Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 26, 1945)

Page 16 Canadian FILM WEEKLY September 26, 1945 Great Britain ’s Big Film Programe HE testing-time for British | films has arrived. When in 1939 war came to Britain, her film industry responded by dramatising war themes, the violence of battle, the heroic emotions, the tough enduring loyalties. As a result, British films have now made a reputation in both feature and documentary production. The test will be whether this reputation can be maintained in themes suitable for peacetime. This year will see the almost total elimination of war pictures. A notable New Year production from Gainsborough Studios, directed by Sidney Gilliat, was the swift and vigorous Waterloo Road, about a wartime social problem, the soldier’s wife who tires of the companionship of the older generation and having no home of her own, and so allows herself to be attracted by another man in her husband’s absence. Gainsborough Studios, among others, have announced a programme of romantic films. Their stars will include Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert, John Mills, James Mason, Barbara Mullen and Stewart Granger, whilst chief films include Madonna of the Seven Moons, a romantic story set in Italy about a woman with a “split personality’, A * Place of One’s Own, an unusual ghost story suggesting the psychic power of a house over its inhabitants, and a ‘romance treatment of the life of Paganini, The Magic Bow. It is also hoped to produce Sir Walter Scott’s novel “Rob Roy” in color. Another studio with a romantic picture policy is Associated British Picture Corporation which is to make among its films, I Live in Grosvenor Square. Directed by Herbert Wilcox with Anna Neagle as the star, the story concerns the triangle situation between a British officer and an American officer who are both in love with a British girl. British National Studios, announcements include two films which show the English countryside to advantage, Strawberry Roan set in Cumberland. Another film to show the countryside, in this case the Cotswolds, will be Great Day. This will be made by RKO Radio British and will feature Eric Portman and Flora Robson. On the other hand, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who have worked together on such films as 49th Parallel and The Canterbury ‘Tale, have taken Roger Livesey and Wendy Hiller | to the Scottish island of Mull to make I know Where I’m Going, the love-story of a girl who finds her conception of life changed By Roger Manvell During the war, British films have made a reputation in both the feature and documentary field. In this article, Roger Manvell discusses the promising production schedules of the various British film studios, which, if they fulfill their promises, should assure the quality and variety of British films in peacetime. by her surroundings when she leaves the industrial Midlands for the remote islands of the Hebries. The aim of all these pictures is to develop a boxoffice appeal on more or less accepted lines. The standards of production and settings and star-value promise to be high. Although the primary aim of these films will be home market,.most of them should be particularly suitable to help in the development of British pictures abroad, especially those which have their stories set in the British countryside. Ealing Studios, which have produced in the past so many excellent yet unpretentious war pictures, have decided on a policy of purely entertainment films, yet with rather unusual themes. Among them is Johnny Frenchman, directed by Charles Frend and starring the distinguished actress Francoise Rosay. This is @ romance with the theme of the traditional rivalry between the Breton and Cornish fisherfolk, and it was filmed for the most part in Cornwall. An interesting experiment almost completed is a series of four ghost stories linked into one film after the style of the American picture, Flesh and Fantasy. One of the episodes is taken from a story by H. G. Wells. Another film will be set in the beautiful English county of Sussex, and based on a@ novel by Sheila Kaye-Smith: it will be called Sussex Gorse and is the story of an over-ambitious farmer whose anxiety to acquire land complicates his family relationships. The famous murder play, Pink String and Sealing Wax, set in Victorian Brighton, will be the basis of another Ealing film, whilst Soho Melodrama will feature London’s underworld. Harry Watt, director of so many famous documentaries, including Target for Tonight, is in Australia making a film for Ealing called Outlanders, based on the great cattle-trek which took place when northern Australia was threatened by Japan. Another picture will endeavour to show the problems of men repatriated from German POW camps. Finally, Ealing announce that another former documentary director, Cavalcanti, will make a film version of Dickens’ novel, Nicholas Nickleby, and that much of it will be photographed in Yorkshire. This is an ambitious and varied programme, It should develop Ealing Studios’ reputation for making films with an unmistakably British quality. Sydney Box the well-known independent producer is making an interesting series of pictures at Riverside Studios. Acacia Avenue, Musical Chairs, and No Orchids for Miss Blandish are all based on successful British and American plays. Two others are They came over in the Mayflower, a story of the Pilgrim Fathers, and a film with the title Love and William Shakespeare. Scveral new directors and stars are to be given their chance in these productions, since it is obvious that a progressive policy in filmmaking must involve the discovery and use of new talent. 1945 should see the release of the long-awaited Caesar and Cleopatra, Gabriel Pascal’s film in color from Bernard Shaw’s play, featuring Claude Rains as Caesar and Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra. This film is financed by Mr. Arthur Rank, like Laurence Olivier’s Henry V, also made in Technicolor and released at the end of 1944. These two films have been made with an eye on the world market. They are prestige films which could never pay their way in Britain alone. The splendor of Olver Messel’s designs for Caesar and Cleopatra are said to contribute substantially towards making the film the most elaborate and decorative ever to come from a British studio. Another of Mr. Arthur Rank’s studios, Two Cities, has in preparation Men of Two Worlds, directed by Thorold Dickinson in East Africa, This is a film which deals with the important theme of the struggle of men with modern ideas against the reactionary pride and superstition of tribal society. Eric Portman, Phyllis Calvert and Robert Adams will play the chief parts. Other films from Two Cities during 1945 will be a Technicolor version of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, directed by David Lean, Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, Compton Mackenzie’s Carnival, and Rendezvous, a picture about the RAF by the playwright Terence Rattigan and the film producer Anatole de Grunwald. A screen adaption of Mr. Churchill’s study of his ancestor Marlborough is also promised. Frank Lauder and Sidney Gilliat are in charge of Individual Pictures Ltd. They are making a modern version of the Hogarth theme The Rake’s Progress. They have. also announced that they are going to produce The Red Prophet, a life of Karl Marx, and The Sleeping Sword, the story of the British Industrial Revolution. Not all these films will get their release during 1945, but it is good to see so much promise in the production schedules. To end the story, the future is said to hold productions of Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma and Saint Joan, both to be produced by Gabriel Pascal, Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter, and the productions of Sir Alexander Korda in association with MetroGoldwyn-Mayer, which will include Velvet Coat, a life of Robert Louis Stevenson, Paul Tabori’s Bricks Upon Dust, Dicken’s Pickwick Papers, Arnold Bennett’s Old Wives’ Tale and Tolstoy’s War and Peace. If such films live up to their titles the quality and variety of future British films should be assured. There should be no return to the cheap dull pictures of the pre-war era. Gene in New Pic Gene Tierney will play the leading role in the 20th CenturyFox Production of “Daisy Kenyon.” Share Star Honors Robert Young and Frank Mor ‘gan will share starring honors with Barbara Hale, a new movie actress, in RKO’s “Lady Luck.” Double Sound Tracks To Enhance Movies Binaural films—films with two sound tracks—developed by 20th Century-Fox, will make sound movies more realistic than ever before. These films, with two loudspeaker sets in each theatre, one on either side of the screen, will be introduced as soon as equipment is available. A band marching across the Screen will be heard first on one Side and then on the other. Dialogue will come from the lips of the respective speakers, Elaborate new theatres are planned to present this new type of sound recording. ~