Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 12, 1957)

Incorporating the Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Founded 1915) Vol, 22, No, 24 June 12, 1957 HYE BOSSIN, Editor EY Assistant Editor Ben Halter Office Manager Esther Silver CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Canado 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. CENSOR TV PIX (Continued from Page 1) for television and films being exported as well as imported. The report was the last one by J. 0. Alexander, chief censor for more than 14 years, who was succeeded in January of this year by C. J. Campbell. There are two men and two women on the Board. In Canada film censorship is a provincial right, although the Customs Department can exercise a form of it by banning imports, in the same way it does to many books. It hasn’t yet. Films for television aren’t censored in Canada because the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which controls TV for the Government, is outside provincial jurisdiction. Canada has nine censorship boards in its ten provinces and many consider it somewhat ridiculous that they should be functioning in relation to theatres when they have no influence on in-the-home exhibition. Both Quebec and British Columbia have asserted authority over films for TV but neither province has tried to apply it. Australia decided to censor films imported for TV in April, 1956 and increased its Board from three to five members. Eighteen TV films were rejected and 187 subjected to eliminations before being passed, the reason being excessive violence in every case. As for censorship of exports: “Films exported are subject to censorship to ensure that nothing detrimental to the Commonwealth’s interests is allowed to be shown overseas. In the main, the films exported are newsreels, documentary films produced by Government instrumentalities and privately-taken films of a scenic or domestic character.” Thirteen films were produced for the exclusive viewing of children and, although they are shown in theatres, the Commonwealth admits them without duty to encourage further production. Australia also censors 8 mm. films. U-I's 'The Female Animal’ Hedy Lamarr, Jane Powell and George Nader will star in Universal-International’s The Female Animal. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY REAY SUCCEEDS ROUSE AT TCL Assistant general manager of Theatre Confections Limited as successor to Andrew Rouse is Norman C. Reay, who was manager of the Montreal branch. Albert R. Pellegrini, TCL drive-in superintendent in Western Canada and assistant to L. W. Gibb in the St. Boniface office, has been moved to Montreal. Announcement of the promotions was made in Toronto by J. J. Fitzgibbons, Jr., general manager of Theatre Confections Limited. Reay, born in Toronto in 1928 and a graduate of Malvern Collegiate, joined Famous Players as an usher in the Beach, Toronto in 1943 and two years later became head usher. In 1946 he was moved into the head office accounting department and to TCL’s accounting department in 1948. The next year he was named Western Ontario supervisor and in 1950 stepped into the Montreal post. In Montreal he took an extension course at McGill University. Pellegrini was born in Saskatchewan in 1930 and graduated from Technical Collegiate, Saskatoon. He began with TCL as concessions manager of the Sutherland Park Drive-in, Saskatoon in 1950. In 1952 he was transferred to Winnipeg as assistant branch manager and was later promoted to the position he held at the time of his new appointment. No successor has been named to the last-named post. NFB DISTRIBUTION CHANGES Staff changes involving three senior members of the National Film Board’s distribution branch were announced last week by Guy Roberge, government film commissioner, in Montreal. Robert Monteith, for the past four years an administrative officer with the Board, goes to Chicago to head the NFB office there. W. Dean Smith, previously head of the Chicago office, has returned to Canada to a new position as television representative in the NFB’s commercial division. Jean-Jacques Chagnon, presently assistant chief of the commercial division, will succeed Monteith as distribution branch administrative officer. Smith has already assumed his new duties; the other two appointments are effective July 1. ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM COMMITTEE A Canadian Section of the International Committee on Ethnographic Films has been incorporated as the Ethnographic Films Committee and the chairman is Marcel Rioux of the Museum of Human History. The directors are Dr. Jacques Rousseau, Michael D. Spencer, Roger Blais, F. R. Crawley, Mrs. June MacNeish, Eugene Bussiere, Marcel Ouimet, John Porter and Jean Palardy. The objects of the Committee are “‘to foster the sciences of ethnology and anthropology and the art of film-making through close co-operation between ethnologists and anthropologists on one hand and film producers on the other.” The Committee is now engaged in compiling a catalogue of all ethnographic films so far made in Canada. Its scope will, in the first instance, be limited to films dealing with Eskimos, Indians and other ethnic groups. The secretary of the Committee, Mrs. Dorothy Macpherson, can be reached at the National Film Board, 150 Kent Street, Ottawa. The International Committee on Ethnographic Films was created by the Congress on Ethnography and Ethnology held in Vienna in September, 1952 under the auspices of Unesco. PIONEER GOLF TOURNEY AUGUST 22 August 22 has been set as the date for the sixth annual Canadian Picture Pioneer Golf Tournament by the committee headed by Dan Krendel. The St. Andrews Golf and Country Club will again be the scene of the competition, as well as the dinner and presentations which will follow. Price is the same as in previous years — $5 per person. The tournament has been a complete sellout for the last several years, with many being turned away. Already orders are coming in for tickets and they will be supplied on a first-come-first-served basis, Krendel states, and advises those wishing to attend to get their orders in early. Working with Krendel on the committee are Al Perly, Joe Bermack, Archie Laurie, Cecil Black, Chet Friedman, Ferg Martin, Andy Rouse, Harry Sullivan and John Flanagan. "Both Ends Of The Candle’ Both Ends of the Candle has been set as the final title of Warners’ The Helen Morgan. Story, starring Ann Blyth, Paul Newman and Richard Carlson. 20th-Fox' ‘The Enemy Below’ Robert Mitchum and Curd Jur gens, German film star, will co star in 20th Century-Fox’ The Enemy Below, to be produced by Dick Powell. June 12, 1957 Our Business Are We In Or Out? ITEM: The Motion Picture Association of America (producers and distributors) has approved the expenditure of several hundreds of thousands | help bolster the boxoffice. Part of this money will be used for ian Academy / Awards Sweepstake next year and part will be , ™ used for a continuing public relations program. Some will be used for experimentation on ways to increase motion picture attendance. A large percentage of this sum is entirely MPAA money and exhibitor associations are expected to participate in this program and to endeavor to raise further sums of money to augment and enlarge it. COMMENT: This is a policy which has been advocated in this column for the Canadian motion picture business for several years. Other industries have considered it important for their general prosperity to keep the public well acquainted with the product they have to sell, in most cases at least partially essential. Since we cannot today assume that motion picture theatre attendance is essential, it follows that our business requires a much more concentrated amount of general selling to the public. It would appear that we are now being out-advertised, out-publicized and even out-glamorized by the TV industry which is competing for the public’s leisure time and giving away, in a modified form, what we are trying to sell. While this program is long overdue it is certainly a welcome assistance in our fight for greater theatre attendance. QUERY: The Canadian film field has always been considered part of the American domestic market for motion picture rentals, usually somewhere between six and eight per cent of the overall, depending on the company. For this reason, if for no other, it is: proportionately important that something be done to help rejuvenate attendance in our country. There is no mention of such intention in the story which was released. We cannot expect that the benefit of what will be done in the United States will overflow (Continued on Page 7) of dollars to.