Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 21, 1949)

———SoS Oe ee Page & ASTRAL -IFD Cestiased from Pese 1 features Zo of Canada, 2 by Taylor. Victoria Street. News of Astral’s moves and its ambitious plans for the future was made public while Bermard Kranze, general sales manager of Film Classics, was in Toronto for talks with Allen. Astral handles the product of Film Classics on this side of the border. Film Classics has matched the majors with Not Wanted, now playing to record audiences across Canada, and Lost BounGaries, a great grosser in the USA, which opened here recently. Joseph Bernhard, the company’s president, amnmounced recently that it would operate as distributors only and would finance production by Independents. Fifteen important pictures will be offered by Film Classics through Astral next year among them features from Ida Lupino, producer of Not Wanted, and Louis de Rochemont, who is responsible for Lost Boundaries. Astral Films will also distribute Robert Flaherty’s The Louisiana Story to Canadian theatres. New Columbia Title The Reckless Moment is the new title given by Columbia to the drama which was filmed as The Blank Wall, starring James Mason and Joan Bennett. The picture was produced by Walter Wanger. Cecil Black SARO's Western Div Head Western division manager for Selznick-Alliance Releasing Organization is Cecil Black, formerly of International Film Distributors. Black, named to his post by General Sales Manager Joe Marks, will be in charge of the territory between Winnipeg and Vancouver. His headquarters will be in Vancouver. Canadian FILM WEEKLY TORONTO MOTION PICTURE CRITICS SWITCH TO CALVET The leds who stcre ct shadows every day to carn their daily Ry-Krisp have to be exposed to light and substance now and then—just to assure them there is more to life then flict fleeting figures. Here are a couple being reassured— cnd bow. On the Ieft Stan Helleur of the Telegram has just captured Corrine Cclvet’s cttcntion from Herb Whittaker of the Globe and Mail. Only for a moment, no doubt. Miss Cclvet, mew Parisienne actress, was honored at a Iuncheon tendered to her by Pcercmcunt in the Fiesta Room of the Prince George Hotel. Her first Americcn Film is Hal B. Wallis’ Rope of Sand. The star was accompanied by ker busbend, Jchn Bromfield, who is under contract to Paramount. Both visited Montrec!] clso end took part in a number of public events in each city. British Invention St. John Says UK Reduces Retakes Quota Too High From London, England, comes the news that a machine has been invented which will do away with the reassembling of players after the shooting on a scene is over. The delayed retake is an expensive proposition and its elimination will mean much to movie economy. Called a telefinder, the machine is a product of Pye Telecommunications Ltd., of Cambridge. It is a combined movie and television camera and projects the scene being filmed instantaneously on any desired number of screens while actual shooting is in progress. The screens will show exactly what is going “into the can” on the film. Mistakes can be spotted immediately instead of waiting a day to have the film developed and run off. Thus necessary retakes can be made on the spot, without having to reassemble the cast and reset the stage. The telefinder had its first full-scale test at the hand of director Alfred Hitchcock recently during filming of Stage Fright. A spokesman for Pye Telecommunications said the scene could have been piped miles away, if desired. The telefinder is incorporated into the soundproof box which holds the movie sound recording apparatus. Only the camera, which weighs 40 pounds, is on the shouting stage. Interviewed by Jack Karr of the Toronto Daily Star during his recent visit to Toronto, Earl St. John, an executive producer for the J. Arthur Rank Organization, admitted that the British quota was not a sensible one. “Our quota—45 per cent—for British pictures on British screens was undoubtedly set too high and too hurriedly,” he told Karr. “We simply haven’t the machinery or the artists in England to live up to that quota. But ish or reduce the quota. The British had realized that they can’t compete with Hollywood in making certain types of pictures, nor could the Americans match Elstree in its ability to turn out other kinds. Meanwhile officials of two film workers’ unions, R. Bond and P. Pilgrim, warned the Trade Union Congress, in session at Bridlington, England, that American producers are putting the strongest pressure on to abolish or substantially reduce the quota. ‘If Hollywood pressure succeeds,” Bond said, “it will kill our film industry and once again open our movie theatres to wholesale dumping of American products,” a view that was concurred in by Pilgrim. While in the USA, St. John, who produced The Perfect Woman and other films, made deals with three majors for joint production of one film each in Britain. September 21, 1949 CATHOLIC REGISTER (Continued from Page 1) ganda on hehalf of the Roman Catholic Church.” The film, starring Celeste Holm and Loretta Young, is the story of how two nuns raise funds for the building of a school for children. “To those who are posted on Hollywood offerings the flood of Roman Catholic propaganda is as tall a tale as that in Grade Two school readers of the chicken who raised an alarm of the sky falling down when a leaf fell on its head,” the Register said. Calling Pratley’s phrase a “‘canard,” the editorial described him as “a victim of hallucination resulting from his religious phobia’ and challenged his finding that the film is “sentimentally sticky.” It accused him of being “abnormally allergic to emotional embarrassment” and answered: “Normal persons would say that the rippling humor streaming through Come to the Stable is as prophylactic of sentimentality as a snowfall is of hay fever.” Pratley’s statement that the song in the picture was “quite banal and adds nothing to the story” also drew the fire of the Register, which observed that “The judgment of a critic is naturally subjective and it is idle to dispute about tastes. But perception is objective.” Because of this ‘one doubts whether he had paid attention to the story on which he was assigned to broadcast,” This opinion the Register supports with the explanation that “the song is supposed to attain popularity, and popularity does not exclude banality. It is the melody that matters to the story which develops from the fact that the composer has unconsciously plagiarized music he had heard at a convent in France. The music is far from banal. It is genuinely reminiscent of Gregorian with adaptation to the needs of Hollywood popularity.” The editorial then quotes the critics of the three Toronto daily newspapers as having found Come to the Stable to be a dignified family film with appeal for persons of all faiths. WB Staff Changes To Handle Speed-Up Changes in Warner Brothers’ sales staff, necessitated by the company’s speed-up selling in its new “geared to go” policy, have been announced by Ben Kalmenson, vice-president in charge of distribution. Included in the shifts was the appointment of Norman Ayers, southern division sales manager, as assistant to Jules Lapidus, eastern division sales manager, whose territory includes Canada.