Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 16, 1955)

March 16, 1955 Vol. 20, No. 11 HYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor Assistant Editor Ben Halter Office Manager Esther Silver CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Canada Entered as Second Class Matter Published by Film Publications of Canada, Limited 175 Bloor St, East, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada — Phone WAlnut 4-3707 Price $3.00 per year. NIAGARA MGRS. (Continued from Page 1) Variety Club’s vocational guidance school for handicapped children. A stage show, headed by Monte Hall of radio and TV fame, was followed by a first-run film and all those who co-operated to make the evening a memorable one were tendered a reception by the managers in the theatre after the show. The St. Catharines Standard reported that it was “a great show” and gave a fine write-up of each performer. On the bill were such top acts as Russ Payne, Mildred Morey, The Harmonitones, Bill Hutchinson, Alex Read, The Canadians, Doug Romaine and The Keppos. Murray Morton and His Orchestra supplied the music. All the performers donated their services, as did the members of the projectionists’ and musicians’ unions. The theatre was supplied gratis by Odeon Theatres (Canada) Limited and the film, They Rode West, was given free by Columbia Pictures. The managers, who were highly commended by The Standard for their remarkable efforts, included Vern Hudson, Roy Miller, Wilf LaRose, Harry Rosenbeg, Verd Marriott, Mike Zahorchuk, Bill Cupples, George Forhan Jr., Martin Inch, Syd Burton, John Allen, Lynn Martyn, Jack Ward, Syd Levy, Dewey McCourt, Art Vickers and Ed Marfei. Columbia To Film ‘Krakatoa’ Krakatoa, story of the eruption of the volcano, will be filmed as a super-spectacle by Columbia. Broidy Signs Herman For Three AA Films William F. Broidy has signed Ace Herman to produce three films this. year for William F. Broidy Pictures Corporation, which Allied Artists will release. Herman, who has been affiliated with Broidy as an associate producer, will debut as producer with an original screenplay for which he has signed writer Steve Fisher. It is untitled, but is scheduled to roll in late April. A star and director will be set shortly for Herman’s initial pro— duction. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Republic's Big Program Our Business (Continued from Page 1) down Republic’s previous market. Now the company, using important stars, directors of reputation and higher budgets, is making its way into the best playing time. Its list of films indicate to what extent Republic’s production of bigger pictures has broadened for 1955: Timberjack, in Trucolor, with a strong cast headed by Sterling Hayden, Vera Ralston and David Brian; Texas Legionnaires, in Trucolor and starring Sterling Hayden, Anna Maria Alberghetti and J. Carroll Naish; The Eternal Sea, with Sterling Hayden, Alexis Smith and Dean Jagger in the leads; Magic Fire, in Trucolor, starring Yvonne DeCarlo, Carlos Thompson, Rita Gam, Valentina Cortesa and Alan Badel; Santa Fe Passage, in Trucolor, with John Payne, Rod Cameron and Faith Domergue starring. Also Man From Texas, in Trucolor, starring John Payne, Mona Freeman and Lee J, Cobb; Rebel Island, in Trucolor, with Yvonne DeCarlo, Zachary Scott and Howard Duff; The Long Watch, in Trucolor, which will be an adventure epic based on the Robert F. Mirvish best seller and for which a cast will be announced shortly; The Gunman, starring Ray Milland and Mary Murphy; Three Leaves of a Shamrock, which is a John Ford production starring Tyrone Pow er, Maureen O’Hara and Barry Fitzgerald; and Annie Jordan, which will have a strong cast and be based on Mary Brinker Post’s best-selling novel of the Seattle waterfront. Currently in release are Trouble in the Glen, starring Margaret Lockwood, Orson Welles and Forrest Tucker, with color by Trucolor; The Atomic Kid, starring Mickey Rooney and Robert Strauss; Hell’s Outpost, with Rod Cameron, Joan Leslie and Chill Wills; and African Manhunt, the story of the hunt for a desperate killer reaching deep into the African jungles. In production now or shortly to start are The Crooked Ring, starring Rod Cameron and Gale Robbins; Yellowneck, in Trucolor, the story of five battlefield deserters; I Cover the Underworld, dealing with a priest who tries to reclaim his racketeer twin brother; Mystery of the Black Jungle, with a theme of stalkers in the jungle; Phantom Racketeer, a suspenseful plot of a hidden killer in a crime-ridden town; The Big Jackpot, a comedy romance based on a big money payoff; Circus Girl, dealing with circus life in Ceylon and India; The Big Whisper, a Virginia Van Upp story and production of continental intrigue; and The Village Doctor, in Trucolor, a human-interest drama of medicine and faith in a small town. INVENTS PORTABLE FILM REWINDER Invention of a portable electric film rewinding device is claimed by a Winnipeg projectionist, J. S. Meshwa, who has applied for Canadian and American patents. “The Device,” states Meshwa, “will enable the projectionist to inspect any part of a reel instantly when necessary without changing from an electric to a hand rewinder.”’ A complete technical description was carried in a recent issue of the monthly bulletin of Local 299, IATSE. Meshwa figures that the machine will sell for “around $75.” TORONTO CARNIVALS END IN 1956 Theatre managers’ associations trying to do something about the unfair competition represented by carnivals may be encouraged by Toronto’s ban on them after 1956. This ban won editorial support in the Globe and Mail, which said: “The City Council’s vote to refuse commercial carnivals the use of public parks, beginning in 1956, isi entirely commendable. It is too bad the new policy cannot be made effective this year, These noisy and destructive businesses no doubt have their place, but it is not in the parks. The claim they are useful in raising money for charity is highly exaggerated, and the amount ordinarily turned over to the organizations ‘sponsoring’ them is usually but a small fraction of the total taken from the public. “Apart from that, the principle of permitting such uses of parkland is bad. The machines and sideshows, the trampling of grass by the public, and the litter left behind, all contribute to the very run-down appearance of many of our smaller parks. To restore them to proper condition is a matter of expense the public should not have to pay. The new Parks Commissioner, Mr. George Bell, is to be commended, with his elected employers, for having had the courage and enterprise to deal with this long-established abuse.” In New Westminster, BC the parks board recently banned all carnivals in the area, even if they were under service club sponsorship. Local theatre managers had protested for some time the privileges granted these travelling shows. March 16, 1955 i hy byMlA. laylor MANY things which we often take for granted are sometimes viewed by others in a most interesting light. Such a viewpoint is forcibly brought to our attention in a review of the Canadian Film Weekly Year Book, published in the February issue of Food for Thought, a small but trenchant publication issued by the Canadian Association for Adult Education. The article is written by Dr. J. R. Kidd, a director of that organization and one of the founders of the Canadian Film Awards. It is well worth reading verbatim and is as follows: “One of the oldest, and drabbest of all jokes is about the man who liked to read a dictionary, but complained the stories were rather short! Books of reference, valuable and often thumbed as they may be, seldom make exciting reading. This is usually true of the year books that faithfully record vital statistics and annual happenings in some particular industry. “But there is at least one exception—the motion picture year book. This has tables and statistics like the others, it is just as carefully done, and in every way it fulfills its reference purpose. But there is a difference. Not a difference in subject because for all its glamor the motion picture business is really no more exciting than oil or aluminum or steel. The chief difference is in its editor— Hye Bossin. “Bossin is also the editor of the Canadian Film Weekly, a trade paper of the Canadian motion picture industry. But it is more than a trade paper; every week it prints some of the liveliest talk about all the arts in Canada. It is opinionated, sometimes it’s sharp; quite often it hits first and apologizes after. Its particular merit, apart from the high average quality of the writing, is that the editor has a great affection for movies, for the men and women who make them, and for those who sell them. Bossin really cares about motion pictures and about plays, ballet, club entertainment. It’s a romance marked by many a lover’s quarrel, but one that has lasted for several decades. Consequently even when the reader encounters sharp words in Canadian Film Weekly he does not have the impression that these activities are slight or tawdry, unworthy of his attention. Some Canadian critics and writers make the arts seem so unnecessarily depressing and well-nigh useless. Not so Bossin. His scorn is for those who can’t or won’t give the arts their due—be that due exul (Continued on Page 3)