The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

CINE TECHNICIAN January 1955 MAIN CRITS HAIL 'WATERFRONT' YEAR'S BEST MOVIE MAIN British and U.S. critics chose On the Waterfront as one of year's best movies of 1954 in all British and American films. Sixteen New York critics, representing all metropolitan dailies, chose film as top movie, with Elia Kazan named as year's outstanding director. Much outdistanced runners-up in New York critics' list were Romeo and Juliet and film of Odet's play The Country Girl, with best foreign language (other than British) film of the year adjudged to be Jap colour feature film, Gate of Hell. " Sunday Observer " critic C. A. Lejeune named nine films as choice for year's best. List — Young Lovers, A Doctor in the House, The Divided Heart, The Kidnappers, On the Waterfront, Calamity Jane, The Great Adventure, The Wages of Fear and Gate of Hell. Miss Lejeune added The Caine Mutiny, The Glenn Miller Story, Executive Suite, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Rainbow Jacket in close reserve. Miss Dilys Powell, " Sunday Times," named several. Omitting choosy-choosy fancy films not seen by many around, Miss Powell's list is: On the Waterfront, Rear Window, Gate of Hell, Wages of Fear, The Bandit (Brazil), Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Mexican), The Great Adventure (Sweden), and so on. No British films get mention by Miss Powell. Year's top box office films in Britain shown in " Motion Picture Herald " poll of 4,365 exhibitors are : Doctor in the House, Trouble in Store, The Belles of St. Trinians, The Glenn Miller Story, Knock on Wood, Calamity Jane, The Caine Mutiny, The Kidnapp"rs, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, The Purple Plain and Happy Ever After. All available information on British box winners of 1954 agrees that the three British comedies listed in " Herald " list topped list as box office attractions. British films triumph at home Box Office British technicians can be proud of Britain's film achievements during last year. Topping boxoffice attraction in Britain against strong American competition, and slowly winning ground in U.S. itself, despite exhibitor boycott, shows continued advance in prestige and public support for British movies. Advance will continue only if British movies avoid waste in nonproductive expenditure, maintain story and technical quality, in second as well as first features, and avoid over-playing of stale story situations and stereotyped star casting. Trends at box office reveal growing choosiness among cinemagoers, falling response to costly, spectacle, star-studded ballyhooers; and preference for good, strong stories and soundly made pictures. Complaints there have been, often about poor story quality of supporting features, both American and British. On the other hand, some dapper "seconds" have come from British studios, and in some cases may have helped box office returns credited in lists to main feature. Group 3's The End of the Road is example of warm, human, ordinary life-story that pleased suburban and provincial audiences. Feature Films Again at 'National' LAST big picture to be made at National Studio was The Elusive Pimpernel, early in 1949. Studio then went dark until Fairbanks group made series of film.; there for American TV. It is now announced that major film production is to re-start at National shortly. First film to go on floor there will be the George Minter production of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Odd that movie with French Revolution as background should re-open National, for, of course, The Elusive Pimpernel is set in same period. A Tale of Two Cities is to be made in CinemaScope and in colour. Script is by Stanley Haynes, co-scriptcr with David Lean of Oliver Twist. Minter plans to make also R. L. Stevenson's Kidnapped, and maybe a film called The Glorious Glosters. Film production in U.S. showed further decline in 1954. Major companies put 179 pictures into production, compared with 203 in previous year. Independents, who make around 35 films each year, are not included in these figures. Details of major companies' drop can be seen in table below : Differ Company 1954 1953 ence Allied Artists .. . 25 26 1 Columbia . 33 37 — 4 Metro . 20 30 —10 Paramount . 20 17 3 RKO 8 6 2 Republic 9 19 —10 20th-Fox 15 18 — 3 Universal . 32 29 3 Warner Bros. .. . 17 21 — 4 Totals . 179 203 —24