Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 29, 1954)

Page scan 0006 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Sep 29, 1954
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Sep 29, 1954)
Leaf #:
0006
Language:
English
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Greig Dymond in memory of David Dymond, Paul Moore and Jessica Whitehead
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Canadian Film Weekly

  • Editor: Hye Bossin (1942-64)
  • Renamed Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly (1965-69, editor: Stan Helleur)
  • Renamed Candian Film Weekly(1970, editor: Ed Hocura)

Canadian Film Weekly (1942-70) was edited by Hye Bossin and published by Film Publications of Canada, Ltd., wholly owned by leading exhibitor, Nat Taylor. In the late 1930s, Taylor was head of the Independent Theatre Association and his Toronto-based chain, Twinex-Century (Twentieth Century), was the largest independent circuit in the country. In 1941, however, he negotiated for chain affiliation with upstart Canadian Odeon before leveraging a better deal and greater booking control with nationally-dominant Famous Players Canada, Ltd. No longer independent, he took ownership of the Independent Theatre Association’s semi-monthly magazine, The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (1940-41), installed Hye Bossin as editor, and laid plans to relaunch in January 1942 under a new name, Canadian Film Weekly. This enduring key publication was no longer solely focused on independent exhibitors but instead covered the entire industry on a national scale–exhibition, distribution and production–with some attention given to studio news from New York and Hollywood.

Bossin was a vibrant writer with a canny way with words, admired in the industry in the United States as well as Canada. He was one of a large family who lived above their father’s secondhand shop in the Jewish “ward” downtown in Toronto. His older brother was a bookie with ties to the underground; his younger brother was a famous journalist, protégé of Walter Winchell, and Hollywood screenwriter. In contrast, Hye spent nearly two decades learning the publishing trade in a printers’ shop before trying a stint as a Hollywood publicist, then writing a column for the Toronto Star Weekly before taking Taylor’s offer to edit the Film Weekly. Bossin was central to the creation of the Canadian Film Archive, the Canadian Film Awards, and he wrote some of the first histories of early cinema in Canada, published in the first volumes of the annual Canadian Film Weekly Year Book (1951-70).

In 1957, the Film Weekly had incorporated the rival Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1917-57), and began dating its start to that paper’s earlier start as the Canadian Universal Bulletin (1915-18). Subsequent variants of the Canadian Film Weekly and its yearbooks always claimed their roots all the way back to 1915 and the origins of the film industry trade press in Canada. After Bossin died in 1964, the Weekly’s new editor, Stan Helleur, renamed the magazine Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly, scaling back the pace of publishing but adding a purview for television and broadcasting. The annual was renamed similarly, its subtitle amended to “Year Book of the Canadian Entertainment Industry.” An attempted renewal to weekly format in 1970, edited by Ed Hocura, was short-lived and Nat Taylor decided instead to relaunch under an entirely new title, Canadian Film Digest (1971-77) and Canadian Film Digest Yearbook (1971-86).

– Paul Moore, March 2024

Further Reading

  • Bossin, Hye. “Canada and the Film: The Story of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry.” In Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry, 21-41. Toronto: Film Publications of Canada, 1951.
  • Moore, Paul. “Chronicling a National History: Hye Bossin’s Canadian Film Weekly and Year Book.” In Eric Hoyt and Kelley Conway, eds., Global Movie Magazines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2024.

Date Added:
May 23, 2024
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Ft i THE PICK OF | THE PICTURES | REVIEWS INFORMATION RATINGS September 29, 1954 REVIEWS FROM THE FILM DAILY, NEW YORK Page 7 PEERLESS FILMS physical distribution arrangement with JARO applies to Saint John, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. Ontario distribution takes place through its head office in Toronto and Quebec is serviced from the Montreal branch. WILLIAM GOLDMAN, Phil adelphia theatre owner, will recreate a nickelodeon under the sponsorship of the Franklin Institute. Goldman’s personal collection of old films will supply the show in an auditorium with 130 chairs. ARCH JOLLEY, executive secretary of the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario, told the Rotary Club of Aurora, Ontario, that “the panic is over” and TV was not so competitive as first considered. Lee Teich, manager of the Royal Theatre, introduced Jolley. MONTREAL BORN James Harvey, NBC producer and director, 44, died in New York recently. Born at Niagara-On-theLake, he was educated at McGill and went to the States after graduation as an economist in 1933. After radio experience he came back to join the CBC, producing CBC Summer Theatre and the Percy Faith Program. He enlisted when war broke out in 1939 and rose from trooper in the Armored Corps to captain in six years. He had been assistant director of The Big Show, starring Tallulah Bankhead. AUSTRALIA is enjoying a domestic production boom, Southern International Films, headed by actor Chips Rafferty, which released The Phantom Stockman last year, has several features scheduled. The company has made two features so far. THREE FIRSTS and a second went to the National Film Board of Canada at the recent First International Film Festival of Durban, South Africa. The NFB competed with films entered by 20 other countries including the USA, Britain, France and Russia. Land of the Long Day won the top documentary award with second prize going to Corral. First award for animation went ON THE WATERFRONT with Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint Columbia 108 Mins. HIGHLY REALISTIC DRAMA OF CRIME, CORRUPTION ON THE NEW YORK DOCKS. PICTURE IS CONSIDERABLY ENHANCED BY DIRECTION, SOLID PERfORMANCES, Superb, exciting realism has been injected by Elia Kazan into this exceptionally good story of crime, corruption and treachery on the docks of New York. Taut, solid in its impact and rousing in its growing excitement, there is not an inch of film on view that does not strike out, secure attention and stir the senses. Marlon Brando registers a fine performance. Rich moments of the stirring Budd Schulberg script are given over to Karl Malden, as a crusading priest. Sound conviction is delivered up by Eva Marie Saint, girl friend to Brando. Picture was shot on dockside locations in and around New York. Original basis of Schulberg’s script was a series of Pulitzer Prize winning articles by Malcolm Johnson, which exposed crime and racketeering a number of years ago, led to an investigation, achieved some reforms, but nothing of a permanent nature in the light of modern times. So, it would seem, that this film has some sort of message to get over to the public and it may in time stir certain quarters from lethargy and apathy. Sam Spiegel is the producer. It is a Horizon Picture. Story points up the terroristic practices of a phony longshoreman’s union and its boss, played with good effect by Lee J. Cobb. Brando is the errand boy of the gang and is induced to set up a murder. In striking panels of dramatic development which never, or hardly ever, are secured with wild theatricalism, but rather with fine, solid, ringing conviction, the ensuing details run a full gamut of stark development. Malden is particularly fine in a scene wherein a man is killed in the hold of a ship because he ran afoul of the mob. After giving the victim the last rites of the church Malden declaims in a manner that should secure for him strong notice and recognition of talent. Eva Marie Saint plays Brando’s girl friend in a quiet, sincere manner for the most part, but she too rises to demands. In the final stanza of this story it is Brando and Malden who triumph over criminal rule of the waterfront and there is regeneration and apparent triumph for the moment. Boris Kaufman’s black and white photography is a substantial contribution to the whole. CAST: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Kari Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, Leif Erickson. CREDITS: A Horizon Picture; Producer, Sam Spiegel; Director, Elia Kazan; Screenplay, Budd Schulberg; Photography, Boris Kaufman; Music, Leonard Bernstein. DIRECTION: First Rate, PHOTOGRAPHY: Fine. ARCH JOLLEY, executive secretary of the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario, was the guest speaker at a luncheon of the Lion’s Club of Brantford, Ontario. Lion Ben Schachar was in charge of the meeting, at which all local theatre managers were guests. to Romance of Transportation while a Norman McLaren film, Begone, Dull Care, won a first prize in the experimental class. SEVENTY American movie theatres carried the Rocky MarcianoEzzard Charles heavyweight championship battle, according to Nate Halperin of Theatre Network Television, Inc. Many charged $2.40. Their last fight did big business in 61 theatres, lulling promoters’ fears of smaller gates due to television and providing exhibitors with bigger revenue. Outside the closed circuit, the TV blackout was complete. FILM COUNCIL of America, a USA organization, recently issued two fine volumes, Sixty Years of 16 mm. Film—19231983, and Guide to Film Services of National Associations. The first, 220 pages, is made up of articles dealing with every use of 16 mm. films, these having been written by different authorities. Considerable note is taken of National Film Board subjects REPUBLIC has dropped its plans to shoot Timberjack on Vancouver Island, as first announced, and will make the rest of it in Montana. The 3,500 feet shot there earlier will be used. in the article on Labor subjects. In the Guide Canadian associations and subjects are also listed. Address of the Council is 600 Davis Street, Evanston, Illinois. KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS with Rex Harrison, Virginia Mayo, George Sanders, Laurence Harvey (CinemaScope-WarnerColor) Warners 114 Mins. FINE HISTORICAL ENTERTAINMENT. STORY HAS THE LAVISH, COLORFUL TREATMENT TO GARNER A CONSIDERABLE AUDIENCE, DELIVERS SATISFACTION. A lusty, lavish and quite spectacular picturization of Sir Walter Secott’s “The Talisman,” is an entertaining and colorful display in this smartly handled production from Henry Blanke. The story is a fully rounded out historical fiction skillfully written up by John Twist. Clever, glib, with much eye appeal, with romance and the like to give the whole a smart finish and a full complement of sound ingredients. J. Paverell Marley's cinematography is particularly fine. David Butler directed. Given the type of roles that call for lucid, oftimes flamboyant and declamatory artistry, the main parts are given correct interpretation by such worthies as Rex Harrison, as Saladin, Virginia Mayo, playing Lady Edith, George Sanders, the King of England and Laurence Harvey, a newcomer, who registers well as a Scottish knight. Skullduggery and intrigue are aptly rendered by Robert Douglas and Michael Pate. The lovely and accomplished Paula Raymond, has a brief but moving part as Queen Berengaria, wife to Richard. Also on view, and all to briefly, is Nejla Ates, the Turkish exponent of la danse du ventre. Basic elements in the. script take off from the encampment of the Crusaders on the plains of Jaffa. Richard is the target of jealousy and intrigue. He is seriously wounded in an attempt on his life promulgated by Sir Giles Amaury, whom he misguidedly trusts. The full panoply of the times, jousting and _ honorable conduct of the knights, is projected. Harrison shows up in the guise of a doctor, “sent” by Saladin, to restore Richard. He brings him round to recovery. In many moving and spectacular panels the story builds to its high action climax with evil getting its due. CAST: Rex Harrison, Virginia Mayo, George Sanders, Laurence Harvey, Robert Douglas, Michael Pate, Paula Raymond. CREDITS: Producer, Henry Blanke; Director, David Butler; Screenplay, John Twist; Art, Bertram Tuttle; Photography, J. Peverell Marley. DIRECTION: Good. PHOTOGRAPHY: First Rate.