Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1957)

■ Motion Picture Daily Friday, August 23, I Todd Shows (Continued from page 1) demonstrator, attorney and salesman. Exhibitors who began by being curious were always entertained. What he demonstrated today and will again tomorrow was how "Around the World in 80 Days" looks in 35mm. Exhibitors speaking openly to each other during a hot argument Mr. Todd conducted with critics, seemed to agree the 35-mm was sharp and its 4-track sound impressive enough. From 133 and 90 Feet Mr. Todd showed alternately from the house booth 133 feet from the wide screen and from a special booth 90 feet away, scenes from "Patterns" in standard ratio, from "The Wonders of Manhattan" in CinemaScope, and from "80 Days." He said exhibitors could construct the booth easily and inexpensively. In this house it is of Transite, with Ozite and other materials and drapery. He urged his guests to be practical and flexible, and remember that the important thing was improvement of the standard picture, and that they should note screen size (the bigger the better), angle of projection, lack of distortion, and sound. Introductions at Luncheon Todd, at luncheon, introduced each guest, many with anecdotes, some with barbs, and throughout with jokes, and made this theme the new approach in showmanship. His thesis was people no longer believe showmen. Producers have got to build everything into the picture negative, even the publicity. He vowed that into his next he will build the terms. He suggested he and his associates will think up something to assure public faith in quality of presentation and they may even issue a bond with each ticket guaranteeing they will not find the picture elsewhere in inferior circumstances. He introduced at luncheon a critic, Bill Beck of the Five Points Theatre, Jacksonville, and indicated he was in for argument. Beck, at Todd's invitation, read letters which he'd mailed to Todd and trade papers. His points were that Todd by selling 35-mm in Tampa and elsewhere imperiled a trade gimmick, an exhibitor investment, and provided a substitute, which Beck said and maintained during the argument, is inferior. Praise from Circuit Officials Todd seized this statement, obtained 35-mm commendation from Philadelphia circuit operators William The Sun Also Rises We mourn the passing of our beloved partner JlUtonJIL<©0ttlti>b C. and G. Film Effects (CONTINUED FROM PAGE I) named Robert Evans. And the quality of their performances, along with those of the manv other excellent actors who share their 129 minutes on the screen, is underwritten incontestably in the directorial signature of the great Henry King. With all of these assets, opening a wide variety of exploitation approaches to the public, "The Sun Also Rises" figures to run up a tremendous box office success. In point of storv, as readers of the Hemingwa\ novel will remember, the picture runs true to the Zanuck policy of treating controversial topics plainly. Topics dealt with plainly in this picture include male impotence, female promiscuity, professional soliciting, and some intimate aspects of bull-fighting. These are dealt with in the place and time setting of Paris, Spain and Biarritz in 1922. They are dealt with in detail and handsomely, at length and colorfully, in the manner of what has been called bv writers, and in the picture, "the lost generation," meaning the generation which lived on after World War I as recklessly as if death were due to strike momentarily. Producer Zanuck's physical presentation of the Hemingway storv often dwarfs the story itself, reaching heights of scenic magnificence that surpass previous CinemaScope productions at their photographic best. The Fiesta of San Fermin at Pamplona, Spain, where the storv takes all of the principals for a protracted holiday, is overwhelmingly enacted and brilliantly filmed from dozens of angles. The scenes in the bull ring— the massed multitudes in the stands and the animals and men in the arena— prove CinemaScope's unparalleled power to dramatize a spectacle. To Leo Tuver, director of photography, and Leonard Doss, color consultant, the production stacks up as a towering credit. THE SCREENPLAY by Peter Viertel follows the Hemingway book closely. It opens in Paris where Power, who has been rendered impotent by an injury in the war, is working as correspondent for a New York newspaper. His physical handicap is quickly revealed to the audience by means of dialogue between him and a street woman, and shortly after that Miss Gardner, a young war widow with a wide cafe acquaintance, comes into the picture. She was a nurse in the hospital where his war injury was treated, and they have been apart some while, trying to forget they love each other, when the meeting occurs. In the course of the story she has affairs of greater or lesser moment with Ferrer, Power's longtime friend; Evans, a young bullfighter; Ratoff, a titled person of great wealth and amusing manner; and possibly Flynn, a penniless heir to an ample fortune and the man she has in mind marrying when his money comes in. This group, excepting Evans, who is in and out of the story swiftly, spends a good deal of travel time around European spots of sophisticated interest before the end of the picture, which finds Power and Miss Gardner no nearer to a solution of their problem than in the beginning. The picture is big in every sense of the word, rich in color and expertly done in every technical department. Probably it is essentially a big-town picture, as some of the subject matter could run into family disfavor in the smaller communities. It is not for children. Running time 129 minutes. Adult audience classification. Release date, September. William R. Weaver Goldman and Jay Emanuel, and RKO president Sol Schwartz. He also made much of Beck's success and satisfaction with the Todd-AO process. Goldman suggested and Todd agreed on a point which Todd said he meant to emphasize: That a really big and gambling producer needs a market hypothetically limited to 400 theatres, not 50. "80 Days" currently is in 45 Todd-AO situations, and in approximately a half dozen in 35-mm. The 100 exhibitor guests were from California, Texas, the near and deep South and the Northwest. They paid their transportation, but the party was Todd's. They included Raymond Willie, Interstate, Texas; Harry Feinstein, Stanley Warner, New Haven; Andrew Gibson, Dipson circuit, Buffalo; Joseph Memorial forJ.B. Magee Memorial services for Joseph Bernard Magee, who passed away August 12, will be held Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2:30 P.M. at the Broadway Congregational Church in New York City. Mr. Magee had been Director of Casting for the William Morris Agency for 20 years. Rosenfield, Spokane; Burton Jones, San Diego; Ted Mann, Minneapolis; George Lynch, Schine circuit; I. Rappaport, Baltimore; Nathan Schwartz, Durham, N. C, and Morton Thalhimer, Richmond, Va. One invited guest who didn't speak was Henry S. Woodbridge. He is president of Todd-AO. WB Prospecl ( Continued from page 1 ) opening session of a two-day conference at the home office ye day. Pointing out that "Band of Ang and "The Curse of Frankenstein" rently are giving extraordinarily 1 accounts of themselves at the nati boxoffices, Haines told the mee that Warner Bros, will wind up present season on a highly prosper note. 'No Let-up,' He Promises "There will be no let-up in the commercial values of our product we enter the new season with 'The jama Game,' which has been boo solidly across the country over the bor Day weekend," Mr. Haines tinned. "Never before have we b in a position to offer the exhibi such a succession of back-to-back h grossing possibilities as we have sch uled for the beginning of the i movie year through the end of 19 and beyond." The sales executive cited as rep sentative of the outstanding proper ready for release such pictures "Sayonara," "The Helen Mor Story," "No Sleep Till Dawn" ; "The Story of Mankind." Points to Six Additional To augment these pictures, the co pany has scheduled a group of expl tation films in the vein of the extrenj ly successful "The Curse of Franke stein," including "Jamboree," "BL Patch," "Johnny Trouble," "The Bl; Scorpion," "Woman in a Dress Gown" and "These Dangerous Year 27 Branches Win in UA Foreign Drive Twenty-seven United Artists ovc seas branches have topped their bi ings quotas in the first six-month coi petition of the year-long internatioi sales drive, it was announced he by Louis Lober, general manager the foreign department, who is capt of the drive. Five in Germany The winning offices included fi branches in the German organizatio Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Fran furt and Munich; five branches in A gentina, Rosario', Tucuman, Bah Blanca, Santa Fe and Cordoba; thr< branches in Colombia, Barranquill Cali and Bogota; two branches in tl French territory, Tunis and Bordeau and Singapore, Stockholm, Manil Santiago, Brussels, Havana, Lim Panama and San Juan. Each brani will receive cash awards. Alaska Manager Dies SEATTLE, Wash., Aug. 21 (By A Mail).— Ernest C. Lackey, 54, Ketchikan, Alaska, theatre manage died in a Seattle hospital Aug. 16 of heart attack. He formerly was ma ager of the old Bagdad Theatre in S attle. The deceased was a native Souris, N. D. tti .11! it,