Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 27, 1957)

‘March 27, 1957 TA Incorporating the Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Founded 1915) Vol, 22, No, 13 March 27, 1957 HYE BOSSIN, Editor 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 $5.00 per year. MGM FEATURES (Continued from Page 1) with Robert Beatty, Yolande Donlan and Betta St. John; This Could Be the Night, in CinemaScope and starring Jean Simmons, Paul Douglas and Anthony Franciosa; and The Little Hut, in Eastman Color and wide screen, starring Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger and David Niven. Tentatively set up for June release is The Seventh Sin, in CinemaScope and starring Eleanor Parker, Bill Travers, George Sanders and Jean Pierre Aumont. Also Something of Value in wide screen and starring Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter and Wendy Hiller. On the July tentative list are Man on Fire, in wide screen starring Bing Crosby, Inger Stevens and Mary Fickett; and Silk Stockings, in CinemaScope and Metrocolor and starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige and Peter Lorre. The reprints to be made available are Gaslight, starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotton; and The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Lana Turner and John Garfield, in April. The Bride Goes Wild starring Van Johnson and June Allyson, will be made available again in June, as will Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, starring Edward G. Robinson and Margaret O’Brien. Fox’ ‘Holiday For Lovers’ Clifton Webb will star in 20thFox’ Holiday for Lovers. Canadian VCI Judge For Charity Award Editor of the Canadian Film Weekly and a member of the Variety Club of Toronto, Hye Bossin has been appointed to the Charity Citation Board of Judges for the 2lst annual convention of the Variety Clubs International, to be held in New Orleans April 3-6. Appointment was by Nathan D. Golden, U.S. Government film officer, who is International Heart Chairman. The judges examine the efforts of each tent and cite the one that has done the most toward the general object of VCI, which is to help those who can’t help themselves. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Wechln Canada TV Production (Continued from Page 1) telecasting in April, will cost about $1,000,000 and has already reached about $2,000,000 in billings. Normandie, TPA’s Canadian subsidiary, will have Mohicans wrapped up in a month and Sig Neufeld, the producer, is completing arrangements to shoot a_ second series after his key people, among them Sam Newfield, get a rest. Now comes a lineup of production certainties involving such leading Canadian companies as Associated Screen News of Montreal and S. W. Caldwell Limited, Toronto, with other domestic production organizations also planning series. The most promising new series is that of Associated Screen News, which just completed the pilot film of McLain of Hudson’s Bay, to be a William Morris package. Shot partly on location in the Laurentians and partly in the studio, ASN claims that the pilot, The Fletcher Affair, “‘is comparable to the best ~ that has come out of the U.S. studios.”” The series was the idea of Murray Briskin, who runs ASN for Maxwell Cummings and Paul Nathanson, and he’ll get the producer credit on ‘‘Canada’s first completely independently-produced adventure film series by a Canadian producer with an_ all-Canadian cast.” Caldwell’s first venture into TV production of the series type is said to be in association with Studio Films, Inc. of New York, which will produce a Jack London series, some to be made here. The company, which is sales representative for CBS films in Canada, has its own studio and lab near Toronto. Another big co-production deal shaping up, according to talk, is that of Crawley Films of Ottawa, which will make a TV series based on RCMP files. The McConnells of Montreal are associated with Crawley in this. Among their interests are the Montreal Star, Weekend Magazine, Canada Wide Feature Service Limited and the North American Newspaper Alliance. Script approval, it is said, is being sought from Ernest Bushnell, assistant general manager of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, from which playing time will be sought. Perhaps the name of a Hol lywood co-producer will be announced soon. Another USA company to shoot in Canada will be Screen Gems, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, which has a Canadian affiliate, Screen Gems (Canada) Limited. Herbert B. Leonard, producer of Screen Gems’ Rin Tin Tin, The 77th Bengal Lancers and Circus Boy, told Toronto press people that he would begin shooting a halfdozen programs of the first-named series here in July at a cost of from $30,000 to $35,000 each. He also has it in mind to shoot a new series somewhere else in Canada. Screen Gems here, which has Canadians on its board, gave a cocktail party for Leonard. Canadian actors and technicians will benefit mightily from the projected production. For the ASN series Briskin brought in Frank Telford to direct and Carey Wilber, former Canadian journalist, as the writer—both from the USA. All the rest connected with the series are Canadians. Jim McLain, the leading role, is played by Frank Mathias of Toronto and Factor Dodds, another important character, is played by Murray Matheson, internationally known as one of Canada’s best actors. Others in the cast are Alan Mills, Alex de Naszody, Ed McNamara, Daryl Masters, Henry Ramer, Jimmy Tapp, William Rodriguez, Ptolemy Gibson, Violet Walters and Jacqueline Delimal. All the talk these days is about the number of persons sitting on Bushnell’s doorstep, each willing to undertake a TV series if guaranteed playing time on the government network, the CBC. There have been dozens and more show up every week from the USA and the UK. Not to be overlooked in TV production is the National Film Board, also a government agency, which will spend over $800,000 for its Perspective series of 39 programs for CBC telecasting. And if it works out an understanding with the CBC it will produce its first fiction series, Jake and the Kid, on which it has an option. The surge of TV production has not killed the hopes of some to produce feature-length films in Canada for theatre exhibition. The latest looking into that possibility is Roy Krost of Britain, who has been in Toronto for a week or so. The National Film Board has plans for a feature film about Banting and Best, discoverers of Insulin, but these will likely be dropped. George Salverson and Max Rosenfeld wrote The Discoverers, a very successful one-hour TV program when presented separately on the Canadian and American networks. A Hollywood offer will likely emanate. Perhaps now that Julian Biggs has resigned from the National Film Board he and Ron Weyman may be able to get enough backing to make a feature of Thomas Radall’s book, The Nymph and the Lamp, on which they held the option. When Charles Israels’ CBC TV play, The Mark, created a strong impression some _ interest was shown in buying it for theatre production but the author wasn’t interested in local overtures. In any case, Canadian production, mainly in TV, is stronger than ever before. Page 3 Our Business /4yALA Taylor Crisis in Color?—IV PERHAPS all the blame for the decreased use of color in motion pictures should not be directed at producers. The exhibitor must to some extent assume _ responsibility. We are prone to take for granted things which become, to some degree, commonplace and un questionably the exhibitor took this kind of attitude about the increased use of color in motion pictures. At a time when the employment of color was becoming more important in our business the exhibitor did nothing to indicate to the distributor that color films sold more tickets and were, therefore, entitled to higher rentals. The attitude was rather one of disparagement toward any picture in color which failed to meet certain entertainment standards. This accentuation of the negative rather than the positive undoubtedly led many producers to feel that color was not a necessary requisite for most dating of films. The evidence continues to accumulate that exhibitors are losing the sale of many seats by presenting films the nature of which cry for the use of color. In percentage situations the producer is rewarded by higher film rentals or longer runs if a picture does better because of the use of color than it would have without it. This helps compensate producers for the extra costs involved in production and the making of prints. In flat rental situations many exhibitors find themselves in a position where they must seek lower rentals and are not able to offer the distributor a bonus for color films. Nevertheless, the exhibitor is the first one to point out that his public demands more films in color. A producer recently told me that actually the cost of color production was not so great but when it came to the release of a picture the cost of prints could be a determining factor in the pre-production decision of whether or not to shoot in color. In Canada economics of color release are accentuated by the fact that all prints have to be imported and the duty on individual prints raises the cost to a very high point. A solution of the situ(Continued on Page 4)