Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1953)

Motion Picture Daily Wednesday, January 14, 1953 Closing of EiteVs Palace Postponed Chicago, Jan. 13. — Closing of Eitel's Palace Theatre, originally scheduled for tomorrow, has been postponed indefinitely, with talks between the management and the operators union being resumed here today in an effort to reach an agreement on the scale for projectionists for the proposed Chicago showing of "This Is Cinerama." Should an agreement be reached with the operators, who are asking $2 per hour per man, the Palace will close to install the necessary Cinerama equipment. Installation would cut the houses seating capacity roughly 700 seats, with three booths being installed on the mezzanine. The present picture playing the Palace, "Stars and Stripes Forever," will continue until a decision is reached on future policy. Allied Board (Continued from page 1) that exhibitor rights now flouted by the distributors may be adequately protected." The board's statement announcing its action scored prerelease selling and terms which require advanced admission prices at the box office. It contends that the practices are illegal and in violation of the consent decree in the Paramount, et al, case in that they establish improper clearance, use the court-prohibited yardstick of distribution revenue and "almost invariably" constitutes the "fixing of admission prices." The statement said : "The Allied board is amazed that at this critical juncture in the industry's affairs the film companies should insist upon retaining and increasing a practice which in its practical effect violates two of the injunctions entered against eight of them in the anti-trust suit brought against them by the United States and has the further effect to withhold choice films from exhibition in thousands of theatres at a time when mass attendance is so badly needed, not only as an immediate source of revenue but in order that the people may see and enjoy those films and recreate and reestablish the movie-going habit. "In order that there may be no mistaking of our meaning when we say thta the pre-release or roadshow method now being used by the distributors violates court orders, we point out it has the effect to superimpose on the regular clearance to which subsequent-run theatres are subjected an additional and much longer clearance in favor of the priorrun theatres, which play the pictures first as a roadshow and then on regular release, and has the further effect to create clearances over theatres and town which have not heretofore been subjected to any clearance. This extended clearance is not designed rea Review "The Naked Spur" (M etro-Goldzvyn-Mayer) THE GREED OF MEN, against the romantic, wild background of the West, is examined in this M-G-M production. The prize is a hunted criminal whose capture and reward are fought for by three men, an embittered rancher, James Stewart, an old prospector, Millard Mitchell, and an ex-Civil War Army officer, Ralph Meeker. Enough entertainment ingredients, such as action, suspense and color by Technicolor, are contained in this film to please most audiences. At times, however, the accent on the psychological motivations of the characters slows up the pace. The cast consists of only five characters, which serves to throw the full spotlight of attention on their development. The hunted criminal is Robert Ryan, who attempts to manipulate the greed of his three would-be captors to his advantage. For awhile, he is aided by Janet Leigh, who joins forces with him out of loneliness and desperation. Ryan kills old prospector Mitchell after luring him to a fictitious gold stake. The ex-soldier Meeker is drowned in an attempt to retrieve the prize, the dead body of the hunted criminal. Left are the two principals, Jimmy Stewart and Miss Leigh, who team up to begin life anew. Interspersed between the main story lines is a hair-raising Indian fight and a number of moving love scenes. William H. Wright produced, while Anthony Mann directed from a screenplay by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom. Running time, 91 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Feb. 6. Murray Horowitz sonably to protect the licensed theatre on the run granted it, but is designed solely to increase the distributors' revenues, a yardstick which the courts have said they may not use. "In addition, this method of marketing pictures contemplates that the exhibitor shall increase his admission prices to an amount designated by the distributor and this usually almost invariably follows and constitutes the fixing of admission prices by agreement between the distributor and the exhibitor." Amplifying on the affirmation of Allied's rejection of the proposed arbitration draft, the board's statement said that nothing reported by Snaper or contained in Johnston's letter to Allied "would afford the exhibitors any relief from the distributors' pricing policies and practices which constitute the exhibitors' principal grievance and stand as a bar to the economic recovery and future welfare of the motion picture business." "The condition is aggravated by the fact that during the negotiations looking to the establishment of an arbitration system, the participating distributors not only continued to exact higher film rentals from the exhibitors on all classes of product but designated for special treatment as roadshows or pre-releases during that period more pictures than had been marketed by that method in five preceding years, and this in spite of the fact that in the beginning and throughout the negotiations the exhibitor representatives of their organization affiliations cited that method as a chief source of complaint and strove for effective measures for ! curbing it," the statement asserted. Also, the board noted with deep resentment the action of Republic PicI tures in making available to WCBSI TV for free exhibition on television j in opposition to the theatres, 104 of j its feature films released between 1937 i and 1948. This action, it was said, was taken by Republic in disregard of the known attitude of its exhibitor customers, and if that policy is continued by it in the future, and is adopted by other film companies, it will be disastrous for the theatres and probably for the entire motion picture industry. It further stated that regardless of the future policies of the film companies the deal just consummated by Republic will be mischievous in ways which that company itself may not have considered. The trade name Republic, constantly appearing on television will become associated in the public mind with free entertainment and the patrons will be reluctant to pay to see Republic pictures. The constant recurrence of that name in connection with old and in many cases inferior pictures will impair, if it does not destroy, whatever good will Republic may have built up by reason of such pictures as "The Quiet Man," it was declared. These considerations and others led the directors to fear, it was said, that Republic by its sale of pictures for free exhibition on television has become a controversial company whose product hereafter may or may not meet with public favor. The next board meeting will be held in Milwaukee March 27-28. Snyder Cites Bond Drive Job by Pinanski Sam Pinanski of Boston, co-chairman of the Council of Motion Picture Organizations, has made public here a letter from Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder commending Pinanski's work in behalf of the U. S. Savings Bonds program. Pinanski has been chairman of the Motion Picture Advisory Committee of the bond campaign. "Before leaving the Treasury," Snyder wrote, "I want to express my warm thanks for the splendid support you have given to the Savings Bonds program. My personal association with you during your service as a national advisory committee chairman has been more than pleasant ; it has been stimulating and confidence-inspiring. Name Grainger (Continued from page 1) years, so that his departure, to which president Herbert J. Yates assented regretfully, will not inconvenience Republic. Official announcement of the event is expected some time this week. H. A. Cole Box-Office Decline Blamed on Loss Of 'Glamor'by H.A.Cole New Orleans, Jan. 13. — Neither television nor the allegations that "pictures are lousy" is responsible for the decline in box-office receipts, in the opinion of Col. H. A. Cole, Texas Allied leader. Addressing the national Allied board of directors' meeting here today, Cole attributed the slump largely to the 20 per cent Federal admission tax, but contended that there were other factors in the recession. "In the first place," he said, "the picture show, with running expenses skyrocketing and with the artificial price ceiling set upon it by the amusement tax, found itself unable to increase prices without decreasing attendance in even greater proportion. In the second place, for a period of six or seven years, the financial lifeblood of the theatres has been drained away steadily. Our industry is peculiarly dependent on glamor and our theatres with the 20 per cent drain have not had the funds necessary to maintain that glamor." Cole said that on a recent trip to Los Angeles he found that even the small mercantile establishments "amazed him." Theatres, he said, were overshadowed by the glamor of department stores, haberdasheries, furniture and liquor stores. "We have lost our glamor — one of the biggets assets that the theatres had — because we have not had the capital to maintain ourselves in competition with others who have stolen our thunder," Cole asserted. "Motion pictures definitely must sell excitement, emotions and adventure. How can that be done unless the setting, the theatre itself, is glamorous?" As to the blame on television, Cole pointed to the "serious declines" that have occurred in non-television areas for several years. Product cannot be blamed, he said, because "we can point only to the pictures themselves, which, in my belief and the belief of many others familiar with 'these pictures, rank far above anything that the industry has seen before." Cole said he could not accept either of these explanations as sound because of other contributing" reasons. Gulf Allied Opens Annual Convention New Orleans, Jan. 13. — ATO of the Gulf States opened their convention here with a luncheon at the Jung Hotel. A. Berenson, president, welcomed the guests, members of the national Allied board, and introduced personalities. A film clinic was held in the afternoon, with guest speaker Leon Bamberger, RKO Radio. A general discussion was held, including guest speakers Jack Kirsch, Irving Dollinger, and Sidney Samuelson.