Variety (March 1950)

18 INTERNATIONAL p$&nBTf 'VANITY'S' LONDON OFFItit • St. Martin's fiscs, Trsfalssr . Squire Resumption of U. S. film im~f ports into Argentina within a matter of a few months was foreseen this week by Phil Reisman, RKO’s foreign chief. Reisman returned to New ;X°rk over the weekend from a tour: of Latin America, including Buenos Aires, RKO eXec also forecast that the Yank companies Would have all of their frozen coin out of Brazil «. by the end of this year. He said that economic conditions had improved materially all over Latin America, arid particularly in Brazil since coffee prices had gone up. Latin-American Mexico City, Feb. 28. Peliculas Mexicanas, distributor of Mexican pix abroad, headquartered here, is building a cinema .chain in Latin-American key cities so as to enable Mexican films to meet competition, First house, the Cine Azteca, is skedded to open March 15 in Rio de Janiero, and work starts this month on another in "Bogota, Colombia, according to ‘‘The most significant change : Juan Bandera, company general noticeable,” said Reisman, “is the fact there is now no anti-Americairi or anti-Holly wood feeling in South America. What restrictions there are exist riot as the result of discrimination, but because of econorriic conditions. They just don’t have sufficient dollars. Things are improving, however, and with that 1 expect that the film situation -will get. better.” Although he feels that pix will again be going into Argentina shortly, Reisman opined there is little Chance of gritting any money out. No American films have been shipped into the Peron-ddminated country for more than a year now. Those that were there before the ban was placed on import permits have just about been played out. Reisman /reported on his Latin Amei^ican tour to foreign managers of the other major companies at a meeting at the Motion Picture Assn, of America yesterday (Tuesday.) manager; Bogota housed will be ready in eight to 10 months. Cinemasare to follow in HaVana and ■Lima. ' • f * Bandera said chain is aimed at the big towns bepause Mexican pix take care of theiriselves in the Latin-American hinterlands. Each cinema costs; frorii $255,000-$400,00Q, Bandera said. British Ask United Aid To Offset Audience Drift London, March 7. Arthur Watts, newly-elected head of the Cinematograph Exhibitors Assn., tpriight (Tries. ) . appealed for a united industry effort to stop the drift of patrons from theatres. Speaking at the Organization’s banquet, Watts declared that net receipts don’t float like clouds frorii record to record arid emphasized that everyone iriust buckle down in a determined effort to bring prosperity to the industry. on Argentine Minister Due Washington, March 7. Increased economic collaboration betwe en Argentina and the U. S.^-and with it an easing of the ban on importation of Hollywood films— is seen resulting from the impending visit here of Ramon Cereyo, Minister of the Treasury and chief of the National Economic Council. Cereijo, making his first US; trip, Will head an ’Argentine delegation due March 20. The attitude on U. S. Imports of President Peroh’s economic chieftain is believed to have been softened somewhat by the recent visit to Buenos Aires of Edward G. Miller, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State. More specifically on the film question, Cereijo met recently in B. A. with U. S, Ambassador Stanton Griffis, who is former chairman of. Paramount’s executive committee. They worked out a plan which all the U. S. companies have not agreed to, but which may eventually in some form be adopted. It will be a gentleman’s agreement, however, not an official decree. Plan, as revealed several weeks ago, calls for importation of 12 to 17 pix per company per year. Distribs would have to agree that 25% of their earnings be invested SEa locally and 75% remain in B, A. I bank accounts indefinitely until dollars are available, Washington Feb. 28. The motion picture department of the Chinese Communist state’s ministry of cultural affairs has released the 1950 plan for the stateowned film industry, revealing that, approximately 75% of the films to be shown in China will be Russian products. Announcement said that 76 Soviet feature films Will be synchronized into Chinese. Additionally; a large number of Soviet documentaries and educational films will also, be shown. At the same timo, China’s three nationalized motion picture studios, located in" Manchuria, Peking and Shanghai, will produce, only 26 features throughout 1950. Additionally, 66 / newsreels; documentaries ' arid cartoons will also be produced by t h e state -owned Chinese enterprises. This brings the number^ of features (Russian arid Chinese) to 102. Anriounced further stated that “the films produced by China’s young state-owned film industry are still unable to meet the growing demand of the people, especially that of the workers and peasants,” and therefore “efforts will be made to help private film companies In China to produce more pictures.” “Progressive”' films from abroad will also be shown to the public, the statement added. It also said that 700 mobile cinema teams will be formed, to tour factories and the troops. Balancing the Far East and European markets, Monogram International prez Norton V. Ritchey said in New York last week that there is a riiuch bigger potential in the Orient, although actual returns are about even. He poirited out that quotas and trade restrictions tend to hamper continental business, whereas; fewer regulations in the Far East bring about a larger volume of transactions in that .. » area. . Ritchey’s sizriup of those sales spheres were made at an industry press conference held for the company’s Far East supervisor, William Osborne, who just arrived in the U. S. for homeoffice confabs after two years abroad. Overall business in his territory, Osborne said, has declined after the postwar peak Of 1 946 47, fiut current grosses are still better than the prewar take. Both Monogram execs were, optimistic Over. Indonesia, where the company has established it£ own Organization following withdrawal of the Motion Picture Export Assn, in that v area last January. Japan was viewed bullishly in light of a recent distribution agree m e n t inked with Shochiku Film Enterprises, Ltd., whereby latter firm will handle Monogram and Allied Artists product in that country for a five-year period. Deal calls for an okay from SCAP, but Ritchey feels that with the present trend toward Japanese economic independence, it won’t be long until the license is granted. vs. ItOridon, March 7, Appeal by ciririma 'managers against wage cuts, introduced by J. Arthur Rank’s Circuits Management Assn., which embraces the Ode on and Gaumont British groups, will be heard by the , National Joint . Appeal Board next Tuesday (14). / Appeal is being lodged by the Society of Cinema Managers who claim that the downgrading clause in their agreement with the Cinematograph Exhibitors Assn, gives the right to cut salaries only Where receipts fall below a certain: weekly average for 12 months preceding the agreement of December, 1946. The Society claims that CMA has calculated on the 12 months previous to June 25, 1949, and also claims that the seven days’ notice on reductions was “completely inadequate and unreasonable,” Bill Before Tokyb, Feb. 25. The long heralded but frequently stalemated Radio Bill which will Inaugurate commercial broadcasting in Japan lias reached the stage Stockholm, Feb. 28. Sweden has seen its first real film festivals. The first opened here three weeks ago and was arranged by the Soyuzintorgkinb,, official representive of the Russian.: film industry, in connection with the 30th anniversary of Russian film production. The second film festival opened herfe last Veek (22). This time it was the Polish Embassy, in cooperation with Film Polski arid the Swedish-Polish Assn., that arranged it. Polish films shown were “Ulica Graniczna” (“Border Street”), a drama dealing with the Nazis hunting of Jews in occupied Warsaw in 1939; “Skarb” (“The Treasure”), a comedy of Warsaw after the war, and “Zakazane Piosenki” (“Forbidden Songs” ) another war-story glorifying the Polish underground and especially,, the Red Army. Festival gives spine interesting ; figures and information/ about the Polish film industry of today. There were 800 cinemas in Poland before , the war, while only 100 were usable ‘ after the war. Now many have been rebuilt and many new ones have been opened. The total of cinemas in Poland today is 600. Many of them still use old equipment, which will be remedied in the present six-year plan. This plan also includes the building of many new cinemas, especially six new ones in Warsaw. The state-owned Film Polski began in November, 1945, arid started immediately to build up a large industry in Poland. Poland’s Hollywood is located in the city I of Lodz, with studios, laboratories, etc. A new laboratory in Warsaw was built in 1948 and there are Of public hearings in the national legislature and may be on Its way j plans' of buili^ng a "great” ‘ Til into final passage, along with two ! city” around Warsaw as well. ' The I other related bills. Legislation to ! lfim film has also been introduced permit private broadcasting in Continued from page .3. fantasy Jif.e of violence. The use > of American gangster slang, he says, proves that these youths get tTieir ideas from the films. It’s time film producers gave up glorifying the gangster, he said. French Getting Tough / Paris, March 7. George Huisriian, prexy of the French official pictures censorship board, has been fired from the job by Information, Minister P. H. Teitgen for being too easy. The French mean to clamp down stringently on anything like lasciviousriess or crime. M; Savin, an official in the Cour des Comptes, has been appointed in place of Huisrnan. as prexy of the censorship BRIGHT LONDON FUTURE FOR LONSDALE’S ‘WAV’ London, March 7. The Frederick Lonsdale touch has transformed the trivial theme •of his new comedy, “The Way Things Go,” into a bright and, at times, sparkling entertainment. Its opening at the Phoenix last Thursday (2) was received with considerable enthusiasm; and it earned unanirfious raves. from the London crix the next morning. Show is presented by /Stephen Mitchell and is acted by a top cast headed by Michael Gough, Glynis Jbhns and Ronald Squire/ pon has been in the “formulating” stage since October, 1945, but the measure is accorded a good chance to make the grade at last. in the current session of the Diet (legislature). In addition to the Radio BiR, which will break the Broadcasting Corp. of Japan's 25-year monopoly and permit private radio ventures, the other two measures under debate are the Broadcast Bill, which would reorganize BCJ as a public service corporation and permit it to continue to support itself by collecting listeners fees, and a bill Hongkong boxoffice, Osborne de j establish a Ra di o Regulatory I rnmmiccinn fcunil ov in llm AiviakL dared, is the best since the war s end, principally due to the influx of / wealthy refugees from the mainland.. There’s a theatre building boom underway, with three firstrunners being erected by local interests. Remittances on film earnings are made on a basis of 70% official rate, while the bal Comm.ission, Similar to the Ameri can FCC, which would govern the entire industry. Prominent Japanese in both the entertainment and business worlds have testified before a Diet committee on the proposed bills, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Yaeko Mizutani, popular stage and ance is exchanged on the open ' scl*een actress, and Yoshie Fujimarket. ! wara, J a p a n ’ s leading operatic Monogram, as have other corn ! legislators Hie es Increased from 14 to 18 so as to permit including a rep of the Families Assn, Minister has also promulgated more ukases, one making trailers subject to censorship as well as the features, and another extending to 18 the age (formerly 16) debarring minors from showings. ' London, March 7. Peter pearlng has acquired new play by Dennis Sands titled “Deadlock.” Play is skedded to open in West End, probably at the Comedy theatre, replacing “On Monday Next,” end of May, after provincial tryout, arid will star Freda Jackson , .... David Gray, director of Detective Story ,” due at the board, whose membership has beeri'J-rt-V**1^s -March * is holding au fnnrooco/i i a vo. uitions lor some of the male ^rid femme roles; Has already signed Diana Chase (of the Billing and Chase vaudeville act) for comedy role, and dickering with Shirley McHugh, wife of Jimmy McHugh, former London head of Music Corp. "of America, for one of the . leads. Top male pari will be played certain f either by local 1 star Hugh Macdermott or Douglass Montgomery, panies, has .virtually written off China, but business is fairly profitable in Nationalist Formas a, thanks to a recent 50% reduction in the import duty, which usually came to around $800 per print. Summing up the outlook in* other Far East countries, Osborne said that competition from native pictures, coupled with a lack of firstrun houses in Bombay and . Calcutta to accommodate U. S. product, is tending to hurt Yarik grosses in India. "■ CBS Preps Buy Continued from page 1 too small -for the company’s requirements. GBS-men say studio equipped to handle 10 or' more television shows in years to come would be a primary requirement; since the net doesn’t “want to make the same mistake when they built KNX.” Within one year after opening, KNX was too small for company operations, with farming out of several shows necessary for lack of space. Studio at Columbia Square here is monopolized by Ed Wynn and net has Alan. Young, Amos ’n’ Andy, and several other teeveC shows in preparation for the fall season, making >CBS exi uon nere last summer during pansion of video production facilij filming of part of “The Spark ” ties imperative, . starring Harold Lloyd Jr tablishment of private broadcasting stations throughout Japan would result in a deconcentration of talent and a scramble for artists which would tend to disorganize the theatrical and entertainment industries. A dozen or more business leaders have charged that l lie bill s put too much stress on government supervision and would encourage the “bureaucratization” of the broadcasting biz. Others have,. Warned that there are not enough channels for commercial transmitters unless many of the frequencies now vised by BCJ are reassigned to new stations. The government had received 39 applications for commercial broadcasting permits up to Feb. 15 and expects as many as 50 when the j enabling legislation is passed. BONDED IN BOUNCER RAP t Monroe, Mich., March 7. Awaiting trial on a charge of passing a worthless check, two Hollywood film officials were freed on $2,500 bonds last week. The defendants, Harold Erickson; director, jmd Ray Pierson, producer, of Miramar Films, Inc., left for Los Angeles: after posting bond. The pair are accused of passing the check in . payment for moving equipment from location to locaition here last lating cinemas, which were com^ pletely unknown before the war; exist today to the total of 600, but the six-year plan includes a total of 3,000 such ambulating cinemas, all to use Polish-made equipment. Also, . special filmschools as well as dramatic thcatrerschools have been started in Poland by the present regime. Production of documentary films seems to be the most important, no less than 70 documentaries being produced’ between 1945-48. Also, newsreels are regularly produced. During 1945-49 a total of 25Q newsreels were shown. Number of feature films produced between 1945 and 1949 was 11, but the new plan calls for an annual production of 25 features. Rossellini ‘Machina’ In Retakes; He’s Still on It Rome,, Feb. 28. Skeleton crew went to the Ahialfl coast last week to re-shoot some extra serines and retakes lor Robert Rossellini’s “La -Machina Amazza Cattivi” (“The Machine That Kills Evil”). Picture will be wrapped up in about two weeks, according to Rudy Solmsen, local rep for Ilya Lopert, who will distribute the film. Although the added sequences were .handled by Luciano E mirier,/ Rossellini is still supervising the picture, contrary to reports that he had Withdrawn from the project. Producer, who has been tied up with his current venture, “St. Francis of Assisi,”wasin constant touch Eramer during the lensing. Milan’s Icet Studios Sets 2 Pix for Spring Milan, Feb. 28. Milan’s Icet Studios has announced triat its production of “Odissea” will start rolling early in May,; Film’s director, G. W. Pabst, left for Hollywood to sign an American actress for the role, of Penelope. Giorgio Ventiirini, who is producing “Odissea,” hopes to reach an agreement with a prominent British star for the role of Ulysses. Studio also has plans for a color production titled “Captain Kidd’s Treasure,” shooting to start this Spring, with Errol Flynn, Dennis O’Keefe and Adriano Rimoldi > mentioned for the leads. ■ i