Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1954)

The tflcthn Picture UaA Truly Cette ctf flge NEW dimensions and new techniques have lifted the motion picture right out of the ancient “picture show” category and placed it in THEATRE where it properly belongs. Now if we can provide material equal to our opportunity, we have won the battle against competition from television and other amusement forms that have encroached upon our territorial rights. We’ve seen “Knights of the Round Table” at the Radio City Music Hall — and it’s wonderful. It’s beyond expectations, it’s equal in size and scope to the theatre itself, which is high praise. So smoothly is it done — the title opens on the regular size screen, as it used to be — and then silently, without fanfare, it opens to the full width of the Music Hall stage, and takes its place with major theatrical achievement. It’s breathtaking, and you want to stand up and cheer, especially if you’re in this business. We’ve seen “King of the Khyber Rifles” at the Rivoli — and it’s beautiful to behold. The scope and color are beyond words. You’ve never seen such a marvelous setting for an exciting story. It fills the theatre, it fills the eye, it fills the imagination. And we’ve seen Warner’s new picture in CinemaScope, “The Command” at the Paramount. The New York critics praised it as having the greatest “scope” of any super-western they’ve ever seen. Never have the Indians been so surrounded by the United States Cavalry in the nick of time, in such magnificent style. We’ve opened a door that will create new screen epics for new audiences. Never again will television have anything that we can't meet and overcome. Now, our greatest problem will be to maintain quality in these new dimensions, while we also attain quantity. Let’s say that our experience with 3-D was “educational” — we learned a lesson. And small theatres, operated by showmen, will profit and prosper with new techniques. They say that Leo Jones, indefatigable indignant exhibitor in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, increased his business 545 per cent with “The Robe.” Leo is again a leader. NEW AND DIFFERENT? We haven't seen Paramount's new picture, "Red Garters" but we are interested in a fine review of the picture, written by John Rosenfield, film critic for the Dallas Morning News. He says: "Every now and then we get stratospherically high on a motion picture" and suggests that "managers keep the average film goer out of the theatre, and limit the audience to weary sophisticates who* brag that it's been three years since they happened into a neighborhood playhouse to suffer a cinema." Th ere's a lot of high praise in his review, with the promise of something new and different. Under the caption, "How Red Is My Garter?" he comments on unusual color, and we know that the Society of Illustrators, in New York, were invited to see the film at the Museum of Modern Art, because of its "emotional" color treatment. He says, "It is neither 3-D nor wide screen, but is actually a standard picture that sets a new standard." The film has had a saturation premiere in Texas, where things of broad scope and new horizons are really appreciated. It opened in Austin, a frontier town where horses keep you awake nights with their clop-clop-clop on paved streets. We have fond memories of Austin, with its O. Henry traditions, legendary State Capitol, and the University of Texas, a forty-story skyscraper towering over the landscape. €J AETNA CASLTALTY and Surety Company, of Hartford, Conn., has a new film, recently shown to the trade in New York, which can be obtained for theatre showings, cost-free, if used with the cooperation of local safety organizations. The title is “Look Who’s Driving” — and it is the story of Charlie Younghead, who learned the folly of being a child at the wheel. The film is available in 16-millimeter for schools, or in 35-millimeter, for showings in theatres. CLAUDE EZELL, president of the International Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, asks all distributors to make available three kinds of composite mats for each picture released. Mr. Ezell wants one similar to the presently successful “economy” mat that has two publicity mats, six ad mats in one and two-column width and slugs. And then he wants two other kinds, inclusive of other pressbook mats, at three prices, 25c, 35c and 50c. He is quoted as saying that drive-in theatres do more advertising and obtain a greater amount of free space when they use composite mats as offered “by a few distributors on some pictures.” As a matter of fact, MGM originated the 35c economy mat for small situations, and this has been adopted as policy by most of the distributors on a majority of pictures. We’ve been plugging for it in “Selling Approach” these many months, and it is building up substantially as an incentive along exactly the lines Mr. Ezell says. But please, don’t upset the applecart. Don’t ask for three variations that are not available, and destroy the good and valuable contribution to showmanship that is currently standardized in pressbook practice. C| BOB WILE, in the Ohio Bulletin, says “The value of stereophonic sound is questionable, as can be seen from the ads in the New York papers for ‘Knights of the Round Table’ at the Radio City Music Hall. They make no mention of stereophonic sound in the largest theatre in the world. Certainly if the management believed that it enhanced the presentation of the picture, or if they felt it would provide an incentive to attendance, it would have been mentioned.” Actually, the Music Hall has had stereophonic sound for years. It was built in, when the theatre was erected. There are batteries of speakers, in all sorts of locations, throughout the theatre, and since it is nothing new in a Music Hall presentation, it wasn’t specifically advertised. — Walter Brooks MANAGERS' ROUND TABLE SECTION, FEBRUARY 6, 1954 37