Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1960)

riday, October 28, 1968 Motion Picture Daily Television Joday EVIEW: he Secret of the •urple Reef 3th Century-Fox— CinemaScope Outstanding highlight of this mysv films is the beautiful De Luxe ilor and CinemaScope photography jndled bv Kay Norton as director E photography. The picture was imed entirely in the Caribbean, with lost of the 'action taking place on ie water and on a coral reef among ie islands. The story, which is a bit ivolved, is based on a Saturday Eveing Post serial by Dorothy Cottrell ith screenplay by Harold Yablonsky. Jeff Richard's and his brother Richrd Chamberlain return to the f amy's Caribbean island to attend their ither's funeral. The brothers learn lat the family's boat, the Cloud, disppeared near the Purple Reef, leavig no trace. Without evidence that :ie boat was sunk, the insurance comanv refuses to honor the claim. The rothers decide to solve the mystery :f the lost ship. Thev are aided in their search by l0bert Earl, an old family retainer, 'eter Falk, who scored in his recent >le in "Murder, Inc.," plays the ownr of the Dagger, a ship w hich also . as sunk at about the time the Cloud .•as reported missing. He tries to disourage the brothers from pursuing heir search for the Cloud, even tvreatening force to stop them. The brothers come upon Terence )e Mamev, the Dagger's engineer, vho hints at foul play while refusing o give any information. They learn rom Margia Dean, partner with Falk n a gambling casino on the island, hat De Mamey is her father, and hat she has learned that Falk plans o kill him. Falk cold-bloodedly kills Miss Dean vhen he leams that she has talked vith Richards. Richards is told by De Wamev that Falk scuttled his own ;hip, the Dagger, in an insurance swindle, and had to sink the Cloud oelow the Dagger so that there would he no witnesses to the crime. Richards gives a forceful performance as the dedicated seeker for the truth of the missing ship. Falk ^ is properly menacing as the heavy, with the rest of the cast competent in their roles. The picture was produced by Gene Gorman and directed by William N. Witney. f Running time, 80 minutes. Release, in September. S. R. AROUND THE JV CIRCUIT with PINKY HERMAN. TRUTH is stranger than fiction dep't: The Philip Morris Ciggies flacks turned down a request to supply smokes for Tennessee Williams' forthcoming Broadwav comedv, "Period of Adjustment for a typical Madison Avenue reason. James Daly, one of the shows stars, for several years has been the voice of Camel Cigs commershi Is. Reminds us of the time back in 1948 when Ork Pilot Vaughn Monroe had skedded a dittv titled. "Lucky," on his Saturday program, The Camel Hour and Tom Luckenbill' of the Wm. Esty Agency tossed the tune oft the program (Almost broke this scribbler's heart because we wrote Lucky. ) Produced bv United Press International as exclusive 2o-mmute filmed report, "The 15th General Assembly-First 25 Days will be shown Sunday Oct. 30 (9:35-10:00 P.M.) over WNTA-TV. Metropo lian New Yorkers will hear addresses made before the United Nations delegates by President Eisenhower, Prime Minister Macmillan, Premier Khrushchev. Marshal Tito among other world leaders Meyer Davis is sending his top maestro, Merrill Kaye, to conduct the Meyer Davis orchestra at the Houston Country Club Nov. 25. A deal is in the works to feature the tall, dark and handsome Kaye in a TVariety series this ; wrnter. . . . . First luncheon of the N. Y. Chapter of ATA&S, to be held Tues Nov. 1 at the Hotel Plaza, will present Chet Huntley as moderator of a panel which includes newshawks Atra Baer, Bert Bums, , Nick Kenny Mane Torre Marya Mannes and Bob Williams; subject TV Today & Tomorrow-The Critics Speak Out." ... The Lambs Club Testimonial Dinner rToIts Shor last Lturday night turned out to be o of the mos su£ cessful events ever held at this grand old theatrical club. More than 4UU Members of the theatre and sports world attended and the great show which included joe E. Lewis, Bert Wheeler Tommv Dil on James Barton Ham Hershfield, Tom Meany, emceed bv Jack W aldron like wtse proved to be a fitting tribute to Mickey Alpert who stepped down Xr five years as chairman of the Lambs Entertainment Comm. and his successor, Jack Waldron. . . . ix SPG Lists Nominations For Third Quarter Film From THE DAILY Bureau HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 27. The Screen Producers Guild announced four pictures— "Psycho," "Sunrise at Campobello," "Sons and Lovers" and "Hiroshima, Mon Amour"-as winners in the third quarter nominations for SPG award for the best produced feature picture of 1960. Final winners in the feature division, along with those of television series, will be made known at SPG s annual awards dinner next year. Dannv Thomas and his daughter Mario, will co-star in "Vendetta," an upcoming S.e Grev Theatre" CBS-Tvehicle, especially wntten , for TftfSZZ S&ed Kecome national ^ manager ^Screen Gems. Hell wo* on new -gg^rg live and filmed television series. . . . CBScreen wms Best," was -^S^^ BeTch. ^''Crandlgu'res prov 1* t radio has had a renaissance to the na Honal elrtlmem p£» in the past 1, -uths hu, .. ,s a so e, esting to note that a reverse trend has proven , of no bttfc resurtence. F'rinstance take the case of Flair, a aany js U T55 HI ABC network) music-variety rad.o senes emceed bv the 5XS^iT^5= ^ the coast where he sold s^eral origiuafTV packages h. £ ^ Cole Show' ~*ttZZ^££E. hecause he knows S 'heSm Tc, v°Ts tuned for national s,ardomJ:t«hu^ZeaL Ceffer Would Delay Tests of Pay-TV From THE DAILY Bureau WASHINGTON, Oct. 27. The Federal Communications Commission has been urged to turn over the question of pay-television to Congress before deciding to hold a test in Hartf o r d, Conn., bv Representative Emanuel Celler ( D., N.Y.). Celler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee , wrote Frederick Ford, chairman of the FCC. Celler said many Congressmen oppose large-scale testing and could not testify at current hearings because of the elections. The hearings are to decide if RKO General and Zenith Radio Corp. should get permit for a three-vear tryout over RKO's station WHCT. Cites Gravest Danger' Celler added there is the "gravest danger" that pay-tv tests would lead to "total destruction of free tv." Celler told the FCC that it "would be well advised to refrain from authorizing any further tests and to refer the entire question to Congress, which has the ultimate responsibility in the area of interstate communications." Celler observed that pre-empting tv channels for pay-tv is "a wanton disregard of the rights of the public." Such action, he asserted, "will turn the substantial cost of a television set into a mere down payment," since "at least S130 a year extra would be paid by the "average family" for receiving "the traditional program fare." McCaffrey Named \ndrew J. McCaffrey has been appointed director of public relations for WPIX, Inc.-Channel 11 in New York-it was announced by Fred M. Thrower, vice-president and general manager of the station. McCaffrey, a veteran broadcaster with 15 years experience in the corporate publicrelations field, will be responsible tor all internal and external affairs in the public relations area of the station. Sees Paying for What Is Now Free According to Celler, "widespread broadcasting of pay-television on an experimental basis would merely be a prelude to regular subscription television assignments and would threaten the very existence of free program reception upon which millions of Americans have come to depend. The foreseeable result is a television system in which we will all be paying for much the same tv fare as now comes to us without cost." The anti-trust subcommittee chairman expressed the fear that pay-tv will "contribute to still greater concentration of industry control in the hands of the networks, which may end up by supplying the programming for pay-tv as they do at ^ the present time' for free television." Glaser Account Exec. Robert L. Glaser has been appointed account executive in the Chicago office of CBS Films, Inc., it was announced by James T. Victory, director of syndication sales ot Ci3!5 Films Inc. Glaser will be based m the Chicago office and will cover the western Indiana and Illinois territory. Glaser was most recently the MidWestern representative of ABC Films out of Chicago. FINANCE COMPANY offers FOR SALE 25 (old) CARTOON NEGATIVES Firm $7500.00 WRITE BOX 126 MOTION PICTURE DAILY 1270 Sixth Ave., New York 20