Variety (February 1955)

Wednesday, February 2, 1955 PICTURES FILMS’ ‘WHAT PRICE HONESTY’ -r+ Legion’s Tab on Film Morals National Legion of Decency, Roman Catholic reviewing group, has provided comparative statistics on “moral” content of pictures over the years. The organization’s “B” rating means a film is “objectionable in part”; “C” is for “condemned.” Total No. of Films Year Rated Class B Class C 1950 4f>9 103 8 • 1951 442 85 14 1952 446 „ 78 14 1953 383 89 4 1954 352 78 9 Universal’s Rising Annual Profit For Fifth Year; 46% Over 1953 Universal last week continued to 4 sound its “onward and upward” note in an annual report noting a record volume in worldwide bill- ings and a 1954 net of $3,797,688, a 4 6 r ,i rise over 1953. Figures were for the year ended Oct. 30. ’54, and showed the com- pany in an extremely healthy financial position. Domestic bill- ings for the year were $46,827,579 and foreign billings $31,060,109 for a total of $77,887,688 in worldwide film rentals. The comparable fig- ure for 1953 was $70,490,254. Big- gest increase'in 1954 was in for- eign sales which rose more than $4,000,000, from $26,860,203 in ’53 to $31,060,109 last year. With the annual report, stock- holders received notice of their an- nual meet on March 9. 1955. in N. Y. Board of 11 directors will be elected at that time. Proxy statement showed that Decca Records as of Dec. 31. 1954, owned 718,585 shares of Universal common. That’s about 68.1?c of the U common stock outstanding. It also disclosed the salaries of the company’s directors and officers totaled $748,389 for the year. Breakdown is as follows: N. J. Blumberg, board chairman, $78,000; Milton R. Rackmil, presi- dent, $80,002; Alfred E. Daff, exec v.p., $74,520, and John J. O’Con- nor. v.p., $52,000. The $3,797,688 net for ’54 made it the fifth consecutive year to show a rise in profits for U. (Continued on page 20) It Hal Wallis Properties Readying for Cameras Include Five Plays Joseph H. Hazen. partner of Hal B. Wallis, left New York for the Coast yesterday (Tues.) to view a rough cut of Wallis* “The Rose Tattoo.” Film, in black & white VistaVision, is based on Tennessee Williams* stage play. It stars Burt Lancaster and Anna Magnani. Hazen will also confer with Wal- lis on the outfit’s future pioduc- tion plans. Pair have set Feb. 28 as the starting date for the next Martin & Lewis starrer, “Artists and Models.” Properties on Wallis’ upcoming production slate include “The Rainmaker,” N. Richard Nash’s current Broadway hit; “Summer and Smoke,” another Williams Play; “A Stone for Danny Fisher,” a novel by Harold Robbins which was recently dramatized by Lenard Kantor for off-Broadway; “Gun Fight «t O. K. Corral,” George Seullin’s Holiday mag story, and “Night Man,” play by Lucille T letcher. Springer Productioh Set In Portugal; Seek Crawford John Springer, an RKO pub- licist, has acquired screenrights to jora Jarrett’s novel, “Strange Houses,” and plans to produce as • Technicolor film on location in Portugal in cooperation with James Terry and the American Producer’s Group. DeWitt Bodeen is scripting the him. Springer has approached Joan Crawford to star in it.' A second Springer-Terry pic for the American Producer's Group also is in the planning stages. Greeqthal Cops Circus Monroe Greenthal Advertising Agency in N. Y„ which handles a number of film accounts, has landed Bamum & Bailey-Ringling Bros. Circus. The circus opens March 30 at Madison Sq. Garden. Account is estimated at $750,000 annually. VS. NOVEL TOPICS By FRED IIIFT Studios' tendency to hit an oc- casional offbeat note in story selection presents something of a poser to the companies’ ad-pub staffs who have to determine how far to go in telling the public what’s in a given picture. Selecting the right copy pitch is at best a hit-and-miss proposi- tion, the b.o. being the final arbiter on what has or hasn't been a good campaign. Trouble is that, once a company settles on a certain ap- proach. i.e. decides what it thinks the public wants to know about a film, there’s no looking back, since changing horses in mid- stream rarely pays off. Gimmicked Proposal in Ohio Would Restore Censorship as licensing’; Tricky Clause Hits Pix Trailers Legion Saw 352 Features, Tagged 9 as Condemned’ Talk Up a ‘Hays Award’ Hollywood. Feb. 1. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is considering the cre- ation of an annual Will Hays Award, to honor Harding's Post- master-General who became the motion picture industry’s first “czar.” Petition to that effect has been sent to the Academy’s Board of Governors by Robert Ryan. Award, if adopted, will be pre- sented to the person who “con- . .. „ _ ... tributed most to the overall public ! Nations of the industry during the previous year. In a wrapup of its past year’s film reviewing activities, the Na- tional League of Decency this week disclosed nine pictures of a total of 352 were given a “C” rating— meaning condemned. Catholics are forbidden to see product in this classification in accordance with a pledge renewed from year to year. The Legion sized up the other films on this basis: 78 in class “B” —morally objectionable in part for all; 127 in “A-2"—morally unobjec- tionable for adults; 138 in “A-l”— morally unobjectionable for gen- eral patronage. The year’s list of “C” pic com- prised RKO’s “The French Line” (“contains grossly obscene, sug- gestive and indecent action, cos- tuming and dialog. In incidents of subject matter and treatment it is gravely offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency and is capable of grave, evil influence upon those who patronize it, especially youth”); Italian Films Exports’ (Continued on page 67) fied observers that the ad-pubbers tend to lag behind the producers in their courage of presentation; that the ad campaigns on certain films have failed, via their own stereotype approaches, to convey the essence of mature screen en- tertainment, the reason apparent- ly being that the admen have con- siderably less faith in the grow- ing maturity of the audience than the producers. In a large sense, it’s pointed out that, where advertising on the whole has become more sophisti- cated and imaginative, film plug- ging has remained at approximate- ly the same level, selling the same ingredients. There have been a few attempts at streamlining film ads — 20th-Fox tried it witli Metro Ties David Lewis Hollywood, Feb. 1. David Lewis, who recently pro- duced “End of the Affair.” starring Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson in England, signed a term producer contract with Metro. He reported yesterday (Mon.) to discuss future product with Dore Sehary. Previously Lewis was under con- tract on the Metro lot, functioning as associate producer on “Camille” and “Riffraff.” New M-G Policy Abroad Aids 20th, Hypoes C’Scope Competitors of Metro this week expressed interest but only faint surprise over the company’s move in discontinuing standard wide- screen versions of its Cinema- Scope pix in the international mar- ^“nnTng^Serton IT picture called ket starting next September -No Way Out" some wars back - 1 . l>ollL '>: is generally attributed to ay uut some year but they never carried through. Tendency to stress the conven- (Continued on page 22> DUDLEY READIES 2 PIX TO LEAD 5-YR. SLATE Dudley Pictures Corp., which has specialized in shorts and com- mercial films, is embarking on an ambitious program of full-length theatrical film production. Com- pany has set in motion plans for the making of the first two of a series of 26 major features which it hopes to produce over the next five years. It claims to have avai- lable a revolving fund for the pro- gram. First ^picture, a quartet of four science fiction yarns tentatively titled “The Nine Billion Names of God,” is slated for rolling in Eng- land In April. The picture will be shot in Eastman color and Vista- rama, the Dudley-developed ana- morphic process. The second film, a murder thriller, also in Vista- rama, will start in May in Italy. Associated with Carl Dudley in the project is C. Bruce Newbery, former Republic sales chief who is now r v.p. of Dudley Pictures Corp. and Vistarama Productions Inc. Dudley is in New York this week to set up world-wide release deals for his entire program. He also is seeking deals for the use by other producers of his Vistarama ana- morphic process. two main factors: (1) Metrp feels that, by September, the number of foreign CinemaScope installations will have grown to the point where tiie elimination of standard ver- sions will no longer work any hard- ship on the company. <2> It will generally have the effect of speed- ing installations among fence-sit- ting exhibs abroad. There are some who tend to the belief that the move will afford Metro with the opportunity of jet- tisoning those very small accounts on big pix which have never p^id servicing anyway. At the same time, unlike 20lh-Fox, Metro is not wholly committed to C’Scope so that it will continue to have a block of standard films on its release sked. Reaction among the other com- panies is that the Metro decision will materially aid 20th abroad. There are no indications, however, of any “united front” on the mat- ter of standard releases. Univer- sal, for instance, will continue to service all of its customers with any version they can accommodate. So will United Artists. Columbia says it’s a matter of market-to-mar- ket evaluation, with no firm Overall (Continued on page 79) Mulvey, Archinal to L.A. Hollywood, Feb. 1. . James Mulvey and treasurer Harry Archinal have arrived here for production talks with Samuel Goldwyn anent “Guys and Dolls.” Picture is readying to roll. YANK ENGINEERS TO STOCKHOLM IN JUNE SEEKING UNIVERSAL FILM CRITERIA Eager for the universal adoption | Frayne disclosed follow ing the ! Jensen of Bell Laboratories, an of standards on film lensed in the new widescreen techniques, the So- ciety of Motion Picture and Tele- vision Engineers is sending a dele- gation to the meeting of the Inter- national Standards Organization in Stockholm next June. Decision was made at an SMPTE board meet in N. Y. last week, pre- sided over by John G. Frayne, re- search director for Westrex and the Society's new prez. Group of at least six’ American engineers will go to Stockholm for the stand- ards powwow’, the film part of which W'as initiated by SMPTE. ! N. Y. meet two other decisions of the SMPTE board: 1. A committee will be formed to look into ways and means of improving the educational stand- ards of people going into the-tech- nical end of tv and pix. Frayne stressed that the Improvement was being sought on the operating rath- er than the engineering level. 2. An attempt will be made to establish a closer policy liaison be- tween the society’s many local sec- tions all over the country. A v.p. may be named to bring about cl&ser cohesion between the units. SMPTE v.p. He said that the so- ciety, via the American Standards Org, was the sponsor of the attempt to set up international film stand- ards and observed that this attempt at coordination deserved the full backing of the American companies that are doing business abroad. Uniform standards would apply to such facets as sprocket holes, film width, soundtracks, etc. Society delegates pay their own w f ay. However, the engineers group itself is sending Henry Kogel, Its engineering secretary, to the Stock- holm meet. Any standards decided Columbus. Feb. 1. Film exhibitors and distributors find a couple of maddening provi- sions in Ohio House Bill No. 241, which seeks to re-install film cen- sorship in Ohio. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Jesse Yoder (D., Day- ton). John J. Conway (D., Cleve- land), James D. Kilbane <D., Cleve- land) and Charles W. Whalen (R., Dayton), doesn’t mention the word censorship and proposes to set up what it calls a “licensing” system for motion pictures. H. B. 241 has the backing of Gov. Frank J. Lausche and is an at- tempt by its writers' to circumvent court decisions which threw’ out Ohio’s former movie censorship law’ as unconstitutional. The proposal exempts newsreels and scientific and educational films from licensing and also' trailers— except there’s a catch about the trailers. To be exempt they must contain seenes . . . included in a previously licensed film.” Also “... no person, firm or corporation shall publicly exhibit motion picture trailers exhibiting scenes ordered deleted by the department, or ex- hibiting scenes which were not in- cluded as a part of the motion pic- ture w’hich is advertises, at the time it was examined.” This, in effect, decrees by law how film theatres will advertise their products. It would also auto- matically ban any of those trailers in which the star of the picture ad- (Continued on page 67) The SMPTE party going to on there would be voluntary and [ Stockholm will be headed by Axel 1 not absolutely binding on anyone. Metro Sets Cutoff Dates For Non-Anamorphics To Apply Overseas Sept. 1 Metro will' discontinue the re- lease of regular, widescreen ver- sions of CinemaScope pictures in the international market beginning Sept. 1, 1955. Heretofore the com- pany has provided non-C’Scope foreign situations with prints that have been unsqueezed from the anamorphic process. The actual cutoff dale for non- anamorphic versions of the C’Scopers, according to Morton A. Spring, Loew’s International v.p., will vary with each country because of the different release schedules, lie emphasized (hat in no instance will the new policy begin before Sept. 1. It’s expected that it’ll be at least a year before any theatre overseas will be affected by the new policy because of the time required for a picture to play through to theatres not yet equipped for CinemaScope. “We feel.” said Spring, “that this time span plays fair with our cus- tomers and in our mutual best in- terests will provide them ample opportunity to install anamorphic equipment and thereby share in CinemaScope prosperity.” Noting that the film public abroad has backed CinemaScope pictures, Spring said that it’s im- portant for exhibitors to realize the great present and future possi- bilities of CinemaScope. “We are confident.” Spring said, “that our action will inspire exhibitor co- operation and approval, and that theatremen everywhere, even those who operate the smallest theatres, will realize the wisdom of installing the equipment neces- sary to show M-G-M CinemaScope pictures at their best.” Joaquin Rickard Named Johnston Consultant Joaquin D. Rickard, former Lat- in American rep of the Motion Picture Export Assn., last week was named as special consultant to the Assn, by prexy Eric John- ston. Rickard had been on a leave of absence since suffering injuries in an automobile ^accident in South America in early 1953. He’s re- garded as an expert on Spanish and Latin American film affairs.