Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 27, 1960)

i January 27, 1960 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Page 13 Review JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH with Pat Boone, James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker. (CinemaScope-DeLuxe Color) 20th-Fox 132 Min. ADVENTUROUS ROMP TO _ UNDERWORLD OF LOST CITIES, PREHISTORIC MONSTERS. COLORFULLY DONE WITH EERIE, IMAGINATIVE SETS, IT'S FUN FOR ALL. It’s a mysterious world, with lost cities and prehistoric monsters, four actors and a duck descend to in a Journey to the Center of the Earth, cavorting all the way. Any trip to that region (geologically assumed to be molten metal) is more apt to make suspense than sense, albeit the actors explore with tongue-in-cheek, rather than heart-in-mouth. Purely escapist and completely incredulous, this Jules Verne adventure should be fun for everyone. Alone, the sets are worth the admission price, being highly imaginative, suitably eerie, and colorfully executed by man and nature. Pedestrian, until the intrepid party of geology professor (Mason), student (Pat Boone), explorer’s widow (Arlene Dahl), duck tender (Peter Ronson) and duck descend an Icelandic crater for the nether world, the Journey then speeds up. There are occasional cuts back to Edinburgh to work in Boone’s girl (Diane Baker). And there is skulking by the heavy, a rival scientist. Falls into an abyss, murder, a subterranean ocean, and extinct reptiles confront them, before they discover the lost city, Atlantis. In blasting exit space, the party sets off an eruption that speeds it on rising lava, up a volcano to the earth’s surface. Back home; student marries girl, and professor seems ready to follow suit with widow. CAST: Pat Boone, James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker, Thayer David, Peter Ronson, Robert Alder, Alan Napier. CREDITS: Producer, Charles Brackett; Direcor, Henry Levine; Screenplay by Walter Reisch and Charles Brackett; Based on the Jules Verne novel; Photography director, Leo Tover. DIRECTION: Good. PHOTOGRAPHY: Imaginative. (From The Film Daily, NY) Short SPECIAL engagement of a travel film, Caravan in Russian, is taking place at the Richmond Theatre, Richmond Hill, which is near Toronto. The film was made by Paul Delmer, now an employee of the local newspaper, who travelled through Russia with his family by auto. Part of the promotion by Ned Hill, local exhibitor, was to have Igor Laptev, attache of the Soviet Embassy, address 150 parents and teachers on Soviet education. There is no distributor named for the documentary as yet. SYDNEY BANKS, v-p and executive producer of S. W. Caldwell Ltd., has been appointed to the board of directors of the company, coinciding with the establishment of a TV programming videotape unit. Banks, with Caldwell since 1954, heads the company’s Queensway Film Studios, as well as the laboratory and closed-circuit staging divisions. MARTY BOCHNER, former booker and office manager for Astral Films Ltd., has been named special representative for the company in order to better service exhibitors. Move was in line with Astral’s wide expansion program, in which is the special exploitation department set up to handle AIP and other product, including the current blockbuster, Goliath and the Barbarians. CE I ET EET | OUR BUSINESS (Continued from Page 3) fore the inevitability of most new films eventually appearing orn TV, and not too many years after theatrical release. We must therefore be practical. If the motion picture theatre business is to survive it must do so on the assumption that there will always be old films shown for free on TV. We must gear ourselves to this way of life and operation. Only on this assumption, and in spite of it, can we hope to survive. “Shows PUSH-BACK seats, a_ sloping concrete floor, new carpeting and ccmplete redecoration were included in the $50,000 worth of renovations to Odeon-Morton’s 1,150-seat Odeon in Winnipeg. The theatre was closed for a period of four weeks while the work was being carried out. FIVE applications for Vancouver TV station licences were heard in that city last week by the Board of Broadcast Governors. One was from the Vantel Broadcasting Co., which is headed by Arthur Jones, president of Artray Film Productions Ltd., who showed a 20-minute film of its proposed programming. Paul Nathanson, head of Empire-Universal Films, who is a partner in several stations and an associate in the application of the British Columbia Television Corp., attended the hearings. Ernest Bushnell, who recently formed a consulting company in association with N. A. Taylor, David Griesdorf and H. S. Mandell, spoke for another applicant, Pacific Broadcasting. ASSETS of Cinemiracle have been acquired by Cinerama for a reported $3,000,000. These include patent rights, film-making and projection equipment and the feature, Windjammer, which has not played in Canada but is scheduled to open at the Imperial, Montreal. Big MGM Year Indicated By First-Quarter Earnings “This is just the beginning of what is shaping up as a banner year for MGM,”’ Joseph R. Vogel, president of Loew’s, Inc., stated in a letter to stockholders which reported a consolidated net profit of $1,852,000, equal to 71 cents per share of common stock, during the first 12 weeks of the company’s current fiscal year. He noted that the opening of BenHur in the last week of the quarter had little or no effect on earnings but ‘‘public response at the boxoffice has been unprecedented,” indicating that it would affect later figures greatly. Six-Year Price Range of Industry Stocks (From The Financial Post, which explains that the quofations are taken from official stock exchange records but that it cannot accept responsibility for prices given.) $ $ 1959 High Low Assoc. Artists (New) —_ _ Do. (Old) . x —_ _— Do. Warr. .. *6.50 *4.50 Do. Debentures .. = Eastern Theatres .... _ Famous Players .. 1834 Loew's é = United Amuse., A . T'h Do. B I1'A Do. Y.T. aise . 9 United Telefilms 7 80 *Delisted $ $ s $ $ $ 1958 1957 1956 Close High Low High Low High — *10% «6*8Y%, Il” 5% _ "43'% =*31 33'A *6.50 6.80 3.90 15% 3.60 é — *1.15'2 *95 75 95 et ee — °2% 19% 824 14!2 14 22%, $ 171 116 125 150 11” 8 8 8 10 12 7 7 Tl, 12 —_ 8 2.75 1.00 = $ $ $ 1955 Low High 28 _ 4'2 82 *26 14%4 145 T'2 7 Review SOLOMON AND SHEBA with Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders. (Technicolor-Technirama) United Artists 139 Min. SPECTACLE OF OPULENCE, SCOPE AND EYE-DAZZLING APPEAL. PUT TOGETHER WITH AN ‘ UNFALTERING KNOWLEDGE OF BOXOFFICE VALUES. TREMENDOUS IN EVERY RESPECT. Spectacle and excitement of lavish dimension thunder across the screen in Solomon and Sheba. Edward Small’s Technirama-70 presentation in Technicolor has all the tested ingredients to make it a hit. In addition to sure-selling spectacle, there is a story of warmth and feeling that will reach virtually all types of theatregoers. Ted Richmond can be proud of his fabulous production. A stunning cast is matched by sets of remarkable appeal, costumes of splendor, and blazing action. This is a story of a great, tempestuous love, that of the wisest king of Israel, Solomon, and the most beautiful of women, a pagan queen. In these focal roles, Yul Brynner and Gina Lollobrigida perform with force and effect. The screenplay by Anthony Veiller, Paul Dudley and George Bruce, from a story by Crane Wilbur, denotes love, violence, treachery and loyalty. Solomon, a dreamer, man of peace and ideas, ascends to the Israeli throne after the death of his father, King David. This breeds resentment in his warrior brother, Adonijah, (George Sanders). Strife strikes the nation. As the Queen of Sheba, Miss Lollobrigida contrives with the powerful Egyptian Pharaoh to destroy Israel. Her weapon to defeat Solomon is her storied beauty. Instead, she falls victim to love. King Vidor directed his production with a striking grasp of popular entertainment values. Freddie Young’s cinematography is utterly stunning, with exteriors shot in Spain. The cast, an enormous one, goes through its roles with admirable discipline. Marisa Pavan plays a court beauty in love with Solomon. David Farrar as the Pharaoh, Finlay Currie as King David, join others in commendable portrayals, including Laurence Naismith, Jose Nieto, Alejandro Rey, Harry Andrews. CAST: Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, Geerge Sanders, Marisa Pavon, John Crawford, Laurence Naismith, Jose Nieto. CREDITS: An Edward Small presentation; A King Vidor production; Produced by Ted Richmond; Directed by King Vidor; Screenplay by Anthony Veiller, Paul Dudley and George Bruce; From a story by Crane Wilbur; Cinematography, Freddie Young. DIRECTION: Commanding. PHOTOGRAPHY: Excellent. (From The Film Daily, NY) Wald's ‘Let's Make Love’ Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand will star in Jerry Wald’s 20thFox film, Let’s Make Love.