Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 18, 1948)

Page 8: Hanson, Exhibs Welcome Broidy (Continued from Page 1) officer in Canada. The making of films was an uncertain business, Broidy said. “You get to a certain point and from there it becomes a guess. You wait to see how it comes out and lots of times you feel like leaving town. But if perseverance, ambition, intelligence and integrity go to make good pictures we'll have them. We're on the road and we'll get there with your help.” What his company needed to support its efforts were playing time and income, Broidy said, “and you exhibitors can provide them.” The Monogram chief discussed. his recent association with Canadian International Screen Productions, the new Canadian production company in Montreal. “Under no circumstances would we have affiliated ourselves with this company unless we believed that its films will have the quaities needed to be commercially acceptable,” he said. “We have “approval of story, budget, casting and so.on—and that’s all we have with our own company.” He was extremely happy, he said, about the great business that “The Babe Ruth Story” was doing in its first runs. It would be the company’s greatest grosser to date, a freak attraction that was surprising the industry. In it William Bendix gives a notable performance. Joseph Than and Leonard Fields, executive producers of Canadian International Screen Productions, were introduced by Hanson. The latter, in speaking, stressed that the company wasn’t out to win Oscars but to make bread-and-butter pictures that would have boxoffice appeal. He and his colleagues had made a study of the mistakes of the past in Canadian production and these had to do with budgets, releasing facilities and organization. They were sure that they had elimi nated this type of error. Mrs. Marina Than, in charge of CISP’s talent project, was also present. While in Toronto’ she was interviewed by Roly Young on the radio and talked with ~ acting aspirants. Para Canadian Film To Play 15,000 Dates An estimated 15,000 theatres in the USA will play Para-* moumt’s “Neighbor to the North” as part of the entire industry’s Canadian Co-operation Project. The short is included in Paramount’s Pacemaker series and Was made in Canada, building ‘up the tourist industry, third largest in the Dominion. Canadian FILM WEEKLY NEWMAN IS LIAISON OFFICER A. H. Newman of the Department of Trade and Commerce, Ottawa, has been named central liaison officer for all American film activities resulting from the accord recently entered into by the Canadian government and thd American film industry. Newman’s office will serve in the future as aj clearing house for all film matters to which the American companies may be parties. It is expected that as a result of the Newman Eppointment there will be a stepping up of the production of short subjects and newsreel footage with Canadian locale and subjects. Early this year the Canadian Co-operation Project was inaugurated by the Motion Picture Association of America to induce expenditures in Canada by producers and tourists as an aid to our USA dollar shortage. It is hoped that this will make restrictions on export of profits or revenue to the USA un necessary. Shooting om some pictures by Hollywood producers is planned, while others are being made with Canadian capital for world distribution. Opposition Grows To Film Censorship (Continued from Page 1) . of American concerns, have never opposed censorship vigorously, it was challenged in 1944 in the courts of Quebec by a theatre’ concern, the Superior Operating Company of Ben Garson: and Jules Laine. An appeal to the Privy Council was anticipated but this was dropped when Odeon Theatres acquired the company. It was the contention of the plaintiffs that provincial censorship is illegal because it confers upon censors the power to condemn a film as immoral and confiscate it, whereas the federal Criminal Code sees no offence until after exhibition and then only if the film exhibited violates the common rules of decency, and thus the law. Canada has eight separate censorship boards . and more machinery of that type than any other English-speaking country. While the cost of censoring films in each of those boards adds: up to a considerable total, no official objections have been made publicly. But Canadian film men are beginning to feel that censorship is umduly impairing revenue in many cases. Some say that the original intention of the censorship board, that of facilitating exhibition through avoidance of police action by checking: films before they go into the theatre, means less now than ever before. It was this which caused the distributors to accept censorship without challenging its legality. It is felt that this should always be remembered when films are being examined. Since acceptance of censorship is to some degree voluntary, the rights of distributors should be given greater consideration, even to the point, some say, of having representation on boards. Censors have also been influ enced by representatives of oranizations without legal status, and these have occasionally been invited to see the film along with department officials. They were, in effect, an unofficial jury. From a cost standpoint, there are film men who say that censorship is too expensive and that boards accumulate too much revenue. Censorship is a service and such boards should operate at cost and not be a means of making money for expenditure in other ways. The questioning of censorship is nothing new in Canada. In the Toronto Sunday World of. December. 25th, 1921, the late Fred Jacobs, Canada’s leading critic at the time, wrote: “So far as our movies £0, Canadians are the most censored people: in the world. Each Province in Canada has its own Board of Censors, and by the time eight of them get through cutting the things that they do not like out of a picture, it would make just as much sense if it were put into the machine back: ‘ward, and run off from end’ to beginning.” A picture that had been passed by eight provincial censorship boards “ought to be as pure as driven snow,” Jacobs said. He then commented on a current effort to unify censorship. “If a picture is certified in Ontario it ought to be fit to be shown in Alberta or Nova Scotia without corrupting the morals of the citizens of either Province.” The multiplication of censorship material in Canada does wasteful, he wrote, “and one cannot see what good purpose it serves.” During the Quebec case Canadian newspapers were quick to see its importance -and printed editorials based on it, seem ~ August 18, 1948 Much Interest In Golf Tournament (Continued from Page 1) the several hundred who attend do not golf but spend the day in the sun and the evening dining, fraternizing and having fun. The date is September ist. This year the event, which is sponsored by the Canadian Film Weekly, will again be held at the ample Rouge Hills Golf & Country Club, at Toronto’s eastern outskirts. The location is a popular. one with film industry folks, for Famous Players held many of its pre-war picnics there. The several fine challenge trophies are once again up for competition and. the usual large number of prizes for the golf winners and the _ non-golfers’ lucky draw are being gathered. Industry lads from a number of parts of Ontario will be on hand to try for them. Tickets are the same as in the past—4 for golfers and $3 for non-golfers. Curly Posen is in charge of the ticket committee, which is comprised of Ben Freedman, Art Milligan, Harold Kay, Izzy Allen, Paul Maynard and Hye Bossin. These may be obtained from any named or from the Canadian Film Weekly office, 25 Dundas Square. Archie Laurie heads the prize committee and serving with him are Ralph Dale, Sam. Glasier, Jack Fitzgibbons, Larry Stephens and Arch Jolley. The games and house committee consists of Jack Arthur, chairman, and Al Troyer, Ralph Dale, Peter Myers and Menzo . Craig. Arch Jolley is secretary of the committee and Tom Daley treasurer as well as.its chief. Bishop Set For Lead William Bishop, who has just completed a leading role with Randolph Scott and Ella Raines in Columbia’s “The Walking Hills,” has been given the male lead Of “Law of the Barbary Coast.” Wallace MacDonald will ' produce. Winnipeg Salesman For SRO Appointed Maurice Diamond has been appointed Winnipeg sales representative for the Canadian Selznick Releasing Organization Inc., according to a recent amnnouncement. by Joseph Marks, general manager. Cecil Black will supervise all sales activities of -SRO releases in the Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg territories and will headquarter in the first-named ‘location. . _