Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 23, 1959)

Christmas Number CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 19 Incorporating the Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Founded 1915) Vol. 24, No. 49 Christmas Number 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, Ontarlo, Canada — Phone WAInut 4-3707 Price $5.00 per year. CENSORSHIP (Continued from Page 3) be so glibly used and so little understood by the majority of our citizens,’ said Mrs. Twyman. Of the effect of motion pictures on young people Mrs. Twyman said: “One of the oft-heard claims against movies is that ‘movies cause juvenile delinquency.’ Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could proclaim that merely by the elimination of the neighborbood movie theatre . . . or even certain ‘types’ of movies, by the closing of all printing presses, by the burning of all books by certain authors, or by the elimination of all radio and television stations . we could solve once and for all the problems of juvenile delinquency! How disarmingly simple! The real facts, if one inquires, would hardly support such claims. Unfortunately history tells us that young people have failed to conform, some even being misguided into explosive and violent behavior patterns . . . long before the invention of the printing press, the motion picture screen, or the use of the air wave!” Concluding her significant address, Mrs. Twyman cited the dangers of sacrificing any part of our freedoms. She recalled: “With some understanding of the dictatorships throughout history; yes, even with the sad cries of the oppressed in Nazi Germany still ringing in our ears, isn’t it shocking that so many of our people fail to see the hidden dangers of each enacted censorship law? How can they fail to understand that each such law leads us one step closer to a totalitarian form of government . . . dangerously close to confided power? The very foundations of our freedom for which our ancestors fought and died are shaken by this reluctance to defend our right to a free and responsible press in all forms. Never has a dictatorship existed which did not first, in its rise to power, impose censorship laws on the press!” 'The Village Of The Damned’ George Sanders has been signed by MGM to star in The Village of the Damned, soon to go before the cameras in England. THE POEM called Bridgebuilder is one I tore out of a magazine years ago and it was uncredited: The weary traveller on a lone highway, Came at the evening cold and gray To a chasm vast and deep and wide. The traveller crossed in the twilight dim, The sullen stream had no fear for him, But turned when safe on the other side And built a bridge to span the tide. Kind friend, said a fellow traveller near, You are wasting your strength in building here, Your journey will end with the ending day, You never again will pass this way; You have crossed the chasm vast and wide, Why build you a bridge at eventide? The traveller lifted his old gray head: Kind friend, in the path I have come, he said; There followeth after me today a youth Whose feet will pass this way. This chasm, which has been as nought to me To that youth may a pitfall be. He too must cross in the twilight dim. Kind friend, I am building the bridge for him. THIS TOO has been in my possession for many years and it, like the other, was also uncredited: No aged time shall hold me in his grasp, Nor warp the -spirit every new day brings— As long as life is with me I shall laugh, And live, and love so many things. And when the time comes for the end, And I, alone, must seek the lonely path, I'll greet the dark as I have seen the dawn, My heart aflame and on my lips, a laugh. Year-Around D-I's (Continued from Page 3) ing somewhat unhealthy times for theatres, kept two of its Toronto drive-ins open. These, the NorthWest and the Scarboro, responded nicely during a rather rough winter. So they approached them as year-round operations, which led to complete paving to make snow removal easier. This year the company added the Star Top, London, to its winter operation. This year, also, Famous Players is operating its Skyway, Stoney Creek, near Hamilton, all winter. Santa was certainly good to Canadian exhibition when he brought the gift of the drive-ins. There were three the first year and there are 231 now. In 1950 the 62 accommodated 31,523 cars and played to 4,943,000 admissions for a gross of $2,290,679. In 1957 229 had a car capacity of 90,513, played to 9,945,630 admissions and took in $5,725,311. Drive-ins were greatest in number in 1955 (242), but played to the largest audience (12,380,246) and the biggest gross ($6,316,947) in 1954 — a year when there were 230 of them with a car capacity of 93,214. The wonderful thing about driveins is what the outdoors does to the human appetite. Drive-ins to day ‘have swimming pools, playgrounds and such in the summer. It won’t surprise anyone if a skating rink or two show up. But the drive-in segment the exhibitor loves most outside of the boxoffice itself is the refreshment stand. The average four-wall theatre gets something like 14c per patron for refreshments. The drive-in figure is over 30c. on the basis of paid admissions. Santa Claus can have a season pass any time he wants one. ‘Dark At Top Of The Stairs’ Delbert Mann will direct Warners’ The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. AA's "Pay Or Die" Zohra Lampert will star opposite Ernest Borgnine in AA’s Pay or Die. "The Slender Thread’ As a result of a deluge of calls from producers who have seen Stella Stevens in Panama and Frank’s Li’l Abner, the young blonde actress will be given the top feminine role in Paramount's upcoming The Slender Thread. Miss Stevens is on an exclusive contract basis. WE are approaching the end of a decade. Based on viewpoint one may make an individual selection of alliteration and call it the Fabulous, Fearful or Fascinating Fifties. | No one, how| ever, can deny "| that in this per} iod we-have witnesseda most _ interesting time in our business. This is not the time or place to review the events of the past ten years but certainly everyone will agree that there have been more changes in our business in this period than at any time since the advent of sound. We are about to enter the Sixties and not until that decade has fully passed will we be able to make a full appraisal of its effect on our business, At the moment it bids fair to yield more change and to be even more exciting than the period just passed. Through these columns we have acquired a whole alphabet of friends in near and distant places. We should like to wish all of them our very sincere Compliments of the Season, together with the promise of the brightest cheer in every way for the New Year. CcaOaea—eoaerc T_. 0/0 Batjac's "Sam Houston" Sam Houston, an epic chronicle of the life of Texas’ most famous statesman-soldier, will be the next major film of Batjac Productions, producer-director John Wayne announced recently. The life of Houston will begin production in Texas in late 1960, following the world-wide roadshow presentation by United Artists of Wayne’s current Todd-AO film, The Alamo. Columbia, Documento Set Deal For ‘Sappho’ Film Columbia Pictures has completed a_ production-distribution arrangement with Documento Films under which Columbia will have world-wide distribution rights to Sappho, Venus of Lesbo, a CinemaScope and color spectacular to be produced in Italy next year by Gianni Hecht Lucari, president of Documento Films. The deal was set recently in Rome by M. J. Frankovich, Columbia vice-president co-ordinating production in England and the Continent. Sappho, Venus of Lesbo will begin filming early in March at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome, with a 12-week shooting schedule.