Variety (April 1953)

INTERNATIONAL ■VAmiTY'f* LONDON OFFICB • St. Martin's Pltc* Trafalfar Ifura New Govt. Moves Tip That British Will Get Commercial TV in '54 London, April 28. A series of government pro- nouncements In the past week have strengthened the view that com- mercial television will come to Britain next year. Technical data Japs flan Overseas Films Tokyo, April 21. Spurred by the success Of “Ha- Britain next year, recimicai ««« ] W aiian Nights,” made last year will be available within the next, ^ Hawaii by Daiei S two to enable manufac- m na ' vau on _ _ Stu- week or two to enable manuiac- j JjjJJ^other Japanese producers are turers to design receivers capable 5 olan ’ n j n g overseas junkets. Toho of receiving more than ope | studios will make “Captain of Cof- gram, in preparation for the- day, Boat » in Tahiti; Shin Toho when the British viewer will be j to Hawaii for “Mother of “3,- in J goes I Hawaii" and Toei will shoot Sneak Journey" given a choice of entertainment. This greenlight for the manufac- j ooOrMile turers will come when the govern-1 Burma, ment announces the frequencies to j shanghai. Hong Kong and the be allotted for commercial wave-; island of Formosa also figure in lengths. It will also enablefirst ]ocatio n plans. steps to be taken for locating «f|* . commercial stations. Norman C°l-j lins, a director of High Definition s Chinese ‘Art Troupes’ For Conunies in Korea Washington, April 28. Chinese Communist government^ reports shipping six “art troupes," containing nearly 1,000 entertain- ers, to the Korean front where they will perform for Bed soldiers. Broadcast from Peking, beamed to the U. S. last week, said in part: "Their programs include 274 items of plays, operas, puppet shows, acrobats, music, choruses and dancers. In addition, they are equipped with projectors for show- ing full-length feature and docu- mentary films.” BBC Beefs (Again) )o Get More Fix; hdnstry‘A Little Mean’on Supply Red-Tainted Film Continued from page t It Film Prod. i films and the Associated Broad casting Development Corp., now in America, announced prior to his departure that bis outfit would con-] London. April 28. duct a countrywide survey as soon i Reopening of the Royal Court as the government announcement: Theatre to the public after 12 was made. He revealed the inten-< years brought in “Airs on a* Shoe- tion of ABDC having a network of? string » last Wednesday (22). This 50 stations, with 20 to 30 covering j s an unpretentious revue pre- principal cities. ' ■ * sented by Laurier Lister, "who Speaking at the annual dinner; staged the previous hits, “Penny of the Newspaper Society, L. D. Plain” and "Tuppence Colored. Gammans, assistant- postmaster-| Show is witty and tuneful with •Mexico City, April 28. Another Mexico-U. S. pic inci- * dent looms with a demand made on Ratafl Cpacnnal Effort! the Mexico government and the Aaieo OSaMlIMJ IilIUIl {Mexican Film Producers Assn, for general, defined the government policy by asserting that no state organization, however good, should have the monopoly of the air. Every argument put forward to de- cast headed by Max Adrian, MOyra Fraser, Sally Rogers, Betty Mars- den. Brisk and topical like the other two, it should make good ~ seasonal Offering, being the sole cide what shall be screened on I representative of this type of TV could be used with equal force, show. It is briskly directed by Al- paring in the scenes, including the retaliation against American com- panies making films down here. Adolfo Fernandez Bustamante and Alejandro Galindo, producers of "Wet Backs,” are asking such ac- tion. Now in production, this story is about Mexicans who sneak into the U. S. or attempt to do so, by fording the Rio’ Grande to get jobs as farm laborers. Bustamante and Galindo claim that their* attempt to make some se- quences for their pic in the El Paso sector was thwarted by the officials of that Texas city. These officials demanded that all partici in favor of one state newspaper, j fjed Rodrigues, “I would sooner risk the occasional 1 lapse from good taste in our Pfesf 1 Showdown Oil New Eady than accept the proposition that •Whitehall Knows Best’,” he stated The society’s prexy, Kenneth Brown, said newspaper owners would deprecate sponsored TV pro- grams along worst American lines. When sponsored TV - comes, he wanted it to be on the best U. S. standards or on those observed by the British Broadcasting Corp. Mex City Exhibs Donate May 1 Gross to Mexico City, April 28. Because local exhibitors are to contribute their total receipts May 1 to the government’s fund for the aid of undernourished children, they have been assured an unusual cash cooperation by their union- ized help, members of the National Cinematographic Industry Work- ers Union. Workers are to serve May 1 for a single day’s pay in- stead of the triple time. This is expected to aid the fund by $57 ,- £00. . ■ . May 1 is Mexican Labor Day and this land’s most rigidly ob- served holiday. Only the ^ most vital services are allowed by powerful labor that day. The labor laws permit all unionists to collect triple pay for working May 1. Nip Gross of U.S. Films . $1,380,000 in March Tokyo, April 21. With a total of 15 feature films released during March, the 10 U.S major film companies distributing their product in Japan grossed a total of $1,380,000. Metro led the list with $247,700 grossed by •‘Mutiny on.Bounty,” "That For- syth Woman” and “Father’s i^ittle Dividends” Other earnings were Paramount, $188,800; RKO, $176,000; WB, $175,000; Republic, $134,000; Uni- versal, $132,000; 20th-Fox, $131 ,- 000; United Artists, $90,Q0O; Co- lumbia, $63,000; and Allied .Art- ists, $17,600. Jap* to Bally Own Films Toflyo, April 21. JBncouraged by last year’s take of $800,000 from about 1,000 Jap- anese-made films that were export- ed, the Ministry' of International Trade and Industry has decided to encourage earning of foreign Cur- rency by the local film industry* First step will be subsidization of a publicity documentary, “Japan’s Film Industry, 1953.” About 2,000 prints will be? sent .overseas. - Step No. 2 wilL be. the entry of six. top fihns.At.the Cannes Film Festival. ; ; In addition, Japanese j film agencies ; will be-.opened ..this, Plan Zooms in Commons London, April 28. Since the government issued its ultimatum on the Eady Fund two months ago, warning the industry that legislation would be intro- duced if the trade failed to reach a voluntary agreement, there has been no visible progress towards \ a settlement, although industry as- " sociations have been talking about the problem. The question of how long the government is prepared to wait for the industry to make up its. mind will be put directly to the Board of Trade prexy in the House of Commons next week. Labor M.P. Stephen Swirigler has given notice of the question; asking f*eter Thorneycroft how long he is prepared 7 to wait for the results of discussions. Also if, in the event of failure to produce a voluntary agreement, legislation Will be introduced this session. lenser, be Americans. The producers said that meeting such demand would hike their costs $2,000 daily and that they were obliged to fall back on Ciudad Juarez, Mexican city opposite ET Paso, to do the sequences. Other parts of the film are being made •at the Tepeyac studios here. Claiming that all Americans are granted the fullest facilities to pro- duce pix in Mexico, Galindo and Bustamante demand that the gov- ernment and the Assn, make iden tical demands upon U. S. outfits (wishing to do work in this coun- try) as they claim they encountered in El Paso- The government and Assn, continues mun) about these demands. Sinatra, Laine to Scotland Glasgow, April 21. . Frank Sinatra is’slated to play the Empire here the week of July 6, topping the Vaude bill there. Original plan had been for singer to play one-night stands in Scot- land. Frankie Laine, big'click oh his trip to Scotland last year, will re- turn. as vaude bill-topper for week of Aug. 24 also at the Glasgow Empire. Aussie ’Dial’ to Make. Bow in Melbourne Melbourne, April 21. Frederick Knott’s "Dial M for Murder” will open at the Comedy. Theatre, Melbourne, April 29, un- der banner of J. C. Williamson Theatres. Show was cast in Lon don by Williamson’s British rep, Nevin Tait. • Leads will be taken by British- ers Hector Ross and Pamela Page. Australians Ellis Irving, Alan White and Grant Taylor will be in support. 3-D Patented Continued frqm pass 2 tute . bad three-dimensional films for good two-dimensional ones.. ’ Defending the union’s policy of opposition to commercial TV, the ACT prexy argued Ahere was no real future in any. medium, wheth- x er films or video, if the' quality were debased. If the American ex- perience is a portent of.what Was to happen here,-he personally felt the ACT must continue to resist^ the introduction of sponsored TV. After making his annual beef at.the continued closing of-studios and mass quota defaults by exhib itors, Asquith elaborated, on - the part ACT has played in meeting the crisis by the -formation of - its own production company. In three years it has given employment to 297 technicians. THe last film made by the co-operative unit, "The Final Test,” was directed by Asquith and is being distributed by. J. Arthur Rank's General 1 Film Distributors. Of the technical'crew engaged fo? that production Were some who had been classified as virtually unem jplpyable by other producers and had scarcely, seen • the,, inside qf.a Franco London Making Boyer Starrer in Paris Paris, April 21. •With one co-production before the cameras here and another roll- ing in Rome, Franco London Film has stepped up its shooting sched- ule. “Madame De . . which the company ’is making in association with Indusfilms-Rizzoli Editore, moved into its fourth week of lens- ing this week. Charles Boyer has the top role in this film version of the Louise de Vilmorin novel, Max Ophuls is directing from a script by himself and Marcel Achard. The Franco London venture in Rome represents the second epi- sode of “Destiny,” Project is be- ing made jointly with Continental Produzione. It. is tagged “Two Women.'* Title roles are being done by Claudette Colbert and Eleonora Rossi Drago, with Marcel Fagliero directing. First episode is already completed. It stars Michele Morgan, and was filmed in Paris. -'Quiet* 14 Wks, in Newcastle Newcastle, April 21. John Ford's Academy Award winner, “The Quiet Man” (Rep), is breaking records here. Pic moves into 14th w.eek at the tfraingcr Cinema and is approaching its •320th performance. .. Jt has grossed; more than , any, jwther film *1bblfthdute. charged with being a Red, an ac- cusation which he denied. Japanese film, “Children of Hiro- shima,” based on the aftermath of the atomic bpmb pn Hiroshima, received a mixed welcome here. Though film is handled with tact its constant probing Of the wounds of victims soon slips this into the self-pity groove, and, as such, loses some of poignancy inherent \ in the film. “Lili” (M-G) was nicely received! Iiere as a change of pace after the! grim mayhem, brutality and op- pressiveness of many of the pre- ceeding pix. Though story was Jound melodramatic, the work of Leslie Caron was lauded and it was a personal triumph for her. In .keeping with lighthearted change of pace France presented Jacques Tati’s charming comedy, Les.Vacances De Monsieur Bulot.” This chronicles the vacation of an inarticulate, timid clerk whose every attempt at socializing" leads o disaster and comic happenings. The much-publicized Spanish pic, “Bienvenida Mr. Marshall," . from which Edward G. Robinson de- manded a cut of the American, flag being dragged in the mud, was finally shown, and. the publicity got this a big house. Pic shapes as a tenuous satire on a small peasant town that is alerted to a visit of the Marshall Plan reps and gird itself for the expected bounties. Pic gives a facile satire on supposed American traits gleaned from pix, such as there being only Indians there, wild west antics, big crime centre, etc. Though well-paced and tongue-in-cheek, this ordinary pic could have well been left but of the fest. . U. S. personality turnout has been big this year. Kirk Douglas, growing a beard for his forthcom- ing Italy 3-D color pic, “Ulysses,” has been constantly on hand. He conducted" a press confab entirely in French. Lana Turper and Lex Barker came in from Spain, but had no comment on any forthcom- ing marital plans. Robinson is a favorite here as a jury member, and his cigar and handwave are now familiar sights." Anne Baxter made a hit with her fine French and knowledge of old Gallic folk. Mel Ferrer and Leslie Caron were here for the showing of “Lili" (M-G), while Walt Disney scored a triumph with the biggest audience applause-for his “Water Birds.” He received the'Legion of JSonor .from Information Minister Emile Hugues. Olivia De Havilland has been rushed by autograph hounds, as have Zsa Zsa Gabor and George Sanders. Also here are Sam Spie- gel, William Wyler, Anatole Litvak and writers Ed Trzcinski and Harry Kurnitz, Coming in for the last days of the festival are Clark Gable and Bing Crosby. Besides “Peur,” another favored pic ist'he primitive, violent Brazil- ian mm, “O Cangaceiros” about the pattern and life of the bandits in north Brazil. Swedish film, “Ardent Loves of My Youth,” is a wellmade but thematic study of young love and its fight against convention. No nude Svenska brightened the screen this year. The Japanese-made "Legend of Buddha” is a long, simple pic about building a giant Buddha statue in the Eighth Century. It is too slow and naive for much U.S.-interest* ‘Peter Pan* Well Received London, April 21 The consistent refusal of the mo- tion picture industry to trade with British Broadcasting Corp.-TV o Q the supply of films-for television was criticized at an industry meet- ing by Farquharson Small. He produced the Current Release fea- tiire for 14 months until its ter- mination a fortnight ago. The BBC feels that the industry had been “a little mean” in its supply of product and hence Was not so sympathetic to any policy designed to help the boxoffice. The comment was made at a meeting to discuss future trade co- operation with BBV-TV, either by renewing Current Release at a later date or switching to an alter- native film program. The idea of a scrapbook series, based mainly on clips from film classics, bad pre- viously been turned down by sec- tions of the pix industry. Arising from the discussion, the BBC producer asked the industry to reconsider the supply of fea- tures for TV, and suggested an allocation of 12 oldies a year, pos- sibly on the basis of one from each of 12 companies. Time and date of telecasts would be agreed on with the industry to insure the least pos- sible adverse effect on cinema biz. Payments would need to be agreed on mutually between the distribs and the corporation. To reinforce his arguments, producer Small suggested that introduction of 3-D and widescreen might affect the re- issue value of . some of the older films. All-Time Low Continued from page 7 Audience reaction to * Alfred Hitchcock’s “I Confess” (WB) was lukewarm, with a general disap- pointment over the talkiness of the film. "Peter Pan"**’TR.KO) was well received and Disney looks headed for a special prize. The Finnish pic, "The White Reindeer " another grapevine fave, is an interesting supernatural production about woman who transforms herself into a white reindeer and preys on men. Interesting lensing, simple poetic quality and- good acting may make this a contender for a secondary prize. The French film, “Horizons Sans Fin,’’ evokes the life of French femme aviation heroine Helene Boucher, but Uses an oft-told tale of air heroism. Although it may do commercially, thi? hews to one dra m»tto lcvtL systems in addition to at least a limited amount of production in 2-D. In terms of processes to be used, only Republic reported that it was sticking to “flat” pix, at least for the time being. Studio said its present plans do not call for utiliz- ing any of the new projection tech* fiiques. U-I reported it would make most of its pix in flat or for wide- screen projection. Production Breakdown Studio production plans, as re- ported to. Breen for his survey, break down as follows: Columbia: 35 to 40 films for the year. Metro: At least 25, perhaps more. V Paramount: Do not know. Prob- ably 15-25. Republic: Between 20 and 30 films. All high budget. Studio re- ported it was abandoning the low budget western series. 1 RKO: “Very hard to answer.” 20th-Fox: Between 20 and 25, U-I: Plan 12 pix between June and October with another 20 sched- uled by October, 1954. Warners: Will announce pro- gram shortly. Studio now shut down- Despite the obvious slowdown, Hollywood feels it is in a good po- sition to meet any exhibitor de- mands until the prbduction picture is in better focus. - Majors cur- rently’ have a backlog of approxi- mately 200 films ready for release, and production slowdown has cued new study of this inventory to determine which films should be released in the ensuing months. Complicating Hollywood’s assess- ment of its future is the fact that the public has yet to see the highly- touted widescreen processes. "Shane,” lensed in flat, is being projected widescreen during its current Radio City Music Hall en- gagement. It will be several months before “The Robe,” first Cinemascope feature, is availaole to theatres. By that time, of course, several more 3-D filiiis will have made their appearance. .. On the basis of present condi- tions, industry veterans believe it may be a matter of six months be- fore the majors blueprint any con- crete production plans. As a result, it appears that there is little pros- pect of avoiding the new low-water mark for production this year. Present survey. Of course, does not take into consideration any joint production deals between Hollywood And foreign studios. Even if these reach record propor- tions, however, it’s doubtful tnj* the 1953 total will eome close to the previous . low .of 404 filnj!* i- f W7. 5 * i :