Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1960)

Viewpoints (Continued from P</^< 9) manpower costs. And the union men might say: to increase the volume of American production and to put more of our people to work, we will make concessions on pictures hudgeted under sSOO.000. We may he off on some of the details of our formula for stopping the flight of production from the U. S., but details are minor items when men with a mission are determined to see it through Jhv Issue Of Dubbing Bosley Crowther, the eminent film critic of The New York Times, whipped up a real storm with his recent suggestion that foreign pictures be dubbed into English for the American market. Under the heading, "Subtitles Must Go!", he wrote, "It is foolish to hobble expression with an old device that was mainly contrived as a convenience to save the cost of dubbing foreignlanguage films when they had limited appeal." Naturally, the reaction to the Crowther suggestion was formidable. Many of the New York intelligentsia denounced him for having sold out the cause of art. (The New York Post's Archer Winsten said, "I have never seen a dubbed foreign film which could compare favorably with its subtitled version.") In the opposite camp, many film people, with delighted surprise, welcomed Crowther as a newcomer to the cause of mass distribution of imported films. The fact is that the Crowther proposal is neither as earth-shaking as its critics suggest, nor, necessarily, any betrayal of the highest artistic and aesthetic standards. The American public, as Crowther points out, has been seeing dubbed pictures for year, often without even realizing the fact. Such productions as "Helen of Troy", the various Ste\e Reeves spectaculars and many others filmed in Italy for the American market have been dubbing jobs with nary a subtitle in sight. Television in recent weeks has also provided a good case in point. The CBS Television Network has been winning great praise for its exclusive Olympics coverage. Actually, this coverage is obtained from the Italian Television Network and is combined with commentary by CBS sports reporters. You would have to be out of your mind to suggest that CBS run the original Italian commentary with subtitles. There simply is no comparison between listening to a foreign language and listening to your ow n language. Nor is there any question but that good — and we emphasize that it must be good — dubbing of foreign-language pictures could help exhibitors somewhat in relieving the film product shortage that plagues them. Obviously, the best dubbing job in the world is not going to save a bad picture. But there have been many instances, through the years, when a good foreign picture has been kept out of the mass American market simply because it was in a foreign language. This has been true of many of the comedies of Cantinflas and Fernandel and was certainly true in the early days of the great Italian film renaissance. As Mr. Crowther has pointed out, most people who argue the case in favor of subtitles operate on the theory that the original sound track they are hearing is pure and unadulterated, whereas in fact it is often a dubbed track itself. Indeed, Mr. Crowther cites some cases where the voice used isn't that of the performer at all. It is entirely possible that for the enthusiastic linguists of New York and one or two other cities, there will always be a market for the subtitled picture in the original foreign language. But this market must shrink by comparison with the audience throughout the country which is opened by a good dubbing job. One of the things which has been responsible for the success of Joe Levine's imported Italian pictures has been the fact that he has tailored these films for the mass American audience. Making product suitable for the American market has always been a problem for European producers, from the selection of the themes and players themselves right on through to the question of dubbing. But this problem has not been unique to foreign language films. Certainly, wc can all remember imports from Merry Old F.ngland in which British performers struggled valiantly with the nuances of American slang and invariably lost the battle. They not only lost the battle, they lost the war. For years thereafter, it was almost impossible to book a British picture in the American hinterlands. The whole question of to dub or not to dub can be resolved with two postulations. 1. Given the right subject mattei and an expert dubbing job, a foreign picture can materially enlarge its market in the United States. 2. Given the wrong picture, it doesn't matter whether you dub it, subtitle it or pack it in olive oil. There is no reason why the motion picture industry had to wait for The New York Times man to put his imprimatur on dubbing. We should have realized long ago the commercial possibilities of this process. J\vtT i i>tlVi>pt In Trailers As is well known in the trade, Columbia Pictures this month takes over the production and distribution of trailers on its future product. National Screen Service, no longer able to serv ice its theatre customers with trailers containing live-action scenes from Columbia pictures, has undertaken the production of a new type of screen advertisement that might be effective and competitive. Unveiling its new concept in trailers to the trade press last week, NSS demonstrated that competition, like necessity, is oftimes the mother of invention. The company show ed seven trailers, on five new Columbia films and two reissues, and they revealed a surprising amount of inventiveness and diversity. Library and newsreel footage, colored and black-and-white cartoons, entertainment and nationally prominent personalities, all are used in a variety of interesting ways, in combination with voices and music, to create an effect simulating actual scenes from the films. Particularly effective is the appearance of General Medaris, former head of the P. S. rocket missile program, and rocket launching clips in the trailer on Columbia's "I Aim at the Stars". Other highlights are the N.i/i newsreel clips in the trailer on "The Enemy General" and a clever colored P.)<]c 10 Film BULLETIN '^ptember 5. I960