The Independent Film Journal (1955)

Disney Sets Five Feature Releases Five new productions from Walt Disney and the re-release of a “classic” will constitute the coming year’s program of feature pictures from the Walt Disney Studios, it was announced this week by Leo F. Samuels, general sales manager of Buena Yista Film Distribution Co., Disney releasing subsidiary. In addition, during the period from June, 1956, Buena Yista will release at least six shorter pictures from the Disney workshops. The first of the features will be “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier,” then “Lady and the Tramp” and, during August and September, “The Littlest Outlaw,” a liveaction boy-and-horse story produced against Mexican backgrounds, in Technicolor, with Pedro Armendariz. For Christmas-New Year release will be the third feature-length True-Life Adventure, “The African Lion,” in color. Re-release of “Song of the South” will be made for the Easter holiday season of 1956. In June and July of 1956, Disney will present “Perri,” the first of what the producer will call his Time-Life Fantasy features. “Perri” will tell the story of a just-born she-squirrel who goes through life in a squirrel colony in a remote section of the Rockies. In Technicolor, “Perri” is an adaptation of the book by Felix Salten. Shorter films will include “Arizona Sheepdog,” a 20-minute Technicolor picture, to be released in conjunction with “Davy Crockett”; “Switzerland,” first of the “People and Places” series, will be released with “Lady and the Tramp.” “Switzerland” runs 32 minutes. Two shorter films will be released with “The Littlest Outlaw.” “Johnny Appleseed,” 20-minute Technicolor excerpt from “Melody Time,” and “The Emperor Penguins,” a new 8-minute black-and-white documentary. The “Peter and the Wolf” sequence from “Make Mine Music” will be re-shaped into a complete film, and will be released in conjunction with “The African Lion.” It will be 20 minutes long and in Technicolor. With “Song of the South,” a new halfhour Technicolor production called “The Blue Men of Morocco” will be released. It tells the story of a strange desert tribe of North Africa. Area Release Policy Lamblasted By Snaper “The manner of releasing pictures in New Jersey is having a detrimental effect on box office,” said Wilbur Snaper, New Jersey Allied president, meeting with trade press representatives this week after a general membership meeting. “It is completely out of balance for a metropolis like Newark to have to wait for New York City,” he said, “when there is no competition between them.” Snaper reported that at the meeting it was decided to take “adequate steps” to remedy the situation. The meeting discussed the recent Sablonsky decision in Pennsylvania and its possible effect on the industry. In that case, a jury decided that Sablonsky’s Norristown theatres and Philadelphia — about 22 miles away — were not in substantial competition, and that there should be no clearance between them. Damages of $425,000, to be trebled by the court to $1,275,000, were awarded to the Sablonskys. Fox Signs Second Video Contract; Upped Foreign Grosses Foreseen Schary Describes Metro’s Properties {Continued from page 25) produced by Joe Pasternak, to be written by Laslo Vadnay, and two unassigned projects, “The Colonel Played Cupid,” and Largely a Question of Love.” Among the M-G-M pictures already completed and which will be seen in theatres in the near future are: “Interrupted Melody,” “The Prodigal,” “The Marauders,” “Love Me Or Leave Me,” “Moon fleet,” “The Scarlet Coat,” “It’s Always Fair Weather,” and “The King’s Thief.” Currently in production are “Bhowani Junction,” being filmed in Pakistan and England, starring Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger, produced by Pandro S. Berman, directed by George Cukor, written by Sonya Levien and Ivan Moffat; “Quentin Durward,” being filmed in France and England, starring Robert Taylor, produced by Pandro S. Berman, directed by Richard Thorpe, written by Robert Ardrey, and “Trial,” starring Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy, John Hodiak and Katy Jurado, produced by Charles Schnee, directed by_ Mark Robson, written by Don Mankiewicz. Also, “Forbidden Planet,” science-fiction picture, starring Walter Pidgeon and Anne Francis, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, directed by Fred Wilcox, written by Cyril Hume. “The concentration on pre-sold books and plays,” Schary said, is based on the established fact that the potential audience for big-scale pictures adapted from proven properties is greater today than ever before. In addition to the stage plays, to be filmed are “Tea and Sympathy,” to be produced by Pandro S. Berman and written by Robert Anderson; and “Peg O’ My Heart,” starring Debbie Reynolds and Edmund Purdom, to be produced by Joe Pasternak and written by William Ludwig and Ruth Brooks Flippen. Pictures to be based on either original or magazine storie= include “Bannon,” starring Spencer Tracy and Montgomery Clift, to be directed by Robert Wise, produced by John Houseman and written by Ernest Lehman; “O’Kelly’s Eclipse,” starring Stewart Granger, to be produced by John Houseman, and “Protection for a Tough Racket,” to be produced by Joe Pasternak and written by Isobel Lennart. Also, “The Spig Wead Story,” to be produced by Charles Schnee and written by William Wister Haines, and “My Most Intimate Friend,” starring Lana Turner, to be produced by George Wells and written by Richard Morris. Also indicative of the wide variety of subjects to be filmed are “The Wayfarer,” based on the life of Buddha, to be produced by Edwin H. Knopf, Robert Hardy Andrews, associate producer, and written by Christopher Isherwood; “International Revue,” to be directed by George Sidney, produced by Joe Pasternak and written by Leonard Spigelglass, and “32nd Day,” to be produced by Edwin H. Knonf. Also, “Star Bright,” to be produced by George Wells and written by William Ludwig and Ruth Brooks Flippen; “Don’t Go Near the Water,” starring Esther Williams, to be produced by Joe Pasternak and written by Fay and Michael Kanin; “Air Force Academy Story,” to be produced bv Henry Berman and written by Allen Rivkin, and “Wonderland,” a cavalcade of Cole Porter music, starring Gene Kelly, to be produced bv Arthur Freed and be written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Also scheduled for future production are “Wedding Day,” to be produced by Roger Edens and written by Leonard Gershe; “Four Sisters,” to be he produced bv Henry Berman and written by George Froeschel; “Prisoner of Paradise,” starring Glenn Ford, to be produced by Jules Schermer; “The Golden Princess”; ’’The Painted Veil,” starring Ava Gardner. to be produced by David Lewis; “East River,” to be produced by Charles Schnee and “The Amazing Nellie Bly.” to be produced by Roger Edens. Austin Keough Dead Austin C. Koough. 67, vice-president, secretary and board member of 'Paramount, died on April 20 at New York Hospital. Barney Balaban. Paramount president, upon learning of his passing, said : “Austin Keough, through almost forty years, had been as much a part of Paramount as the company’s trade mark. Side by side with pioneer Ado’ph Zukor he had given the company soirit, integrity, strength. Those who worked with him found him a tower of strength, a pillar of wisdom, a man of great faith and deep religious convictions.” Twentieth Century-Fox, besides almost doubling its earnings over the past year, has made considerable progress in the field of oil drilling, expects to achieve a “marked increase” in foreign grosses, and has just concluded a second television production deal. The above was made known this week in the company’s annual report to stockholders, signed by president Spyros P. Skouras. Annual shareholders meeting will be held May 17 at the home office, at which time 10 directors will be elected. Earnings for 1954, reported earlier, totalled $8,044,524, after taxes, as against $4,560,887, after taxes, for the previous year. During the year just concluded, five wells were in the drilling on studio property to increase company optimism “that our future revenue from this source will be substantial,” Skouras stated. Higher foreign grosses for 1955 are predicated on the increasing number of CinemaScope installations, relatively slight video competition abroad, and the greater international appeal of motion pictures in general. Company’s wholly-owned TV subsidiary, TFC Television Productions, Inc., was formed for the purpose of “making video films for sponsors and for developing TY shows that will create greater interest in Hollywood and the motion picture theatres,” said Skouras. Transaction just concluded for a second TV arrangement was with Young and Rubicam, advertising agency, for General Electric, whereby 20th-Fox will produce 20 top quality filing to be shown on alternate weeks, beginning in October. “Each film will include an institutional presentation in which the public will be taken behind the scenes of our studios in Hollywood, and on location, wherever the pictures are being made,” Skouras reported. He said that “we are confident that we will reach an enormous audience of potential theatregoers, and at the same time achieve satisfactory results from a financial standpoint” as a result of the GE deal. Earlier, the company contracted with Columbia Broadcasting Co. to sell a series of 39 TV films to be based on “My Friend Flicka.” Series will be launched in September and extend for a period of 52 weeks. Construction of the first American-built film theatre in Israel, designed for CinemaScope presentation, will get underway in Tel Aviv this July by 20th-Fox as part of their international theatre building program. Theatre will be a deluxe 2,000-seat house, air conditioned and equipped with 4-track directional stereophonic sound. Current plans also call for another CinemaScope house in Haifa within two years. In South Africa, four theatres designed expressly for CinemaScope have been completed or are planned. The 1,500-seat 20th Century in Germiston opened on Mar. 21. About ready to open is a similar theatre in Port Elizabeth. The 2,000-seat Embassy is under construction in Durban, and a 1,000seat theatre is planned for Johannesburg. Six South African houses have been or are in the process of being re-modelled for the exhibition of CinemaScope. Already opened are the Van Riebeeck, Capetown; 20th Century, Johannesburg; and the 20th Century, Durban. About to open are the Embassy, Port Elizabeth ; Ritz, Bloemfontein ; and the 20th Century, Pietermaritzburg. THE INDEPENDENT FILM JOURNAL— April 30, 1955 27