Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 29, 1954)

| September 29, 1954 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 3 63 NEW HOUSES (Continued from Page 1) in operation. There are 19 driveins and 19 standard houses under construction, with eight of the former type and 23 of the latter type planned. Standard theatres which opened recently are: P. D. Kostiak’s five-day 250seat Pine River in Pine River, Manitoba, the first 35 mm. house in that community of 500. A. J. Boudreau’s five-day 300seat Normandie in Petit Rocher, NB, which has a population of 800 and has had no 35 mm, theatre until now. The new drive-in is B. Evans’ six-day 300-car Sunset at Nashwaaksis, NB, approximately three miles from Fredericton. A drive-in planned for Highway No. 6, in West Flamboro, near Greensville, a few miles from Hamilton, Ontario, is being objected to by ratepayers, who claim that one such type of theatre, operating two miles from the _ proposed site, is enough. Very expensive and almost complete renovation jobs, such as the $250,000 one on the Tivoli, Hamilton, are not uncommon. An Odeon-Garson situation in Halifax, the Oxford, has just reopened after such a major change, while in Ottawa National Theatre Services has altered and refurbished its Century for an art policy and renamed it the Towne Cinema. Maclean’s Building Reporter reports that in August construction contracts awarded in Canada amounted to $252,600 for a total of six. Two in Ontario were worth $16,000, one in Quebec $60,000, one in British Columbia $100,000, one in Saskatchewan $30,000, and two in Manitoba $46,000. Ritza Heads Ottval, Ottawa Valley Div Larry Ritza has been moved from the management of the O’Brien Theatre, Renfrew, Ontario to take charge of Ottval Confections, a new division created to service the houses of the Ottawa Valley Amusement Company, it was announced recently by Russ Simpson, general manager. Paul Frost, formerly assistant manager of the Capitol, Ottawa, took Ritza’s place as O’Brien manager. OUR BUSINESS (Continued from Page 2) decision to publish another 26. Nothing comparable has happened in Canada nor do we have a COMPO. However, we do have an MPICC and could have a Canadian Motion Picture Institute and things could happen here— if the exhibitors and distributors of this country so willed it. 4 7 ae NOM-DE-PLUMAGE: In UA’s Sitting Bull there’s an actor named Iron Eyes Cody. He must have inherited William S. Hart’s steely look . . . The best say-nothing-but-sound-good phrase I’ve heard in a long time from a politician was uttered by Defence Minister Campney during a TV interview, after he was asked about the future: “The future depends on what the future holds.” Remember when Raymond Walburn, as a prop politician, went through the picture answering every question with: “Yes, then again, no”? .. . Jim the Punman observes: “Seems that some contractors and Ontario Highways employees were looking at the world through rogue’s-colored glasses”. . . Saw Richard Carlson on a TV show the other day. You remember him—he’s the one who isn’t Mel Ferrer There’s a story about elephants being unloaded from a ship. Two, trussed in special harness, had been carried through the air and to the dock via derrick as a crowd watched. One of the watchers, addressing the man in charge of the dock operation, asked: “Can I have one of those elephants?” “Sorry,” the man replied. “They’re counted”, . . Does a man who forges other persons’ names suffer from ycleptomania? CLIP THIS POEM by Charles Mackay. That’s what I did when I saw it in the Daily Mirror, NY. It will comfort you when someone gets angry at you for doing the right thing: You have no enemies, you say? Alas! my friend, the boast is poor. He who has mingled in the fray Of duty, that the brave endure, Must have made foes; If you have none, Small is the work that you have done; You've hit no traitor on the hip; You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip; You've never turned a wrong to right; You've been a coward in the fight. SITTING BULL, story of that Indian warrior, will be a forthcoming UA film. After SB and his bucks wiped out Custer and his command they beat it for our side of the border, claiming to be British subjects. They contended that their ancestors had never subscribed to the American Revolution and had not even known about it for about 40 years after it happened. The USA wanted the Indians ordered back but the Mounties, a few of whom had greeted the horde of killers by waving their fingers under the noses of their chiefs and warning them to be good little boys, gave them their choice. They stayed but, the buffalo gone and food scarce, a surrender was negotiated and they returned in 1881. At that time there were 300 Mounties in 13 posts of the Northwest Territories. In these 375,000 square miles were 27,000 Indians, almost all of them wild and many fresh from fighting USA soldiers in Montana and other bordering territories. The Indians hated the blue-coated “Long Knives,” as they called USA soldiery, but respected the Mounties, whose red coats reminded them of the authority and fairness of the British Army, about which their fathers and grandfathers had told them. The red coat was chosen for the Mounties, who were policemen and not soldiers, because the Indian’s respect for it was known. About Sitting Bull and Custer. With Sitting Bull was Rainin-the-Face, who claimed to have personally killed Custer. The Mounties who called on Sitting Bull found that the band had brought many souvenirs of the Custer massacre, one the General’s own watch. They asked for and were given the timepiece, which they sent to Mrs. Custer. SS Taylor-Kelly Starrer Grace Kelly will co-star opposite Robert Taylor in MGM’s version of Sir Walter Scott’s Quentin Durward. Pandro S. Berman will produce and Richard Thorpe direct. Signs For Kirchner Warner Bros. have signed Lyle Bettger for the role of Kirchner, the Nazi villain in the Sea Chase, CinemaScope and WarnerColor feature starring John Wayne. RKO PROGRAM (Continued from Page 1) MGM's Sombrero. Bob O’Donnell predicted that this picture, because of its small town quality, would do big business. The Americano, partly photographed in Brazil in Technicolor and for Superscope, has Glenn Ford, Ursula Thiess, Ceasar Romero, Frank Lovejoy, and Xavier Cugat’s band, with Abbe Lane. It has much adventure and a murder mystery. The Big Rainbow will be the biggest production Jane Russell has ever been in. With her are Gilbert Roland, Richard Egan, Lori Nelson, Joseph Calleia and others. The action takes place in the waters of the Caribbean as two former frogmen and a girl search for a buried treasure against natural and human obstacles. The Technicolor cameras take in many changes of scene and a warm, intimate love story. The Cattle Queen of Montana, in Technicolor and Superscope, stars Barbara Stanwyck in a Benedict Bogeaus_ production about a fiery, self-reliant woman. The Girl Rush, in Technicolor and VistaVision, stars the one and only Rosalind Russell against a Las Vegas background. It’s a Frederic Brisson multi-million dollar production with 12 songs by Martin and Blana, who wrote the Trolley Song. Jet Pilot, says Howard Hughes, will be another Hell’s Angels, this time in Technicolor. African Adventure, in Technicolor, will be made from the popular book by the syndicated columnist, Robert C. Ruark, and so has a waiting audience. Passion, in Technicolor and Superscope with Cornel Wilde, Yvonne de Carlo and Lon Chaney, Jr., should find great business. Sons of Sinbad, in Technicolor, 2-D and 3-D, is an Arabian Nights Adventure of the type that is surefire at the boxoffice. The cast helps guarantee that — Dale Robertson, Sally Forrest, Lili St. Cyr, Vincent Price and Mari Blanchard. The Conqueror, in CinemaScope and Technicolor, is on a $6,000,000 budget and stars John Wayne after his great role in The High and the Mighty and is an epic about Ghengis Khan when young. Wayne will be great in it. Labow points out that RKO’s combination of titles, types of stories, variety of techniques of presentation, etc., are so all-embracing as to serve each and every theatre’s policy. WB's ‘Helen Of Troy’ Twenty-year-old Rossana Podesta, star of Warner Bros.’ CinemaScope production, Helen of Troy, has completed her role in the picture and left for Florence, Italy.