Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

Universal to Release 12 in Four Months . . . Feldman announces list at executive sales conference at studio; to offer 33 films in full year, meeting is advised HOLLYWOOD: Universal Pictures will release 12 pictures during the first four months of 1957, representing the strongest group of box office attractions ever assembled by the company, Charles J. Feldman, vice-president and general sales manager, announced this week at the opening sessions of Universal’s sales executive conference, held this week here. Seven in Color Of these 12 pictures, seven are in color and seven are in CinemaScope with the company’s first black-and-white CinemaScope production scheduled for release in April. Mr. Feldman said that a total of 33 pictures would be released during 1957 and that the first four months period “will make manifest what the continued growth of our company during these recent years means in terms of our customers’ business.” The schedule for the first four months is as follows: “Written on the Wind,” Technicolor, starring Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone. January. “Four Girls in Town,” CinemaScope, Technicolor, starring George Nader and Julie Adams. January. “Rock, Pretty Baby,” with Sal Mineo, John Saxon and Luana Patten. January “The Great Man,” starring Jose Ferrer, Dean Jagger and Keenan Wynn. February. “Istanbul,” CinemaScope, Technicolor, starring Errol Flynn and Cornell Borchers. February. “The Night Runner,” with Ray Danton and Colleen Miller. February. “Battle Hymn,” CinemaScope, Technicolor, based on the life of Col. Dean E. Hess, starring Rock Hudson, Martha Hyer and Dan Duryea. March. “Gun for a Coward,” CinemaScope, Eastman Color, starring Fred MacMurray, Jeff Hunter and Janice Rule. March. “Mister Cory,” CinemaScope, Eastman Color, with Tony Curtis and Martha Hyer. March. “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” starring Grant Williams and Randy Stuart. April. “Kelly and Me,” CinemaScope, Technicolor, starring Van Johnson, Piper Laurie and Martha Hyer. April. “The Tattered Dress,” CinemaScope, starring Jeff Chandler, Jeanne Crain and Jack Carson. April. Edward Muhl, vice-president in charge of production, announced during the meeting that the diversified number of story properties in various stages of preparation will enable studio executives to put into production a well-rounded program of pictures designed to appeal to all types of audiences. Augmenting the story properties, the company will emphasize name personalities for its 1957 program, twothirds of which will be filmed in CinemaScope or color or both, it was announced. Among the properties in preparation are several biographies including “Ataturk,” “Boj angles,” “The Col. Everest Story,” “The Charles Russell Story,” “The Man Who Rocked the Boat,” story of William J. Keating, former district attorney in New York, and “The Way Back,” story of Audie Murphy’s readjustment to civilian life. Novels and plays on the schedule are William Faulkner’s “Pylon,” Erich Maria Remarque’s “A Time to Love and a Time to Die,” F. Hugh Herbert’s “For Love or Money,” Robert Wilder’s “Ride a Tiger,” Eugene O’Neill’s “Emperor Jones,” “Song of Norway,” and many others. Universal will mark the beginning of its 45th anniversary year in 1957 with its “Seventh Annual Charles J. Feldman Drive,” starting December 30, 1956, and running for 18 weeks to May 4, 1957, it was announced by Alfred E. Daff, executive vice-president, at the conference. Aware of Responsibility Mr. Daff said, “We at Universal are keenly aware of our responsibilities to our exhibitor customers from coast to coast to provide them with a steady flow of top box office pictures which can be translated into important grosses. Everything will be done to help our exhibitor customers meet the challenge of the competing media for the entertainment dollar, and special efforts will be made to achieve the maximum potential audience available to each release offered in the coming year. “We have a mutual stake in the future of our great industry and we recognize our part of the responsibility in providing the continuous flow of popular product that attracts the regular moviegoer as well as appeals to the great potential audience. The product offered in the seventh annual Feldman Drive and the campaign plans developed to sell these pictures to the mass movie going audience will serve as a great demonstration of the great faith that the entire Universal Pictures organization had in the future of our great motion picture industry.” In the forthcoming sales drive, more than $50,000 will be distributed to the company’s division, district, branch and office managers, salesmen and bookers for the best billing results achieved during the drive period, it was announced. In addition to the overall prize money, the branch managers will vie for 18 different “Man of the Week” awards in the form of special gifts and prizes. Stel lings Is " Enthusiastic " About Talks Ernest G. Stellings, TOA president, who recently completed conferences with the presidents and general sales managers of most of the distribution companies, this week expressed himself as “enthusiastic about their willingness to cooperate” in the fulfillment of those aims which Mr. Stellings announced at his election. Mr. Stellings said: “I found that they are as concerned with the troubled state of distributor-exhibitor relations and general industry problems as we exhibitors are, and that they are willing to do more than their share to improve those conditions.” He added: “I conveyed to the people with whom I talked that TOA is willing to dedicate itself completely to industry efforts aimed at promoting the selling of more tickets at our box office and that we will aid in any sound way to accomplish that objective. We are appreciative of this opportunity to bring our thoughts to the company heads and general sales managers, and we shall follow up these conferences with what we feel are good, constructive and definite industry programs. “We of TOA greet with enthusiasm the resolution we have read in the trade press, adopted at the National Allied Convention in Dallas, that Allied is to take proper and necessary steps in cooperating with TOA to initiate negotiations with the film companies looking to the establishment of an arbitration system in the motion picture industry.” Mr. Stellings was referring to the recommendations contained in the reports of the Senate Select Committee on Small Business dated August 2, 1953, and July 27, 1956. This parallels the action taken by the TOA board and by the general body at its last convention. Mr. Stellings described these as “statesmanlike moves aimed at bettering industry conditions by way of affording to all exhibitors the benefits of a sound system of conciliation, and, where conciliation failed, an easily available tribunal where all exhibitors may air their grievances and have them adjudicated in an effective, speedy and inexpensive manner.” 18 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER 8, 1956