Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 23, 1944)

August 23, 1944 Franklin Favors Co-op Effort Mitchell Franklin, secretary and a partner in the Franklin & Herschorn Theatres, Maritime circuit, believes distributing a percentage of the profits by an employer among his employees would be almost as beneficial to the employer as to the workers. He points out that sharing the surplus each year with the workers would, officially, make them partners, and provide them with a financial stake in a business, regardless of what type it was. It would assure the employer of loyalty and efficiency. Furnishing a stimulant for staff morale that could not otherwise be equalled. Eliminated, would be any necesstiy of continually standing over workers to see they did their routine work faithfully. The favorable reaction would also prevail for the employer's customers, who would get better service and products, Franklin has been studying a plan for establishing a co-operative industrial setup at Tynemouth Creek, about 23 miles east of St. John, N.B., and settled wholly by farmers and fishermen. The theatre executive feels that these people, honest, law-abiding and conscientious, industrious folk, should be assisted. Hence he is mapping out a project that calls for co-operative canning of lobsters as a start. Hitherto, the fishermen have been trapping lobsters but not getting favorable prices owing to lack of unity in selling the crustaceans to wholesalers, The Franklin plan calls for joint marketing of the larger lobsters and canning of the smaller shellfish. It is also proposed, if this is successful, to broaden out to embrace selling of farm crops, including vegetables and grains, and livestock and also co-operative buying of farm needs, including equipment. The film exhibitor maintains a home at Tynemouth Creek, having had an ornately designed and furnished bungalow built about a mile from the seashore and is farming as a hobby and exercise in his leisure time. He is greatly interested in the welfare of his neighbors and is eager to help them. Expert and experienced’ technicians will be imported at the start, but the bulk of the personnel connected with the industry will be all , Canadians, company officials state. Seventy ~ five additional acres have been secured for future development. Canadian FILM WEEKLY Canadian Production (Continued from Page §) Sergeant” in Trenton, Ontario, in 1928 for the Canadian International Films Limited, and some of Ralph Connor’s stories were made into films by Ernest Shipman. There is definitely a nucleus for a future Canadian production industry. There are the National Film Board, Associated Screen News studios, Film Lab, Eastman Kodak and several companies which make advertising reels. They are each engaged in some wing of the motion picture industry and all are training craftsmen. A $250,000 studio is being erected in British Columbia, to be staffed by Canadian and American personnel, and four commercial short subjects will be made as soon as possible. That means that at some future time we will have the sum of production knowledge needed for the making of films that will be as dramatically and technically as good as what Hollywood offers us. We might even produce an occasional gem. Commercial producers will probably try for markets outside the Dominion. It is not likely that they will make anything but shorts, since they must either borrow stars or establish their own to make features pay. As for actors, etc., we think what Professor George Wrong said about Canadian writers is equally true of them—that they must go to the United States to “make good.” A Vital Need ITERATURE is the basis of drama, screen and stage. Films that express the special culture of any nation in purely creative ways—as distinct from half-ready documentaries — must depend on its literature. Is there a Canadian literature? About that the late Professor Stephen Leacock, anything but a scoffer, wrote: “Every now and then the dispute breaks out in the colleges and spills over Into the press as to what American literature was and is, and when it began. Like all contrayersies, the dispute ts bottomless and involves a hopeless number of definitions of terms. But by American literature in the proper sense we ought to mean literature written in the American way, with an American turn of language and in an American cast of thought. The test is that it couldn’t have been written anywhere else. When we read the books of O. Henry we know that they were not written in England; they couldn’t have been. Longfellow may have writ fen about America, but the form of his language and his thought was the same as that of his English contemporaries, He shared in their heritage, and added to the common stock. Judged in this sense—in order to make the point clear and rob it of all venom—there is as yet no Canadian literature, though many books have been written in Canada, including some very bad ones.” If those words are still correct, can we make characteristic Cana-~ dian films without a characteristic literature to draw from? If there is not a characteristic literature, is there then a characteristic Canadian culture yet? There is every sign of one. We will one day have a Canadian literature, a distinct Canadian culture and Canadian film production worthy of both—and probably sooner than most think right now. We are a growing nation in every way. We are for Professor Phelps’ ideals. We favor his idea sentimentally. But Canadian shorts should compete with American ones from a standpoint of quality and boxoffice production, whether the government pays for them or not. The theatre should no more be told what to play after the war than the press what to print. It will be a long time before Canadian-made films are able to compete with those made in the USA. or England, the illustrated commentaries of the NFB notwithstanding. And this is not to play down the possibilities of future Canadian production, which may be hindered in development by the easy availability of American films. Commercial films are being made in Australia and the producers are looking forward to playing time in the USA. There is talk of a new quota law on American features to help Australian films get playdates. Canada is probably the most advanced Dominion in film technique right now. But we do think we would be somewhat ahead of ourselves if we tried production of film dramas. Muni Returns Paul Muni will be seen in Columbia's “Counterattack,” Russ guerilla story, soon. It will be followed by ‘A. Song to Remember,” in which he appears as a music teacher. All-Negro Film An all-Negro musical, “Sweet Georgia Brown,” is being produced on the RKO lot by John H, Auer, Covering Canada's Film Front All The News of The Film World