Variety (November 1954)

Wednesday, November 3, 1954 PICTURES $ . ^^^^B , ^^b ^b /-^v ^h ^b ^m ^n. ^m ^^B ^B ■ ^^B ^B ■ ^m ^^B ^B ^^B ^^B V ^H ^B ■ ^V ^B ‘ ‘ ^^B ^^B ^B ^^B ‘ 9 J Earning record of 20th-Fox Cine- mascope pix as year’s end ap- proaches indicates a switch from the former pattern, with practically every one of the films in release so far recouping its negative cost in the domestic market alone. While the quality of the individu- al features has varied, their b.o, performance, despite still limited outlets, has. been very strong. The 13 CinemaSqopefs released by. 20th so far have brought in over $50,- 000,000 in rentals. And out of the 13 films, 10 so -far have netted $2,-. 000,000 or more. This contrasts with the prior per- formance which, within a year and a half, saw only seven out of 54 re- leases taking in $2,000,000. And in quite a few cases, the pix de- pended on the foreign, revenue to recoup their negative cost. Even though budgets on the C’Scope films have been Somewhat higher; these films have managed to break even on only between 4,000 and, 5,000 bookings and less. Total number of theatres in the U. S. and Canada now equipped for CineniaScope stands ait 8,700* giving 20th 7,900 possibilities. Practically all of the keys are now equipped. ‘'The Robe” now has accumulated domestic rentals of approximately $15,000,000 in 55 weeks of release. It’s still bringing in between $50,- 000 and $75,000 a week as the rate ' of houses equipping continues; at a steady 210 a week. Even a film like “Prince Valiant,” considered one of the weakest in the C’Scope lineup, so far has (Continued on page 18) Too Preoccupied With Shortage, Rank-Filers Blank Toll-TV Issue Chicago, Nov. 2. Rank and file .members and even several board members of TO A are shovving little concern over metered teievisi which has been billed iby. some exhibition leaders as the villain that threatens to wipe oUt theatres by the thousands. Reason is they’re so wrapped up with the matter of product availability that there’s little time to devote to other matters. The supply of pic- tures is an immediate problem, it’s pointed out, Whereas toll tv lies ahead in an obscure future. The TO A board and exec com- mittee, though, on the .whole ate far from stuffing off the subject. A formal vote was taken authoriz- ing ‘TOA’s continued participation in a joint industry committee on subscription tv. This is headed by TOA’s Alfred Starr and Allied States’ Trueman Rembusch. The TOA leaders further prom- ised to do all “Within their legal power” to fight this projected box- officization of home video. SWEDISH ‘HAPPINESS' MINNEAPOLIS MOP-UP Minneapolis, Nov. 2. For the. first time in local film history, a : picture has gone ‘into its second month in a neighborhood house here! Moreover*, it’s starting its sixth week with no end of the run in sight: IFhe picture is the Swedish “One Summer of Happiness” and the theatre the Suburban World where it’s having its first territory run in a 600-seat artie house ordinarily showing subsequent runs. previous long record for any neighborhood house here was chalked up recently when the Westgaite ran “Genevieve” for four weeks. Columbia's Nov. 22 Meeting Annual meeting of Columbia stockholders is set for Nov. 22 in N.Y., with stockholders of record on Nov. 1 entitled to vote. Election of officers is the main item on the agenda so far. Milestone Hollywood, Nov; Z» To J. Carrol Naish goes; the distinction of using the naughty word, “damn,” in ai picture for the first time since, the revision of the Production Code. In Nat Holt’s “Seven Rad Men” he says “I’ll blow ‘ his damn, head oftl” but with- out makiiig the word too ex- pressive. Formerly condemned, the word still must have Code ap- proval before it is used. In this case it used merely to show the character of the user, a gangster. Chicago, Nov. 2. Distributors , Corp. of America will have a schedule of nine pro- ductions for release over the next three years, Fred j. Schwartz, president of the, outfit, disclosed, here yesterday (Mon), List iri- cludes “I Am A Camera,” lensed abroad by Moulin Productions With Julie Harris, Shelly Winters and Laurence Hervey in the, top roles; Schwartz is in Chi to line up support for DC A from exhibitors attending the Theatre Ow of America convention. Being readied as the first DCA release is “Long John Silver,” produced in Australia by Joseph Kaufman. Others on the sked. are “Lelia,” produced by Bernard Luber with Olivia eke Havilland in the lead; “The Viking,’’ to be made in Scandinavia in association with Milo Frank; “The. Way We Are,” to; be produced by Robert Aldrich with Joan Crawford; Fi ian’s Rainbow,” cartoon adaptation of the legit musical; “The Survivors,” to be made by the Boulting Brothers; ‘‘Hunters of the Deep," billed as “an underwater ad- venture,” and an untitled property by Sam and Bella Spewack. WARNERS BRINGS LATIN REPS TO MEXICO CITY Warner Bros. Lati American staffers will convene in Mexico City Nov. 15 to 26. Sales session will be presided over by Wolfe Cohen, prexy of Warner. Interna- tional. Cohen left over the weekend for Rio de Janeiro to attend the annual convention of: the Brazilian staff. He then proceeds to Argentina and later to Peru for a general survey of those countries before arriving in Mexico for the Latin American meet. Samuel Schneider, Warner Bros, v.p., will also attend the Mexico confab as Will homeoffice exec's John J. Glynn, Karl. Macdonald, and Jerry Keyset. CHARLES SKOURAS' WILL Life Trust for Widow, Son, \ Brother, Friends, Executors Los Angeles, Nov. 2. Will of the late Charles P; Skouras, filed for probate in Su- perior Court, leaves a trust fund, with the income payable to his widow, Mrs. Florence L. Skouras for life, On her death the trust property goes to his three chil- dren, Mrs. Jack Jungmeyer Jr., Mrs. Margaret L. Curti and Charles P. Skouras Jr. Balance of the estate, listed as being “in ex- cess of $10,000,” is left to his wife, Mrs. Florence Skouras. Named as executors of the will and trustees of the trust are his son, Charles P; Jr., brother George and two friends, Michael Rosen- berg, of Pacific Drive-In. Theatres, land John B. Bertero, of National Theatres. Shorts subjects, in a new bid.for exhib attention, are fitting them- selves to the new widescreen age via an accent on novelty. It's still an uphill struggle for the reelers but execs feel, they’re finally be- ginning to. see the light. This, they stress, isn’t sayidg that the going iin’t rough. - It is. Costs keep rising and, bn the whole; the- atremen continue to toe a price line set many years, ago and wholly out of step with present producer expenses. / *HoWever, Cinemascope and the widescreen are offering the shorts men a chance to exploit those new .vistas. And with the emphasis thus on the. “diff erent,” and a good mahy more single bills in the country than there were prior to C’Scope, it’s felt that exhib resistance to higher shorts rentals must gradually be broken down. While, In the regular one and two-reel subjects an attempt is being made; to become more docu- mentary in . approach—there are more travel shorts being made than ever before—cartoon content is beirig switched to a more imagina- English Wildlife Shorts Series of 13 tWo-reelers on the life and habits of birds and animals-has been acquired by Noel Meadow for theatrical, tv and 16m distribution. Films, . entitled “The World of Life,” were produced ih England by Countryman Films, Ltd. Each film contains from three to four different subjects , related to Wildlife. Some de- part from, that line, like the . one providing behind- the-scenes view of the British Mt. Everest expedition testing its oxygen equipment in a de- compression chamber. tive plain. There . is a definite trend away form the cat-chases- mouse . yarns With their consider- able violence. Producer Walter Larttz, who makes the “Woody Woodpecker” Cartoons for Universal and has been at it since 1916, expressed it this way in N. Y. last week: “I’m definitely determined to give our stories a new freshness and to get away from the eternal chase theme. We’ve had complaints about it, and now is as good a time to break away as any. People are in the (Continued on page 16) ‘Live* Comment Arthur Krim and Arnold Picker, United Artists’ presi- dent <and foreign department v.p,, respectively,. visiting a theatre in ■ Siam during their recent trip abroad, encounter^ ed. a truly unique pic presen- tation.- . An American film was being shown With the dialog cut out. Accompanying the .action were the voices of three native ac- tors who" were stationed in the projection booth. Seems this precludes the need for titling or dubbing foreign-tongue product. UA’s Own Point 4: United Artists is out to help na- tive industries abroad via the addi- tion of foreign product to its re- lease schedule and co-production deals, Arthur Bi Krim, president, stated in N. Y. laJt Week following an extensive swing of the Far East. He id the foreign market repre- sents, a "two way street,” that for- eign industries are straining under severe economic problems and “we’re trying to help in some meas- ure to compensate for What we are taking out.” That last referred to Yankee film company earnings overseas; In line with this, the prez re- lated that UA is now “exploring” distribution of a new Philippine film. “Genghis Khan,” made in Manila, was handled by UA’ last year. This is the type of coopera- tion cited, by Krim as serving to lessen the opposition toward Amer- ican film companies by foreign in- dustries. Krirh reported that he and .Arnold Picker, UA’s. foreign opera- tions chief, 'who had accompanied him on the trip, found considerable interest on the part of government officials, producers and financial men in the company’s coproduction ideas. He said the. distrib has “set up the machinery for making worldwide pictures and as a prop- erty, comes up we Can move fast. We .are looking for pictures which have the same* chance of success as ‘African Queen,’ ‘Moulin Rouge* and /Barefoot Contessa.V all of which were lensed abroad.” The chief exec said he found (Continued on page 16) 4- While television has reduced the 1 volume- of 16m “hom.emovie” biz by about 50%, distribs of the nai> row-gauge films say there’s been a distinct upbeat of 16m showings in plants and factories. Also on the plus' side, they port that 8n\ business is up ap- proximately 259 r This despite, the fact that most people who own 8m projectors, are content with just running films made via their own hand cameras. Latest estimate puts the number; of noncommercial 16m projectors in the U, S. at about 750,000. Thi contrasts with approximately 8,000,-. 000 or more 8m home projectors, Biggest distributor by far of 16m and 8m pix is United World, a sub- sidiary of Universal. Company, it’s understood, has. been hard hit by the tv impact, but is increasingly tying into that field via shorts sales. It has about 125 titles available for video out of a, total title list of 12 , 000 . ' IJW library being used exten- sively by schools and other groups and does its business increasingly in the documentary field. However, it continues to distribute one-reel versions of old Universal and other films, and it also produces pix. While the earnings of UW aren’t disclosed ; in the U balance sheets, it’s understood that the outfit is running in the. black. Fabian Chides Exhibs For Phlegmatic Attitude Toward Theatre Video Chicago, Nov. 2. TOA members in. convention here got the back-of-the-hand treatment from S. H. (Si) Fabian and Mitchell Wolfson, head of the“ organization’s theatre , television committee. In a report on this subject, the two circuit operators rapped the lack of exhibitor sup- port for advancing closed-circuit tv as a medium of entertainment and for its employment by cpjjii- mercial clients. Fabian and Wolfson Said there are several, bottlenecks holding up expansion of piped-in video but, they moaned, “the greatest ob- stacle is the lack of exhibitor vi- sion and enthusiasi for these sources of revenue.” Re the .entertainment end of the- atre tv, the report stated “We have been marking time during the past year.” There had been two Marci- ano-Charles heavyweight bouts picked up by exhibitors and a few football games. On the commercial side, “some slight progress” was commented upon. Ford Motor, S.ealtest, National Dairy, Chrysler and Dodge conducted meetings (Continued on page 18) U.S. Data, Year Behind and Corrected, Traces Falloff (Since Revised) at Film B.O# Washington, Nov: 2. American public spent an all time high on recreation and amuse- ments in. 1953 but the share left at the boxoffices of the. nation’s film .theatres, continued to sag for the seventh straight year. (The trend has since been re- versed—Editor). Spending for television and mur sical instruments, foreign travel. and gambling at the horse and: dog tracks continued high, as it did in the field of live entertai mnt. • Take of the film theatre in 1953 was $1,252,000,000 per U, S. Dept, of Commerce data. .This was one more, year of unbroken decline from the peak of $1,692,000,000 hit in 1946, (Commerce Dept, revised most totals for the past decade, some by as much as $300,000,000 be- low figures announced in previous years. However, the trend remained unchanged.) . Boxoffice take for .legit, opera* etc., and entertainment staged by non-profit institutions (except for [sports, events) was a big $185,000,- 000 last year, second only to the peak of $188,000,000 reached in 1947; The gain last year, was $4,0.00,000 oyer 1952. The • American public. thronged to th tracks in 1953 and left the parimutuels with .net receipts of $377,000,000, an all-time high, in- dicating the amount of legal bet* ting. Tpat the. nation had Itchy, feet is shown in the record break- ing total of $1,959,000,000 spent t on foreign travel and remittances by U. S, citizens, an increase of about $300,000,000 over 1952 which had been the previous, year record. Last year our people bought $2,176,000,006 worth of radio and television sets, records, and musi- cal instruments, bettering the pre- ceding year, and second dnly to the record year of 1950 W'hen $2,379,000,000 Went to this pur- pose. In addition, we spent no less than $533,000,000 (a new record) on the, repair of radio arid tele- vision sets. The two items would indicate where many of the dol- lars went in 1953, which formerly- 1 were spent at. the film theatres. i HOST 1,500 NUNS AT CHI ‘CINERAMA’ SHOW Chicago, Nov. 2. ’ Palace Theatre last week hosted gratis performance of “Cinerama” for the Sisters of the. Archdiocese of Chicago. Special showing was held Saturday morning (30). for about 1,500 nuns. Showing was a public relations gesture, as “Cinerama”. has been getting Catholic blessings in both church and press. HORSE KICK A LADY? Not Roy Rogers’ Gallant Trigger, Jujry Decides Los Angeles, Nov. 2. Roy Rogers' Trigger ain’t the kind of a hoss that goes around kicking fqmmes. That is what a jury in Superior Court decided £\fter hearing testimony in th $186,000 damage suit brought by actress Mabel Sirianey against Rogers and his palomino. Plaintiff contended that Trigger kicked her during the shooting of “Son of Paleface” in 1951, Jury ruled that, the hoss merely brushed \ against her.