Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Sep 1953)

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiimmiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiii by WILLIAM R. WEAVER Hollyzvood Editor THE AVERAGE weekly earnings of the craftsworkers in the studios topped again in May the tabulations published in the monthly report of the California Department of Industrial Relations covering all the labor performed and wages paid in the State. The earnings averaged $107 for a 39.1 -hour work week. April earnings averaged $114.67 for a 41.3-hour week. May last year the figures were $112.61 and 41.4. Nice work if you can get it, as the saying g'oes. But traditionally unsteady, production being the hill-and-dale type of activity it is. And far from plentiful at this point on the calendar, due to two major circumstances. Technological Revolution Is Partly Responsible First of these is, of course, the technological revolution. Second, although it’s easy to get an argument about this, is the fact that some of the pictures with the longest shooting schedules are produced elsewhere than in California. Both circumstances rest on sound reasons, but that isn’t a fact of comfort to a craftsman who isn’t working. Especially when, as now, another set of statistics, compiled in the nation’s capital, point out that living-costs are higher in Los Angeles than anywhere else in the country. The labor organizations whose members are caught in this combination of untoward conditions have a date to sit down with studio management in two weeks to discuss wages and certain other features of their employment contracts. Advance reports of their intentions are to the effect that they will ask a straight increase, as a matter of course, and will seek some changes in the health-and-welfare system inaugurated last time around, but will put principal emphasis on a pension proposal which has some unique features. (To be sure, rigging up a workable pension plan for an industry where intermittent employment is the norm sounds like quite a feat, but nowadays nearly everything’s possible.) Would Finance Plan From Reissues, TV Sales The pension plan the unions have been talking about among themselves calls for employing companies to finance pensions out of proceeds from theatrical reissues and from the sale of theatrical films to television. Both the reissuing of films for theatre use and the disposal of theatrical films to television, labor leaders long have held, are injurious to their interests, and perhaps the designation of these practices as the source from which pension money would flow is indication that it’s been decided they’re here to stay. There has been no hint given, so far, as to how the employing companies feel about any of these matters. THE NUMERICAL letdown in Hollywood employment is not reflected in professional morale. On the contrary, the Hollywood Coordinating Committee this week reported an increase in voluntary cooperation in patriotic-public service events for the first half of 1953 as compared with the same period in 1952. In the past half-year 647 performers made 1,536 free appearances at 302 such occasions, with entertainment for the armed forces predominating as always. Since 1946 a total of 2,699 players have made 17,120 free appearances at 5,174 events. 1HE PRODUCTION rate, recently quite brisk, subsided slightly during Independence Day week, with only five features g'oing before the cameras and with nine others winding up on the stages. That leaves a total of only 25 features in active production, which isn’t a very substantial number at a time when the backlogs are being dissipated more rapidly than suits any branch of the business. The versatile George Pal began making “The Naked Jungle,” in Technicolor, for Paramount release. Byron Haskin is the director, and the cast includes Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, Abraham Sofaer and William Conrad. Paramount producer Mel Epstein started "Alaska Seas,” with Robert Ryan, Jan Sterling, Brian Keith and Gene Barry, directed by Jerry Hopper. Producer Collier Young of Filmakers Releasing Organization went to work on “The Bigamist,” with Ida Lupino directing herself, Joan Fontaine, Edmond O’Brien and Edmund Gwenn. Lindsley Parsons launched “Slade” for Allied Artists, with Mark Stevens, Dorothy Malone and Barton MacLane under the direction of Harold Schuster. Off in Hawaii Aubrey Schenck and Howard W. Koch began producing “Beach Head” in PatheColor for United Artists release. Stuart Heiser is directing Tony Curtis, Frank Lovejoy, Mary Murphy and Edourd Franz in this undertaking. U.A. Closes Rossen Deal United Artists has completed a twopicture contract with Robert Rossen, it has THIS WEEK IN PRODUCTION: STARTED (5) ALLIED ARTISTS Slate (Lindsley Parsons Prod.) INDEPENDENT The Bigamist (Filmakers Releasing Org.) COMPLETED (9) ALLIED ARTISTS Bowery Bloodhounds COLUMBIA The Nebraskan (3-D, Technicolor) Drums of Tahiti (Esskay Pic. Co., Technicolor) INDEPENDENT Paris Model (American Pic. Columbia release) Bait (Hugo Haas Prod.) SHOOTING (20) COLUMBIA The Caine Mutiny (Kramer Co., Technicolor) A Name for Herself INDEPENDENT Camuel Corps (Edward Small Prod., 3-D, Eastman Color, Wide Screen, U.A. rel.) Captain Scarface (Lincoln Pic., Aster release) Return to Treasure Island (WisbergPollexfen Prod., PatheColor, Wide Screen ) Marry Me Again (Alex Gottlieb, Wide Screen ) Hondo ( Wayne-Fellows Prod., Warner release, 3-D WarnerColor, All-Media) Carnival (King Bros., RKO release, Color 3-D, Munich) MGM Rhapsody (Technicolor, Wide Screen) The Long, Long Trailer Beachhead (PatheColor, U.A. release, Hawaii ) PARAMOUNT Alaska Seas The Naked Jungle (Technicolor) MGM Kiss Me Kate (3-D, Ansco Color) PARAMOUNT Red Garters (WideScreen, Technicolor) RKO RADIO Son of Sinbad (3-D, Color) UNIV.-INT’L Border River (Technicolor) Knights of the Round Table (Technicolor, CinemaScope, London ) The Flame and the Flesh (Technicolor, Europe) Crest of the Wave ( London ) PARAMOUNT Knock on Wood (Technicolor, WideScreen) REPUBLIC Geraldine RKO RADIO The French Line (Edmund Grainger Prod., Technicolor) 20TH CENTURY-FOX Hell and High Water ( CinemaScope, Technicolor) Story of Demetrius ( CinemaScope, Technicolor) UNIV.-INT'L The Glass Web (3-D) The Glenn Miller Story (Technicolor) (Technicolor) iiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimiimiiiiiiiiiiiiii been announced by Arthur B. Krirn, president of U.A. Mr. Rossen will write, produce and direct “Alexander the Great” and “Fame” for U.A. release. Paramount Signs Heston Paramount Pictures has taken over Charlton Heston’s contract from Hal Wallis, it has been announced. The contract, a nonexclusive, multiple-picture deal, goes into effect with the star’s next Paramount film, “Legend of the Inca.” 24 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JULY II, 1953