Motion Picture Herald (1954)

iiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiimimiimi j s. cene by WILLIAM R. WEAVER Hollywood Editor AT THE CLOSE of a week in which the dominant topic of discussion and demonstration during the five-day 76th semi-annual convention of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers was color television, and in the wake of a Sunday dominated, entertainment-wise, by a two-hour all-network telecast that bracketed snugly the go-to-the-movies time in standard family schedules, it’s appropriate to ask some informed and experienced observer of the cinematic scene whether the motion picture theatre is in danger of losing its recently re-won place in the box office sun. So you turn to a man who has coped conspicuously well with similar situations of threat, and you get informed answers. The man is Merian C. Cooper. TFas Honored at Academy Awards Ceremonies In its 1952 ceremonies the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid its well considered respects to Merian C. Cooper in the form of a statuette (Oscar, to the profession) inscribed “For his many innovations and contributions to the art of motion pictures.” The Cooper innovations over the decades of the producer-director’s association with the motion picture are numerous and noted (the combining of human players and mechanical make-believes in “King Kong,” the pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as the first stellar dance team on the screen, the post-war revival of the Cavalry-Indians type Western that’s still paying off) but the Cooper innovation of greatest impact on this industry and art is entitled “This Is Cinerama.” From this one, it can be said without reasonable contradiction, all other extra-dimensional processes and systems flow. You tell yourself that a man who flew to New York every Friday night and back to Hollywood every Monday morning for 26 consecutive weeks while fashioning “This Is Cinerama” back there and making another picture here with his long-time associate and Argosy Pictures partner, John Ford, would have firm ideas about the probable effect of color television on an industry only recently convalesced from the effect oi black-and-white television. Touched Off Major Return Of Folks to Theatre You reflect that it was his “This Is Cinerama” that touched off the return of the stayers-away to the theatre to see what this new medium might be, and you are emboldened to hope you may find him at work even now on another implement of defense against the inroads of color TV on today’s business. You turn out to be right on the first count, and possibly on the second. Mr. Cooper believes the impact of color television on the motion picture theatre box office will be severely felt. But he believes it will not be a knockout blow by any means. He expects the installation rate of color receivers to be much slower than was the installation rate of black-and-white sets, because of both the high price and the reluctance of consumers to relinquish old sets in which considerable investment is unrecouped. He reminds, out of an experience that goes back to the beginnings of screen color that the motion picture itself was a good while in accustoming its public to the luxury and the benefit of color on the screen. Has Three Scripts Well On Way in Preparation When you ask him if he has “a secret weapon” up his sleeve with which to combat the counter-attraction of color TV in the home, he says flatly no, but that isn’t the end of his answer. He confides that he is well into the preparing of three scripts which he intends to produce, when he has them ready, in one or another of the extradimensional screen processes. He cites in illuminating detail the advantages of the expanded areas, to the producer, writer, director, cinematographer, the players and all the rest, and in the citing of these he allows his listener to conclude that he thinks the same thing that rewon the public from its black-and-white TV sets — the size, the splendor, the expanse, together with the bigger, stronger, richer, firmer subject matter demanded by the expanded areas — will prove equally formidable, in the long run, against the best that color TV can send. FIVE PICTURES were started during the week, and one other production was finished, bringing the over-all shooting total to a healthy 36. MGM started two. “The Scarlet Coat,” CinemaScope and color, is being produced in New York by Nicholas Nayfack and directed by John Sturges, with Cornel Wilde, Michael Wilding, Anne Francis and George Sanders. “The Marauders,” a widescreen film in color, is being produced by Arthur Loew, Jr., and directed by Gerald Mayer, with Dan Duryea, Jeff Richards, Jarma Lewis and Keenan Wynn. “Seven Bad Men” is a Nat Holt production in SuperScope and color by Technicolor for RKO release. Tim Whelan is directing the cast composed of Randolph Scott, Mai Powers, Forrest Tucker, Edgar Buchanan and J. Carrol Naish. “Shock” went into production in London, with Brian Donlevy, Margia Dean and Jack Warner heading the cast directed by Val Guest. Michael Carreras and Anthony Hinds are co-producers. The picture is for Lippert release. THIS WEEK IN PRODUCTION: STARTED (5) ALLIED ARTISTS High Society LIPPERT Shock (Exclusive Prod.) MGM The Marauders (Color) COMPLETED (I) allied artists The Black Prince ( CinemaScope; Technicolor) SHOOTING (31) COLUMBIA The Man from Laramie (William Goetz; CinemScope; Technicolor) My Sister Eileen (CinemaScope; Technicolor) INDEPENDENT Oklahoma (R & H; Todd-Ao; CinemaScope; Eastman) LIPPERT Air Strike (Cy Roth) MGM It's Always Fair Weather (CinemaScope; Color) Interrupted Melody (CinemaScope; Color) Hit the Deck (CinemaScope; Eastman) Boulevard in Paris ( CinemaScope; Technicolor) PARAMOUNT You're Never Too Young ( VistaVision; ( VistaVision) The Desperate Hours (VistaVision) The Ten Commandments (VistaVision; Technicolor) The Trouble With Harry (VistaVision; Technicolor) REPUBLIC The Admiral Hoskins Story Santa Fe Passage (Trucolor) Magic Fire (Trucolor) The Scarlet Coat (CinemaScope, Color) . RKO RADIO Seven Bad Men (Nat Holt, Superscope, Technicolor) RKO RADIO Bow Tamely to Me (Filmcrest; SuperScope; Technicolor) 20TH-FOX A Man Called Peter (CinemaScope; Color) The Seven-Year Itch (CinemaScope; Color) UNITED ARTISTS Big House, U.S.A. ( Bel-Air) Not as a Stranger (Stanley Kramer) Gentlemen Marry Brunettes ( Russfield-Voyager; CinemaScope; Technicolor) The Kentuckian ( Hecht-Lancaster Prods.; CinemaScope; Technicolor) U-l The Purple Mask (CinemaScope; Technicolor) The Shrike To Hell and Back (CinemScope; Technicolor) WARNER BROS. Target Zero Jump Into Hell The Sea Chase (CinemaScope; WarnerColor) Mister Roberts (CinemaScope; WarnerColor) Moby Dick (CinemaScope; Technicolor Strange Lady in Town (CinemaScope; WarnerColor) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH “High Society” is another in the Bowery Boys series for Allied Artists, with Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall accompanied, this time, by Amanda Blake on the distaff side. Ben Schwalb is producing, with William Beaudine directing. 24 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 30, 1954