Variety (November 1963)

production costs and reluctance of}. ~a term ty deal. with Kellogg,. the | ‘for ‘this theatrical ‘production. -Hej| Irs “THE : FINEST HOURS! | so But ‘Not Certain If Churchill. Pie oes, Ts “Quota” “London, “Nov. 26. Tf} | Vien. Films,: is to: be: called: “The _ Biggest ingle . factor 4a. the “ — dropoft in theatrical: ‘cartoon: pro-} ducticn. in: recent years is. econom-| : | Mex Laurels is ‘Mockingbird? , -bearing down: from all sides °. “Mexico City, Noy. 26. ..| but: a-decision’ was deferred: until ; & the’ i en This according to} ’. ; Universal's "To. he bh A | next, ‘Februaty. 2002. Walter Lantz, the: last remaining. “Moek(ngbird pas een ‘Quota. Act: limits: the. amiourit of} indie animator, ‘who says that the|. awarde the’ Onix trophy: for’ | 4963 as the: best. foreign: pie-.pressure: is both. from. spiraling}. ture of the year at’ ceremonies ~ | at. .the’ /Maria . ‘Isabella’ Hotel. exhibs. to. give screen time “any: here. ‘Trophy is given annually more... oy > “by ‘the Instituto .de. Cultura ‘Diversification, therefore, is the = vy ne nance. of.. the. Uni-. 5 key fo the success of a cartoon wersidad... Iberoamericano: .as © Vancouver Fest : Pleture, producer today, he says. Lantz has part of its. program to -stimu.Jate:the best. in, filmmaking food ‘company, .and ,also has ‘a pubboth .at home: and’ ‘abroad:. lishing deal with Western Publish-|° “Award was. accepted by ‘ing for. comic book and: other | Ci wa ‘Aboaf, “Universal's géen— publications: like. coloring... books} ~ esar for. Mexito.. Pic and such, These things, in addi-}, eral maser Variedades. the: tion to residuals from repeat: aie here. for. the: Christmas 7 showings: on tv of old Lantz shows,| _ holidays...“ "» make possible his... production. Of | _ a 19 theatrical cartoons a-year.. Lantz. has a pact with Universal | i] RACKMILABAOE nN By. SAM. SHAW . . Vancouver, ‘Nov. 26... “'Three-man. panel of. judges for | the ‘sixth ‘Vancouver : Internati nal | Canadian “Film “ime has been making 19 pix a year for} {joins film-maker ‘Geo U for the past three years, ‘actually: EUROPEAN ST PAM stone, Englert ‘ an increasé.over the 13 he used to} Universal -Pictures:. ‘prez Milton ‘SOL: -of ne ae make each year. He works:far in!'R. Rackmil and veep-foreign gen-: ‘ington. in’ Seattle, advance, however, now a. full year eral manager Americd Aboaf-leave: ahead of his .releaseschedule. He} New York: this. week for Europe. stays in’ front because one of the! and’. their usual annual.’ series. of most damaging ‘factors. in today’s| sales’ conferences on the. continent. theatrical cartoon: biz, he feels,. is| with ‘key. company reps: and overthat it ‘takes about, five years ‘to -seas. distribs.: recoup an investment: on such @) | Execs will préside at. four meetfilm, mo -ings,. ‘the first | ‘of: which will be This factor. ‘alone ‘ makes* it held in Paris Dec. 2. and will be. virtually ‘impossible for an “indie followed: by similar ‘Sessions. in. to enter the field ‘today. His ‘in-| Berlin, Rome ‘and Barcelona. In vestment -the first year wouldn’t addition ° to: the’ ‘European. m™man-. be returned for the. next five an fagers, reps from the Near East he would, in effect, be operating | : “participate in “the meetings. |. at a defecit for his first’ four| Ben’ M: -Cohn,_ assistant. foreign | years,.-a. virtually impossible situa-! manager, headquartering in N.Y., tion. Besides’ rene oo ty Says -that{ also will go abroad. for. the: ‘meet: it costs about $40,000 to make one: ings. a . cartoon and after prints:and other|The Rackmil-Aboaf team ‘will be nities conntise Other, interning expenses, the one item has in-| foliow-up-the European meets. with : volved an invesiment of $85,000 or! » Latin American sales conference ve (Continued: on, page. 8) in January: me -mid-30s° and will constitute: the gins: ploughing through 50 or of the. documentaries, short and animated: ‘subjects culled the 146.entries: twenty ‘countries. . cal representation | judging, .. followed ' vokia,.Poland, Japan, Great Britain in line for Germany, Yugoslavia,. | Portugal, Hungary: and Canada, from. the Republic of Korea, the Grand. Duchy of Luxembourg and <i the Principality of Liechtenstein. deals wee | Korean entry, “Nirvana,” some |with Buddhism:: Luxembourg sub Se | mitted “Kutter, i on paintings by artist of that name, ‘and Liechsten. film’s film, ..in that country” Ret (.. Jenem. Land), covers wood = icarvings’ by: sculptor. Schaedier. ‘Entries which have ‘earned prizes at other festivals prior to Van : |*Snow,” gold medal winner at ‘lands’ “Portrait of Frans Hals,” 7 ended ‘San Francisco festival; -| Japanese “Human Zoo,” _}lovakian “Town ‘in’ Mud,” . grand | prize. winner. at Venice | merit ‘at Edinburgh. =. Venice festival. With unpreceden| | ted and. embarrassing deluge of 24 | features from which to program 17 showings, majority will be un |) gory are. “Les | Abysses” |“Angel’s Bay” (France), coming The. host things i in air travel are on TWA Sparkling: wine, a connoisseur’ S menu, and ; a-fine first-run. movie. What. more could ' you ask for when you're going places? You get them all... at no extra: charge . ...when you're a TWA First Class Royal ” “Ambassador. In fact, ‘only. TWA treats ‘you so roy-:. ~ ally Of nonstop coast-to-coast and. overseas ‘flights to ten of Europe’s favorite ‘cities. Live-it up'next” time you travel. Call your travel Agent or.Trans “World Airlines. : (Norway), “Thre Days After Im“mortality” “ Russia), “Aarti” -| dia) and: Jerome Hill’s new US. _} See. All The People.” °: coming from Montreal for the run ‘lof the Vancouver festival. He will attivities pegged around staging of arrivals. oe fee ba lee .. Winston’ Churchill. biopic, : ow ’ ‘being produced. in. Britain ‘by. Le} ’ Finest Hours.” It is still uncertain,. . | hewever; whether the film. will | | qualify: for -British Quota. An-ap-| plication ‘was. made. te ‘the. Board.{ | of: Trade Film Council-last. week: | J library footage. ‘permitted. ina film.} qualifying for a.-ticket, and the. -| normal ceiling is exceeded in tis 1 a producer-director.. ‘with the ‘National: Film: . Board of = Canada, | Montreal. All three are -in. their | youngest judging jury since the in-| ception of the. Vancouver fest in. 17958. Evaluation job starts to-] \ morrow : (Wed.). when the trio: be “fictional by ‘pre-screening committees. from [° submitted. by. -France has the Diggest numeri| -Czechosio} Russia, Denmark, the “Netherlands, | Rumania, | {with first-time entries received }iure on -underseas life and has. ‘explorer and author, looking to: ‘formally decided upon but doubt Rudolf | D -duction early next year and he is couver competition include. British =, ~~ ‘sphere diving vehicle for the lens| e Barcelona Film Congress; Nether| ‘Golden Gate’ best short-at recently: SS special. | ‘| award at Annecy Animated ‘festi| me ival; France’s “Egg in the Cup,” } best. first film at Annecy; Czechos ‘Inter| national Documentary. Mostra: and | -|-U.S.A.'s “The Winner,” diploma of | 1. Fest’ proper bégan Sunday, Nov. | (24 with. Canadian -premiere of] Rank. International. feature,: “Billy. Liar,” British entry. at this year’s | {reeled for first. time in Canada, |. with. half a dozen. getting. North ]. J American: debuts. In Jatter cate-. and | | direct. from Paris, “Wild Duck” | (Ine |. production; ‘Open ‘The Door And: Canadian. Broadcasting. Corp. |’ “guest critic will be Robert Russel, |: | be heard on CBC. radio daily from | Monday, . Nov. 25: through Friday, |" Nov. 29. Other’ out-of-towners ex| .'| pected for the fest include Nathan |. | Cohen, Toronto Star critic: James |. | Selvidge, Fine. Arts and. Guild}: ’, | Theatres,’ ‘Seattle; and Ernest Cal-|° “| Tenbach, : Film. “Quarterly editor, | San Franciseo* Fact that : festival runs concurrently : with: week-long ‘Canadianprofessional Grey Cup : grid: classic. Saturday, Nov. 30 may] ‘Valso account for some unexpected ot ee Wednesday, November 27; 1968 | What Now After UA’s Two ‘Showcases’ United Artists “Premiere Showcase” and the slightly-divergent secondary scheme of the “Golden Showcase” has drawn much trade press. .and other, attention. These bold enterprises seek to break old—and, to many, ossified—patterns of playoff in metro_politan New York. But a curious reticence has characterized the: “reaction to what United.Artists has done. Even UA chose to remain absent and silent when the recent ‘.N.Y. convention of Allied States Assn. set up a panel discussion ‘of the “Showcase” innovation with its implications of (a) shared ' firstrunning between downtown, the suburbs and the neighborhoods * and-(b) ‘combined: advertising. strategy and (c). generally upped admission scales. . ‘However ‘silent the film distributions, and/or the film. circuits, ~ have. been anent the UA projects, this seems a general truth: they have not. been. indifferent. Probably every New York operating | “group has pondered: participation in either the existing. arrange ments, or some proposed variations. ' As a semi-educated guess, 1964 will see some kind of crystaliza tion of reaction on metropolitan playoff, bearing in mind that New 2s York is. still the number one market of the United: States. Related to that fact: is the disproportion between foreign sales and domestic. rentals nowadays. As_the United States market itself loses. ground |. to foreign playoff, the need to do something, anything, to help ‘Long on Shorts | boxoffice becomes evident. | ‘Unitil-now all that many showmen are able to. conjure is the old solution— “let's raise the price of tickets.” | New Variation f or ‘Preem Showcase’ ‘Lilies. of Field’ Already Had Firstrun—Now to _ Follow “McLintock’ -+ “Lilies of the Field, ” Ralph Nel-. son feature starring Sidney’ Poitier, © | will spread from its firstrun. berth {at the Murray Hill Theatre Dec. 4 ‘and go onto United Artists’ “‘Pre “CAs | in n Nudes. The Legion: of Decency has C-rated (condemned) two. new film. imports, Kanawha Films’ Polish-made “Knife in the |miere Showcase” multiple theatre Water” ‘and Zenith Interna|release plan, playing the Astor on tional's British-made “Tiara | Broadway and possibly . remaining Tahiti.” " at the Murray Hill. _ Jn the case of each film, the . Legion notes that neither has ‘a Production Code seal and observes that because of nud ity, the pix are ‘unacceptable . for entertainment purposes.’ ” UNDERSEAS LOCALE © FOR CINERAMA FILM Nicolas Reisini, president of Cinerama, this week disclosed the company’s plans to produce a fea This is the first time UA “has used its “Premiere Showcase” for a | picture which has already played a firstrun engagement. It lends some confusion to the “showcase” debate which has persisted since UA be-:. gan the plan a year and a half ago. The company had specially. devised an alternate scheme called “Golden Showcase” for pix going into limited multiple. runs after playing firstrun engagements. This” has been used for ‘West. Side. Story,” “Irma. La Douce” and “The Great Escape.” “Lilies” follows “McLintock” into the Astor and onto the “showcase.” “McLintock” was released according to the original and op erative “showcase” formula, skipping an exclusive Broadway-eastside daydate engagement and open: ing “fipstrun” in a-number of thea tres in numeroys neighborhoods, This was the way the “Premiere Showcase” plan was originally de-vised, It remains an innovation in picture releasing. but 20th CenturyFox has picked up the idea in New York, first using. UA’s theatre plan when UA wasn’t using {t and most ‘recently coming up with one of its ‘own when “MeLintock” and “Take Her, She’s Mine” conflicted. entered into negotiations with Capt. Jacques Cousteau, oceanic. the latter's employment by C’rama. Cousteau’s role hasn’t yet been less he would serve as technical advisor at least. Reisini wants to start the pro-| titling it “The Conquest of the Seas.” Unusually wide-angle camera is to be placed in a bathy ing. Latter has caused some interest Europe to U. s. : Jing newspaper advertising, the -Franz Allers same “Premiere Showcase” symbol Gil Cates being used on both Fox and UA Emile Littler jads but with ‘20th Century Fox’s” Norma Parnell or “United Artists’” appearing over Oedoen Partos the appropriate logo. It raises a Andrew Stone question which has come up before Virginia Stone jas to whether or not UA has pro~ Bob. Weston. tected the. “showcase” tag by copy‘Sandy Wilson . right or something. Alternating Peter Witt views have been expressed on that i ) score. N .Y. , to L.A. _ “The opinion has been expressed “Warren Caro that UA probably doesn’t care who Billy James {uses the idea because the company Josephine ‘would like as much support as pos sible for the idea so that the major circuits will eventually go for it. Both Loew's and RKO don't par| ticipate but Century and Skouras houses on Long Island do. At any John Kurland Irving Mansfield Phoebe Ostraw Jacqueline Susann James Starbuck | rate, this latest move with “Lilies” Fohn racy tand that of Fox has served to stir ; | up discussion of “showcase” anew. US. to Europe Its last major aiding was‘ during Americo Aboaf |the Allied States Assn, national Rebert Aldrich convention in New York when the idea was the subject of a scheduled Harry. Carmichael |} two-hour discussion which resulted. ‘Dennis Clancy | in divided opinion on the subject. Stina Ductee New York projectionists™ local Jill Howard 306 has also gotten into the act, Jimmy Neil pressing for increased scales and staff at a “showcase” theatre. This |has caused considerable debate in Gotham and may eventually lead to an adjustment of. the whole projectionist. scale and manpower structure here. Milton R. Rackmil Jack S. Seidman “Arthur Spink Andy Stewart Dame Eva Turner Nolan Van Way Robert Wise L.A. to N.Y. Usual WB Common Divyy wil. Cowan a Warner Bros. board this week William Dozier {declared the regular quasterly dividend of 1214c per share on the common stock. | Its payable Feb. 5. to stock ‘holders of record on Jan. 10. ‘Robert Q. Lewis .. Gerry Mulligan -" Mann Scharf. <0 Me Ree, ar ye.