The Film Daily (1947)

'uesday, September 23, 1947 'd^ No Tele Co-operation rom U. K. Film Cos. REVIEWS Of nEUJ flLm5?"5k«"[«Houses "My Father's House" "The Foxes of Harrow' (Continued from Page 1) :'used, especially since Rank's recent itteranccs," Gorham replied to the juery regarding Rank's position in :he video field. The British Post 3fF • Gorham pointed out, would -la .0 decide whether J. Arthur RanK will get a fi-equency to operate a television station. The cinemagnate's experiments in theater tele, however, is not dependent upon ■a governmental green light. a "His (Rank's) big screen television is pretty good," Gorham added. "'So far as I know, it isn't installed anywhere. ... So far. Rank hasn't actively co-operated with BBC." Gorham made the point several times that the film industry puts all sorts of stumbling blocks in the way of BBC regarding co-operation on television. Though he was reluctant to make any comparisons between U. S. and U. K. television, Gorham finally made these observations: "You have a wonderful chance to do a good slick job here. . . . But you tend to get a better balanced program in Britain than in America. ... From what I've seen in the two weeks I've been here, we've done more work. . . . Our studio production is better. . . . less lighting . . . better modelling in the picture ..." Regular programs including plays, documentaries, illustrated talks, variety shows, ballet, sports events and the unit's own film shots, are shov/n daily from 3 to 4 p.m. and from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Gorham said. Video sets range in price from £52 to £128, are usually bought for novelty value, Gorham pointed out. Later, however, he said, the video audience finds an absorbing interest in the televised stage plays and other story material adapted for the medium. Plays by Shakespeare, Shaw, O'Neill, Ibsen and Wilde have been well received. Gorham noted that most of the audience — latest figures show there are at least 21,000 sets in use — are not regular theatergoers and so are not inclined to be overly critical toward the dramatic fare served up by BBC's video department. About 12 firms manufacture video sets. Last January they were turning out about 2,400 a week. Production, however, because of materials and labor shortages, has fallen to one-third. BBC's video staff, including scene shifters and the 20 producers total 27.5. There are two studios with (Palestinian Cast) ! Kline-Levin 85 Mins. FAIR OFFERING SEEMS INDICATED FOR A SPECIAL AUDIENCE. Fine but infrequent flashes of direction and photography serve to enhance this semidocumentary virhich was wholly filmed in Palestine and Jerusalem in the real settings with Rex Harrison, Maureen O'Hara 20th-Fox 117 Mins. SELLING INDICATED: HAS NAME VALUES. PRODUCTION, GOOD PERFORMANCES. Leisurely and at some great length in "The Foxes of Harrow" the motion picture again applies itself to Creole days and rudimentary foundations of once great families of the Meyer Levin story. The cast was ... recruited from various theater groups. They ! a"d fortunes. It is a period piece that de reveal unfamiliarity with the medium and Pends on basic characterizations for dra consequently performances for the most part | matic unfoldment. It adds a little to th, are not quite up to accepted standards. It^'"''"; ., , ,„ , ,, „,., might be said, however, that the thread of ' John M. Stahl s version, produced by Wilthe story is capably woven into the fabric that makes up the whole and evolves an apt narrative. When the adaptation concentrates on the basic problem of a refugee boy who escaped from Central European concentration camps, it has certain merit. But there are also farfetched sequences in which 10-year olds discuss metempsychosis. The narrative unfolds against scenes ranging from the picturesque to the barren and desolate. The youngster, David, arrives in Palestine clandestine. y and immediately sets out in search of his parents. All he fnows is his father's name. Headstrong and acting on childish impulse, he goes from place to place finally winding up in Jerusalem where he suffers a nervous collapse that causes him to revert to infantilism. He is hospitalized. Another story, that of Miriam, a victim of the Nazi Feldkorps, is interwoven with David's. She is trying to forget her trying past. At the conclusion the boy is taken to a new settlement where both he and Miriam find fulfillment of their needs, the one a parent, the other a new interest in life. Although its basic theme is current, this film seems indicated for a special audience. Dialogue is English. Distribution has not been set. CREDITS; Producers, Herbert Kline. Meyer Levin; Director, Herbert Kline; From the novel by Meyer Levin; Photography, Floyd Crosby; Music, Henry Brant; Film editor, Peter Elgar; :>ound, David Scott. DIRECTION, Effective. PH0T0GRA6HY, Good. E. Greenwich Hearing Today East Greenwich, R. I.— A public hearing on a proposed ordinance which would require fire-proof construction in theaters will be held to.^ay by the Town Council. Hearing results from the petition of theater interests for the law which would prevent conversion of a ATcoden building here into a theater. FEmmE TOUCH National Theater SHIRLEY BAKER, secretary, Supply, Denver. DONNA ROYSTER, contract clerk. Paramount, Denver. DOROTHY GAILUS, biller. Paramount, Denver. BETTY MEULHAUSEN, secretary, Eagle-Lion, Denver. four tele cameras in one and three in the other. Total weekly program cinie ranges from 28 hours in the ^Vinter to more than 40 in the Summer. The £1,000,000 tele budget is drawn from audio and video license :ees. The Tieasury, however, decides how much BBC gets from the .icense fees. It will be at least three .Tiore years before a tele station and studio is built at Birmingham. Post Office has to give the ckay for furher tele links. Right now, BBC has .10 research in color tele. Feeling is that it's still a long way off. BBC intends to have a regular newsreel program going by this Christmas, Gorham said. Mam A. Bacher, recreates New Orleans in its most colorful early 19hh century period, its people, a way of life. To this has been added the intrusion of an Irishman. He is the Fox of Harrow. Fox is the family name, Harrow the ancestral home. This role is played by Rex Harrison, and well, too. Previously the Southern scene and the Delta country have been fashioned into spectacular background to enhance the inherent drama of the people. The focus strays from the chief character, as is necessary, to enlarge and bring onto the scene people who resolve the development of his life. In this fashion the narrative is made whole. Resultantly it is a coherent scenario. But if there was more concentration on the chief character it possibly would have been something better. Plucked from his mother's arms an infant, illegitimately born Harrison grows to manhood in America and is first seen being set out on a sandbar for being found out a crooked gambler. Before the tide comes in he is rescued, brought to New Orleans. Immediately he meets up with Richard Haydn, a decadent aristocrat and then in no time flat confronts Miss O'Hara whom he had previously met in the river boat. He runs a bagatelle into a fortune via cards, plays for bigger stakes, wins, kills a plantation owner. Soon he is building Harrow. Not much later he marries Miss O'Hara but after their wedding night it is a marriage in name only. Seems Harrison spent most of the night with the boys in the wine cellar. After that the door is bolted. Harrison finds solace on Rampart Street. His properties grow, he expands into a fair empire. Miss O'Hara bears his child. This brings Harrison home for the substance of the characterization is his erection of a secure life for his offspring. This interlude is short-lived for the boy dies after an accident. Harrison returns to his bottle and tart. A depression occurs. Harrow is stripped to meet the financial crisis and after To Play Foreign Pix (Continued from Page li Nightingales" and 20th-Fox's "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now." Bill opens tomorrow at a number of Skouras houses, and subsequently will be shown in all Skouras theaters. Policy, it was explained by George P. Skouras, president, was instituted because "We are convinced now that the American public likes the best of the foreign-language films, and that they will like them more. We frankly do not consider what we are doing as experimental. We are way past that stage." It was pointed out that "The King's Jester," an Italian film, was shown in a number of Skouras houses as a test and that circuit executives were impressed by the reaction contained in thousands of comment cards, which, it was stated, were 95 per cent favorable to foreign language pictures. Other foreign-language films scheduled to play the entire circuit are "Open City" and "The WellDigger's Daughter." Miriam Howell to Head FAC's New York Office Charles Feldman, president of Famous Artists Corp. of Hollywood and New York, announced at the week-end that Miriam Howell, former Eastern production rep. for Samuel Goldwyn, will become head of FAC's New York office commencing Oct. 1. Previous to her association with Samuel Goldwyn, Miss Howell was head of the Myron Selz'lick office in New York. weathering the storm Harrison and Miss O'Hara unite to be together for the first time since their marriage. CAST: Rex Harrison, Maureen O'Hara, Richard Haydn, Victor McLaglen, Vanessa Brown, Patricia Medina, Gene Lockhart, Charles Irwin, Hugo Haas, Dennis Hoey, Roy Roberts, Marcel Journet, Renee Beard, Kenneth Washington. CREDITS: Producer, William A. Bacher; Director, John M. Stahl; Screenplay, Wanda Tuchock; Based on the novel by Frank Yerby; Musical direction, Alfred Newman; Photography, Joe La Shelle; Art direction, Lyie Wheeler; Maurice Ransford; Music, David Buttolph; Orchestral arrangements, Maurice De Packh; Set decorations, Thomas Little, Paul S. Fox; Editorial supervision, James B. Clark; Sound, George Leverett, Roger Heman. DIRECTION, Effective. PHOTOGRAPHY, Very Good. RKO RADIO PICTURES, Inc. NEW YORK TRADE SHOWING OF "DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME" THURSDAY, SEPT. 25 at 2:30 P. M. RKO Projection Room, 630 Ninth Ave., New York, N. Y.