The Exhibitor (1960)

The NEW YORK Scene By Mel Konecoff IT WAS MURDER: The other morning we took a trip up to the new Filmways Studios to watch “Murder Inc.” being filmed. We’ve been on sets before, and frankly, this business of setting up for filming is enough to drive a party nuts. Not so in this case, probably because the Screen Actors Guild was threatening to take a walk. Everybody was in a hurry. The technicians, comedian Henry Morgan in his first dramatic role as assistant district attorney Burton Turkus, and director-producer Burt Balaban, who took over the directorial chores from Stuart Rosenberg because Balaban could hurry faster. Lunch was even quicker than usual so we got indigestion much sooner. It seems that distributor Fox asked for completion before the strike deadline, which meant an 18-day schedule had to be compressed into eight days and nights. It also meant a change in technique, eliminating fancy camera angles and extraneous dramatic bits. It meant, too, that production costs had to be upped almost double, and all budget limita¬ tions went out the window. Locations had to be shifted so they were close to the studio so that too much time would not be wasted on travel. Balaban, who directed several pictures on a fast basis mainly because of a shortage of fimds, had nothing but praise for the New York crews who have been doing their darndest to get the picture in under the wire. He is so high on their work that he wouldn’t mind making his future films here. Actor Stuart Whitman has a message for all you exhibitors who voted him a high spot in the Laurel Awards last year — “Thanks.” This young talent, under contract to Fox for seven years, likes New York, likes making films, and also likes our crews here, admitting they are faster, younger, and more enthused. Balaban related how the spirit of cooperation extends even to the cab drivers in our town. Each one wants to become technical advisor, vowing that he went to school with the crooks involved or knew them personally, etc. SPARE-RIBS ANYONE: William Goetz producer, wanted to take press representatives to lunch, and since he met no resistance, he soon presided at a roundtable in a prominent Chinese spot. He came to town to deliver a print of his latest, “Song Without End,” to Columbia. Generally, it was brought out that there are more avenues of merchandising penetration in TV and through advertising research than there were five years ago. The business today is a volume business, and you have to reach as many people as you can. Subject matter could bring out the infrequent moviegoer today. Word of mouth is also a prime mover in the market of today. Goetz, once the head of several Hollywood studios, wouldn’t care to take on that kind of job again in these days. As a matter of fact, studio operation is different and there is no one man control anymore. The operation is shared by independent producers, writers, di¬ rectors, and even stars. In addition to “Song Without Bind,” he has also completed “Mountain Road” with James Stewart. He hopes to start “Cry For Happy” in Japan in June, with Dean Martin and Jack Lemmon, and “Time of the Dragon” next f^l — if the SAG strike doesn’t interfere. This would complete his contract with Columbia which called for six pictures. Participating in the discussion were Jonas Rosenfield, Columbia’s executive in charge of advertising and publicity; Bob Ferguson, director of advertising-publicity-exploitation; Mike Hutner, vice-president in charge of advertising and publicity for Goetz Productions; Hortense Schorr, publicity manager; and silent Bud Rosenthal, trade press contact. If we’ve missed anyone, we’ll shoot ourselves. THE METROPOLITAN SCENE: Irene Thirer of the Post had a wonderful layout on re¬ leases for the rest of the year by the major companies. . . . The French Government Tourist offices vmveiled a display of “Can Can” mementos. . . . “This Is Your Life” did Mervyn LeRoy with appropriate plugs for forthcoming product as well as past pictures. . . . The new stage show at the Radio City Music Hall is the 500th consecutive spectacle. STRIKE (Continued from page 7) respect to post-1948 films. We hope the actors are equally ready to negotiate fair agree¬ ments that will permit Hollywood to go on uninterruptedly with the business of making motion pictures that will fill the theatres of America and of the world and will bring prospering conditions to the entire industry.” Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, William Gold¬ man, operator of 19 theatres in Eastern Penn¬ sylvania, gave two weeks’ notice to his 500 employes in the event a strike causes a shut¬ down of his theatres. Goldman made his position known in a let¬ ter to Harry Abbott, third vice-president, lATSE and MPO, which stated, “Your tmion membership . . . vastly outnumber the lATSE studio employes, and it becomes imperative that demands upon any facet of the industry be weighed in the light of the best interest of the industry at large.” He said he was going to Hollywood in order to determine if the producers intend to continue their regular release schedule in the event of a strike, or will begin to “stretch out” their product. Also affected would be non-union ushers, ticket takers, cashiers, janitors, etc. AFTRA’s Hollywood membership imanimously pledged full support to the SAG “if a strike by the actors occurs against the studios.” The AFTRA membership also unan¬ imously urged conclusion of the proposed merger between AFTRA and SAG and urged the SAG board to favor it. Meanwhile presidents of the major com¬ panies in a series of meetings in New York reaffirmed their refusal to make any pay¬ ments whatever to guilds or vmions from the sale of post-1948 motion pictures to free or pay television, and reiterated they would not pay twice for the same job. RACKMIL (Continued from page 7) | | Opined he, if the company presidents rec | ,j ognize that selling the post-48’s to TV will | : hurt the industry, then they may never be , sold. Therefore, he failed to understand why ^ the reluctance to enter into a deal with the j guilds. It’s a shame that the momentum off' the .industry in recent tunes should be in j , terrupted by the strike, Rackrml added. ^ i Rackmil reasoned that the stars can only t turn out a certain number of pictures a year , | and time passed is tune lost. One good pic f j ture with a star such as Rock Hudson can f make up all the monies involved. j. • ■ Said he, if the other companies want to ( use the situation as an excuse to fire people j v or cut down on expenses, etc., then this is | • another story. When a company pays one\ star a million dollars, he reasoned, this starts another trend, but still the companies are going for it. He hit at the statements being made by the various company spokesmen, calling them words that are imprintable, and he ac¬ cused them of talking out of both sides of their mouth. He referred particularly to Universal being labeled a non-major distri¬ butor. As far as his company is concerned, he stated that they have a responsibility to , employees who have been with them a long > time, as well as to customer exhibitors. He thought he got a “helluva deal” because he was willing to sit down and talk. Rackmil said Universal has no problem re¬ garding releases, and he felt it could have withstood a strike better than the others be¬ cause of low overhead. At present, the com¬ pany has commitments for 18 pictures with i' top stars and it can increase its schedule if j the strike is called. He thought that his com j pany and United Artists, which is not in¬ volved as a company, could wind up making i all the pictures in the industry. I With regard to other unions coming to i him to discuss the sale to TV, he’ll be happy to discuss this with them. The deal with the WGA is for five years, while that with ^ the SAG is for three years. Should there be any sales of films to TV, | he doesn’t think that they will be sold in the form of complete libraries but rather that they will go in small blocks. He dryly noted that the 700 films sold some time ago | by MGM really hurt the theatres and the industry generally. This probably would not be repeated because the presidents know that another such move could really paralyze the business. f In answer to a question, he thought that j' there was a trend towards reissuing the bet ; | ter pictures because of reduced production | and not because of the strike. -■ . ■ — Attending the meetings were Eric Johns ; ton, president. Motion Pictvme Association j: of America, who presided; Steve Broidy, | president. Allied Artists; Abe Schneider, | president, Columbia; Joseph R. Vogel, presi¬ dent, MGM; Barney Balaban, president, Para * mount; Spyros P. Skouras, president, 20th i Fox; and from Hollywood, Bonar Dyer, Walt | Disney Productions; Edmond L. DePatie, vice | president, Warner Brothers; B. B. Kahane, | vice-president, Columbia; Ray Klune, vicepresident, MGM; Charles Boren, Alfred | Chamie, and Maurice Benjamin, AMPP. i George Sidney became the first independent | producer to receive a collective bargaining | contract from the Screen Actors Guild, pro = tecting “Pepe,” now in production for Colum i bia, from interruption.. ' The WGA strike continued to bring about layoffs and “vacations” in the studios, running . ! as high as 50 per cent. March 9, I960 I Hi 10 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR