Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 23, 1944)

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Vol, 9, No. 34 Lin . Address all communications—The Managing Bditor, Canadian Film Weekly, 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada, Published by Fiim Publications of Canada Ltd., 25 Dundas Square, Canada. Phone ADelaide 4317. Price 5 cents each or $2.00 per year. Entered as Second Class Matter Frinted by Eveready Printers Limited, 78 Wellington Street West, Toronto, Ontarjo Really a Gem Professor Arthur L. Phelps, over the CBC, doesn’t see why Canadian film producers cannot make “a little gem of at least a filmette” to compete with imported short dramatic subjects. It is almost too much to ask for, The man who knows how to turn out film gems with consistency can become wealthy beyond his fondest dreams—and in a hurry. Yet there is truly a gem of a motion picture and it's called “Going My Way.” This is a Paramount film, starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald and of which Leo McCarey is the author, producer and director. McCarey didn’t start out to make a gem or a super-attraction but it turned out that way. So human is the film that it has won a response worthy of it. At the New York Paramount it was pulled out after running ten weeks to make room for other scheduled films —but not before it hung up a new attendance record. It is doing unprecedented business in its earliest Canadian runs. “Going My Way” hasn't lavish Technicolor, crises, vast scenes or magnificent production numbers. It is a film about religion in practice, a theme rarely successful at the boxoffice. It is not an all-star production. It has none of the common devices used to attract crowds. Yet it’s a gem in moral and financial worth. You don’t leave the theatre having undergone an “experience” but feeling the way you do at your best and most honest moments. In it religion is related to everyday life and in a way that makes itself understood almost instinctively. It does not lecture and is not a morality film as we know them. Paramount has decided not to play repeat engagements but to withdraw it after it has run its course and bring it back at some future time. Thus it will not lose its savor, as do all things which are milked. There are films which are brought back because they are sensational to the eye, ear and the emotions. They are designed to do that in the first place. They are artificial experiences of a surface nature that have obvious showmanship as their chief ingredient. They are financial gems. But they have no intrinsic worth. “Going My Way” has almost no relationship to them except its medium. After seeing “Going My Way” you say to yourself: “Now that’s what motion pictures are really for!" * * % Scolding Hollywood The Jon Hall nonsense isn’t doing the motion picture industry much good but neither are those who use that type of thing to give their readers sensational copy. Hollywood as a community is like any other place. It only seems more so because of the publicity value. And that publicity value is to a great extent established by Hollywood. It ought to be part of every player's job to understand that he or she hasn’t the right or the privilege to do as other people—at least not in a fashion that exposes them to attention. A dozen local beverage room brawls a night don’t attract the attention a minor one in Hollywood does. This is one case in which the local angle loses out to the outside one. Roly Young of the Toronto Globe and Mail thinks that theatres and distribution branches ought “to lay down the law to the playboys and playgirls back on the coast.” Saying that “I don’t enjoy snapping at the hand which indirectly feeds me,” he predicts that one of these days Holly Canadian FILM WEEKLY August 23, 1944 HYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor Torento, Ont., Form Citizens Film Committees (Continued from Page 1) fluence in the field of commercial film showings.” Among the recommendations of the Provistonal Committee are: To make available films and projectors in as wide a scale as possible in Greater ‘Toronto, so that films will be easily available for recreational and educational purposes. To promote the establishment of film committees in large communities or organizations so that such committees will see that films are used to the best possible advantage of their own committee or group. To make a survey of sound projectors in the Greater Toronto area and to make known as widely as possible where these projectors are available, so that arrangements can be made for the widest possible use of them. Through every possible method to get publicity in the greater Toronto area about the use of films, so that new people who don’t know how effective films are for recreational and educational purposes will learn of the value of this new instrument. To investigate techniques as to how various types of films may be used in various ways by various types of organizations. To establish a competent body to review new films as they come into the library from any source and to issue intelligent criticism on these films, and (1) to send constructive criticism back to the makers of these films from that reviewing board. (2) To arrange for some way in which local groups can send their comments and criticisms on whatever films they see to the central board. Commercial film men will be interested in knowing just what “recreational films” will be, according to the committee’s ideas. The proposal that a Film Centre be established in every large community means that 16 mm. reels may be shown inside the ten-mile limit set by commercial distributors. “Recreation films'’’ may be of a type that would compete with those shown in commercial theatres. McKinney Returns Nina Mae McKinney, colored actress, who last appeared in King Vidor’s ‘Hallelujah,’ was signed for a part in a forthcoming film by him. wood folks will find themselves “in the biggest clean-up campaign they’ve ever had let loose upon them. ; Hollywood has the Hays Office to discipline it and local August 23, 1944 Gov t Control of v4 British Trade? (Continued from Page 1) of Trade and made up of industry and non-industry persons, created a board of enquiry to examine the matter of monopoly in the Old Country motion picture business. Its purpose was to — advise on “any practical measures that may be necessary to check the development of mono-— poly in the industry. » Saaees Though the report hasn’t ba issued publicly as yet, it : thought that it would recommend control of studio space by the, “(ee Board of Trade to assure Independent producers of a place to a work; a film bank under SG ment auspices to finance quali— fied producers; and a tribunal to be set up by the government to settle inter-trade disputes. : Those who prepared the report made it clear that American holdings in Britain were not in question and it is thought that it applied mainly to the expansion of J. Arthur Rank’s activities. In the last year Rank has arranged financial, production and distribution accords with representatives of Hollywood. ; The effect of the findings of the committee is to cause representatives of the larger Americanand __ British companies to go on record as opposing monopoly while also — opposing the proposed tribunal as government control of the industry. Sam Eckman, MGM British chief, said recently that “I believe that the suggested tribunal means government control of the film industry and I am as firmly opposed to government control as to private monopoly.” The motion picture industry of Great Britain is no longer of purely trade interest. The state of the trade receives a regular airing in parliament and newspapers devote much space to it. The British man in the street seems much more interested in™ matters confined to trade discussion on this continent. Films are the business of everyone. British developments will certainly have some influence on the Canadian trade in the future. There are demands for Canadian production of dramas and an aggressive interest in commercial exhibition by private groups. Plenty of Music Universal has 11 musicals finished and three in work, ‘ensors take care of the rest. But you can’t harness human nature. And you can’t cancel the careers of players who err any more than you can those ‘of other people. It’s a problem, all right,