Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1954)

Terry Romsa^e Say* THE SIMMERING SCENE — The higher the rivalries and the sharper the drives of the motion picture of fhe film screen and Television's electronic screen the closer they draw together. In essence the issue is between the endeavor to redeem and restore the properties and dominance of the long established theatre channel to the market, and the galloping progress and ambitions of the all-electronic channels of Television. Both are selling motion pictures. They are in the same business. Now we have, just emerging around the commercial corner, color Television by an all-electronic "compatible" system. That means mostly that Television is color-wise catching up with the film screen. In that and other numerous developments the media are drawing together in the laboratories, just as they are indeed in enterprises as interlaced as in Telemeter's pay-as-you-see television delivery of Paramount first run movies. The evolution in progress is as inevitable as the force of gravity. Bearing on the continuing process of adjustments and inter-relation we can remember when movieland resisted radio's raids on talent and the newspapers viewed with warranted alarm invasion of advertising revenues; when exhibition raised high alarm over 1 6mm competition; and how the whole film industry fighting television sought spectrum channels of its own by which to join television. That quest faded in th« absurdity of fact that there was no plan or program for the use of those special channels had they been awarded. For a glint of perspective consider what the power loom did to textiles, the linotype, stereotype and rotary press to publication, and so recently what fhe tractor, cotton picker, corn harvester and combine grain harvester have done to agriculture. Largely the Industrial Revolution has long been concerned with doing the same things that were done before, but with different methods. That is to be in the main the continuing course of the Electronic Revolution. New tools for the old jobs of satisfying the same customers to the end-result of the same basic satisfactions. The processes of adjustment and readjustment look the bigger the closer one is to them. To the exhibitor the existing film theatre's sharp problems and big uncertainties are as close as one day is to the nexr. Requirements are immediate and continuous. He cannot indulge always in the longer view. But he can have the assurance that from deepest antiquity to now there has always been a theatre; and never so large and mobile an audience as today. /^r-C/ COMMON TASTE, AGAIN— I n an examination of European newspaper attention to news from the United States, "Time" relays a report that Arnoldo Cortesi, bureau chief of Ine "New York Times" in Rome, has remarked that "an Italian who reads largely feature stories would inevitably reach the conclusion that everyday life in the United States is centered on beauty contests, divorce and the scandals of cafe society . . ." That order of charge used to be leveled almost exclusively at the American motion picture. It is to fhis observer a pleasure to see it transferred to the circulation-seeking editors of the Italian press. The ultimate responsibility is to be shared by the customers who by patronage tell the editors what they want. This kind of pressure control on the mass arts is going to go on as long as the common and natural basic impulses are in control. That is forever. TELEVISION COUNT— What with this and that on the economic scene and the fact that a lot of customers are getting cautious, the television industry is closely keeping track. NBC has come out with a count of installed TV sets at 25,690,000, which is a gain of almost a half-million in a month and 4,456,000 since the beginning of 1953. There are plenty of sets awaiting sale yet. For immediate trade reasons we shall probably be hearing much less about color television for a considerable spell. SOVIET POLICY — "Movie Memo," that organ of first aid to picture department editors of the lay press issued by Ernest Emerling in behalf of Loew's Theatre, assigned a bright young man to learn how to say "Kiss Me, Kate" in Russian. He had difficulties and finally wrote a fellow by the name of Andrei Visninsky up in Park Avenue. There was no answer. Probably bashful Andrei wouldn't say such a thing. Huh! Censors Hit 'French Cine 9 State censor boards of New York, Pennsylvania and Kansas have rejected RKO Pictures’ “French Line” in its present form, it was learned this week. Also the Memphis and Shelby County board banned it. The state censors, it was reported, all registered objection to the Jane Russell dance number in the last reel, the same of objection which formed the basis of a Production Code seal denial fur the picture and its condemnation by the National Legion of Decency. RKO Pictures was informed of New York State’s disapproval Monday. An RKO spokesman in New York stated that he did not know whether the company would make the requested cuts in the light of the objections voiced by the censor boards of the three states. Instructions were being awaited from the studio. The controversial film, which caused the imposition of a $25,000 fine by the Motion Picture Association of America against the company, has been approved for exhibition in the cities of Chicago and Portland, Ore., the RKO spokesman said. State censor boards in Maryland, Ohio and Virginia still have to act on the film, in addition to boards of Boston, Detroit and Atlanta. The rough treatment accorded to the film by state censors came in the wake of the rejection by the Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency, which found the revisions made by RKO Pictures unsatisfactory. A Motion Picture Association of America spokesman said Monday that RKO Pictures as yet had not appealed the imposition of the $25,000 fine, a penalty required by MPAA regulations to be imposed against an MPAA member company which distributes a film without a seal. Name Eric Johnston Envoy To Brazil Film Festival Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, has been named official United States representative at the Brazilian International Film Festival, according to an announcement by Theodore C. Streibert, director of the U. S. Information Agency. The festival opens in Sao Paulo February 12. Mr. Streibert said that Alan Fisher, the agency’s film officer in Sao Paulo has been designated alternate U. S. representative. A large, unofficial industry delegation will accompany Mr. Johnston. The U. S. will enter six government-made documentaries and five commercial films. Premiere for "Sunday" Noel Meadow’s “Sunday by the Sea,” a two-reel subject that recently was awarded the Grand Prize for the best short film at the Venice Film Festival, had its American premiere in New York last Thursday at the Trans-Lux 60th Street, on the same program with “The Holly and the Ivy.” 18 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, FEBRUARY 6, 1954