Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 13, 1957)

Page 6 GARFIELD CASS (Continued from Page 1) assistant booker and became a salesman the next year. He was in the RCN during WW II. The company has_ temporary quarters at 1544 King Street West but will move to the new Board of Trade Building when completed. The TV and cinema fields will be GARFIELD CASS serviced from Toronto and _ arrangements are being concluded for physical distribution. Donnell & Mudge is a link in the Associated Artists Productions setup, formerly known as PRM, Inc., which made such an impact on the consciousness of the motion picture industry by paying $21,000,000 for the Warner Bros. 1930-50 backlog, then acquiring Paramount’s Popeye cartoons. However, no statement is forthcoming about the Canadian subsidiary’s distribution log. Chairman of the board and vicepresident of Associated Artists Productions are, respectively, Louis Chesler and Maxwell Goldhar, both of Toronto. The change from PRM, Inc. to Associated Artists followed association with Eliot Hyman of New York, head of the latter com pany. Associated Artists Production Corporation recently opened a West Coast division with offices in Hollywood, under Ray Stark. Its purpose, as stated, is to ‘‘finance, develop, create and package motion picture, television and theatrical enterprises, as well as finance any and all elements concerned in the entertainment field.’”” AAP has since made plans for the production of a new story as a feature film and the remaking of one of its properties, The Maltese Falcon. Para's ‘Short Cut To Hell’ Robert Ivers and Tom Tryon have been signed to star in Paramount’s Short Cut to Hell, which will be James Cagney’s first directorial effort. > CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY BATTLE HYMN (From The Film Daily, NY) with Rock Hudson, Anna Kashfi, Dan Duryea, Don Defore. (CinemaScope-Technicolor) Empire-Universal 108 Mins. BEST-SELLER BIOGRAPHY OF MINISTER-PILOT HESS HAS ATTRIBUTES THAT SPELL BIG BOXOFFICE. ACTION, WARMTH, HUMOR, AND A_ GREAT DEAL OF HUMAN INTEREST INSURE APPEAL FOR ANY AUDIENCE, Dean Hess, Protestant minister and fighter pilot extraordinaire, gained most of his prominence through his innate instinct for human kindness rather than his legendary aerial heroics. Set down in a best-seller which has gained national attention, his deeds provide the basis for this feature; a story focused on the Colonel’s actions during his stay in Korea. There are qualities in the production to attract every audience. Men will like the aerial action, while the distaff side will be deeply touched by the plight of the orphan children. There are moments which may seem overdone, but they are overcome by the worthiness of the story and its hero. The Charles Grayson, Vincent B. Evans script, adapted from the book of the same title, digresses little from actual happenings, presenting a straight-forward account of a war hero. Russell Metty is credited with photography, an obvious asset, while Douglas Sirk’s direction is astute. His cast is competent all the way, ranging emotionally from tears to laughter, and the children from the Orphans Home of Korea, particularly Master Kyoo Pyo, will steal your heart away. Nationally, and_ internationally, Battle Hymn should do big things commercially for its distributor. CAST: Rock Hudson, Anna Kashfi, Dan Duryea, Don Defore, Martha Hyer, Jack Mahoney, Alan Hale, James Edwards, Carl Benton Reid. CREDITS; Producer, Ross Hunter; Director, Douglas Sirk; Screenplay, Charles Grayson, Vincent B. Evans; Photography, Russell Metty. DIRECTION: Astute. PHOTOGRAPHY: Excellent. Peck In "Sound And The Fury’ Gregory Peck has been signed by Jerry Wald to star in The Sound and the Fury, which 20th-Fox will release. "Stranger At Soldier Springs’ Shooting has started on Robert Bassler’s UA film, Stranger at Soldier Springs, starring Joel McCrea and Mark Stevens. Warren To Produce Eight For 20th-Fox Charles Marquis Warren Production will make eight pictures for 20th Century-Fox release, leading off with The Other One, an exciting drama, and Beyond Terror, an unusual story of suspense. Warren, head of the independent company, will produce and direct each picture. INVITATION TO THE DANCE (From The Film Daily, NY) with Gene Kelly. MGM (Technicolor) 93 Mins. UNUSUAL, _ BRILLIANTLY-DONE TRIO OF DANCE SEQUENCES, FEATURING KELLY, SHOULD FIND ITS NICHE WITH ART HOUSE AUDIENCES. A thoroughly enjoyable film, Invitation to the Dance will appeal immensely to certain audiences, but it will have to be handled and sold carefully. It is nothing more or less than three separate dance sequences; each approximately one-half hour in length. Each is entirely different from the other, and with the exception of Kelly, features different casts. The first sequence, Circus, is the most serious and sombre of the three. It stars Igor Youskevitch as The Lover, Claire Sombert as The Loved and Kelly as The Clown. The music is by Jacques Ibert, conducted by John Hollingsworth and played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Kelly, in love with Miss Sombert, kills himself while trying to outperform her lover on the high wire. Ring Around the Rosy, a satire on life in general, and cocktail parties in particular, is a brilliant and captivating affair. Composed, conducted and played by Andre Previn, the music is fast, gay and sparkling; the cast the same. They include Kelly, Igor Youskevitch, Tommy Rall, David Paltenghi, Claude Bessy, Tamara Toumanova, Diana Adams, Belita, Daphne Dale, and Irving Davies. The last, Sinbad the Sailor, is an interpretive variation of the famous tale, featuring Kelly as Sinbad, Carol Haney in a small part as Scheherazade, and David Kasday as the Genie. Based on music by Rimsky-Korsakov and adapted by Roger Edens, the orchestration by Conrad Salinger is conducted by Johnny Green. The cartoon bit, included in this last sequence, adds to its unique and entertaining quality. CREDITS: Producer, Arthur Freed; Director, choreography, Gene Kelly; Photography, Circus and Ring Around the Rosy, F. A. Young, Sinbad the Sailor, Joseph Ruttenberg. DIRECTION: Excellent. PHOTOGRAPHY: Tops. Columbia's 'The Long Haul’ Victor Mature and Diana Dors will star in Maxwell Setton’s Columbia film, The Long Haul. It will be filmed in Great Britain starting in February. Bryna Signs Rory Calhoun Bryna Productions has signed Rory Calhoun to star in Ride Out for Revenge, which United Artists will release. Monroe-Olivier Pic's New Title Warners has changed the title of the Marilyn Monroe-Laurence Olivier production filmed in England from The Sleeping Prince to The Prince and the Showgirl. The film will be released shortly. February 13, 1957 Short Throws MOVIE critic Clyde Gilmour of The Telegram, Toronto, was the subject of a TV interview on CBC’s Graphic, made in the screening room of Odeon Theatres. He told Joe McCulley that a person who has studied films and talked to the people who make them is entitled to lambast them as a critic. He sees from five to nine features every week, uses his glasses less now than he did ten years ago and a good picture restores his morale even after three bad ones in a row. CANADIAN debut of Eighty Days Around the World, distributed by UA in the Todd-AO process, will be in the Alouette Theatre, Montreal, a unit of Consolidated Theatres. It will likely follow the run of Oklahoma in the Tivoli, Toronto. It’s in its 42nd week and still doing strong business. BOWLING Sunday afternoons at 1.30 is the newest social activity of the Variety Club of Toronto. Under the chairmanship of Joe Bermack, the Bowling Committe reserves the whole Leaside Bowling Centre, located at 832 Eglinton Avenue East at Laird Drive, for the Barkers and their families. The first exceptional turnouts has caused the committee to start thinking in terms of a tournament and prizes. FIFTY years of service in Canadian theatres as a projectionist was recently celebrated by Ernest Young, boothman at the Odeon Theatre in Peterborough, Ontario. A local newspaper, the Review Weekly, gave the event a big play, using a two-column photo of Young and giving his biography from the early days of the movies to the present, including all the theatres in which he worked. HOLDOVERS and new house records are the features of all the key dates of Warners’ Giant, which is now in its fourth week at the Imperial, Toronto and _ Loew’s, Montreal; and in its second week at the Capitol, Edmonton and Capitol, Ottawa. CAMPAIGN for ‘Truth in Advertising was announced in Calgary by Allan Rose, manager of the Better Business Bureau of that city. In an interview with the Albertan he quoted a brochure which the New Yorker magazine sent to its advertisers, asking for fewer exaggerated claims. The Albertan, reporting Rose’s description of the brochure’s contents, said: ‘‘Sensational movie advertising depicting situations and actions which never took place in the film, and which, if it did occur in the film, would result in a ban against it for mora] reasons, was scored,”’