Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 5, 1956)

=r December 5, 1956 Review DEATH OFA SCOUNDREL (From The Film Daily, NY) with George Sanders, Yvonne DeCarlo and Zsa Zsa Gabor. RKO 119 Mins. DRAMA OF FINANCIER COMMITTING MAYHEM ON FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO GAIN RICHES AN AUDIENCE'S DELIGHT. Someone had to kill him—everyone hated him. Yet, this scoundrel of an international financier betrays, seduces, ruins and plunders on his swindling way to millions to the obvious delight of the audience. Placed in a good light by cameraman James Wong Howe, he will be readily accepted by boxoffice society. Charles Martin, the writer-producer-director, in plotting the Death of a Scoundrel as his first indie venture has neatly dramatized the motivation of each victim to murder. With Martin’s scintillating dialogue, the star cast of thieves and cut-throats cavort too merrily. There is much fun in the detached view of their nefariousness. George Sanders suavely plays the unscrupulous dastard who wreaks havoc on family, friend and enemy in his rise to wealth and power. Yvonne DeCarlo makes a fine rough-diamond, petty thief whom he polishes, socially and professionally. Zsa Zsa Gabor, as a greedy, rich widow, is reason enough to incite male envy of the scoundrel’s activities. Victor Jory competently portrays a defrauded oil baron. In all, the unreeling of this ruthless cheat will engross audiences. Those who know what they are buying will be satisfied; those who don’t will be pleasantly surprised. Martin has a good one. CAST: George Sanders, Yvonne DeCarlo, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Victor Jory, Nancy Gates, Coleen Gray. CREDITS: Writer producer director, Charles Martin; Music by Max Steiner; Director of photography, James Wong Howe; Assistant director, Frank Fox. DIRECTION: Fine. PHOTOGRAPHY: Excellent. Sanders In ‘Painted Veil’ George Sanders will star with Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers in MGM’s The Painted Veil. "Rock, Rock, Rock’ In Five Twinex Houses Astral Films’ new DCA release, Rock, Rock, Rock, which is playing 70 Loew’s houses in the New York area, has been booked dayand-date into the five-theatre Toronto hookup of the Twinex circuit, headed by the Downtown Theatre. Heard in 21 new rock and roll numbers in the film. are Frankie Lymon and His Teenagers, Lavern Baker, Chuck Berry, The Three Chuckles, Jimmy Cavallo and His House Rockers, Alan Freed and his 18-piece orchestra, among others. P etivems Sth with WE SOSSI CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY n The . SQUAR VARIETY TENT’S election meeting, attended by many visiting showmen, was great fun, much of which was created by Monty Hall, that talented ex-canvasman now emceeing a NY TV show. The witty Monty, who emceed the touring Formby hit show two seasons ago, would have lit up the Chrysler Festival with his looks and personality. Monty explained that he couldn’t get around to the NY convention last Spring because he was moving at the time .. . Myron McLeod of Powell River, BC, here for the conventions, freshened his friendship over a Variety drink with a Royal Flying Corps buddy of WWI, Frank Vaughan . . . Another Variety guest: Vic Hoare of London, Lion International v-p ms ... It’s a boy for the Jim Hardimans of National Theatres, Los Angeles. Jim is the ex-Odeon ad-pub chief here .. . Beef about some big-headed CBC people of doubtful competence, as passed on to me. They’re asked for and the secretary says to hang on. A moment later she’s back with this: ‘““What’s it about?” Very little coming out of there these days entitles them to be that high and mighty . . . You’ve become a realist when you accept the fact that a man can be an S.O.B. all his life and still die rich and without remorse. DOUG MILLER, who runs the theatre in Taber, Alberta, was promised the premiere of the film about the life of jockey Johnny Longden, a Metro release to star Mickey Rooney. You know who promised it to him? Longden, himself a Taber product . . . Ed Wells, who used to head the distributors’ association, is quite ill at his home on Ontario Street, Cobourg and I’m sure will be glad to hear from old friends. Ed is one of the finest gentlemen I have ever met . . . Got talking to a fellow member of the Central Y’s BMC who is with a publishing house. He told me that The Ten Commandments has caused a marked increase in the sale of bibles . . . Jack Barron, Calgary Odeon partner, will be the guest of honor at a Negev dinner for aid to Israel. That reminds me that in Israel they are pointing to the recent victory as an example of how transportation has developed. It took the Jews 40 years to cross the Sinai desert from Egypt to Israel. Thirty-two hundred years later, crossing from the other direction, it took them 40 hours .. . The figure turned down by MGM for the sale of its backlog to the Chesler group was $55,000,000... These days the boys don’t say “We’re on the right track” while exploring an idea. They say: “Anyway, we’re thinkin’ good” . . . When it came nomination time for an Industry Council eastern v-p Johnny Ganetakos of Montreal, sitting next to me, quickly suggested Bill Lester of Montreal. “‘Years ago I learned a great secret,’’ he explained to me. “Nominate somebody before somebody nominates you.” ROBERT CLARK, chief of production at Associated British, UK, was in town, along with that company’s TV chief, Howard Thomas. Will-o’-the-whisper is that Thomas was headed for the CBC’s Bushnell in Ottawa to see if he could get a co-op deal, a la Mohicans . . . It’s a brother for sister at the Barney Simmons’ house, making the happiness and congratulations at the Towne Cinema, which he manages, dayand-date with those at the International Cinema, which grandma Flo Simmons looks after . . . Remember good old Jack Houston, who used to manage the Dundas Square Imperial Bank branch? He came in from St. Catharines for the Oscar Hanson dinner with Roy Miller and Stu Fleming. It was nice to see such out-of-towners as John Dydzak of Hamilton and A. I. Rosenberg of Kitchener. Among those who wired congratulations were AA chief Steve Broidy, Hollywood; Syd Taube, Los Angeles; and Louie Rosenfeld, last year’s Award winner, ill in Toronto . .. Had dinner with those recent newlyweds, Adele Kamins, that fine TV and stage actress, and Stan Daniels, probably the town’s best young lyricist-composer, sketch writer and actor. It just isn’t fair to have so much talent in one family ... What with noisy drunks, etc. they should have called it the Grey Cup Pestival. Page 5 Short Throws DAVE SMITH Productions has been opened by Dave Smith, onetime National Film Board writerdirector, in Toronto as a consultative film service dealing in all production phases. Smith, most recently with Hudson Productions, Limited, Toronto as_ production manager, has been media director with the Grant Advertising Agency and at the old Rapid Grip and Batten studio, recently sold to S. W. Caldwell Limited. WILL ROGERS Memorial Hospital and Research Laboratories at Saranac Lake, NY, which is for the amusement industry, will again receive $50,000 from the major film companies that make up the Motion Picture Association of America, it was announced by Abe Montague, president of the fund which supports it. SIX-CITY Christmas premiere has been set by JARO for its Royal Command film, The Battle of the River Plate, in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, London, Winnipeg and Victoria. The production, in VistaVision and Technicolor and starring John Gregson, Anthony Quayle and Peter Finch, in its opening week at the Odeon in Leicester Square, London, broke the mark set by Reach for the Sky, the company’s top boxoffice alltime grosser. —_—_—_ WARNER BROS. will produce TV shows for ABC—the American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres company headed by Leonard Goldenson. New offices, cutting rooms, projection rooms and other facilities will be constructed. It’s a nonexclusive deal and WB will handle other business as well. ANOTHER 3-D film is being produced, this one by Arch Oboler, who made Bwana Devil in 1952 and started a cycle that didn’t last. This one will be called Fly With a Cherub. He insists that the process is much improved — so much that the audience won’t mind wearing the glasses. PERSPECTIVE subject, made by the National Film Board for CBC TV, is The Longer Trail, a story about an Alberta Indian whose illness takes him off the reservation. This creates many problems. AFFILIATION with the IATSE was voted by the Colosseum of Motion Picture Salesman of America at their recent annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri. Move was made to strengthen the position of the Colosseum when and if the distributors get around to streamlining their operations for reasons of economy.