Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 9, 1957)

Observanda FRED L. THOMAS quit as managing editor of the UK trade paper, To-Day’s Cinema, to become general manager of J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors. Anyone here want to hire a general manager? I’ve got some spare time. . . Roger Lewis of UA, back after talking to Canadian press and industry reps of all types, told Variety in an interview that the most common beef here was that the USA film companies “spend inadequate sums in backing their releases in Canada, though they draw seven per cent of their entire income from Canada.” The Canadians believe, he said further, that USA distribs “go out of their way to assist film industries in countries where there are trade restrictions,” giving Canada the brush because it’s an “easy market.” Now that we have reprinted this, watch Ol’ Jess Huffenpuff, Industry Saver No. 1, come rushing to the rescue ... Should be plenty of Canadiana in Raymond Massey’s autobiog, tentatively called Charcoaled on the Outside .. . Doctor warned a playboy member of the Serutan set to cut the time he spends with girls in half. ““Which half,” he asked, “thinkin’ or talkin’?” . .. Astral’s newest Neff starrer is Unnatural, a German film about artificial insemination. Wasn’t there a joke about a fellow who used to send a tie to a syringe at John Hopkins Hospital on Father’s Day? FELLOW IRKERS: (1) The boss, usually subject to superior authority himself, who drives his executives into a state of nervous frustration by not being available when urgent decisions must be arrived at. Over a drink some execs were discussing this, each claiming his boss was the worst. “At one time it was so bad in our Office,” one said, “that we had a meeting and organized a rescue party. We couldn’t get in to see the boss for so long that we were convinced he was being held incommunicado!”’ (2) The guy who talks to you at a social gathering until, out of the corner of his eye, he sees a bigger shot come in. Then he starts moving slowly away from the conversation, his haste hidden but his intent clear. He wants to get to the big shot and be seen with him before someone else gets there and forces him to either intrude or stay with the smaller shots. (3) The guy who always stands with his back too near to a group being press-photog’d. He must be told to move out of the photo or into it. As often as not the lenser is too polite to tell him to get out so he tells him to get in. (4) The person, given VIP status by genial reporters, who is so influenced by his publicity that he acts as though all anyone needs for eternal happiness is a pat on the head or a kind word from him. THIS FELLOW’S friend had died and he went to the funeral parlor for the service, after taking a few to kill the pain of parting with a good pal. As he walked down the aisle to have a last look he was suddenly frozen. Beside the casket stood the person who was supposed to be in it! He looked around to see if others saw the same sight but everyone else seemed unaware of the figure. He stared at it, full of doubts about himself, then went outside to wait. The service over, he got a lift with some of the mourners who were going to the cemetery. There again he saw the figure of his dead friend, looking at the hole that was to receive the casket in which he was supposed to be resting. The burial concluded, he got back into the car. There he was joined again by the people who had driven him out — and his deceased friend who wouldn’t lie down. It proved to be the dead man’s twin brother, from another city, whom he didn’t know existed . . . Frank Rasky’s article in Liberty about marriage between extreme neurotics tells this story by Judge John Grudeff of Toronto’s Family Court: He tried to effect a reconciliation between a pair of deaf mutes and in the course of this wrote a note asking the man why he had left the woman. “Because,” was the written answer, “she talks too much!” CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY January 9, 1957 V ariviews SAMMY SALES, as Uncle Willie in Uncle Willie, saunters across the stage of the Circle Theatre and right into the hearts of the audience. He’s a joy—as Jack Karr, Herb Whittaker and Rose MacDonald reported to their readers the next day. Given a corny and poorly-written story made believable by the sincere playing of Iris Krangle and June Lehman, Sales makes it glow with sentiment and humor. Those qualities he provides in great abundance, to almost continuous audience appreciation. Supplementing the classic Sales characterization of a gentle and wise peddlar who just naturally assumes that all the world’s troubles are his own is a fine portrayal of a gabby old maid by Sylvia Lennick. Here is an actress who can give many top femme players lessons in how to get the most out of a role. As her mother there is Sofia Reinglas, formerly of Europe, whose solid background in the profession is indicated by how completely she commands the attention of the audience just by her bearing, even when sharing the stage with so dynamic a player as Sylvia Lennick and a winning one like Sales. The play itself is a literary mish-mash and William Taylor, operating against time and other handicaps, pulled off a minor miracle in making it come out in orderly and entertaining fashion through his direction. He needed a little more time for the other players, who include Irwin Brown, Lloyd Chester and Alan Chrysler. Sydney Newman provided a set both fetching and useful. Stan Jacobson and Mervyn Rosenzveig, who operate the Premiere Theatre, have an exceedingly enjoyable show here for the start of their second season in the city. It not only makes you laugh while in the theatre but makes you happy and keeps you that way for a long time after. NEW YEAR’S EVE bash at the Variety Club, the House Committee’s first, was a smash . . . The Bobby Myers made a sister of their daughter with the arrival of a son. . . Congrats to Joe Rosenfeld, Columbia’s lawyer, who was made a Queen’s Counsel . . . Store sold all its perfume in a mad rush after putting this sign on the counter: ‘Don’t buy this if you’re bluffing” . . . W. Macqueen-Pope, British author of 15 books on theatre history, sees a poor future for legit. Fifteen years from now, he told a lit luncheon, there won’t be a dozen legit houses left in Central London and musicals will occupy most ... Hy Gardner, NY Herald-Trib pillarist, suggests the EkbergMansfield feud be settled in the Garden with gloves for charity. Hy, they could lean on each other and not get close enough to land a punch .. . Our hearts go out to the Gerry Collins’, who lost their six-month-old daughter. THAT SITUATION about a kid being locked in a vault accidentally is a very durable one. Arthur Hailey’s recent TV version got a USA and Canadian network telecasting and was bought by a UK motion picture studio for 22-5. O. Henry used it for one of his best short stories, A Retrieved Reformation, on which Paul Armstrong based his 1909 four-act hit play, Alias Jimmy Valentine. Metro filmed a feature from it in 1920 and 1928 — and wasn’t there a popular song from the picture? Walter Winchell recently noted that many years ago in Chicago the fact of a child being locked in a vault yielded a great newspaper story and — get this punchline — when the vault was finally opened the child was not there! Those who had worked desperately to penetrate the vault, among them hardened criminals, dropped to their knees and gave thanks .. . How about an all-time Toronto Hit Parade? All the World Is Waiting for the Sunrise, for which Ernest Seitz composed the music and Gene Lockhart the words after seeing the sun come up on the campus of the University of Toronto, would be No. 1. Though Seitz became a concert pianist and Lockhart a leading actor, this will probably be remembered longer than anything else about them. Other Toronto songs: Ruth Lowe’s I’ll Never Smile Again and Johnny Cowell’s Walk Hand in Hand.