The Exhibitor (1959)

19th century. A showman’s dream and an exploiter’s delight! Anthony Hinds has also just completed for Columbia, “Never Take Candy From A Stranger,” another diamond-studded ex¬ ploitation gift. This one deals with the menace of psychopaths who assault and often murder children. Apart from its brilliant merits as a dramatic entertainment, highlighting a terrifying world problem, it has the backing of every child welfare or¬ ganization on earth. Its possibilities, exploitation-wise, are absolutely limitless. Right now we are putting the finishing touches to “The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll,” a new version in Technicolor and Mega¬ scope for Columbia of R. L. Stevenson’s classic shockpiece. It was produced by Michael Carreras from a sizzling horror-sex script by Wolf Mankowitz which simmers and boils to a vol¬ canic climax. If ever there was an international box-office cer¬ tainty this is it! Meanwhile, Anthony Hinds is bent close over a new caul¬ dron of horror, stirring up the brew which will go to make “Brides of Dracula” a companion-piece to our “Horror of Dracula” which pulverized box-offices two years ago. After that, Michael Carreras strikes back with “The San Siado Killings,” a western with a new gimmick to end all west¬ erns! It will star Stanley Baker whose tremendous performance in the Burma war film has rocketed him to world stardom. Make a note, too, of “Hell is A City’’ which we have just made in conjunction with Associated-British. It’s a story of robbery, violence, and murder in a great industrial city in which Stanley Baker gives another superlative performance. After that? More big exciting box-office projects about which you will be hearing in due course. Every one highly exploitable, every one highly explosive in the box-office sense. Once again, “A Hamer New Year” to you all! Tickle The Public Palate GEORGE MINTER, Renown Pictures My plan for the future is to make more pictures of the caliber of “The Rough and The Smooth.” It tops the current Renown Pictures programme and my hope is that pictures almost completed and those plan¬ ned for production, will meet with equal success. The enormous popularity of “The Rough and The Smooth” confirms the view that there will always exist a substantial demand for films of polish that have enough freshness and strong human values to tickle the public’s pal¬ ate. One can only watch closely the trend of changing taste and be ready to adapt ones plans to fall into line with it. For instance, teenagers and their insatiable thirst for ‘beat’ and thrills is headline news both in Britain and America and ex¬ hibitors will get an opportunity to cash in on this with “Beat Girl,” put into production a few weeks ago to meet the current popular demand. It is now almost ready for release. “Beat Girl,” with its obvious powerful exploitation angles, its lively timely story of youth, exciting new songs, and ‘beat’ music should follow in the successful wake of “The Rough and The Smooth.” I earnestly commend all U.S. exhibitors to grasp the opportunity when it presents itself, of seeing these two important new attractions. “Beat Girl” will be followed by the completely crazy come¬ dy, “Dentist In The Chair,” starring Bob Monkhouse, Kenneth Connor, and Eric Barker, all top comedians here, with Peggy Cummins in the chief feminine role. Its a laugh show tailored for the masses who revel in the comic misadventures of other people. A class of comedy that has potent appeal in any coun¬ try, irrespective of the film’s origin. I have ready for filming the screen adaptation of Gillian Freeman’s great human story7, “The Liberty Man,” a story of a very controversial nature which is highly topical. It con¬ cerns the shocking behaviour of youngsters in many of Bri¬ tain’s elementary schools today and the production should re¬ sult in widespread publicity and comment from educational institutions throughout the world. Planned for production are “Its Cheap At The Price,” based on the hilariously funny story of a young fool hoodwinking a gullible advertiser to spend a fortune to advertise a non¬ existent product ‘SextoF, and “The Fifth Season Of Love,” a spectacular, swash-buckling romance of a cabin boy who rises to become a Prime Minister. Fewer Theatres, But Livelier managing director. Rank Organization I think that 1959 will be remembered as one of the most critical years for the British film industry; for while recent years have shown us only too clearly how audiences were shrinking, 1959 has confirmed our in¬ tuition as to what future audiences will be like. I don’t mean just in numbers— al¬ though it looks as though estimates of 600 million as the end of the decline will not be far out; but rather that we can tell what they are going to want. The occasional visit will be more and more of an “occasion” in the true sense, particularly for the older cinemagoers, and the cinema has to meet this need by setting itself new stand¬ ards of comfort, service and amenity. The Rank Organization has been working its policy of ra¬ tionalization for a little more than a year now, and this year has confirmed our belief that it is the right policy— indeed the only practical one. Fewer theatres, but livelier ones; a good line-up of product (and fortunately there’s plenty of evidence of this); an in¬ creased emphasis on the roadshow; and a feeling of excite¬ ment and challenge in every branch of the industry— that is how I see 1960, and I sincerely hope it will prove a prosperous year for all our friends in the industry on both sides of the Atlantic. Britain Weathers Storm M. C. MORTON, United Artists' managing director in England It’s a happy feeling to look back on a year of fulfilment. The British market as a whole now looks like having weathered the bufferings of circumstances with which we are all familiar, thanks mainly to a year of exceptional pictures which have drawn, in some instances, record audiences, and have helped to restore the prestige of the cinema. For United Artists, it has been an outstanding 12 months, reflecting not only the general trend, but absolutely the quality of the product we have been fortunately able to offer to the public. The policy of the “blockbuster” presented with all the skill and know-how of high-powered publicity, showmanship at its most expert, has proved 100 per cent right. Pictures like “The Big Country”; “A Hole In The Head”; “I Want To Live,” around all of which exciting publicity campaigns were built, captured the public imagination, and brought great box-office results. The most challenging of all, Edward Small’s magni¬ ficent “Solomon and Sheba” in Technirama-70, which has been launched with the most lavish publicity /advertising campaign United Artists has ever mounted, now in its eighth week at the 52 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR December 23, 1959