Motion Picture Daily (Apr-June 1956)

Motion Picture daily Wednesday, April 11, 1! National Pre-Selling <<npHE Birds and the Bees" is the * recipient of considerable promotional aid in the May issues of "Photoplay" and "TV Radio Mirror" —the Macfadden publications. A pictorial story with many of the photos in full color appears on a two-page spread in the May issue of "Photoplay." Mitzi Gaynor and George Gobel are spotlighted in these photos made on the Hollywood production sets. In "TV Radio Mirror" of the same month there is a striking full page ad on "The Birds and the Bees." • In the review of "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" appearing in the April 9 issue of "Life," the writer says: "The film's producers acted on an old maxim Madison Avenue is fond of mouthing, "Don't send a boy to do a man's job," and threw $4,000,000 into "Man," but they have good reason to believe their gamble will pay off at least three-fold." Many dramatic photos, unusual foi their intensity of emotions, even for motion pictures, are used to illustrate the review of "The Man," which occupies parts of four pages. • "Forever Darling," the M-G-M picture, was mentioned prominently in an interesting article on the family life of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz which appeared in the April 8 issue of "American Weekly." • "The Prisoner," "Come Next Spring" and "The Conqueror" are reviewed and recommended to the readers of "Redbook's" March issue. • Grace Kelly, whose newest picture, "The Swan," will have its premiere in Philadelphia soon, receives some sage advice from Blake Ehrlich in the April 8 issue of "This Week" on Monaco's Court protocol. "Vincent Van Gogh— Dutch Painter Lives Today In An American Movie," is the title Ed Miller gave to his story on "Lust for Life," the M-G-M picture based on the life of Van Gogh. The article appears in the April issue of "Seventeen." It is highlighted by a color reproduction of Van Gogh's portrait of himself that occupies a full page. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz went to Jamestown, N. Y., Lucy's home town, for the premiere of "Forever Darling." "Look" sent a camera crew along to cover Lucy's homecoming event. The story appears in the April 17 issue of "Look." When Desi saw the home town turn-out he said, "You said you came from a small town. This is the most people I ever saw." The same warm intimacy found in the TV series of "I Love Lucy" is apparent in these pages of "Look." WALTER HAAS REVIEW: Seven Wonders of the World Lowell Thomas— Stanley Warner Corp.— Cinerama The third Cinerama release, Lowell Thomas's "Seven Wonders of the World," is comparable to its predecessors, "This Is Cinerama" and "Cinerama Holiday." Based on travel adventures and sightseeing, its substance is drawn primarily from visual attractions presented in color by Technicolor and with great technical excellence, rather than from a narrative built upon dramatic plot. As with its predecessors, the Cinerama cameras and the process are the chief attractions. Its box office strength, accordingly, is likely to parallel that of its predecessors. In a prologue, Thomas refers to the seven wonders of the ancient world by way of introduction to this film of his Cinerama odyssey which covered more than 100,000 miles and included 42 countries in a globegirdling hunt by plane and other means of travel for the natural and man-made wonders of the world of today. The trip begins in New York and moves quickly to South American jungles and a visit to Rio de Janeiro; to Africa and strange tribes, animal habitats, the Sphinx and Pyramids, a volcano and Victoria Falls; into Asia to view ancient temples, the Taj Mahal, and other scenic wonders from Japan through Cambodia, Thailand and India. On a visit to the Himalayan Mountains, the Cinerama travelers venture by narrow gauge railroad to the summits and, in a sequence reminiscent of the popular roller coaster ride in "This Is Cinerama," the camera rides the back platform as the train runs wild down the mountainous incline without its engineer. Visits follow to the Holy Land and to the new oil fields in the badlands of the Near East; thence to Constantinople, and some of the ancient wonders of Athens and Rome, and a mingling among the Catholic Marian Year pilgrims at the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo. A Papal procession and ceremonies photographed inside St. Peter's are pictorially notable. From Rome over the Leaning Tower of Pisa and back to the U. S., with brief visits to rural New England, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and the Giant Sequoias of California, the Cinerama producers leave the audience with an invitation to choose their own Seven Wonders of the World. Edited to be exhibited in two parts in Cinerama equipped theatres, the film runs approximately two hours and five minutes. There is a 15minute intermission between the first and second parts. Contributing to the direction of various sequences are Tay Garnett, Paul Mantz, Andrew Marton, Ted Tetzlaff and Walter Thompson. The photography and sound, of course, are excellent, as is the music by Emil Newman, David Raksin and Jerome Moross. Merian C. Cooper and Gayne Rescher did the aerial photography, and Harry Squire other photography. "Seven Wonders" continues the Cinerama reputation for quality and noveltv in the process that remains uniquely its own. S. K. See Agreement on Formula Details Barring any last minute hitches, foreign managers expressed their agreement on the world formula for the division of permits following a meeting of the Motion Picture Export Association's board of directors here yesterday. It is understood that Universal fell in line with the majority on certain disputed technical features of the formula, which received the endorsement of company presidents in principle. Among the issues in dispute was the definition of what constitutes an American film, a factor which is used in the calculation of the formula. The final approval on the disputed technical issues will come from the respective companies at a later meeting, it is understood. 'Omnibus' Shifting From CBS to ABC The Ford Foundation's 90-minute television show, "Omnibus," will be seen over the TV facilities of the American Broadcasting Co., next Fall, it was announced here yesterday. "Omnibus," which has been telecast by Columbia Broadcasting System's TV facilities on Sunday afternoons for the past four years, will be presented by ABC-TV "in prime Sunday evening viewing time." It was said that the show will be programmed in the 9 to 10:30 P.M. time slot. It was also announced that the film syndication department of CBS has sold a re-shot series of the "Omnibus" program to Australian television outlets, with William Saroyan acting as host, the role formerly filled by Alister Cooke. See Increased Use of 16mm. CinemaScope In Institutional Fiel The utilization of 16mm. Cinen Scope by the educational and ins tutional fields is expected to incre;. this Fall as budgets will be allocat by "small gauge exhibitors" to b the necessary equipment at the st of the new fiscal year, it was report yesterday by a top 16mm. distributi executive. The company official, commcnti on the current growth of 16m CinemaScope, stated that "only small percentage of the market equipped and using CinemaSco product in small gauge versions." Says Funds Are Lacking The main reason for the slow pai he said, was due to the lack of fun in the budgets allocated by the ec: cational and institutional fields, soon as new budgets are set, at t end of the current fiscal year, I expc the 16mm. CinemaScope market increase considerably," the distril tion' executive said. He pointed < that at present not many schools institutions can afford to spend $1 for a 16mm. two-inch focal leng Bausch & Lomb anamorphic lens put out $150 or more for other len: for 16mm. CinemaScope. He said that at present 20th Ct tury-Fox and Warner Brothers are X two big suppliers of 16mm. Cinen Scope product in the domestic m ket, with M-G-M selling its "sm gauge" product in anamorphic v sions in Canada and not the U. All companies release their prodi through the facilities of Films, Ir "small gauge" distributors. Schwalberg's APA ( Continued from page 1 ) distributing companies. Schwalb said that a tentative agreement h been made with one major. Because of talent developed television, Poll said that Gold Me< had brought in TV creative tale such as writers, producers, directs players and technicians, to supp ment its motion picture personn The people will work on a partici] tion basis, in addition to minimi salaries. Schwalberg formerly was preside of Paramount Film Distributing Co Poll, who has produced pictures Ik and abroad, produced the Gene Electric shows, the National Salute Eisenhower dinner and other evei for TNT. Hyman and PRM Acquire 'Popeyes' Paramount Pictures and Hear1 King Features, which hold joint terests to the "Popeye" cartoons, ha sold the television rights to 234 the "Popeye" cartoons to Eliot I man's Associated Artists and PR Inc., for a reported $2,500,000. According to a representative Hyman, the deal was closed over t weekend for the "Popeye" packa of which 168 cartoons were in co'