Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 18, 1956)

January 18, 1956 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 7 Observanda & Personalia I FOUND THAT Tyrone Guthrie’s Tamburlaine the Great, on the opening night of its pre-NY engagement, was an awesome spectacle that moved its hordes of players furiously but left me unmoved otherwise. The Great Mr. T, despite all his gory glory, is not nearly so fascinating a villain as Richard III. The eye is excited but the ear is often oppressed and the emotions remain undisturbed. Perhaps Guthrie overdid his theatricalism, which always approaches blatancy. But it’s a great show of the theatrical arts and really quite an experience. Anthony Quayle. in the title role, had to be great to dominate such a storm of people, while Barbara Chilcott, as his wife, won herself new stature in her profession. Lloyd Bochner played Tamburlaine’s conqueror in fine style. 1 have a feeling that had author Marlowe done as much for the play as Guthrie, we might have seen theatrical history. Can I add a note about some unsung heroes of this massive project? Among them would be Harold Kusell, company manager; Sy Milbert, production stage manager; and Jack Merigold, stage manager . . . Charlie Mason, for JARO, put on a good noontime party for a pleasant young man from the USA, David Knight, a UK star who is next up in Lost. Helleur, Johnson, Karr, Rasky and the rest found their work interesting and enjoyable because of Knight’s ease and friendliness. TIP: BUY KODAK! Got the idea when I heard A. Davidson Dunton, CBC sachem, tell Elaine Grand on Tabloid that the Corporation used 40,000,000 feet of film for kinnies last year. Canada is the No. 2 country in the TY world and the CBC had an artists’ payroll of 2,000 in °55... . Jn Maclean's Beverley Baxter revealed that a film will be made about John L. Baird, British inventor of TV, who died some years ago—‘probably of a broken heart and certainly penniless.” Observed Baxter, who worked for Gaumont-British at the same time as Baird and knew him quite ~-well: “He could not afford to protect his patents and his death was given only a paragraph in most of the newspapers. Now they are talking of making a film of his life. Irony could go no further” _ . . Observation: Girls with bobbed schnozzles seem to have very large mouths with projecting lower lips . . . Ever hear Western and Scottish songs sung with Chinese lyrics? You can at the Sea Hi, a new Chomeinery. The records are made in the UK and India and are brought by the young Chinese who come here from Hong Kong .:. . Jf boxers are required to be the same weight for the sake of .an even contest. why shouldn't basketball players be the same height? .. . Name for Patti Page’s electronic trick of harmonizing with herself on records: Duet Yourself... My suggestion for one of those gag names Steve Allen likes—Pat. Pending. BRITISH MANAGER of The Three Deuces is a nice lad named Tito Burns and he flew over for the boys’ North American debut at the Barclay, where they're knocking them dead every show. Tito told me about the London talent agent whose offices were above a bank. One night the bank was burgled by some characters who forced entry through the floor of the agent's office. So the agent prowled the underworld until he found the characters—and demanded ten per cent because “the job was done through my office” . One of the characters in Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine talks about the “riches of America.” Chris goofed. Tamburlaine died in 1405, 87 years before Columbus discovered America .. . /f seems to me that Shakespeare, who was born in 1564, never once referred to America by name. Isn’t that odd? Maybe this is an indication that Shakespeare and Marlowe aren't the same person, as claimed... Local boxer, in the twilight of his career, also works as a beer waiter. The other day. his manager offered him a four-round fight that would work out to $25 per round. “Will L get more money for a six-round match?” he asked. The answer was yes—but he wasn’t in condition for it. “Ill take the six-round match or nothing,” the boxer said, “I’m going out in the first round anyhow”... Variety Club's first Luncheon Meeting, to be held at the King Edward on January 26, should be well-attended and enjoyable. Things of very special interest are on the program, _ -SQUAR n The T ypodermic Injections STOP TELLING ME how good Alex Barris was in his TV debut as emcee of /1.30 Friday. They should have turned his column over to some performer he panned in the past, so that poetic justice could have prevailed by the pillarist being pilloried. (Barris would have done a time step to that sentence.) The Globe and Mail entertainment columnist proved himself almost as good a kibitzer as he is a scribitzer, demonstrating a half dozen talents —all different and none indifferent . . . Murray Gart is the new Time rep hereabouts, replacing Bill Glasgow, who was assigned elsewhere . . . Also hard to find: Unbroken writing time . Mayfair mag seems to have changed from a sophisticated know-itall magazine to one that is not only mature but bright, lively and fresh via content and presentation. The January issue has articles about two film-theatre personalities and one on British films . . . Shopsy, who is his own trademark, has shed 20 pounds already. He’s moving his factory from behind his Spadina delicateria, which will be enlarged to occupy what is now the Office. The new factory, on the 400 Highway, is said to be the finest of its kind in North America. A HILLBILLY was being tried for moonshining. He listened to the prosecutor trying hard to send him to jail and his own lawyer arguing just as hard to keep him out. During a break the hillbilly’s lawyer spoke to him. “I'm not doing so well, Jud, so how about you taking the stand and testifying in your own behalf?” he asked. “Mr. Lawyer,” Jud said, shaking his head negatively, “I think I'll stay neutral.” THIS STORY I liked when I read it in the Wall Street Journal, told exactly as follows but without benefit of quotation marks: Two screen writers who were a team rented a house in the Hollywood Hills and got a promise from the landlord to redecorate the place for them. When it had become evident that the landlord would not keep his promise, the writers had their attorney draw up a paper giving them permission to do their own redecorating at their own expense and, of course, the landlord was only too happy to sign it. Two days before they moved out, the two writers had the whole place painted black. MARCEL CHOJNACKI is ua Torontonian worthy of your admiration. I read why in a New York Sunday Mirror story by Gabriel Trevor about Maurice Schwartz and his adopted children, Marvin and Francis, whose parents died in one of those fiery murder factories that will be Germany's shame forever. In 1941 the Germans, looking for more human fuel among the children, raided the Jewish quarter of Antwerp. Young Chojnacki stopped his car and, aided by others, began throwing children in, among them Marvin and Francis, then four and two. He drove them to Brussels, where orphanage officials hid them. The 15 children Marcel Chojnacki saved are the only ones from that street that are alive. I'm not one of those who feels that it would serve humanity for the knowledge of Germany’s horrible crimes against temporarily conquered peoples to be forgotten. To do this is to rob these valiant peoples of the glorious place in history won with their unbelievable courage—and their lives. I recently read an unforgettable book, Martyrs and Fighters, the epic of the Warsaw ghetto, where over 400,000 died, as told from the daily records kept by Germany's victims. I found it superior to The Wall by John Hersey. which was a fine novel. i cs Had David O, Selznick followed through with his expressed intention of making a film of The Wall, he would have won a place in cinematic history far greater than will come to him for anything he has done so far, including Gone With the Wind. : The stories of the unforgettable courage of different peoples in fighting WW II's criminal nations are still too new to vield the books and plays they should. The books and plays will come Perhaps then will the willing agents of unmatched tyranny and > cruelty feel some national shame,