Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1955)

Motion Picture Daily Friday, December 9, 195|; Loew's Bid (Continual from page 1) to present proof of its objections to Loew 's Theatres' bid as amicus curiae. Judge Sugarman, at the same time, postponed the hearing date on Loew's Theatres' application from Monday to Dec. 19. Seen Setback for Allied The ruling was considered in some trade quarters as somewhat of a setback to Allied States' pronounced intentions to block the expansion of divorced circuits. At Tuesday's court hearing, Monroe Stein, attorney for the former Allied president, stressed die added legal strength which the status of an intervenor would give him, in arguing for his motion. But Judge Sugarman apparently sided with the arguments offered by counsel for Loew's Theatres and the Justice Department attorney, who contended that only parties to the consent decree could become parties to an action such as proposed by Loew's Theatres. Allied's interest in the case was underlined by the court presence on Tuesday of Allied general counsel Abram F. Myers and Jack Kirsch, president of Illinois Allied. Columbia Dividends (Continued from page 1) to company stockholders of record on Dec. 30. The board also declared a 2}i per cent stock dividend on its outstanding common stock and voting trust certificates for common stock, payable in common stock on Jan. 31, to stockholders of record on Dec. 30. Expect Essaness (Continued from page 1) pear in court for formal dismissal ol the case. The basis for a settlement of the $33,000,000 suit was reached in advance of trial here last September. Attorneys have been working on finalizing documents for the agreement since. FJP to Map Plans (Continued from page 1) were set at a meeting held earlier this week in the office of Barney Balaban. Adolph Schimel, chairman of the amusements division of this year's Federation campaign, will preside at the dinner. 'Mirror '.'Heidi9 Tieup A "Heidi and Peter" contest sponsored by the New York "Daily M irror ' will spotlight the American premiere engagement of the Lazar Wechsler production to youngsters in the New York metropolitan area. Designed to give support to the holiday run at the Little Carnegie, the coloring contest will be run for two weeks, backed by daily news and picture coverage. The Court Martial Of Billy Mitchell (CONTINUED FROM PAGE I) and forthrightly. The script by Milton Sperling (who also produced) and Emmet Lavery is almost documentary in its approach with no attempts made to insert any extraneous elements in the interests of melodramatic appeal. There are, for example, only a couple of typical "action" scenes in the picture, and they occur in the beginning when crude demonstrations are given of the bombing of a battleship from the air. Neither is there any romantic interest— unless one counts the introduction of Elizabeth Montgomery as the wife of Jack Lord, who plays a naval officer and friend of Mitchell killed in the crash of the dirigible "Shenandoah." Her appearance is brief— but very vital later on in the film. Such additional elements are not missed, for there is dramatic action and interest enough in the depiction of Mitchell's court martial and the events leading up to it. Of the latter, the press conference in which the hero made his famous charge of "treason" against the military leaders who were fighting all efforts to build an air force is the high point. As staged by Otto Preminger, the court martial trial which follows is continually fascinating and never grows too complicated for the audience to follow. Its highlights are two— the first being the testimony of the aforementioned naval widow, which is presented as being the turning point in the case since through her Mitchell was able to introduce evidence to justify his charges. The second climax comes when Mitchell takes the stand himself and is cross-examined by Major Allan Guillion, who is shown as attempting to ridicule the defendant and all his ideas. The audience will also be particularly interested in other famous personalities portrayed briefly in the film. They include Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, Major Carl Spaatz, Gen. John J. Pershing, Fiorella LaGuardia, Adm. William S. Sims and President Coolidge. The period of the 20's has been brilliantly captured in the sets of William Kuehl and in the authenticity of the costumes by Howard Shoup. Throughout the picture the mood of restraint and understatement in the writing is well conveyed in Preminger's direction and particularly in his handling of Cooper. Discarding most of his familiar "shy" mannerisms, the star delivers a strong and forceful performance. With one exception all the other actors are in key— Ralph Bellamy as Sen. Frank Reid and Charles Bickford as Gen. Guthrie being particularly outstanding. Only Rod Steiger, as the cross-examining major, tends toward overemphasis. In this picture the Warner Bros, have provided yet another instance of "good picture-making" combined with an impressive example of "good citizenship." Running time, 100 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, Dec. 31. Richard Gertneb Warner Net Goldwyn to Coast After 10 Weeks Here Samuel Goldwyn, producer of "Guys and Dolls," currently in its sixth week at the Capitol Theatre on Broadway, will depart for the coast tomorrow after 10 weeks in New York. During his stay in the cast, Goldwyn attended the world premiere of his motion picture here and also was on hand for the Midwestern premiere of "Guys and Dolls" at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago. On March 17, Goldwyn will sail for Japan and be on hand for the Tokyo opening of the picture in April, next year. He will return to New York next May preliminary to his departure for Europe where he will spend the summer and attend premieres of "Guys and Dolls" in as many cities abroad as possible. Radio, TV Policies Get Canada Probe OTTAWA, Dec. 8. -Canadian government has appointed a three-man royal commission to probe licensing, control, finance and all other aspects of television and radio broadcasting policies. Commission comprises R. M. Fowler, lawyer, Montreal, chairman; James Stewart, bank executive, Toronto, and Edmond Turcotte, newspaper man, Montreal. Martin Henry Dead Funeral services were held here yesterday for Martin P. Henry, 50, president of Video Pictures, producers of films for television. Henry, from 1924 to 1930, served as assistant director in Hollywood for Paramount and 20th Century-Fox. (Continued from page 1) earnings for the previous year wer equal to $1.60 per share. Income from film rentals, sale etc., amounted to $72,596,678, com pared with $67,014,014 for the lafiscal year. Over-all income for th 1954-55 fiscal period totalled $76, 991,500, as compared with $72,093, 544 for the year ended Aug. 31, 1954 Costs and expenses came to $7,902,1 530 and $8,626,874, respectively, fo| the comparative years. Advances Pass $20 Million Advances to independent producerl this year amounted to $20,091,3141 recoverable from the net proceed I from distribution. In released prol ductions, Warner Brothers has $6,1 790,087 while there is $6,955,344 ij completed, but not released, picturesH In pictures now in production, th<| company has $6,305,883. 'Richard III' ( Continued from page 1 ) and Robert Dowling, president o City Investing Corp., will leave her* today for London to attend the Decl 13 British premiere of the picture which stars Laurence Olivier, ClairJ Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Michae Bedgrave and John Gielgud. It was stated that Lopert Film will distribute "Richard III" domes tically and that the Bijou engagemenl will run "day-and-date" with the T\| showing "because we figure the T\J showing will boost the picture along, j The theatrical presentation of "Rich] ard III" will be on a reserved seal and two shows per day basis as thJ film runs two hours and 42 minutes! the Lopert official said. NBC paid $500,000 in acquiring the British feaJ ture attraction's TV rights for a "oneJ shot" performance, the official said. Has Deal for Five Films Lopert has a distribution deal witll United Artists which calls for fivdj pictures and "Richard III" was saiol to be one of the films included iif the UA agreement. However, somel time ago, UA vice-president William] J. Heineman, in a trade press inter] view, declared that the compamp would accept no picture for distribin tion if the film had its debut initially! on television. UA Status (Continued from page 1) membership. UA, on Wednesday, an] nounced its resignation from the assoj ciation, notifying the MPAA that its resignation was effective immediately due to "an understanding" that it was allowed to sever its membership oi immediate notice. UA's announcement of its resignaj tion from the MPAA, which wa.J signed by Krim, came on the heels ofl the MPAA's board of director's acj tion in upholding Production Cod>| Administrator Geoffrey Shurlock in his refusal to grant a seal to Otto Preminger's production of "The Mai With the Golden Arm," which UA had financed 100 per cent.