricking the man into taking out a $50,000 accident policy with a double-indemnity clause. How they go about their crime is morbidly fascinating, not to say highly ingenious. The death of Powers is listed as an accident, and everything looks rosy for the lovers until Edward G. Robinson, the Insurance company’s claims investigator, gets a hunch that violence was committed. When MacMurray discovers Miss Stanwyck has played him for a sucker he kills her after he himself is seriously wounded. The story is told in flashbacks as MacMurray knowing there is no escape pours his story into a dictaphone in his office after the shooting. The cast is aces. MacMurray, Miss Stanwyck and Robinson are in rare form. Jean Heather, gives a touching performance as Mis3 Stanwyck’s stepdaughter. CAST: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Byron Barr, Richard Gaines, Fortunio Bonaneva, John Philliber. DIRECTION, Superb. PHOTOGRAPHY, Superb, is one of OO ee ere eee