Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1954)

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII by WILLIAM R. WEAVER Hollywood Editor LAST WEEK one of the best kept pacts among press, producer and exhibitor in the whole history of this business sustained a small rip that could widen into a tear, ultimately a split, if no attention were paid to it. Rips are like that. Everybody knows this. The pact referred to was made about 15 years ago, between the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America, representing Exhibition, and the Association of Motion Picture Producers, representing Production and Distribution. Press Not Signatory to Pact, and Needn't Be The press was not signatory to the pact, but it didn’t need to be. And it was so pleased about the whole thing that it has abided by the agreement, with extremely rare exceptions, all this happy while. Last week’s small rip was one of the exceptions. A pact of this kind had become a necessity by reason of an extended series of events, resulting from an unhappy juxtaposition of hotly competitive columnists and short-sighted publicits, which needn’t be stated in full to clarify the then situation. That perhaps may be described best in terms of, say, Exhibitor Smith of the Smith theatre in Memphis, Tenn., (and pardon, suh, if there really is an Exhibitor Smith there) . Well, in those days Exhibitor Smith would have “Susan Slipped Here” (gag) coming in first run, for his Labor Day attraction but his patrons were a cinch to charge him, as always, with running old stuff. They’d have read one syndicated columnist’s opinion June 15 that it was a great picture, and another’s June 20 that it wasn’t much, while still others would have had other things to say about it — good, bad, indiscriminate— all the way from the Ides of March to Independence Day. Local Press JLos Still To Be Heard From There was still the local press to be heard from, as if everybody in town hadn’t already tired of reading about the picture, but there was no chance whatever of Exhibitor Smith convincing his folks that he actually had brought them in a first run picture and wasn’t palming off some ancient product that the syndicated columnists (now talking about other pictures that wouldn’t be released for another half-year) had forgotten all about months ago. This was bad for everybody. Exhibitors were getting hurt at the box office. That meant distributors were going to get less revenue from exhibitors, producers would get less from distributors, and so on, relentlessly. And it was bad for columnists, too. They were getting flat feet from dashing around Southern California in quest of exclusive first glimpses of “sneak-previewed” pictures. Set Up a Simple and Workable Procedure So, to make it easy on everbody, the MPTOA, convening in Los Angeles that year, came up with a completely common sense resolution, and the AMPP, followed tacitly by all the other producer bodies, set up a simple procedure whereby lay press representatives invited to witness previews are reminded (in a neat little program notation on all invitations) that the picture to be previewed is not to be reviewed (otherwise than m trade papers) prior to its local opening in each city. This extremely simple, sensible and orderly agreement has been observed in spirit and in letter for so long now that sometimes people, especially new people, forget it’s there and how it got there. Last week, for instance, a young press agent who says he never heard what the standing rule was based on ripped the pact a little. The picture reviewed out of season by at least three lay-press guests at a sneak preview is “Knock on Wood,” a Dena Productions production for Paramount release, and the young publicist who didn’t know it was loaded is Robert McElwaine, earnest and able son of just about the best all-around publicity man in Hollywood. Bob’s a little big for Papa Don to take over the paternal knee, but not too big to listen. It was, as stated, a small rip, but it could widen into a tear, a rent, a split — by repetition and emulation into a total breaching of one of the best kept pacts between press, producer and exhibitor in the whole history of this business. The title again, appropriately, is “Knock on Wood.” THE STUDIOS started four new pictures last week, and completed shooting on one other, which wound up the period with an over-all total of 20 in shooting stage. The standout among the new undertakings is “Strategic Air Command,” which Samuel J. Briskin, who hasn’t personally produced a picture m a good while, started for Paramount. It’s going in VistaVision, of course, as all Paramount pictures are to go from now on, and in color by Technicolor. James Stewart and June Allyson, the incomparable Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Miller of the incomparable “Glenn Miller Story,” head the THIS WEEK IN PRODUCTION: STARTED (4) A. A. Sons of the Navy COLUMBIA Black Dakotas (Technicolor) COMPLETED (I) PARAMOUNT Strategic Air Command (VistaVision; Technicolor) U-l Nevada Gold (Technicolor) A. A. Desperado SHOOTING (20) A. A. Bowery Boys Meet the Monster COLUMBIA Long Gray Line ( CinemaScope; Technicolor) Joseph and His Brethren (CinemaScope; Technicolor) Three for the Show (CinemaScope; Technicolor) I Was a Prisoner in Korea INDEPENDENT Snow Creature (W. Lee Wilder) PARAMOUNT Big Top (Wallis; VistaVision ; Technicolor) Mambo (Ponti-De Laurentis) Country Girl RKO 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Disney; CinemaScope; Technicolor) 20TH-FOX Broken Lance (CinemaScope; Technicolor) Egyptian ( CinemaScope; Technicolor) U. A. Vera Cruz ( Hecht-Lancaster; Technicolor) Sitting Bull (Frank; CinemaScope; color) White Orchid (Cosmos; Eastman color) Barefoot Contessa (Figaro; Technicolor) U-l Francis Joins the Wacs Tight Squeeze Bengal Rifles (Technicolor) WARNER Battle Cry (CinemaScope; WarnerColor) iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiimiimiiiiiiiiii Briskin cast, and Anthony Mann, the distinguished director of the Miller biography, is directing. Anybody want more assurance? Frank Lovejoy, Barry Sullivan, Bruce Bennett and Jay C. Flippen are also in it. Technicolor is being employed, also, by Columbia’s Wallace MacDonald for his “The Black Dakotas,” which Ray Nazarro is directing. Gary Merrill, Wanda Hendrix, John Bromfield, Noah Beery, Jr., Richard Webb, Clayton Moore are in the cast. Neville Brand, the newcomer who led the riot in the successful “Riot in Cell Block 11,” is before the cameras again, this time in “Sons of the Navy,” which Scott R. Dunlap is producing, and Lesley Selander is directing, for Allied Artists. Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Paul Langton and Walter Reed are others in the cast. Ross Hunter launched “Nevada Gold” — third of the week’s starters going in color by Technicolor — for Universal-International, with Jesse Hibbs directing Lex Barker, Mala Powers, Howard Duff, William Demarest and John McIntyre. 28 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 27, 1954