Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 19, 1961)

Incorporating the Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Founded 1915) Vol. 26, No. 16 Aprii 19, 1961 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 WAlnut 4-3707 Price $5.00 per year FAMOUS PLA YERS (Continued from Page 1) and operating losses incurred in the Company’s new Telemeter (Theatre In the Home) system in Etobicoke’ and Famous Players’ share of the losses of its subsidiary, General Sound and Theatre Equipment Ltd., in which Dominion Sound Equipments, a Bell Telephone subsidiary, has a substantial interest. The decrease in net current assets “is largely accounted for by the fact that expenditures on fixed assets (including additional investment in’ Telemeter plant and equipment), together with dividends paid to shareholders, exceeded the net cash profits for the year.” Dividends to shareholders exceeded net profit by $748,357. “Notwithstanding this, the financial position of your Company continues to be very strong and it is because of this that your Directors have felt justified in continuing to make dividend payments in excess of earnings,” the report said. It was not expected that Telemeter would be immediately profitable, the report said, since Famous Players was pioneering this new medium. Experience gained has led to a reduction of certain operating costs and new arrangements with subscribers will insure a weekly income from each. Though not detailed, this is a minimum monthly expenditure. At the end of the year Famous Players and its associates were operating 298 standard-typ2 theatres and 42 drive-ins out of a total of 1,447 regular and 232 drive-ins. Famous Players and _ affiliated companies employ 5,822 Canadians, of which 310 are members of the 25 Year Club, which numbers 412. Austrian Co. To Shoot Here An Austrian film production company, Mundus, will have» a crew of about 30 in Canada on May 15 for production of a feature, Wild Geese. Para's ‘Summer & Smoke’ Rita Moreno has been added to Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke by Hal Wallis. She joins Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page and Dolores Hart in the film, which is now in work. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Columbia Program (Continued from Page 1) issue double bill of Fuller Brush Man, starring Red Skelton, and Fuller Brush Girl, with Lucille Ball, and exceptional business on ali its current product over the Easter holiday, Columbia Pictures of Canada is looking forward to one of the greatest spring and summer seasons in its history. On hand and ready to go are the sensational Pepe, with Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones and 35 stars in cameo roles, which has grossed close to $3,000,000 in its first 49 engagements and will have its Canadian premiere at the University in Toronto on April 21 and then will move into the Loew’s, Montreal following the indefinite run of The World of Suzie Wong; Gidget Goes Hawaiian, successor to the tremendously successful Gidget; a new William Castle film, Homicidal; and a new action film, Mad Dog Coll. Already completed are three blockbusters that will be given special handling. These are the eagerly-awaited Guns of Navarone, starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn; John Ford’s Two Rode Together, with James Stewart and Richard Widmark; and The Devil at Four O’Clock, starring Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra. Along with its current strong lineup, a continuing production program of unprecedented strength and boxoffice power has been announced by the company and this will see 20 films, among them Sam Spiegel’s multi-million dollar production, Lawrence of Arabia, in front of the cameras in the next four months. Six of these are either shooting now or will start before the end of the month. They are Notorious Landlady (Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire), Walk on the Wild Side (Laurence Harvey, Capucine, Jane Fonda), Sail a Crooked Ship (Robert Wagner, Dolores Hart, Carolyn Jones, Ernie Kovacs), The Tiger Among Us (Alan Ladd, Rod Steiger, Michael Callan), George Sidney’s Diamond Bikini and Wm. Castle’s Sardonicus (Oscar Homolka, Audrey Dalton, Ronald Lewis, Guy Rolfe). In preparation are Jerry Bres Alberta Censor Board Had Very Busy Year Alberta’s board of censors, headed by P. J. A. Fleming, banned four features in their entirety and eliminated scenes from 165 others in 1930. The banned films were Suddenly Last Summer, Smiles of a Summer Night,: Bramble Bush and The Third Sex. Out of 3,308 films from the USA 112 had 369 eliminations, 122 scenes were taken out of 36 British films, 38 from six French films and 36 from six German films. All rejections and eliminations were mad2 on moral grounds. ler’s Diamond Head, The Interns (Sidney Poitier), Try, Try Again (Jack Lemmon, Debbie Reynolds), Five Finger Exercise (Rosalind Russell), Frederick Brisson’s Under the Yum Yum Tree, Mel Ferrer’s Nine Coaches Waiting, Wm. Goetz’ Heaven Has No Favorites, Marriage Is for Single People (Doris Day), Roar Like a Dove (Doris Day), Charles K. Feldman’s Pair Game, Smile of a Woman, Operation Terror (Lee Remick), Gower Champion’s Bye, Bye Birdie and Arthur Hornblow’s The War Lover. PARAMOUNT (Continued from Page 1) record activity roster shows writers at work on approximately 20 projects, most of which have been scheduled for production during 1961. Current screen writing assignments include Edward Anhalt, who is working on the Hal Wallis production, Tamiko, to star Laurence Harvey; Borden Chase, newly signed to script The Churchill Story for producer Hugh French from a C. S. Forester treatment; Eric Ambler, preparing the screenplay for Perlberg-Seaton’s Night Without End; Mort Green and Arthur Phillips, who are scripting several forthcoming Jerry Lewis productions; William P. Wood, Jr., is writer on Affair in Arcady, a Henry Blanke production; Leigh Brackett, is currently working on the Howard Hawks’ wild animal epic, Hatari!, starring John Wayne; Joseph Calvelli and John Fante are scripting My Six Loves, to star Debbie Reynolds; Frank Fenton is doing the screenplay for The Iron Men, which will star Sidney Poitier; Additional writers at work include Robin Estridge on Appointment in Zahrain, to star Yul Brynner; Edmund Beloin and Maurice Richlin on Villa Mimosa, which they will also produce; Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli, noted Italian writers, on Easter Dinner, to be produced in Italy by Mel Shavelson; Sidney Boehm on Kowloon, a Ray Stark production to follow his The World of Suzie Wong; Gavin Lambert on I’m No Angel, for producer Alan Pakula; Robert Pirosh on Hell Is for Heroes, to topline Bobby Darin, Bob Newhart, Fess Parker and Harry Guardino; Gore Vidal on Reunion for producer Stuart Millar; Hagar Wilde on No Bail for the Judge, which is on Gant Gaither’s schedule; John Michael Hayes, who is under a two-picture contract with Paramount; also James Warren Bellah and Willis Goldbeck who are preparing an untitled screenplay based on the Dorothy M. Johnson short story, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. April 19, 1961 THE HARD SELL BANDIED about in our busi ness for some time now, the term “Hard Sell’ has finally become part of our daily j Yet it is questionable > jf many people have a good understanding of its meaning or practical application. When moviegoing was a habit for many people and the eeeeess== Star system was at its height, our methods of selling attractions were different than today. People scanned the motion picture pages of newspapers to see what was currently playing. Generally they were attracted by certain established players and this was incentive enough to “so out” to the movies. With a different set of conditions today, we no _ longer can expect to attract large audiences by the mere insertion of an ad (even king-size) in the newspapers. A goodly segment of the public must be inspired with a “desire to see’ if we expect a film to be successful. Producers pay certain stars fantastic sums in the belief that this is ‘‘insurance.” It may be questioned if this is always the fact. There are now other valuable mediums for reaching potential audiences besides newspapers. Since people are not reading amusement pages to the same extent as formerly, it has become necessary to try to reach them through other mediums. Thus a _ thorough campaign on a film must include (beside newspapers) radio, TV, street bally or any other avenues which an ingenious manager or advertising man can think up. A thorough campaign means covering all the bases and this can be called the Hard Sell. Unfortunately, it has not always been applied to the right films. Producers or distributors, smug in the thought that they have attractive star values, have often felt that expenditures on a grand scale were not required to sell their current films. Some with little more than a title or a gimmick and only a low-cost budget have usurped the position and have applied the Hard Sell to inferior films. This has caused resentment by many in cur business and has spread the realization that people are now shying away from films (Continued on Page “)