Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1951)

FOREIGN REVIEWS Peopie eopie in OL fjeu,s lllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll||||||||i|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||,||„,„„„| A. W. ScHWALBERG, president of tlie Paramount Distributing Corp., was married Tuesday to Mrs. Carmel Myers Blum, former stage and screen actress who now has her own television show. Mr. and Mrs. Schwalberg will spend their honeymoon in Florida, on the yacht of B.vrney Balaban, president of Paramount Pictures Corporation. Spyros P. Skouras, pre.sident of Twentieth Century-Fox, will be honored hy the State of Israel at a dinner December 12 at the Hotel Astor in New York for his leadership of the Israel Bond Drive in the amusement industry. Samuel Bischoff, RKO executive producer for the past 18 months, will return November 19 to the Warner Bros, studio, following amicable settlement of his RKO contract. Charles F. O’Brien, director of industrial relations for Loew’s, Inc., for si.x years, has resigned to accept a position of vicepresident with the John Irving Shoe Corp., of Boston. John Davis, managing director of J. Arthur Rank’s enterprises in Britain, is scheduled 10SS0FP[P? old fighting spirit! Load up on W.FLAY UNIVERSAL international's Tlie Week End that Shook the World to arrive in New York from London November 19. Burt Balaban and John Howell have been respectively appointed director of programming and production, and director of sales and merchandising, of Paramount Television Productions, Inc., it has been announced by Paul Raibourn, president. Mr. Balaban previously headed Paramount’s television fdm department. Herbert Wilcox, British producer, and his wife, actress Anna Neagle, are due this week in New York aboard the Queen Mary. They will discuss the American showing of Miss Neagle’s film “The Lady With a Lamp.’’ Michael Wilding, who is co-star, is scheduled to reach New York November 8. Renato Gualino, manager of the Italian Film Export Company, has left Rome for London, enroute to New York, where he will set up an American office of his company. Herbert A. Philbrick, who acted as an undercover agent against the Communists for the FBI while occupying his post of assistant advertising, publicity and exploitation director of the M. and P. Theatres circuit, has been proposed in the Massachusetts Senate to have a day marked in his honor. The Senate will ask Governor Paul E. Dever to have November 27 declared as “Herbert A. Philbrick Day.’’ Irving N. Margolin has been promoted to head the film department of Samuel Hacker & Co., industry certified public accountants. He had been assistant head for the past two years. How.xrd L. Bryant, Jr., formerly with Paramount Pictures Corp., has been appointed service co-ordinator of Theatre Owners of America. Ben Amsterdam, Jack Beresin, Ben Biben, Victor H. Blanc, William Clark, Harold Cohen, Jack Greenberg, Leo Posel, Ralph Pries, Norman Silverman, Oscar Neufeld and Harry Romain have been named directors of the Philadelphia Variety Club, Tent No. 13. Mike Felt and Eddie Emanuel were named delegates to the national convention. Mervin C. Pollak, special assistant to Attorney-general J. Howard McGrath, has resigned from the Anti-trust Division of the Justice Department to become vicepresident of The Pathescope Company of America, Inc., New York, producers of films for industrial, educational, governmental and television use. THE PATH OF HOPE (ll Cammino Della Speranza) Lux Films — Italian with English Subtitles The melancholy story of a heart-breaking odyssey from Sicily to the Italian Alps, “The Path of Hope’’ arrives in this country with an impressive string of Italian, French and German awards to its credit. In the tradition of recent Italian imports, it is a starkly realistic drama that will find a ready acceptance among the art house audiences. There is no escape here, however, for the patron, burdened by his own woes, who seeks light entertainment. The action opens in a poor Sicilian town whose economy depends upon a sulphur mine and then moves slowly up the Italian boot. With the closing of the mine, a group of desperate, jobless men, their women and children succumb to the arguments of an unscrupulous guide and determine to emigrate illegally to France, where they hope for a chance to work. The trip is dogged by bad luck as the impoverished miners trek north. The guide absconds with their money ; the emigrants are arrested in Rome ; they are beaten by strikers in northern Italy; and then a rejected lover betrays the group. It ends happily, however, as the Sicilians, their number greatly reduced, finally arrive in France to start a new life. The central characters, who, incidentally, provide the romantic interest, are Raf Vallone, who emerges as the leader of his fellow miners, and beautiful Elena Varzi, a wicked woman reformed by the love of a good man. The film was skillfully directed by Pietro Germi, and Leonida Barboni is responsible for the imaginative camera work. Luigi Rovere produced. Running time, 104 minutes. Adult audience classification. Very Good. — T. C. Marie Du Port (Bellon-Ffoulke Productions, Inc. — French with English subtitles) The French reputedly are able to make something out of nothing, or at least out of very little, when it comes to film-making, and “Marie DuPort” presumably is an exercise in that particular talent. Except for Jean Gabin and an attractive newcomer, Nicole Courcel, the film has little to recommend it, even to the average art-house patron. To make up for the lack of real story, director Marcel Came has substituted a heavy accent on sex but without the subtle touch which French directors often manage to bring to these things, “Marie Du Port’’ has some shocking and indecent scenes that are brushed off as humor. Performances from Jean Gabin down lack enthusiasm but the photography is good. The sub-titles convey the story adequately. Running time, 92 mins. Adult audience classification. Fair. — F. H. British Information Unit Shows Short Subjects The British Information Services last week sponsored the showing of a group of “pre-election” short subjects from Britain at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The films included “Festival in London,” Technicolor, dealing with the Festival in Britain this past summer; “How Britain Votes,” the election machinery; “Keeping the Peace,” resume of international cooperation that led to the North Atlantic Treaty; “Love of Books,” the physical technique of book production ; “The Magic Canvas,” Technicolor, “extending the abstract painter’s canvas into the new dimension of cinematic movement,” and “David,” the story of a miner who became caretaker of a school. 34 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 3, 1951