Variety (November 1954)

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PICTURES kA&iETt Wednesday, November 3, 1954 By HY HOLUNGER Because the big film trend of the past two years has given the Holly- wood film studios an almost obsess- ive interest only in “pre-sold” 'story values,- which is to say, pro r duced plays, published hovels, lit- erary material already known to, and approved by, the public,- there is a new upsurge in film sales in the book publishing business. Two things are. sharply marked: (1) hardcover: novels are commanding $50,000 to $100,000 deals and (2) softcover re-issues^ tied to the film release,, are On the increase: This follows a long layoff during which the literary men and the film men were barely on speaking terms. New relationship is based on concessions oh both sides, but there’s still constant bickering on what and how much, is to provide toward the promotion of. the view- ing and reading property. Insistence by the film companies that books be -specially designed with, “movie covers” still peeves the publishers, since they ,feel that once the film is played off the pub- lic is reluctant- to . purchase these “dated’ 1 books. - Various compro- mises, however, are worked out, •ith the. publishers- occasionally providing a special cover, placing a special band around the book, giving credit to the fill on the title page, . plugging the film on the inside of. other books emanat- ing from the house. One of the biggest beefs regis- tered by the fill men is. that the bookmen do not .sufficiently carry their end of the. advertising load. The tug-of-war on advertising and proper identification of the film is going on, but this hasn’t prevented numerous lieups. from being made. The bookmen have another squawk in the ; fact that the.film companies, keep Changing their release dates (Continued on page 18) . . ; «■> 2 YANK TELEPIX MAKE FEATURE FOR BRITONS Hollywood, Nov. 2*. Republic has put two telepix to- gether to form a feature-length film for theatrical release in Eng- land as "Stories'' of the Century No. 1.” Telefilm series, starring Jim Davis and Mary Castle, was made n the Republic.lot by Revue Pro- ductions: and telecast locally by KTTV. Not Tax Exempt Washington, Nov. 2. Toilet preparations sold to a motion picture studio “for use on studio stars” is not exempt from the retail excise tax op such preparations, Internal Revenue Service reminded last week. Revenue issued a memo on uses of cosmetic preparations which were tax exempt anu specifically emphasized that sales to studios were covered by the tax. CHARITY DEDUCTIONS /'i. f c, Weekly Payroll Bite Bi Coast Cushion Hollywood, Nov: 2. With a backlog. of $650,000 al- ready subscribed through year-to- year payroll deductions under the Fair Plan, the Motion Picture Per- manent Charities opened its 1955 drive yesterday, aiming to raise $1,250,000 for health and welfare agencies. Ralph Clare, chairman of the campaign, states-that more than 14,000 industry workers have pledged one-half of 1% of every paycheck for community welfare. French Comic on NBC Spec Jacques Tati,' the Frenchman, whose pantomii antics ‘ “Mr. H.i.ilot y Holiday” attracted . the . . .‘itics’ attention, is. back from Paris.to appear on a MaxiLiebman spectacular Sunday (7). Tati, ac- companied by Jules Buck, the “B" of.. GBD International Films, ^fiew. out to Chi lor a day to pro- mote the Surf Theatre opening of “)Iu lot.” ittch rd Davis and Don Getz, of the triumvirate, are handling, the distribution -of the film for first- run -situations. On sub-run dates, they’re turning it over to a sub-, distrib. For example; in New York, the Joe Burstyn office is peddling the subsequent dates. .Davis and Getz, meanwhile, are■ attempting .to' lin6 lip several , circuit dales. Richard W. Altschuler, Repub- lic’s worldwide “sales chief, after huddling on the Coast with proxy Herbert J. Yales, attending TOA Chicago convention. Washington, Nov. 2. The recent upbeat.in motion pic-* tures Is reflected again in dividend figures compiled by the U S. Com- merce Dept. For the : first ine months of 1954, the industry re- ported cutting melons for stock- holders. to an aggregate of $18,978,- 000,. substantial improvement’ over the $16,257,000 for the same period of 1953. In August, of 1954, dividends to- taled $1,426,000 compared With $846,000 for August of last., year. In September, disbursement to stockholders was a sock $3,996,000, standing well above the $3,036,000 of a year earlier. Big differences favoring 1954 were these: Stanley-Warner,^Which paid nothing last year, paid, a divi- dend of $619,000 this year;. Allied Artists, Which paid nothing last year, cut a $118,000 melon this year; Loew’s, Inc, upped its divi- dend from $1,029,000 to $1,286,000; 2Qth-Fox increased from $692,000; last September to $1,108,000 . for September, 1954; and Universal in* creased from $59,000 to.$299,000. • Above figures represent only about 60 or 65% of all dividends, Mori Krushen to Texas Mori Krushen, exploitation di- rector of United Artists, is on a three-week swing, mostly in Texas. He will confer With circuit, heads in that' state, Oklahoma and Louisi- ana. Immediate targets are “Barefoot Contessa” and !‘Vera Cruz” cam- paigns. ALGER HEROES EN BLOC. Boston Variety Club Hails Recently Promoted Film Execs , ? Boston, Nov. 2. A luncheon honoring, filmrowites who have recently been promoted to new jobs is to be tossed by the Variety Club at the Bradford’ Roof, Nov, 9, Metro’s Berin Rosenwald is chairman for. the affair and all exchange managers are serving on the committee. Those to be feted are: James- Connolly,' upped from 20th’s branch manager to division man- ager; James Feloney, 20th sales- man,’ promoted to branch manager; Joseph Gins, new Universal divi- sion mapager; Francis DerVin, ex- RKQ branch-manager, now'assist- ant to James Grainger in RKO’s home office; Herbert Schaeffer, who; resigned .as Republic branch manager to take over as New Eng- land ^sales manager for Buena Vista; Ralph Iannuzzi, transferred from WB's Atlanta exchange to Hub branch manager post; John Moore, upped from branch man- ager at Paramount to division man- ager; Jack. Brown, prompted from salesman to Paramount branch manager; William Madden, former- ly Metro city salesman, now branch manager at Philadelphia, and Jud- son Parker, who resigned as Re- public salesman to assume post of branch manager for. Screen Guild Pictures. . Expansion of Allied' Artists’ dis- tribution facilities ‘ Europe, which the. company has long been considering, likely will be launched following the annual stockholders’ meet Nov. 10 in Hollywood. Board will also convene about that time and is expected to decide whether the buildup should be accomplished by improving the firm’s, existing continental offices, use branches of another major on a joint basis or .acquire additional franchise hold- ers. Survey of the overall situation was made by A A foreign chief Nor- ton V. Ritchey Who returned .last week from a two-month swing through the continental market. He Conferred with key circuit heads and distributors in Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Por- tugal and . the Scandinavian coun- tries. While it’s understood that some agreements were negotiated, no major changes will be made un- til after Ritchey reports to the board. Trade’ circles feel that if a de- cision is made to join hands with another major the most logical contender is 20th-Fox. For AA al- ready has. a deaPwith 20th on two (Continued on page 61) $50100 Location Trip an Economy Tarry town’s Colonial Settings Ideal But MetnTFaked Hudson River—British Market Angle on 1776 Argument that. Hollywood’s pen- chant for authenticity is unneces- sarily. Up ibg the production costs via- extensive location shooting ; is disputed by Metro producer Nich- olas Nayfack and director John Sturgis. Pair, who were in .New York last week, to' shoot upstate •scenes for “The Scarlett Coat,” a Revo 1 utionary 'Waf/story, point out that the cost to build sets in Holly- wood to equal the old Revolution- ary period - barns and buildings found near Tarrytow , N; YyWould far exceed the cost of bringing a crow east. In addition, Nayfack noted, th on-the-spot shooting “adds a plus quality in acceptability and credi- bility;” The five-day shooting of exteriors upstate with a crew of 18 and 15 actors hired locally. repre- sents about $50,000 of the $1,600,- 000 budget for thd picture. Cornel Wilde was the only star needed for the N, Y, scenes. ' Although the Coast crew was shooting on the banks of the Hud- son River, it was necessary to fake the-river. “We couldn’t find a spot that didn’t have railroad tracks,” Sturgis noted. “We had to use a local lake as the Hudson; How- ever,.we found a large estate which had remained p r a e t i c a 1.1 y un- touched with the buildings that went back as far as 1730. Many •haife been restored and look no diffrent than they did during the Revolutionary period.” Nayfack disclosed that American film companies' usually avoid Revo- lutionary War pictures for fear of losing the British market. How- ever, in “The Scarlett Coat,” deal- ing* with the Benedict Arnold epi- sode, Maj. John Andre is depicted ; as a British hero. The screenplay by Karl Tunberg is based largely on Andre’s journals. Following completion of “Goat,” Nayfack undertakes “Swordsmen of Sienna,” an orgirial by Margaret Irwin and Ralph Bettinson to be filmed iri. Italy, Other pix on. his schedule are “The Big Sin,” a novel by Jack Webb (not the “Dragnet” one), ’The Power and the Prize,” a, novel of big business, by Howard Swiggeti, and “Forbid- J den Planet,” a science fiction yarn. *b* There’s realljThothing very new any more in the film bi?. Right now, there’s concern all ’round about the high cost of features and the distribs’ need to earn back; very large sums to recoup their costs and show a profit. Budgets of $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 are becoming quite commonplace. , , Almost exactly 40 years ago, in FebruaryLaf.1915, an industry topper wrote to Samuel Goldwyn- about D. W» Griffith’s just com-' pleted, 12-reel. feature, “The Birth of a Nation”: “I, .. heard rumors that the film cost nearly, a hundred thousand dollars! This means,, of course, that even though, it is a hit, which it probably will be, it cannot ppssibly make any money. It would have to gross over a quarter* of a, million for Griffith to get his cost back, and, as you know,, that just isn’t being done. I suppose you’re right when you say there is no advantage hi leading if the cost of leadership makes commercial success impossible. It. does seem too bad that such a magnificent effort is doomed to financial failure.” * The Golden Dozen (OCTOBER) 1, "Star Is Born” (WB). Z. “Woman’s World” (20th). 3. “Sabrink” (Par). 4. “Waterfront” tCol.). 5. “Cinerama” (Indie). 6. “Brigadoon” (M-G). 7; “Rear Window” (Par). 8. “Egyptian” (20th). 9, “Suddenly”: (UA). 10. “Rogue Cop” (M-O). 11. ‘‘Human Jungle” (AA). 12. “Seven Brides” (M-G). Minneapolis, Nov. 2. Bill Diehl, St Paul Dispatch-Pi- dneer Press film critic, thinks his picture, has been turned to the wall at the T>yin Cities’ United Artists branch because he has been pan- ning recent U. .Ay releases, includ- | ing “The Moon Is Blue,” “The Malta Story” and “Sitting Buli,” Which last name he refers to as “our fuzzy, faltering friend.” At least, in his review of the cur- rent “Suddenly” he informed his readers in the opening sentence that Tie is persona non grata with. U. A.-r-as welcome 'the - change as “a .fly in the soup.” Praising “Suddenly.” “the season’s suspense winner” and ad- vising every thrill or tension fan not td miss it, Diehl took pains in the review to explain that his high- ly favorable appraisal doesn’t, fep- resent an effort to get back into U. A.’s good graces. “And we haven’t been reading Dale Carnegie either,” the review concluded. .Preeming of new, strong product last month improved business gen- erally ..key cities covered by Variety: during the last 31 days, Indian Summer temperatures and storms cut into trkde in some lo- calities, but nothing: could: prevent a batch of four new big pictures from rolling up great totals. Although two or fhriee, other films dominated’the field early in the month, two weeks of “Star, Is Born’* (WB) enabled that opus to soar so high it took top money in October. It ranged from socko to terrific in every opening week. “Star” was No. 1 the two weeks it was out in release extensively. Actual money total of the Judy Garland-James Mason starrer not too far ahead of “Woman’s World” (20th), which was a staunch second-place winner. “World” was first orie session' and never dipped below second place all month. In fact, the big coin rolled up by the five greatest grossing pix amounted to a total gross of over $4,500,000, This plainly indicated great interest in the top money pictures; “Sabrina” (Par), another first- place winner one week, copped third position. This production got off to a smash start but felt the competition from pix released later in the month. Film is regarded as having such innate boxoffice stam- ina it probably will be. heard from additionally in the future. “Waterfront” (Col), third one week and fourth another, wound up fourth. Absence, of many key playdates early in October seem- ingly hurt its. chances of - soaring higher. Marlon Brando pic looks to be one of Columbia’s biggest grossers of the 1954-55 season, judging from strength on most playdates. “Cinerama” (Indie), continues to roll although showing some de- clining tendencies r in certain 16- (Continued on page 16) L.A. to N.Y. June Allyson Frank Aletter, Phyllis Avery Lemuel Ayers Jack Bailey Sy Bartlett Edgar Bergen Julian Blaustei Nanette Fabray Ed Feldman Nina Foch Stewart Granger Paul Henreid Ruth Hussey Fritz Lang Barbara Lawrence Dave Mathews Ray Middleton May Mulvey Gene Nelson Mike O’Shea Dick Powell J;ocl Preston Vincent Price Gene Raymond .toe Schoenfeld McGregor Scott Mort Sidley Richard Skinner Spyros P. Skoura.S Benay Venuta Hal Wallis N.Y. to L.A. Robert Aldrich Jerry Devine Eva Gabor George Jessel Ruth Matteson Paul McGrath Nicholas Nayfack George Nichols Dore Schary Geoffrey Shurlock Arthur Sircom John Sturges Robert Vogel Cornel Wilde N.Y. to Europe Jose Ferrer Ketti Frings Kurt- Frings Trevor Howard Jack Hylton Henry Kaufman Arnold M. Picker St. John Terrell Archie Thomson Europe to N.Y. Irving Berli Ivy Carey Steven R. Carli George Cukor Rene Fraday Glynis. Johns Nathan Milstein Edmund Purdom June Richmond Edmon Ryan . Joseph H. Seidelman Richard Thorpe