Harrison's Reports (1962)

88 HARRISON'S REPORTS June 9, 1962 T v9s Fraudulenee . . . (Continued from Front Page) can't deliver these processes to the little idiot boxes because they were fashioned for the theatre screen only. Tv Vnlmpre»»ed ^ff Stembler better But, letter writing isn't going to plumb the con' science of the Tv copywriters, nor will it curb these out-and-out abuses of promising a public something big which it (the public) won't be getting. By this time, Stembler knows that the Tv interests aren't going to give up this fraudulent hold on an innocent people who must be awakened to the real thing: that what they're promised by their local Tv station and what they're getting because of the limitations of their set is a big wide difference with the Tv viewer coming out on the losing end. The best Stembler got from LeRoy Collins, president of the National Association of Broadcasters was, that its Tv Code Board is looking into the matter. Even less encouraging is the reply from the National Broadcasting Company. To NBC there seems to be no reason for the TOA complaint and it forthwith rejected it with the contention that, ""no element of deception is involved." NBC seems quite sure that though its audience was promised seeing the not-soold films in CinemaScope or hearing the sound track play itself out in stereophonic tone on the set's loud speaker, the people tuned in realize that they're getting neither. NBC almost makes it sound as if the public doesn't mind being hoodwinked. Perhaps this pattern of cleverly-conceived fraudulenee may become standard practice since you can tell a Tv audience you're going to get one thing and then deliver to them something far different from the inducements promised, - a big nothing on the little screen. While letter writing is one of the diplomatic approaches to controversies in the conduct of business, it isn't going to work with the Tv tycoons. Not when you're asking them to give up something that is giving them a handsome return. That the letterwriting route isn't going to give Stembler what he wants for exhibitors all over the country, the TOA prexy must have realized the prophetic truth of it by this time. There is a lot of strong writing to be done, to be sure. But, of a different nature, and in a different media, if results helpful to the exhibitor are to be fought for,-and perhaps won. It's the writing of advertisements with the exhibitor the copy writer. It's the writing of strong, twofisted institutional-tempoed material that will reach the Tv tuners-inners of the nation. It's to offstand the NBC slap-in-the-face that the public doesn't care much if it is being fooled into getting something from Tv that Tv never intended, nor was ever capable of delivering. These ads, these exhibitor contentions, this defensive stand of the theatre is to be made known in the big metropolitan dailies. There is no necessity of big-lineaged splashes. But, there is an urgency to "let the people know." This is to be followed by trailers on the screen, the exhibitor's greatest and most direct communicational force to reach out to his public and impress it. Lobby announcements and program copy are to augment this campaign to fight back the enemy. In all these avenues of approach to the public the theatre's devastating artillery is truth,-a truth that is being dis "Monte Cristo" (Con't from Preceding Page) give way to the sorrows of false arrest. Jourdan spends 17 years at the Chateau d'If. With the help of another prisoner, he escapes by substituting himself for his dead friend whose body is thrown into the surging sea. Jourdan is rescued. With his rescuer he finds the fabulous treasure on the Island of Monte Cristo. He is now the Count of Monte Cristo, and a new world opens up for him. Vengeance on his enemies; favors to his friends, the hope of retrieving a lost love now married to his bitter enemy. He befriends the son of the woman he was to marry, and sees to it the secrets of the past are hidden from the young man. It is not long before The Count of Monte Cristo has taken full vengeance on his three enemies. With that accomplished he goes off toward his own destiny. There is the Dumas feeling that a new Edmond Dantes will return some day, as there is the assurance that another film version of the classic will return some day. Produced by Jean-Jacques Vital and Rene Modiano; directed by Claude Autant-Lara; screenplay by Jean Halain from the novel by Alexandre Dumas. General patronage. torted by the Tv trailers the opposition is using. Yes, let your people know that a big fraud is being perpetrated on them. Make your message simple, sincere, to the point. To repeat,--"let your people know." They'll believe you. They'll respond. They'll know they've been bilked. Another thought: At the end of your feature film follow it up if it was in CinemaScope, stereophonic sound or the other film processes that are beyond the reach of Tv, with a trailer explaining that,-only at the movie-goer's favorite theatre can he (or she) see stories projected in that process (CinemaScope, stereophonic, etc.) and nowhere else for all the promises of any other medium. The public enjoys a good fight, especially when it's awakened to the fact that their theatre owner's fight against the fraudulent statements is for the protection of the Tv viewer, which in itself is an ironic paradox. Let the public know that for all the Tv promises that the viewers will see on their sets the electronical and technical achievements belonging to the motion picture, Tv cannot deliver these promises, the limitations being what they are. This process of hitting back with strong, hard, powerful truth will be like a two-way saw cutting the opposition down to its size. The out-in-the-open movie campaign will reveal Tv as a deceiver in its medium of advertising. It will also show to what limitations the medium is reduced as compared to the greatness, the technical investiture, the many exciting, thrilling and wonderful things that can happen on the big screen in a theatre as compared to the limited results that flicker from the small screen at home. It's like putting on the earphones of the old crystal sets as you listen to what's being projected on the penny-arcade peep shows. Verily, if we don't organize the full power of the films' forces of communicating with the people, we may well wind up like the man who slipped on a banana peel to find his derriere painfully bitten into. He forgot that when not using them, he'd usually keep his false teeth in his back pocket. Things are tough enough without being bitten by your own teeth.