Variety (April 1961)

Europe Yawns; Tunepix Off As the world grows smaller and+ FRANCE Wednesday, April 26, 1961 the international ‘market looms larger to U. S. motion picture makers, Americans are singing and dancing with increasing infre-| quency, at Jeast on film. A current survey shows only two . film musicals on tap for release this year—Warner Bros.' “Fanny” and United Artists’ "West Side Story.” If vou add 20th-Fox's 70in reissue of “The King and I,” this mukes a grand total of three songand-daneers detiniteiy set for 1961. Significantly too, these are all | adaptations of successful Broadway : sliuws. as were both of last year's! musical releases, 20th’s “Can-Can" and Metro's “Bells Are Ringing.” : Not since Metro's “Gigi £1958), Las a mejor company gone out on the limb tor an original musical ; property. “Gigi.” of course, pointed ; a rather bitter moral: despite ecstatic reviews and a carload of; Academy Awards, the picture: earned Jess than $4,000.000 in the domestic market. Must Click Domestically And if a musical doesn't strike jt rich in the domestic and EngJish-speaking marxets, it's highly unlikely to strike it rich in the other territories. The one exception to this rule has been Samuel Goldvyn’s screen adaptation of “Porgy and Bess,” which reportedly is doing a great deal better abroad than it did at home. But, then, “Porgy” is more of an. opera than a musical comedy or musical drama. ° Upcoming slate of musical fare— all legit adaptations, plus one remake —include the now-shooting Color. & Wide Screen Paris. . Color in French films was Jessened in 1960 but the use of widescreen processes went up. Six films were made in color to the 12 of '59 and °58., Six were done in scope and color to the six and seven of 59 and ’58, while .12 were made in black and white and scope over the two in "59 and the five in ‘58. This came to 12 pix in color for "60 to the 18 and 19 of previous years, with 18 pix in scape to the eight and 12 of the last two seasons. “even 1963. ners’ “Music Man,” 20th’s “The Sound of Music” and UA’s “Irma La Douce.” Jerry Wald also has tentative plans to produce “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” though substituting a new. score for the one featured in the original. Broadway tend: well into 1962 and maybe: Clearly the good old days of original screen: musicals—“An American in Paris,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Hans Christian Andersen,” etc. —are gone, principally because of the economics of the world market, but perhaps also .because of. our. penchant for the show. These releases would ex-| As to ‘the Belgians: Brussels, . Belgium is not a big producing country but it is-notably. a film-consuming market. The United.States accounts for 41°O of some. 450 films. reachjng. the kingdom annually, France is the second biggest sur plier. Negatives both French and Flemish. By international agreenrent about 80°¢. of: the prints for exhibition in Belgium’. are processed in Belgian. Jabora tories.. : : ‘ —— SE * eel are. ‘dubbed. in * Universal kind of musical in which songs ‘and dances are so. closely integrated inta the plot. A generally accepted rule-ofthunib taday is that approximately 51 or 52°¢ of-the total gross of a ; U. S. film comes from abroad. Of that. 51 or 52°, between 15 and 30°C is earned in English-speaking ——————— a emma 2" ne “Flower Drum Song’ and Disney “Babes in Toyland.”. along vith such projects as WB's; “Gypsy,” 20th's “State: Fair” ovith | ‘the original Rodgers & Hammer, Stein screen score supplemented by. a couple of new numbers), War Fra rance’s Fi im Dimensions Following data covers film season, 1960-61: Production: 124 French or French-majority. participation coproductions, plus 41 with French-minority participation. — Process: 9°¢ in color; 15% in widescreen. Investment: Total outlay, $15,950,000. General cost, $202. 000 ‘for all-French films, $290.000 for co-productions. Releases in France: Total 398 features. France, 104; 29 coproduction with minor Frénch participation; 215 dubbed imports .of which 99 from U. S., 37 from West Germany, 35 from Britain, 25 from Italy 154°C from Common Market countries). Theatres: France has 5,830 hardtop film theatres; of which 1, 289 are in communities of 100.000 or more: Average admission price: 40c. ; . Attendance: 344,600,000 for gross of $124,487,000. . Export: At least $15.500,000 was collected by French films. West Germany was leading market with $1,700,000. Belgium. ran second with $1,420,000. Switzerland took $802, 000 in French films. Paris. Story? territories abroad. Thus the musi cal film has a market potential of: about 60 to 65 of the 100°C enjoyed by the more easily dubbed and subtitled adventures, comedies ‘and dramas. While U. S. screen musicals can be smashes Pacific” is one of the biggest things ever to hit Britain), they invariably suffer in such important markets as France, Italy and Germany, where the films must be dubbed. for general release. do we dub?” Just the dialog? -But what about the. songs, when they are an integral part of the The dubbed dialog-titled song compromise is usually unhappy for all concerned. When “The. King and I” went out in’ France, problem was solved simply by cutting out most -of the song numbers. Had “The King and I” been a more old-fashioned, Jess “integrated” musical, the result might | not have been the heresy it cer-: ‘tainly was. Considering the usually vast expense and the ‘proportionately in English-speaking. areas (the Magna-20th-Fox “South. ( The. ‘perennial question which. the distribs ask themselves 1s “How much. greater. ‘difficulty: in making a good screen musical, Hollywood's inclination to ga along: with the J presold Broadway property . is un‘derstandable. However, as. has been proven: several times in the’ -| past, a Broadway hit musical, by the time it reaches the motion picture theatre, may not only be pre | sold, but oversold, so that its. score ‘is old hat to the public. Neverthe-_ less, the bigger the Broadway hit, | the bigger the price the film. com panies: are “willing | to pay. for the | rights. _ Small ¢e of Music , While the majors haye been generally eschewing musical fare, they have, at the same times been turning out a steady number of comedies-with-music (and sometimes dramas), wherein the music, usually a quite small pr oportion of the total footage, has heen quite incidental ‘and easily clipable). ; Such were “Say One for Me” and “High Time,” two recent . Bing ‘Crosby starrers, and the’ Marilyn Monroe-Yves Montand “Let's Make Love.” This is the era when the. greatest musical performers Holly= wood has ‘to offer—Crosby, Doris Day, Elvis Presley—do just: about everything but what comes naturally, Ironically enough, though. the: screen musical is at the lowest ebb. inHollywood history, filmmakers: are using’ music more and more throughly in promotion of films. Thus, while 20th-Fox casts ‘songand-dance man Montand as‘a bootlegger-rapist in “Sanctuary,” the same company promotes a straight naval epic, “Sink the Bismarck”. to boxoffice glory with a rollick ing title tune recorded by the late Johnny Horton. Even a pic like American Intere. national’s horror film, “‘Black Suns -day,” has its own soundtrack al-. bum. ‘There's a lot. of -film music In the air, even if there aren’t many musicals. PRINCIPAL EUROPEAN STUDIO CEN L RES OSLO @ NY COPENHAGEN ¢ @L” HAMBURG . LONDON PRAGUE ey e “@ PARIS ® STOCKHOLM HELSINKI BERLIN WARSAW e. ® “eo BUDAPEST @ ZAGREB ATHENS ¢ MOSCOW Br