Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1951)

Motion Picture Daily Monday, July 2, 1951 Personal Mention DON PRINCE, RKO Pictures Eastern publicity director, left here for Kansas City over the weekend, en route to Hollywood. He will also visit RKO exchanges in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. •< Charles Levy, Eastern publicity director for Walt Disney, left here for Toronto and Montreal at the weekend. He is expected back on Thursday. ^ Edward E. Sullivan, assistant publicity manager for 20th CenturyFox, left over the weekend for the Coast. P. T. Dana, Universal Pictures' Eastern sales manager, left here over the weekend for Pittsburgh and Cleveland. • Russell Holman, Paramount's Eastern production head, will return here from the Coast today. • George Jessel arrived in New York over the weekend from the Coast. Indict Drive-ins {Continued from page 1) Review "Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney— RKO Pictures) WALT DISNEY spins his film enchantment once again. His Technicolor account of Lewis Carroll's timeless fable has heart, imagination, humor and sentiment. Disney brings the story to eloquent life and also manages to add a few narrative touches of his own. Audiences of all ages and categories will find delight in this picturization of Alice's adventures in wonderland From the moment our little heroine plunges through the tunnel into the never-never realms to her final underground adventure with the fantastic queen, there passes an endless array of enchantments. Disney has enriched the all-animation production with an imposing roster of vocal talent. Kathryn Beaumont's voice is eminently suited for Alice. Ed Wynn and Jerry Colonna come close to perfection as the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, respectively, a pair of eccentrics who give Alice a puzzling time. Richard Haydn as the Caterpillar and Sterling Holloway as the Chesire Cat lend wonderful effect to the animation. A word of admiration must also be spoken for Verna Felton's Queen of Hearts and Bill Thompsons White Rabbit Other fine vocalizations include Pat O'Malley, as Dee and Dum ; Heather Angel, as Alice's sister ; Joseph Kearns, as Doorknob ; Larry Grey, as Bill ; Queenie Leonard, the bird in the trees ; Dink Trout, King of Hearts ; Doris Lloyd, the Rose ; James MacDonald, Dormouse, and the Mellomen, as Card Painters. It is fruitless to compare one sequence with another. All are good. I hose which linger most fondly in this reviewer's memory however center around the Mad Hatter and the excitable Queen. Most memorable of the several songs is the lilting "I'm: Late." The production supervision was under Ben Sharpsteen and the directors were Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jaxon. Thanks Mr. Disney. Thanks very much. Runnin°' time, 65 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, A.Uo i ° Mandel Herbstman Newsreel ?NM3 Parade S Warner Orders 25 Theatre T V Sets Oak Lawn; ABC Theatricals, Ltd, of Posen ; Double Drive-in Corp. of Chicago; Illinois Drive-in Theatres Co., Inc, of Morton Grove; Oak Lawn Drive-in Theatre, Inc., Oak Lawn, and Frank Fink and Irving Gandall of Chicago. In announcing the grand jury action here, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath recalled that the Justice Department is now winding up its antitrust suit against the major film companies, and that the purposes of that suit included introduction of competition in distribution of motion pictures and preventing large distributors from monopolizing film exhibition in towns where they owned theatres. "The present indictment," McGrath added significantly, "is brought against indepenrent motion picture exhibitors in the Chicago area, and charges them with price fixing. Now that the major factors in the motion picture industry have been compelled by court action to conform their practices to the anti-trust laws, there is nothing to justify independent exhibitors in fixing admission prices." H. Graham Morison, assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division, pointed out that this was the first film suit brought by the government concerned only with admission price-fixing. Stating that the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled price-fixing illegal, Morison added— equally significantly: "It is particularly important in these times that all forms of price-fixing, whether carried on by a few large elements in an industry or many small ones be promptly prosecuted." Bars 'Streetcar' Loop Run Extension Warner Theatres has taken a place in theatre' television second only to United Paramount with the announcement at the weekend that it has placed orders with RCA for 25 installations of large-screen TV. At present Warner has TV equipment installed in its Broadway showcase, the former Strand which will reopen tomorrow night as the Warner, and in the Stanley in Philadelphia, which carried last Wednesday's La Motta-Murphy exclusive theatre telecast. A Warner spokesman said that other locations have not yet been decided upon. He said reports that seven TV sets would be installed in Warner's Philadelphia houses were conjectural, for no such decision has yet been made. Queried in Camden, RCA sales manager Jack O'Brien said that orders, for the equipment were coming from right and left as a result of the success, of the two exclusive telecasts of boxing matches. He said that the industry goal of 100' theatre TV installations by the end of the year should be reached and perhaps surpassed. Among the major circuits, Warner's order' is exceeded only by UPT, which has five houses presently equipped, all but one with the Paramount theatre TV system, and has 20 RCA and two Paramount systems on order. Loew's, which has been notably reluctant to invest in the new medium, has only its Century Theatre in Baltimore presently equipped, while RKO has theatre TV in one theatre at New York, Washington and Cleveland. National Theatres and its affiliates are apparently holding back until the 20th Century-Fox Swiss Eidophor system is | either perfected or discarded. Chicago, July 1. — Federal Judge Michael L. Igoe on Friday refused to grant permission to Warner Brothers Corp. for a run in the Loop area of more than two weeks for a "A Streetcar Named Desire" even if it passes the censor. He called the film a "shocking spectacle" and intimated that he be lieved the censors should examine it thoroughly before allowing it to be shown in Chicago. At the same time he called the film "Captain Horatio Hornblower" "clean, wholesome picture" and granted permission for the film to run six weeks in the Loop*, four weeks longer than the two-week time limit for Loop showings ordered in a 1948 anti-trust decree. Judge Igoe reached his decisions after reading descriptions of the films by attorneys for and against the extension. UGAR RAY' ROBINSON'S unhappy experience with German fight fans is spotlighted in current nezvsreels. Among other happenings covered are Korean war activity, an auto race in France and a contest for the most beautiful legs. Full synopses follow: MOVIETONE NEWS, No. S3— U. S. celebrates 175 years of independence. Starving Chinese get Formosa nee. Walking-tower fete in Italy. Woman refugee, 105, flies to U. S. Contest for most beautiful legs. Near-riot marks Robinson boxing bout in Berlin. NEWS OF THE. DAY, No. 287— Aid for guerrillas in Red China. Gen. Ridgeway lails achievements of UN. Gov. Warren s daughter honored. Jugglers convention. Unique leg show. Sugar Ray in Berlin. PARAMOUNT NEWS, No. 90^-French speed classic. Senate probes drug addicts among youth. Oldest "D. P." arrives here. Summer heat turns Paris to summer hats. Riot in Berlin marks Robinson bout. TELENEWS DIGEST, No. Z6-B— Senate Crime Committee turns to illegal drug traffic. Moscow: U. S. Ambassador Kirk meets with Gromyko. Iranian oil crisis. Eisenhower and his staff. Rocket ships bombard North Koreans. Lady Godiva rides again — at Britain's Festival. Egypt's Farouk and bride. Truman asks health plan. Horse racing. UNIVERSAL, NEWS, No. 469— Gen. Ridgeway speaks. Eric Johnston talks on Brotherhood. Human target. House built .. a jiffy. Underwater pipe line. Robinson-Hecht fight in Berlin. WARNER PATHE NEWS, No. 92— Sugar Ray fight starts Berlin riot. Ridgeway warns Reds on Korea war anniversary. Burbank: Stars off to entertain G. I.'s in Korea. France': 24-hour auto race. Gradates across the nation. Malco Theatre Buys Video Equipment Memphis, Tenn., July 1. — Malco Theatre has purchased a screen-sized television receiver from RCA and in stallation of equipment has been or dered to proceed, M. A. Lightman, Sr., president of Malco Theatres, Inc. said at the weekend. Mark Woods Resigns From ABC Board Mark Woods, vice-chairman of the ABC beard and president of the network from its formation until 1950, has announced his resignation, effective at once. Woods entered the radio industry in 1923, became an executive of NBC and formed the Blue Network, ABC's predecessor, in 1942. He said he would announce his plans in September, following a vacation. Shelton Is Named Deneau* s Assistant William C. Shelton has been named special home office sales representative of Lopert Films Distributing Corp. by Sidney G. Deneau, sales vice-president. Additionally, he will be assistant to Deneau. Entering the industry in 1936, Shelton was first associated with RKO. MGM-UA Talks ( Continued from page 1 ) 'Browning Version' Delay The American premiere at the Sutton Theatre in New York of J. Arthui Rank's "The Browning Version," being released by Universal-International, has been postponed from early August to late Fall. It will now follow "The Medium," which opens in 1 September. announcement putting an end to these rumors," the statement read. "It is not contemplated to relinquish to any other distributing corporation the product produced at the M-G-M studios. The distribution of all products produced at the M-G-M studios will be handled by the M-G-M distributing department in the same fashion as has been the custom with all M-G-M pictures ever since the beginning of the company." MOTION PICTURE DAILY.. Martin Quigley *»~»>^4»^ Cenfef YorkW \?&gZL>*$& Sundays and holidays, by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., 1270 Srxth Avenue. R^efe^fr ^ent^'en^.e^hg°rlJ Sullivan Vice-President and Treasurer; Leo J. Brady, Secretary; ■