Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 6, 1970)

EEL LR SAT MARCH 6, 1970 ITS MY BAG By Ed Hocura What happened to Shirley Stoler when she came to Toronto a few weeks ago to promote The Honeymoon Killers, could also have happened to Sibylla Kay. But it didn’t, thanks to Don Watts, director of advertising for Century Theatres Management Ltd. Now Don Watts would be the first to admit that he was surprised to get the press coverage that he did for Sibylla Kay, especially when the various news media in Toronto were quick to admit they had never heard of her. Which was also true of Shirley Stoler, the 200 Ib.-plus actress whose visit to Toronto would have turned out to be a disaster if the CBC had not shown enough interest in her to pick up her expenses beyond her original planned stay. It wasn’t Pat Harris’ fault that she wasn’t able to line up radio, press and television interviews; it was just that no one was interested in interviewing Shirley Stoler. Which left the publicity gal for IFD and Cinerama Releasing a little miffed at the treatment a visiting star had received. And while the CBC did have Shirley Stoler as a guest on the Juliette radio show, and a television public affairs show, it was small consolation for Pat Harris after being ignored by the press. Sibylla Kay’s two-day visit to Toronto gave Don Watts cause to think it would duplicate Shirley Stoler’s unhappy experience, starting with the refusal of Elwood Glover to have her as a guest on his afternoon television show. The reason given was because the film Sibylla Kay was promoting was considered a little too daring to be discussed on the CBC. It’s one thing for a public-owned corporation to feature sex and nudity in its own productions; it’s another to have outsiders appear on one of their shows talking about their commercial ventures. But not to be too upset by being turned down by the CBC, Don Watts more than made up for it with some nice publicity breaks. Especially a rave review from Kaspars Dzeguze in the Globe and Mail for Monique, the film Sibylla Kay came to Toronto to promote. Monique is a British-made film distributed in Canada by Avant-Garde Distributors Ltd., Montreal. Dzeguze gave Monique the kind of review Don Watts can’t help but make good use of when he plans the advertising campaign for the film. He wrote: “The most important thing about Monique is that it depicts a variety of sexual activities as perfectly normal even while using them to create one of the most sensual movies ever made.” And that’s exactly what Monique is. Which made me more than a little non-plussed to talk to Sibylla Kay after I had seen the film in which she plays a young French girl who saves the marriage of an English couple by using her sexual knowledge not only to derive sexual satisfaction for herself from both the husband and wife, but also applies it to teach the couple the simple joys of sensuality. Miss Kay admitted that she was nervous about playing the nude scenes in Monique. Especially when her role called for her to seduce both a man and a woman. “The director put me completely at ease by doing all the nude scenes in one day, with just a few of the production crew looking on. After we did the first scene, the rest came a lot easier. I never thought I could bring myself to making love to a woman, but Joan (Alcorn) and I worked with a drama coach to work out some of the scenes before we did them in front of a camera.” Born of German parents in Latvia, Sibylla Kay decided when she was 16 to become an actress. She spent two years in Paris, then moved to London in 1962 where she picked up small parts in a variety of productions and doing television commercials. Her only previous screen appearance, prior to Monique, was a small role in Joanna, and a short film directed by John Bown, who was to follow this up with another job. Which turned out to be his first feature film, Monique. There was a time when I thought it was next to impossible to have a 30-minute meeting with an actress, and be at a loss as to how to make anything of it. But that was back in the days before I met someone like Sibylla Kay. Unlike so many other actresses, Sibylla Kay managed to put me completely at ease. She never put on any airs, or gave stock answers to stock questions. She realized that she was a relatively unknown actress who had to work extra hard to make every interview important to her, and to the film she was promoting. To say that she made Don Watts’ original fears turn to pleasant surprise, is putting it mildly. From the moment Sibylla Kay arrived in Toronto, until the time she left to move on to another city on CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY It was a busy two days for German-born actress Sibylla Kay when she came to Toronto to publicize Monique, her first starring film. Shown left to right are Leon Scheim, Avant-Garde Distributors Ltd., Montreal, Canadian distributors of the British-made film; Mrs. Scheim; CBC film critic Gerald Pratley; Sibylla Kay, and Don Watts, director of advertising for Century Theatres Management Ltd., who lined up all the press, radio and television interviews for Miss Kay. —(Photo by Len Bishop) her publicity agenda, she handled herself like a real pro. If you don’t believe me that she came through with flying colors in promoting Monique, just ask Don Watts. * * * NAMES THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT: Gerzld Pratley has been getting good reviews for his first book, The Cinema of John Frankenheimer. The veteran CBC film authority has an impressive record second to none in covering the movie scene all over the world, and his weekly program on CBC Radio attests to this. As one of his biggest fans for many years, I can only offer sincere wishes that his first venture as a novelist is a financial success. . . . William Friedkin is a young director who in the short space of three years has made a tremendous impact on the movie scene. Friedkin, who recently directed The Boys In The Band for Cinema Centre Films, is so busy planning future productions that all the time he can spare is little more than a few hours to come to Toronto to promote the film. Only 30, Friedkin worked his way up to being a television director less than a year after he came to a Chicago station. He was only 17 at the time. Following a successful career in television, Friedkin landed his first movie directing job with Columbia in 1967, which was the Sonny & Cher musical, Good Times. Then came The Night They Raided Minsky’s and The Birthday Party. The Boys In The Band is said to be a new landmark in films, since it deals with homosexuality, so it’s reasonable to suppose that we will be reading a lot more about William Friedkin when the film is released later this month. ... Ran into director John Trent last week at Film House where he was editing Homer, the film he shot entirely in Toronto last year for CBS Films release. He said he still doesn’t know when MGM is going to release The Bushbabies, a film he shot in Africa over a year ago. “The studio has had three presidents since that time, so it’s anybody’s guess what’s going to happen to the film. ‘Which should give you an idea of what happens to a lot of films in Hollywood today. . . . Rohama Lee is the editor and publisher of Film News, a lively American trade paper. From time to time she drops me a line about an inaccuracy in a news story, but last week she sent me a clipping of an old column of mine with some complimentary notes. She reminded me that she was an ex-Toronto gal, and also a member of the Canadian Motion Picture Pioneers. Hope we can get together on her next visit to Toronto, or my next visit to New York. . . . Don’t mention Vancouver to Sam Glasier, and expect him to tell you that he enjoyed his Western trip. Seems he arrived there to line up advance publicity for the Vancouver opening of Patton to find the two daily newspapers on strike. And for a guy who gets along with the daily press as well as the Canadian director of publicity and advertising for 20th Century-Fox does, it was no fun for him chasing around looking for other advance publicity sources.