Variety (Feb 1948)

1» PICTURES Huenose Raps by Foreign (mm Add to U& Fdmmakers' Headaches Adtfittg to the foreign market" headaches, U.S. filmmakers are cuvr rently being nailed on a censorshif) hook that's beginning to encircle the globe. Latest migraine has re- ■ulted from the'decision of a Cana» diah dominion, Saskatchewan; to ban "Brute Force" because of its morbid theme. Ste|> was especially painful to U. S. filmites since Canada is ohe of the few countries in which free and friendly trade relations still hold. Similar objection was lodged in' Austria against "The Lodger" by Vienna officials, who have asked' theatre owners not to admit minors to see the pic. Behind the "iron curtain" in eastern Europe, Ameri- can film imports are meeting antici- pated resistance down the line. In Rumania;, only six American films have been able to pass the latest censorial o.«. Pay Key Men K Continued from/laee tisss izations, they're. highly "tempting to Metro's top stars'and execs. Metro, Consequently, can, mfeet this threat of losing its key per^nnel only through good contracts. .;'';'Key men . must be_ tied to theif jtfb^.at corwipt-^Mnpenr sation for their::taients>J';.^!i|bih de- clared. ■ ''.■■'■.-, . Mpls. Exhibs . Continued (ram pme 1 to build the showhouse on property owned by him. When the council recently set aside a policy of 12 years' duration by granting Nathan Shapiro a license for a new thea- tre, over North Central Allied ob- jections, it made tnown that subse- quent applications would be consid- ered "op. the«c.;;in.erits.'? Minnesota '• -iiitertainment Enter- prises,- organijseei several months ago iWith: k $l,OiD&ji)0(^ capitalization prin- cipiW to kffep-.'jout "outside" drive- iii'^theatre iio.ti(i?e$^ by building its 'Brute Force' Morbid . Regina, Sask., Feb. 3. •''Brute Force" CO) has been banned in Saskatchewan on the grounds that it is too morbid and would have a demoralizing effect on the public, particularly young peo- ple. Film was originally banned by D. J. Vaughan, film censor, and was appealed by Universal. An appeal board «t. five, including the "warden of Regma' jail, upheld the ban. One member o'f rlhe appeaV board termed the picture "a most depress- 'ing, sadistic attempt at depicting a false Impression of prison life," and said "it has no value whatever— educationally, morally or otherwise.". He s'aid "it would be 'criminal' to present it to the public, especially 4>ur teenage population." L. K. Sidney, J. J. Cohn Named Loew Veepees Louis K. Sidney and Joseph J, Cohn were named veepees of Loew's, Inc., at a meeting of the company's board Friday (30), following the an- nual stockholders meet. Board also voted a regular quarterly dividend of 37%c on common stock, payable March 31 to stockholders of record March 12. Sidney, recently named to the stu- dio's three-man exec council along with E. J. Mannix and Benjamip K. Thau; was fonherly assistant treas- urer of - the company. He' joined Loew^ in 1^23 as manager of the old Aldine theatre, Pittsburgh, and has since operated houses through- out the country. ■ He later managed WHN, Loew's operated N. Y. radio station. He went to the studio in 1937, where he's since been: both an active'iwoducer and a member of the tfxec council, Cohn entered the film industry as .office, boy in 1915 for the old Fox 'company and later became produc- tion manager for Samuel Goldwyn When Metro took over the Goldwyn studios With the merger in 1924, Cohn ' joined the company and has since operated' as production man- ager .of the Culver City lot •Lodcet' Only For Grownups Vienna, Jan. 28.' Due to the fact that the Austrian government and city municipality are unable to ban objectionable for-, eign-raade pictures, a new scheme has been worked out, which is ful- filling its purpose. City Counsellor Viktor Iilatejka of the cultural de- partment asked 01m owners not to sell any tickets for' objectionable films to minors and .the response was unanimous. Films showing murder and vice can be seen only by grown- ups. This procedure was today (28) adopted with 20th's "The Lodger." Inquiries at Motion Picture Export Assn. revealed.'that there is no in- tention to take action against this. During first days of showing in Elite Kino there .were similar scenes to those when "Mark of Zorro" was on program. Specs stood for hours in line to obtain tickets. A short time ago the City Munici- pality requested the • French Film Section to withdraw the picture "Macadam," which depicts the uri- derworld of Paris. The French con- sented and withdrew the film en- tirely.' ■ , , : ■ - ■ Austria itself has no official cen- sorship office. Indirect censor.ship is the fihancing of new Austrian productions. Film manuscripts are handed in to the financing depart- ment, and approval means of course that picture is" okayed. ■ Action of the city municipality had its 'effects on local production, too, as Excelsior announced today (28) stopping work on "Rats." Work on this one had begun & fetv weeks ago. It has youth criminoldgy as a .theme. New Col. Loan Continued from page i 3 (iw4-has v(f6n'3^i.anitial brush with the '"invaders.''" -^he organization, comprising prominent Twin City exhibitors, .h&s obtained aJicense to build a drive-in theatre at Hose Township midway between Minne- apolis and St. Paul. It did so despite the fact that David Flexer of Memphis, who built and opened the Twin City'? first such moyjie .here last'year, .had afiplied first for 'the permit and was expected to get it. In acting favorably on the. MEE application , and denying Flexer's, the township board members, de- clared that home interests should have first consideration. Harold Field, circuit owner and ME? presi»- dent, said construction will start immediately and that the theatre will be ready to open May 15. The drive-in will represent a $150,000 expenditure and accommo- date 800' cars. Field also announced that the grpup is, now negotiating for other sites and expects to build at least two more Twin City drive-ins this yeai-. hade Stuff-Hctures Designed to hypo teen-age interest in Samuel Goldwyn's "The Bishop'.s Wife,'.' company is pushing an advertising and promotional campaign built arou.nd contests' and copy aimed at the high school set. Picture's original title wasn't deemed sufficiently exciting to generate interest in the young, sters. HenCe under direction of Goldwyn ad-jpub chief Lynn Farnol, com- pany flacks have been batting out such ad copy as "The Bachelor's Bock in a Groovie Movie! Yes, Teensters, the Bachelor You I.oved in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer" is Back in a Movie" . , . etc. Contests have been wcirked' out by theatres in cooperation 'with local papers where the teen-agers are urged to name the "modern miracle they'd most like, to see't in connection with the showing of "The Bishop's 'Wife.'* Prizes include phone calls from the film's fcmme star, Lorettu 'Yoiing' roses from Cary Grant, also starred, and cash awards, et al. In certain situations the title has been changed to "Cary and the Bishop's 'Wife" in an effort to 'Whet the juvenile Jtrade. In effect about two weeks, drive ia already bearing results, the Gold-wyn ballyhoo men claim. Jack'Ellis, United Artists' New York district manager, claims he's only "film peddler by virtue of the necessity of eating." Actually, he claims to being a songwriter. His biggest hit was "I Can Get-It for You Whole- sale." He has had numerous other tunes published, the latest—just re- corded by The Three Jesters—being "Who Pushed the Button (When There's No One On the Floor), or The Elevator Man's L'ament." Two other recent ones are "I- Slipped on a Banana Peel and Met the Apple of My Eye" and "If You Fall for a Summer Romance, You'll Be Heading for a Fall in the Fall." Ellis und«r.$teatedly explains that he specializes in "the cornier type" of tunes. Metro readying two songsmithing biopix almost coincidentally. Georg« Wiells, son of Billy It Wells, vet revue writer, has completed the screen- play on the Kabnar & Ruby filniusical, find Fred Finklehoflle, Jr., is polish- ing the Rodgers & Hart saga at the same studio. Latter is tentatively titled My Heart Stood StUl." Players for Richard Rodgers and (the late) Larry Hart roles not set but looks like Gene Kelly will play (the late) Bert Kal» mar and Eddie Bracken will be Harry Ruby. Latter* incidentally, is on the M-G lot also assisting on pre-production scripting, details, etc. Finkle- hoffe is said to be getting $50,000 for his four-week Script polish on the H&H pic. . Jan. B. Winners Continued from page 4 ; ture Nov. 30,. 19S2, when .any out- standing balance must be paid off completely. Interest payments on the notes are set. at 2%% until Nov. 30,1949, when the rate is hiked to 2%-% for the remaining period until Nov. 30, 1952. On the open, unused credit, Colum- bia forks out 1/24 of 1% for the privilege of -calling on those avail- able funds. Number of strings are tied to the new loan. "Company mu.st stay with- in a certain liquid condition; must credit to its assets only pix which are released and amortized within arbitrary periods. Additionally,. Columbia may not acquire or lease more than 10 thea- tres' while any part of the' loan is uniiaid. It can lend money to out- side producers only if a director, producer or player employed by' the company together with Columbia or a subsid own at least 50% of the stock of that outside producer. Buehamt $Iaps Sown Bucharest, Jan, 27. Increasing governmental resist- ance against American film imports was recently evidenced when au- thorities recalled a number of Holly- wood pictures for censorial o.o.'s. Despite the fact "Talk of the Town" (Col) and "No Time for Comedy" (WB) had been revised, both were banned. Fate of another film, RKO's "Suspicion," is still • in the' balance. In all only six U, S. pictures have been okayed under the government's apparent "closed door" policy. Scarcity of American fUms is pointing up a product shortage here and exhibs have been forced to rely on French reissues in most firstruns. Among the few U, S. pix that have been permitted playing time. War-- ner's "Now Voyager" is chalking up • successful run at .the Ritz and Tixoli theatres, while Metro's "Na- tional Velvet" has been re-released at the Giocando, RounAable Continued from page 7 that with the rendering, of the de- cision in the Supreme Court, when- ever that may be, that exhibition's effort to accomplish an open forum for the industry will meet with greater success than hitherto." Court decisions so far, TOA offi- cial declared, , have damaged exhibs as much as the companies. "The philosophy that what is good, for ex- hibitoi's must be bad for distribu- tors, and vice versa, is unsound and dangerous," he said. Each decision which restricts methods of doing business adds to the difficulty of running theatres, Levy declared, noting competitive bidding as an ex- ample of exhib tribulations. Levy turned his attention to cur- rent negotiations with ASCAP on the scat-tax .tiff and said "some good progress" had been made to- wards settling the dispute. He in- dicated the legal line for opposing the ASCAP rate hike by noting that the Government consent decree against ASCAP permits changes in scales only when condKons affect- ing the marketability of pertorming rights change. "It Is our contention that it will be most difficult for ASCAP to prove that," he a.sserted. Theatre-owners are bearing an unjust burden in taxation, and un- less given relief many will go into the red this year," said Ted H. Gam- ble, president of TOA, in addressing the annual convention. largely because it came through with a burst of strength to take first place the final week of January. "X-Men" (EL) landed in 10th plaee just ahead of "Where There's Life" <Par), which fell back later in Ihe month. Fact that the Hope Crosby opus aisp was available un- doubtedly cut into many bookings possible for "Life" newest of Hope single starrer. "I Walk Alone' (Par) snatched 12tb position al though out in the Keys only two weeki, and, at that, late in the month, too. Leaders in runner-up classification are "Sleep, My Love" (UA) "Swordsman" (Col), "Daisy Kenyon" (20th), "Cass Timberlane" (M-G) which is now coming up fast; "Sena tor Was Indiscreet" (U) and "The Flame" (Hep). "Senator" did only medium to moderate' biz in many spots but ran up sizeable total be cause of its numerous playdates. "Paradme Case" (SRO) made an excellent showing during the past month but in only two cities, which was not enough to show how would shape up nationally. Of course, its big money was obtained in the four, weeks at the Radio City Muisic Hall. "The Fugitive" (RKO) though not in many spots, showed around $150,000. Among the newcomers, "Night Song" (RKO) hints real promise on scattered playdates the latter part of last month. Of course, "Sierra Madre," which really did not get out in the keys until the'final.week in January, shapes as a real comer for February. Same holds true of "Walk Alone," which was coming along big in final two weeks last month. "Tim berlane" was in a somewhat simi- lar category. Hitler Ftlma 5S Continued from pace i s: telligence School for the training of occupation personnel, by deraOU' strating Nazi propaganda techniques; and assisting in German language instruction. Three objectives have been.accom. plished by seizure of the flirts and their careful classification at the Bavaria Filmkunst. First, all film: which contained National Socialist propaganda were instantly removed from German screensi and the peo- ple could no longer be infected b/ their artfully presented doctrines, Second, the films could be evaluated and those of historical importance presBrvcd, resulting in one of th' really vital documentary collections in the world. Finally, out of the en tire collection of Ulm features, edu cational film.s. shorts and fairy-talc pictures, produced prior to the end of the war, those which contained no propaganda taint wers selected for showing in the reopened German motion picture theatres^ Gathering and preparation of sports news gets the onceover in "Sports Coverage,"^ an RKO short in its Sportscope series^ Such media as radio, newspaper, newsreel and television are dealt with. Prqduce^ by Jay Bonafield, film was directed by Joe Walsh and authored by Bud Benjamin. Picture delivers a "story-by-story" account of a sample day's activities of Scripps-Howard sports columnist Joe Williams as well as touching upon duties of Bill Corum of the N.Y. Journal-American, John Carmicliael of'the Chicago Daily News and other scribes. Narration is handled by Andre Baruch, Bed Barber -and Clem McCarthy. With the foreign ^ixi field in the :tJ..S. in a near-chaotic^state due to its*^ rapid postwar expansion, formation of a single as^pciation.lo £and1e dis- tribution throughout the country's exchanges, is being'increasbieiy urged. Under the proposed "United' Artists of Foreign Film Importeirs," individual companies would have the "'advantage of a streamlined sales organization with a bigwig as sales head to talk with circuit toppers. According to other sureseater experts, however,: such a-'plan is virtually excluded by the 'fierce competition currently raging, in the foreign pix'field. ■', . The U, of Rochester (N.YO is the largest holder of Eastman Kodak stock with 175,190 shares' of common. These were principaUy the gift of George Eastman, as were the Century, Reg.ent and Bastman theatres, which' put the university in the ;theatre business. The first two are leased to Paramount and the Eastman used for musical and civic events. Kodak lists 45,622 holders of its 12,380,065 shares of common stock. The Reconstruction Finance Corp. currently is holding 285,000 shares pledged as collateral by British owners. Arizona^ Jaw covering accidents on film locations is causing major studios to "shy away from that state, even though the scrijst calls for an Arizona location.' I^aw provides that an actor, injured on location, must be paid the full amount of his salary during the time he is laid up, no matter how long. -When a thesp, drawing $8,000 a week, is incapacitated in Arizona, it may run into serious coin. California j^ate laW' is more lenient toward the producers. , - System of staging a number of screenings for specially-selected audi- ences in advance of a film's opening is catching on widely in the industry;* Inaugurated; by 20th-Fox on "Gentleman's Agreement," the "saturation screening" idea is currently being iised by 20th to hypo advance publicity on"Call Northside 777." Indie distributor Joe Burstyn (of Mayer-Burstyn) is also following the general format on the Italian^made "Paisan." System paid off fOr 20th on "Agreement" via s'ome of the best publicly breaks enjoyed by a film in recent years. When the French government cut the value of the franc in half it per- formed a service to LOu Bunin, who is producing a cartoon feature, "Alice in Wonderland," on an original budget of $l,500,d00 in Paris. Devaluation of tlie franc doubles.the buying power of the American dollar in France. Buning made all his productioti arrangements on a basis of franci, in- stead of dollars, except i(0F payment of cartoon technicians he has im- ported from Hollywood. . • To e^cplain how the Oscar Derby is conducted, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has mailed 500 pamphlets to Hollywood corre- spondents and motion picture editors throughout the Country. Idea is to offset misleading yarns planted by overzealous flacks to the ^ect that their pictures are "entered" in the -derby. Pamphlet m^kes it clear that all pictures made in 1947 are eligible. Need for theatre managers to keep on the ball was highlighted once again last Friday (30) by Gandhi's assassination. Running into the weekend, several Broadway houses were still screening newsreel "clips showing the Indian leader recovering from a recent fast instead of nulling such dated material. Preduct Shortage Continued from page 7 Mann. He has announced that, as soon as th'e Minnesota Amus. Co.'s lease expires this year, he will take' over its. operation himself aild in- stall a film policy. It is much more advantageously located than the Lyceum and has a 1,500-seat capacity. The Minnesota Amus. Co, (Para- mount) sublet it for burlesque. Reissues Flood Town With a veritable flood of reissues engulfing downtown flrstrun.s, reach- ing the stage this week where there are almost as many oldies as new pictures on tap, seven to nine, in- dustry leaders here are apprehen- sive that a continuation ol the cur- rent trend will result in serious box- offlce damage. In fact, some promi- nent exhibitors have expressed the belief that a surfeit of reissues is one of the reasons for declining gros,'ies and that increased production Is essential. It's pointed out that the vast ma- jority of oldies that now have to be booked to make up for the shortage of new pictures are inferior in qual- ity and don't merit revival. Most of them, it's claimed, aren't delivering at the boxoffice and are just fillers- in. These same exhibitor critics em- phasize that the outstanding reis.sLies have been outgrossing many new pictures and imdoubtedly always will be welcome. They' feel that the be,st of all crops should be brouiSM back frxim time to time and Will click, but that the run-of-the-mill stuff should remain in their graves.