Canadian Film Weekly (Oct 19, 1955)

October 19, 1955 15 AT REPUBLIC (Continued from Page 1) overtime to keep up with the activity and Herbert J. Yates, president, pointing out that business was showing increases, said that all this ‘points to a most optimistic outlook for the industry for the final quarter of this year and the first six months of 1956.” Republic product is distributed in Canada by J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (Canada) Limited. Yates also noted that Republic would spend over $1,000,000 on additional construction, technical equipment and further development of the company’s new Cinepanoramic lens before the end of the year and forecast that this period would be one of the brightest in many years for Republic and the film industry. Republic features before the cameras include The Maverick Queen, a Zane Grey story starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Scott Brady and Mary Murphy, which is being filmed in Trucolor and Cinepanoramic; Shot in the Dark, with Marjie Millar, John Hudson and Tony Caruso; and Stranger at My Door, toplining Macdonald Carey, Patricia Medina and Skip Homeier. Currently being edited are the Trucolor feature production, Come Next Spring, starring Ann Sheridan, Steve Cochran, Walter Brennan, Sherry Jackson and Richard Eyre, and Circus Girl, now being dubbed under the supervision of associate producerdirector John H. Auer. The future Republic schedule, one of the studio’s heaviest, will have many films in the new Cinepanoramic process and in Trucolor. They include Lisbon, scripted by John Tucker Battle for Ray Milland; Annie Jordan, written by Irmgard Von Cube and Harold Erickson; Portrait of a Hero; Little Lady of the Big House, a William Dieterle production; Brother Van, which writer Warren Duff is now preparing; Man of Violence; The Deerstalker; The Long Watch; Back of Beyond, written by Thomas Williamson; Renegades and the Woman, scripted by Barry Shipman; Jesse James Was My Neighbor, The Homer Croy story adapted by John Butler; And Suddenly You Run; Below the Summit, authored by L. Bush-Fekete and Mary Helen Fay; and Lady in Lace, a Robert Blees story; Sophisticated Lady; The White Leopard; and The Long Way Back, being prepared by Richard Landau. Frank Lloyd and Mickey Rooney productions will also be on the forthcoming slate. AA's ‘The Four Seasons’ David Wayne and Keenan Wynn will star in AA’s The Seasons. Four CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Yews Notes ‘THE WORLD OUR AUDIENCE’ The J. Arthur Rank Organization’s 45-minute short, The World Our Audience, won rapt interest from a special audience at the Fairlawn Theatre, Toronto, where it was screened ahead of Doctor at Sea recently. In introducing it J. D. Ralph, vicepresident of the J. Arthur Rank Screen Services Limited in Canada, said it was first shown at the recent British Industrial Exhibition. The film showed the various interests of JARO, which has 33,000 employees. The audience learned that eight of ten cameras used in Hollywood carry Rank lenses and that it has an interest in 105 Canadian theatres worth $10,000,000. Theatre TV was shown in action, sequences from four new JARO features were offered and many present had their first look at JARO’s excellent screen ads, one of which, Tips, was as entertaining as informative. One of the sequences from a forthcoming feature starred Jeannie Carson, an English girl now very popular with USA TV audiences. She sang and danced on a Technicolor set and so well done was it that JARO mastery of general tastes in film musical comedy is indicated. This is an important development for theatres, since musicals are big earners on this side. Doctor at Sea, a sequel to Doctor in the House, won continuous laughter. CHARLIE CHRISTIE, EX-LONDONER, DEAD Charles H. Christie, 75, who with his brother, Al, made comedy shorts and features for 16 years of the silent film era, died in Beverley Hills recently after a long illness. Like Al, who passed away in 1951, he was born in London, Ontario and was one of a number of film people of Canadian origin who played a very important part in the development of the movies as entertainment. Charles handled the administrative end of Christie Comedies, which made both the Syd Chaplin and Charles Ruggles versions of Charley’s Aunt and such other famed films as The Nervous Wreck, Up in Mabel’s Room and Getting Gertie’s Garter. He left the film business for real estate dealing 20 years ago. FILM COUNCILS HEAR TWO NFB MEN Pierre de Bellefeuille and Lyle Stewart of the National Film Board were two of the guest speakers at the recent meeting of the Federation of Film Councils of Eastern Ontario in Prescott. The former screened Strike in Town and the latter Farm Calendar and discussions followed both showings. Patrick Reid of Crawley Films presented his company’s Faces of Saskatchewan and spoke on its production. Charles Dowton of Oshawa was elected president at the meeting, succeeding William Graff of Peterborough. James Bird of Picton was; named first vice-president, Eric Brown of Renfrew second vice-president and Miss K. Healey of Kingston secretarytreasurer. The McDowell Award for proficiency among film councils was presented to the Ontario-York Film Council by Miss Healey and accepted by Claire Keevil. Dr. H. W. Curran of Queen’s University acted as convener of the discussion groups on various phases of film council activity and promotion. RIDE 'EM, MATINEE COWBOY! Western entertainment for juveniles will be really different if Frank E. Leahan’s plan, reported for the New York Times from the Patent Office in Washington by Stacy V. Jones, ever takes hold. Here’s what the Times said: “A Boston man patented audience participation movies this week. The patrons can gallop after the bad men, as members of the sheriff’s posse, whooping and shooting cap pistols. “Instead of seats, Frank E. Leahan’s theatre has a troop of mechanical horses. The patent drawings show fifty-five horses, with their heads toward a movie screen. When the action starts, the horses bob up and down, a breeze blows against the riders’ faces and ribbons of light moving from front to rear add to the illusion of speed. The sound effects, of course, go full blast. “Mr. Leahan proposes to put his audience in the middle of things by mounting a second screen at one side of the auditorium. As the young patrons gallop after the hero, they can glance to the right and see pictures of other members of the posse. Both sereens are to be of the transparent kind, with the cameras in back of them. An operator at a control panel near the front screen can manipulate the blowers, lights and horses, as well as the film and sound. “Mr, Leahan was granted Patent No. 2,719,715.” Page 5 COUPONS calling for a cash discount on purchases at 20 specified merchants were distributed in packages of 20 to every patron attending an Ottawa theatre on certain days as part of that city’s month-long salute to the 50th anniversary of the movies. The coupons were only one of many promotional stunts thought up by the Ottawa theatre managers for the ‘Movie Month Celebration,” which turned out to be one of the finest attention-getting plans ever attempted in Canada. JURISDICTIONAL battle seems to be shaping up between the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild in the USA for responsibility over actors making TV films by the Electronicam method. A _ few years ago the two unions signed an agreement giving the AFTRA jurisdiction over actors appearing in live shows and the SAG over those in filmed shows. The action taken by the AFTRA in New York gave as its reason for asking to represent actors now under the SAG banner the fact that the Electronicam system had been changed since the agreement had been signed. The method uses a TV and a film camera mounted _ side-by-side, lowering production costs. REFUSAL to grant broadcasting rights by the American Federation of Musicians in the USA has halted a deal under which Associated Artists Productions was purchasing 45 films, 35 from Paramount and the remainder from U-I, for showing on TV. It is understood that the refusal was based on the AFM’s right to five per cent of the gross profit on all televised film, which it had only collected intermittently and which it insisted upon in this case. Some 30 TV stations had already contracted for the pack age of films. Fischer ITC Rep Richard Fischer has _ been named Canadian representative of Interstate Television Corporation by Lloyd Lind, vice-president and general sales manager of the Allied Artists subsidiary. Friedlob Buys Story Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, an original suspense story by Douglas Morrow, has been purchased for the screen by motion picture producer Bert E. Friedlob, who has signed Morrow to script the UA release.