Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 11, 1956)

July 11, 1956 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 3 Vol. 21, No. 28 HYE BOSSIN, Editor July 11, 1956 Assistant Editor Ben Halter Office Manager Esther Silver CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Canada Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa Published by Film Publications of Canada, Limited 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada — Phone WAlInut 4-3707 Price $3.00 per year. FAMOUS PLAYERS (Continued from Page 1) it will continue to be the flagship of the Famous Players circuit in British Columbia. The acquisition of these properties by Famous Players is in line with its policy of adjusting its operations. Accordingly, it is expected that some of the suburban theatres which have been included in this transaction and are not now operating may be disposed of or converted for other purposes. ‘All the theatres but the Orpheum were built by W. J. Langer, Vancouver business man, in the 20’s and acquired from him by N. L. Nathanson. Paul Nathanson seems to have disposed of almost all of his theatre holdings. Deals over the last decade saw the transfer of Odeon, which he operated with his late father, N. L. Nathanson, to the J. Arthur Rank interests. Later the Palace and Capitol, Hamilton, went to the English interests also. Some years ago he disposed of the Poli theatres in New England. Nathanson retains a few theatres, these being under lease to Odeon in British Columbia. Nathanson, who has many business interests, owns EmpireUniversal Films Limited and a major share of Associated Screen News, Montreal. "Something Of Value’ Michael Pate has been signed by MGM to portray Joe Matson, the South African planter who turns avenger when his wife is slain by the Mau Mau in Something of Value. He joins a cast which includes Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter, Wendy Hiller, Juano Hernandez and Sidney Poitier. TV Director Signed For Two RKO Films Sidney Lumet, brilliant TV director, has been signed by RKO to a two-picture deal, in line with RKO’s plans of signing outstanding new creative talent. He has been identified with such notable TV shows as Danger, You “Are There, Best.of Broadway and more recently as director of hour-long dramatic shows. $1,500 000 Series (Continued from Page 1) Jr. Newfield, here for several weeks, has been joined by the production manager, Bert Bachrach and both, working from offices at Film Industries, are busy lining up people and contacts. Newfield, who will be using hundreds of players, has been in touch with Howard Milsom at Central Casting and CBC officials, among them Ernest Bushnell and O. C. Wilson, have been helpful in different ways. Costuming and wardrobe arrangements have been discussed with Malabar’s. Shooting time is estimated at seven months, with the script switching to winter scenes. Chaney, who will live in his own trailer while here, will get his chief support from Johnny Hart, one-time Lone Ranger. Hollywood and New York technicians have been here several times to check facilities and chart their use. They even surveyed Gottlieb’s farm at Pickering, Ontario for the erection of an Indian village near the fishstocked artificial lake which he created some years ago. Gottlieb has been hospitalized privately for some weeks recovering from a _ shoulder break, while Coplan is on a three-week trip to Europe right now. Gottlieb, who came from New York 24 years ago to establish Canada’s second major motion picture printing firm, Film Laboratories of Canada, is also something of a production pioneer. In 1936 he produced two features in Toronto for MGM _ distribution under the United Kingdom Quota Act, King’s Plate, starring Toby Wing, and Undercover Man. Interior shooting was done at the Ravina Rink, West Toronto, which was Gottlieb’s property. During the war he produced a number of theatrical shorts for the Canada Carries On series of the National Film Board, then headed by John Grierson. Newrfield’s sojourn in Toronto is in the nature of a reunion. He directed King’s Plate and Undercover Man as part of a six-feature project which was dropped when the British Government upped greatly the budget stipulated for Quota pictures. American companies, instead of meeting the requirements of the Quota Act with small pictures so that they could distribute big ones, decided that it was better business to make big ones in England. Thus A Yank at Oxford, from MGM in 1938. The physical expansion program of Film Industries’ $2,000000 plant in New Toronto was worked out by Gottlieb and Coplan after the latter joined the company as managing director in October, 1954. Coplan came to Film Industries after eight years in Great Britain, during which time he was managing director there for United Artists, a member of the board of directors of Odeon Theatres as UA representative, the operator of his own film distribution company and a participant in the production of three features. He returned to Canada for personal reasons. He was responsible for the arrangements which brought the shooting of Oedipus Rex, the Leonid Kipnis-Stratford Foundation 35 mm. color feature, to the studio. Film Industries has been busy shooting filmed TV commercials, with Emile Harvard in charge. He will have no connection with the Newfield operation. The present plant, considered by many to be the finest in EKastern United States and Canada, was Officially opened in January, 1948. It has a studio, printing department and all equipment needed for any phase of movie making. Its recording theatre, in which there is an RCA Photophone costing $120,000 along with a Western Electric system, is the largest outside of Hollywood and New York. Technicians from New York and Hollywood were amazed at the facilities. The Mohican series may very well be the start of major production in this country. It is not unlikely that plans for another series, to follow the first immediately, will be finalized after six or so of the present series. Film Industries has no financial interest in the series, its connection. being the renting of facilities only. Why is the series being shot in Canada? Mainly because a feature made of the footage can be distributed in various parts of the foreign market and this will qualify under the Quota Act in Britain. Also the series becomes eligible for British TV, which has regulations against using USAmade films. UA WEEK BOOKINGS SET RECORD What is estimated to be a new record was set by the 17,420 UA feature bookings in USA and Canadian theatres during United Artists Week, July 1-7. The total represents bookings 20 per cent higher than the number of possibilities and is accounted for by many houses billing two or more features during the week. Cash prizes will go to the three branches showing the greatest number of bookings. Each member of the first place branch will get three weeks’ extra salary, second two weeks’ pay and third one week’s salary. | can ee RE he EE Ta NSIT HOHE ZA TROT SS, OUR BUSINESS (Continued from Page 1) outlets for spending, caused an unnatural spurt in theatre grosses to the extent that holdovers in key cities became commonplace. In this period one large first-run theatre in Toronto used only 13 films in an entire year, Higher grosses led to continuing higher expenditures on production. The later advent of TV as a competitor and the resultant thinking that only super-duper multi-million dollar films could compete with this new medium led again to a higher spiral of production costs. Post-war theatre building contributed its own measure of problems by overseating in many situations and the drive-in building boom made still more potential seats available for movies. As a result we find ourselves with more seats than patrons in many places and a resultant uneconomic level of operation. In the last decade, coupled with a new prosperity we have witnessed a multiplicity of ideas and diversions, each of which occupy the leisure time and use the spare money of some segment of the public. The fantastic increase in automobiles, most of which are sold on time payments, is an example of what takes the public’s time and money. Add to this the fabulous increase in the manufacture and sale on time payments of many other hard goods. Even more importantly, scan statistics for those who have taken up a varied group of sports such as golf, boating, bowling, amateur photography, stamp _ collecting, not to mention the “Do It Yourself” fad. It is true that the public has a greater amount of leisure but there are so many more interesting things with which to occupy it. In the last decade all the things which were stopped dead during the war, leaving the theatres in a happy and unchallenged position, came to life and others have since been added. The artificially stimulated concentration on movies as entertainment was apparently mistaken for natural development and growth. Higher production costs do not necessarily gear higher boxoffice returns, nor higher profits for the exhibitor. On the contrary, selling policies have reached the point where the exhibitor’s profit is confined to a very narrow margin, thereby depriving him of any cushion for the many pictures he must exhibit which have no boxoffice value and result in a loss. There are those who will say that a retrenchment in production spending will spell doom for our business. No one would suggest that we revert to “B” type pictures. There must, however, be found a happy medium which will gear production costs to boxoffice returns based on a fair and reasonable appraisal of the overall potential.