Variety (March 1956)

Wednesday, March 21, 1956 MZgffifr PICTURES 400 TRUST SUITS, BUT DIPPING If the British Are Too British For American Film Tastes How Explain Guinness' Popularity? !: New York Sound Track » + »4444»4 M ♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦♦< Could the activity in the Skiatron stock due to the proximity of a Matty Fox deal to intro the Subscriber-Vision toll-tv system in Cuba? Marc Spiegel, the Motion Picture Export Assn.'s Paris topper, wants to intro MPEA newsletters in France, Germany and Italy. They’d report on the-progress of native films in the U. S: and would be trans¬ lated into the respective languages . . . 20th-Fox's foreign billings dur¬ ing the first nine weeks of 1956 continued to run ahead of the domestic take by a considerable margin. Same period in 1955 the,opposite was ^Paramount ads which are billing Jody Lawrance as a Michael Curtiz discovery are a source of amusement to the boys at Columbia. Reason is that Col had the gal under contract in 1951-1952, and gave her the femme lead in six pictures, including “Ten Tall Men” with Burt Lan> caster . . . Bing Crosby Enterprises looks planning to do a picture on Mohammed . . . David O. Selznick registered “Anna Karenina” with the MPAA’s title bureau . . . George K. Arthur, as he was known as an early-day film star, is now George Brest, producer-distributer. The name came out George Minter in a recent erratum. Leo Mishkin, film critic of The Morning Telegraph, was invited to be a guest at yesterday's (Tues.) Variety Club of N. Y. luncheon honor¬ ing the Gotham film critics. Since he’s a member of Variety Club, he also got a bill for the luncheon . . . Video writer Adrien Spies signed by Metro to adapt the screenplay of “See No Evil” from an original screenplay by Robert Campbell. JudU Kinberg and Edgar Small will co-produce . . . Capitol Theatre has placed on display the costumes and props' used in the filming of Robert Rossen’s “Alexander the Great.” Pic opens at the theatre March 28. . . . Leo Lax of Leo Lax Films, France, in town. He’s going to Holly¬ wood and Mexico before returning home via N. Y. . . . MPEA tax com¬ mittee going to Brussels soon . . . SMPTE Journal contributes a very helpful list of basic technical film terms in five languages. It should come in mighty handy for the internationally-minded engineers. Who’d have guessed, for instance, that the word “blimp” in German reads “Schallschutzhaube!” . . . Those who’ve seen Francoise (Bonjour Tris- tess) Sagan’s second novel say it’s a fine story but much too “hot” for an American film. “Bonjour Tristess” is being made by Otto Preminger . . . Spanish pic satirizing the Marshall Plan will be released here by Cy Bronstein's Screen Art Sales. Columbia’s “Barefoot Mailman,” adapted by James Gunn and Francis Swann from Theodore Pratt’s novel of the same title, is duplicating . the book’s success in becoming something of a Florida institution. The film, which stars Robert Cuipmings, Terry Moore and Jerome Court- land, was released in 1951 and is an annual winter revival at a number of Florida theatres. The book also continues to rack up sales each year. It’s one of a trilogy , by Pratt on the growth of the Florida. George Raft will direct as well as star in “Devil’s Playground,” to be made by E M Productions . . . Sidney Blackmer into “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” at RKO ... If is paging Ed Wynn and his son Keenan for “The Great Man” . . . George Neise shifting from tv for a part in Samuel Goldutyn Jr.’s “The Sharkfighters” . . . Fernando Lamas set to star in Italian producer B. L. Amato’s “The Vagabond,” rolling in Rome next June under direction of Hugo Fregonese. Doris Day will make two pictures, “Love Affair” and “Stage Door,” for RKO and “The Pajama Game” for Warner Bros. . . . Burl Ives into dramatic role in Metro’s “The Power and the Prize” . . . “Funny Face” is final tag on “Wedding Day” at Paramount . . . Arthur Hornblow Jr. and Edward Small will produce “Solomon and Sheba” for United Artists release . . . Agnes Moorhead replaced Vivienne Segal in Metro’s “The Opposite Sex.” . . . Fred MacMurray will top Universal’s “Gun for a Coward” . . . Bar¬ bara Stanwyck opposite Joel McCrea in Fielding Productions’ first feature, “Trooper Hook” . . . Robert Hardy Andrews will script and produce his own novel. “Rough Rider,” for RKO . . . Michael Kidd directs “Merry Andrew,” starring Danny Kaye at Metro . . . Columbia has closed with Frank Sinatra for “Pal Joey” . . . Late Henri Cretien is described as “the man who saved Hollywood” in France Actuelle, official French propaganda semi-monthly published in Washington. Cretien, 77, died last month at the Walter Reed Hos¬ pital in Washington. He invented the anamorphic lens from which the CinemaScope film process was developed. While France Actuelle doesn’t explain what it means by the blurb, the reference is obvi¬ ously to the claims that widescreen processes reversed a downward trend of the film business. Metro purchased the title “Designing Woman” from Frederick Bris- son for its scheduled (not confirmed) Grace Kelly picture. Brisson is now calling his original yarn “Madly in Love.”. . . . French producer George Loureau, putting rumors to rest, says John G. McCarthy is his American rep and continues to be that. Loureau’s been huddling with Richard Davis on release of “Le Grand Manoeuvre” via latter’s United Motion Picture Organization . . . Charles F. Bald¬ win, new MPEA rep in Italy, has checked into Rome. If this is the winner, remember this: “Marty, that superb American film currently on the Oscar list, is in the best Italian style of film¬ making,” wrote Harold Whitehead in Montreal Gazette last week. He concludes that “talent is international and the best possible, in any frame of reference, will be recognized.” Churchmen Prod Pennsylvania To Re-Word, Re-Pass Censorship Pennsylvania State Legislature this week is expected to push through a new censorship law spelling out in greater detail the circumstances under which a mo- tion picture can be banned for ex¬ hibition. The state’s 40-year-old statute on censorship last week was declared invalid because of its vagueness by the State Supreme Court. This ruling came as the result of an action pressed by Hallmark Productions whose film, “She Shoulda Said No,” which deals with drug addiction, was turned down by the censor board. According to sources close to the situation, Pennsylvania law-makers are rushing through a new statute upon the encouragement/qf Gatho- hc . Church , elements. • Thus, i- it parallels the action taken by the New York Legislature two years ago. With Church influence clear¬ ly in evidence, New York whipped up a new censorship law when its old statute was declared vague. Metro Moves Bailey, Bache Thomas E. Bailey, Metro’s St. Louis branch manager since 1953, has been shifted to branch man¬ ager at Kansas City. He succeeds the late William D. Gaddoni who died at Kansas City on Feb. 12. Harry Bache, sales manager of the company’s Philadelphia office, takes over the St. Louis post. Bailey has been with Metro .since 1930 and Bache since 1925. FUST-BUCK TRY By HY HOLLINGER The film industry, which more than any other United States busi¬ ness has been shackled by a pre¬ ponderance of antitrust suits, may at last be seeing a significant de¬ cline in this type of headache liti¬ gation. The suits stem from the U. S. vs. Paramount decree which brought about the separation of the theatre and production-distri¬ bution interests of the major com¬ panies. In recent years there have been more than 400 antitrust suits on file, with the £otal damages demanded amounting to as much as $400,000,000. Perhaps the greatest factor lead¬ ing to the reduction in the number of suits filed by exhibitors is the new federal statute of limitations which went into effect on Jan. 6. Under the new regulation, a limit of four years has been placed on litigation arising from alleged vio¬ lations of the Sherman and Clay¬ ton antitrust acts. Without the ex¬ istence of a federal statute, state laws prevailed and there was no uniformity in the statute of limi¬ tations in each individual state. In addition to the brake on anti¬ trust litigation caused by the new statute of limitations, there is a general belief among industryites that the peak in possible suits has already been reached. This devel¬ opment was pointed out by Univer¬ sal’s general counsel Adolph Schi- mel at the company's stockholders’ meeting last week. Schimel based his view on the new statute of limitations, but other industry at¬ torneys felt that the “cream of the good cases” were already out of the way and that if exhibitors had any good cases they “would have brought them by now to take ad¬ vantage of the longer period.” There was a flurry of suits— amounting to about 30—filed prior to the Jan. 6 cutoff date in an attempt “to get in under the wire.” However, since Jan. 6 only about two or three new cases have been placed on the record. Even before the cutoff date, there were indi¬ cations of a decline in the number of cases. They were “still coming in,” an industry lawyer noted, “but not in the bulk as previously.” 250 Still Pend As compared to the 400 cases and total demands of about $400,- 000,000 a few short years ago, there are now between 200 and 250 cases still on the books, represent¬ ing about $300,000,000 in total damages demanded. The astronomi¬ cal figure, of course, does not rep¬ resent the total the industry will have to pay out to settle the cases. Many of the cases are settled for less than one-tenth than the origi¬ nal sum demanded under the treble damages provision of the consent decree. For example, in a recent suit in which an exhibitor asked for over $700,000, the case was settled for less than $12,000. The production-distribution com¬ panies are hopeful that the new statute of limitations will succeed in reducing the number of “nui¬ sance” suits. In many instances, rather than submit to costly and lengthy litigation, the film com¬ panies have agreed to token settle¬ ments. This, of course, was not made a general policy because it would leave the companies wide open to similar suits by exhibitors who saw an opportunity “to pick up a fast buck.” The settlements, it’s pointed out, depended on the circumstances. Where a principal is involved, the companies will de¬ fend no matter the cost, for they feel a clearcut victory will save them money in the long run. Many of the suits stem from charges of conspiracy in the denial of certain theatres of firstrun prod¬ uct, runs, and clearances. Although there will still be plenty of work for industry attorneys, the new statute of limitations, it’s felt, will remove an important incentive for the instituting of suits dating back to • alleged violations of six to 20 years ago. Union Hit* Aniline Washington, March 20. A resolution from the Cen¬ tral Labor Union of Union County, N. J., urging the Gov¬ ernment to sell General Ani¬ line & Film to some private American firm, was placed in the Congressional Record last week by Rep. Harrison A- Wil¬ liams Jr., (D„ N.J.)). Several bills for such a sale have been introduced. The company, which was German- owned, was seized by this Gov¬ ernment during World War II. Among its products is mo¬ tion picture raw stock. Screen Actors Set Limit on Trailers; New Union Rates Hollywood, March 20. Higher minimums and a five-day work week are achieved by actors in the new theatrical film contract signed here by the Screen Actors Guild and Assn, of Motion Picture Producers. Guild for the first time has a regulation limiting trailers for television use. Negotiations were finalized fol¬ lowing conferences which began in January. Under the new deal, the day player minimum is hiked from $70 to $80 immediately, and goes up to $90 Feb. 1, 1958; the weekly free lance minimum is elevated from $250 to $285 at once, and shoots up to $300 in two years. Actors sought the five-day week, to conform with the industry’s pat¬ terns set in the contract between the major studios and IATSE, and going into effect last Jan. 30. SAG pact gives them the five-day week with actors to receive premium pay for work on Saturdays or Sun¬ days. Location work will be on a six- day, 48-hour week with pay equal to the studio 44-hour rate plus four hours straight time pay. Ac¬ tors earning $25,000 or more per pic and termpact thesps earn¬ ing more than $1,500 a week may agree in their negotia¬ tions to work on Saturday even if it is a sixth day without added (Continued on page 48) MAKE PATTINSON 20TH’S TOPPER IN LONDON London, March 20. James F. Pattinson, who has headed the 20th-Fox organization in Britain as director of sales, has been upped to the post of manag¬ ing director. The appointment was made in London last Friday (16) by Murray Silverstone, the com¬ pany’s international topper, who came over for the first trade dem¬ onstrations of CinemaScope 55. Pattinson has been in charge at 20th since William J. Kupper re¬ linquished the managing director¬ ship some years back. He’s been with the company since 1931, when he was manager of the Birming¬ ham branch, and came to London in 1937, being appointed sales man¬ ager in 1946. Silverstone explained that Al¬ bert Cornfield will continue to supervise the activities of the com¬ pany in Great Britain an<\ the con¬ tinent and. with Basil Litchfield, will rep 20th on the board of Gaumont British. Litchfield will also be managing director of 20th Century - Fox Productions Ltd., London, March 20. On the continuing theme of whether British features get an even shake or square deal in the American market, a fair summary of trade opinion in London would be this: “It isn’t an answer to say that many British films are unsuitable for America and therefore do qot get booked into American theatres—for the simple reason that many American films are equally unsuitable for British audi¬ ences, and yet they do secure playdates in British houses.” Another comment on the situa¬ tion would run something like this, “The Yanks ask us to believe that almost all British features are un¬ acceptable to the U.S. market other than features starring Alec Guin¬ ness, who is as British as they come.” Having by now heard most of the American reasons-why, the British wax expert in detecting what they regard as flaws in American logic big enough to drive a Rolls-Bentley through. The slow pace, the British accent, thq un¬ known players represent no handi¬ cap as regards one American market, namely, film theatres. So here in London the deadpan skep¬ tics inquire, “Do the American networks and sponsors pay out good dollars for entertainment which they expect will drive their viewers to rival channels?” A prime complaint of the Brit¬ ish is that they “automatically book” all U.S. films, without any restrictions, though many of these are readily rated as mediocre or “frightfully American.” Always it is the American film industry, and (Continued on page 18) Flaud Repeats Same Points, Ignores Mayer Paris, March 20. Jacques Flaud, head of the gov¬ ernmental Centre National de la Cinematographie, repeated this week his view that independent distributors in the U. S. did not have the means of giving full ex¬ ploitation to French pix due to their lack of full, nationwide dis¬ tribution facilities. The main argument against the indies, he said, was that they couldn’t even give art house films the 500 bookings around the U. S. which should constitute the mini¬ mum circulation for French fea¬ tures. Flaud added that the French aimed to have some 20 of their pictures on the U. S. mar¬ kets—both general and special— within the next three years. French Government film topper opined that there were three ways in which the program could be achieved. (1) French producers will work through the indies on (Continued on page 48) Blumenstock’s $1,500 Weekly, $250 Expenses Mort Blumenstock, Warners’ ad- pub v.p., has been given a new em¬ ployment contract providing him with a payoff of $1,500 weekly plus $250 per. week for expenses, ex¬ cluding those incurred w r hile travel¬ ing. Pact runs for three years from March 5. Also, Blumenstock collected $5,- 000 to cover the cost of his recent _ _^ _ _ . shift back to the New York.home- whose ^British productions activi-1 office after several years of opera- ties are being extended. tion on the Coast.