Variety (July 1954)

PICTURES With the French and Italo film agreements finally out Qf the way, the British pact remains aS, the only major deal to be .hurdled by the Motion Picture Export Assn. Feeling is that while 1954 may not topple the 1953 remittance record, it 'still shapes as one of the best years in terms of foreign business and coin transfers. Actual 1953 dollars-in-New York receipts rah around $180,000,00,0. However, this included such wind- falls as the Brazilian and French coin, which had accumulated over a period of years and which MPEA managed to unthaw. In addition, i^ere were a couple of big com- pensation deals. Impression gained is that, de- spite the continuing - shortage of dollars, the pressure has eased somewhat. In % several important markets the American companies stand to get out most of their coin in some way op another. According to MPEA, things do look brighter 4, but it’ll continue to be a tough ~No Bums? Hollywood, July 6. Paramount is doing a mag- nificent job in retitlinK “The JMagnificient Bastaf44'I al- though the Anal decisfbn is still to be made. Registered thus far at the MPAA title bureau are: “Mag- nificent Devils,” ‘‘Magnificent •Raiders,” “Magnificent Ras- cals” and Magnificent Scoun- drels.” Despite Film Shortage Versus Imports Remains Minneapolis, July 6. While beefing loudly about what North Central Allied calls “a tragic shortage of topdrawer pic- tures” which they say is “murder- job to squeeze out all the dollars i i n g” the boxoffice, Twin Cities nu'in? ns." i nn4 riiKcnnuonf run linncac owing us The only real setback this year has been the Japanese reduction in the number of import licenses. Where MPEA companies last year could bring in 120 (out of 150 air- located to the dollar area), they’ve but cut to 102 for the current year, which runs April to April. Total 1954-55 dollar area allocation is 121 . Rosy Spots However, there are many bright spots, such as Britain, for instance. A recent report from MPEA in London shows a balance of only 2% left there of the N. Y. credits over a five and a half year period stretching from June, 1948, to Jan- uary, 1954. In effect this means that the American outfits had a i Continued on page 20) EXHIBITOR AND ACTOR TO PRODUCE FILMS Hollywood, July 6. Production program of three pic- tures is set by Heilman-King Pro- ductions, a new company formed by Claude Heilman, formerly with Fox West Coast, and Charles L. King 3d, former actor. Heilman will produce and King will direct the films. First of the trio will be “The Furnace Within.” to be filmed next month on the Mojave Desert. Sec- ond will be “Forever and Ever,” to be shot in Japan. Third, still untitled, will be made in; Oregon. Screen Directors Guild Has 78 % Employment Hollywood, July 6. Screen Directors Guild of Amer- ica today has an all-time high em- ployment mark, with 78% of its meggers working, and its financial condition has virtually tripled over the past three years. In short, from a standpoint both of jobs and moola, SDG was never in better shape. SDG prexy George Sidney, serv- ing his third term as head of the guild, reported these facts in a progress report on what’s happened to the directors during the past three years. Illustrative of the healthy condition of the guild is the fact SDG paid $70,000 cash for a lot for' Its new office building, and will pay two-thirds of the $400,000 for the structure in cash. . When Sidney and exec secretary Joseph Yourigerman moved into the guild picture three years ago, only 37% of its members were working, as the industry was beset with boxoffice ills and a widespread ! first and subsequent run houses still continue to. fight shy of the Numerous available foreign re- leases, including British films, with a few exceptions, mainly the Alec Guinness opuses. They’re refusing to’date the for- eign pictures, regardless of the latter’s artistic merits, because they claim these films can’t deliver at the boxoffice. That goes, too, for all but an occasional British re- lease, they declare.,, Exhibitors here aver that even such outstanding British pictures as “The Holly and the Ivy,” “Mur- der Will Out," “Crash of Silence” (formerly titled “Story of Mandy”), “Folly to Be Wise” and “Turn the Key Softly” and Italian and j French prize winners like “Forbid- den Games,” “Fan Fan, the Tulip” and “Two Cents Worth of Hope,” for example, which are boff box- office in New York, brody in Minneapolis. It’s only a comparatively few that score creditably grosswise even for three local and one St. Paul “fine arts” theatres, accord- ing to S. D: Kane, NCA executive counsel. “So what chance would they have in the houses that don’t cater to the so-called carriage trade or longhairs?” he asks. In fact, he asserts, on the few occa- sions when the regular loop and top neighborhood theatres have taken a chance with any of them, the boxoffice results have been “disastrous.” One of the three local “fine arts” theatres is Sol Fisher’s Campus, catering to U. of Minnesota clien- tele. It’s undoubtedly as “success- ful” as the other two, but Fisher declares “We’re working -mostly for the distributors, the printers, the projectionists and the news- papers.” Tavalcade’ for Fall; Walter Reade ‘Drive* Walter Reade circuit has sked- ded a “President’s drive” Aug. 5 to Sept. 8. It’s billed as an em- ployees’ salute to prexy Walter Reade. Managers and others will split $2,500 in prize coin. or Following a trip fo Europe to ac- quire features and to represent the Film Council of America at the Venice film fete, Thomas Brandon of Brandon Films plans to launch his Cavalcade of international film hits in N. Y. in the >11. Brandon said last week' that, while on the continent, he plans to pick up a number of . new Italian,. French and Swedish productions for a newly formed syndicate or- ganized for that purpose. Incor- poration papers are now in the processing stage. . Idea of the Cavalcade is to pro- vide the arties with a steady sup- ply of outstanding pix of the past to round out their program of cur- rent foreign-language attractions. Pix will be sold as a package. Brandon said he had two N. Y. theatres already lined up to launch his series. He goes to Europe Aug. 3 and plans to stay six weeks. While there he intends to ac- quire for his Cavalvade such films as the German “Metropolis,” “Sieg- fried” and “Kriemhilde’s Revenge”; the French “Love of Jeanne Ney” and the Pagnol trilogy as well as “Antoine & Antoinette” and oth- ers. Some of these reissues, /i.e., “Visiteurs due Soir” and others, have already been tested in N. Y. arties. Brandon said that while in Ven- ice he would present there the winners of the recent non-theatri- cal film fest in Chicago. Venice competish has a special category for this type pic. AA SKEDS15 FILMS JOR LAST HALF OF ’54 Hollywood, July 6, Production program at Allied Artists for the second half of 1954 calls for 15 pictures, one of which will be in Cinemascope and three in Technicolor. July starters are “Bowery to Bagdad,” “Target Earth,” “Ketchi- kan” and “The Annapolis Story.’’ Others include “The Black Prince,” “Wichita,” “Legionnaire,” “John Brown’s Raiders,” “Gun Point,” “Dreamland,” “Hold Back the Night,” “Singapore East” and three more still to be named. Pamphlet’s Title Basis On Suit Vs. 20th-Fox Los Angeles, July 0. Arthur Curtis, writer, filed a plagiarism suit in Superior Court, charging 20th-Fox with lifting a title that belonged to him. Plaintiff claims he wrote a pamphlet titled “Mack, You’re in the Navy Now.” Later, he declares, the studio produced a film tagged “You’re in the Navy Now.” Direct Argument to Actor’s ‘Loyalty’ to Smallies— Say Latent Release Overpriced A direct appeal to indie produc- ers who release through the major distribs will be the next step in the exhibitors' fight against high film rentals. The theatremen, par- fear of the effects of tv. There I ticularly those operating small- was $67,000 in assets, $33,000 of; tovv ’ n art<1 nab e houses, will aim that being in cash. Today assets : their pitch at indie companies in total $238,000, $155,000 of which which performers have an inter- ls in cash. ; ■ est. — —-- The first move in this direction,; MORI KRLKMFM to roAcr ! as , P lanned by Allied States Assn., muKi KKU5HEN TO COAST will be directed at Batjae Produc- e *P^ ai - l0n chief lions, the company owned by John d A . rt l sts ,n ^ cw York * is Wa yne and Robert Fellows. Bat- rvpr Trf rh e ^oi h,S K^ eck ‘ • W ’ lI A op l ac ’ which biases through. Warner ® ifu 11 . >cago but main huddles Bros., has as its current entry “The uUl be in Los Angeles area. He'll, High and the Mighty,” a picture be KniihPri B<2 - Ver y Hll !f H , ote1, iexhibs claim is being sold at too Krushen is currently lining up stiff percentage terms. campaigns for “Apache.” “Bare-! As the basis for the direct ap- D° nte i SSa Ai ■ Y, era Cruz ” approach, especially pointed at ^The Purple Plain. j Wayne, exhibitors will argue that it is the smalltown houses that are responsible for the exhalted posi- tion the thesp now enjoys. These theatres, it will be claimed, were the largest ouLlets for the many westerns Wayne appeared in and were largely responsible for mak- ing the actor a national personal- ity. Wayne’s popularity as a re- sult of these playdates, it will be further argued, set/; tbe stage for. the actor to enteri/the top money' bracket.and eventually to enter in-, dependent production* Ekhibs then wilt pojnt out that those directly responsible for Wayne’s success are now deprived of his pictures since they can not pay the terms demanded biP War- ners. In a like manner, it will be noted, the fans that “made” him will not get a chance to see his most recent films. ass*:. V tf *'■" V*' ? ^The/West German maA^fTs the most ImpbrtanHd RiSie to ' the British producer and, bn average, rettirps something like 10% of the production cost. This was stated here last week by Sir Michael Balcon, who arrived in the German capital to receive the Selznick Golden Laurel medal as the European producer with the most consistent record, Sir-Michael is .the Ealing Studios topper / Although* it cost as >ttch>.mooo marks ,($a^^O®to iahhih a picture in the German market.Mncluding duWlhirmtv a top grosser can earn as much as 2,000,000 marks ($500,000), Balson said. His own studio had had a number of major successes in the market and-through,the Rank* Organization.they had their own distribution. Based on grosses, the thbst successful Ealing |>ix had been ad- venture yarns like “Where No Vultures Fly” and “Saraband for Dead Lovers.” He was confident there would also be hefty coin - returning frqm the presentation of “The Cruel Sea,” one of' Ealing’s top grossers in the United Kingdom. This Is a Discovery? No question about it, sex is here to stay-—at least as far as Here McIntyre, Universal’s South Pacific supervisor, is concerned. ~ . Said he in reporting on U pix he’d seen on the Coast: “We’ve got two films out there that really capture the impact of sex.” And by way of explanation he added: “Sex is a very im- portant quality In pictures!” Any arguments? - . V... ■- i. —- Yanks Wonder About Pay Demands Pattern; Same In Widely Separated Lands Badgered as they are with mount- ing labor demands in Latin Amer- ica, impression is growing among the companies in N. Y. that the unrest is organized rather than spontaneous. It’s recognized that the inflation that has hit many of these coun- tries produces cries for higher wages—-and that ‘some adjustments probably have to be made—but execs are struck by the similarity of the unions’ terms in widely sep- arated areas. Robert Corkery, Motion Picture Export Assn, supervisor for Latin America, reported yesterday (Tues.) that agreement on>a new contract had been reached in Argentina. Involved is a 15% across-the-board raise and adoption of a sliding scale to determine the minimum wage. Corkery also said he had noted the uniformity of union de- mands for contract revisions not only as applied to wages but also to fringe benefits. The companies are faced with labor demands in Brazil, Lima, Santiago, Bogota, Mexico City, etc. Corkery observed that inevitable result will be to raise operational costs in the entire area. 4 N. Y. to Europe Alex Alstone Lemuel Ayers Mrs. Martin Beck S. N. Behrman Henry Berman Ted Cott Leonard Crainford Xavier Cugat Peter Cusicks Charles K. Feldman Fred W. Friendly Norm Hill David Marshall Holtzmann Jean Kerr ‘ Walter F. Kerr Abbe Lane Mitchell Leisen Don Loper Joseph Mankiewicz Maynard Morris Bernard Pf ackter Dario Soria Leonard Splgelgass Mike Todd Joseph R. Vogel : L'oU Walters • William Zimmerman N. Y. to L. A. A. E. Bollengier Richard Conte Truman Gibson Henry Gross Robert E. Kintner Mori Krushem Joe Robertr . Reacting sharply to the reported subsidy provision in the .new French film pact, Ellis Arhall, So- ciety of Independents Motion Pic- ture Producers prexy, has formally asked the State Dept, to'state its position re, such agreements and to explain “whether they are in line with the general, economic and foreign policies of the govern- ment.” Request, embodied in a four- page letter to Secretary of 'State John Foster Dulles, spelled. out the Society’s objections to deals such as the one negotiated by the Motion Picture Export Assn, in France. It also contained the fol- lowing charges: 1. Such grants (as provided in the MPEA’s French deal) neces- sarily restrain the export trade of domestic competitors jof MPEA in the doing of business in France. 2. They enable the French to obtain funds from MPEA “to use in an unrestricted fashion for the production, exploitatioh, advertise- ment or even the exhibition of French pictures in the U. S. as well as in other countries in competi- tion with pictures of American producers who are not members of the MREA to their injury and detriment.” 3. The effect of the so-called agreement amounts to a purchase of certain economic privileges from the French government by MPEA. These privileges, Arnall claimed, are denied to American competi- tors of MPEA who may desire to do business in France. Implication Arnall's letter contained: the im- plied question of whether MPEA prexy Eric Johnston, due to his capacity as special Presidential en- voy and State Dept, rep, was nego- tiating film deals with the auto- matic approval of the Department. “It Is Tery vital to the Society of Independent Motion Picture Pro- ducers that we be advised whether such subsidy agreements have the (Continued on page 16) • • L. A. to N. Y. John Baragrey Gene Barry Lloyd Bridges v Cubby Broccoli Timothy Carey Rosemary Clooney Gary Cooper Myma Dell Armand Deutsch Howard Dietz Brian Donlevy Jose Ferrer Bob Hope ' Ross Hunter John Ireland ' Marvin Kaplan Otto Kruger Jerry Lewis Gary Merrill Charles Moskowit* Don Porter Gene Riaymond Nicholas M. Schenck Richard Skinner Gary Stevens Jonie Taps EurG^eitdiNJ Y; Barney Balabau- , Betsy Drake V Eva Gabor, ,. Joops .Geesink .. • . Max Gordon Cary Grant Josephine Houston Eric Johnston Grace Kelly Claire Booth Luce James Stewart Benjamin Thau Spencer Tracy