Variety (March 1956)

Wednesday, March 21, 1956 pmrnFt PICTURES 7 FILM ‘REFORM’S’ CRAZY RESULT That Screen Vs. Video Contrast As Reflected in Respective Fan Papers ‘Buyer s Market’ in Pix-to-TV Sales; Won’t Sell Backlog Now: Rackmil By ROBERT J. LANDRY Points of resemblance—and . of difference —between the motion picture and television media have additional echo in their respective fan publications. Though the long- established “movie” books tend to look like their video counterparts so far as layout and physical ap¬ pearance is concerned closer in¬ spection reveals significant varia¬ tions. Some observers believe the tv fan mags, which tend to monthlies and quarterlies, are less corn-fla¬ vored. . Partly this is' because of a pronounced emphasis in tv arti¬ cles on religion, a'subject gener¬ ally played down in the film books, and on psychoanalysis stuff. Some remarkably candid profile stuff has been published about tv personali¬ ties. In both the film and tv fan pa- f pels there is -some tendency, de¬ plored by the powers that be, to go “sensational” in the caption though the text frequently does not support the premise or prom¬ ise. This is blamed upon newsstand rivalry brought about by the rash of expose magazines a la Confiden¬ tial. Hollywood stars constitute a primary stock-in-trade for the scandalizing of such publications and their angles rub off. A longtime aversion in show biz to tagging performers with their particular faith—Catholic, Protes¬ tant or Jewish — forfear. this might feed the bigots has been gradually subordinated to the gen¬ uine reader interest in faith. Pray¬ er and belief have a big following among star-gazers as among those who patronize Norman Vincent Peale’s literature. Fans seem not (Continued on page 14) No Trick Ticket Slants to Elude Over 50c Tax Washington, March 20, Internal Revenue Service has just squelched a new gimmick to duck the 10% admissions tax. Stunt involved splitting the price of a ticket costing between 50c and $1, so that one charge of 50c or less was made for admis¬ sion and a separate charge was made for reserved seat or similar accommodations. Admission tick¬ ets costing 50c less are exempted from the 10% bite, of course. Revenue Service pointed out that the Code provides that “where after paying one charge, a second charge is made for accommodations which are essentially an extension of the accommodations granted in return for the payment of the first charge, the tax attaches* to the total of the two charges made. . “It is held that where, under the circumstances described, a person pays a charge of 50c for a reserved seat or similar accommodation in Addition to a charge of 50c for gen¬ eral admission, the total of the charges paid, or $1, constitutes the" amount paid for admission within the meaning of the law and regula¬ tions.” REP 0SEAS OUTLOOK; PREDICT 50% HIKE Hollywood, March 20. Republic's foreign earnings will be up more than 50% over 1955 according to'Reginald Armour, in¬ ternational veepee wh'o arrived here from South American tour for huddles with President Herbert Yates. Prediction is based on talks with branch managers and e *hibs in Latin America and Eu¬ rope. Armour goes from here to N. Y., London, Near East then Tokyo in May to preside over Far East meet¬ ing. • A Gift, Theatre Still Flops Palmerston, Ont., March 20. Canada’s only municipally- owned film theatre, the Nor- gan, has closed here. It was given to the town in 1946 by the Vancouver distiller, George W. Norgari, to honor his family, ■who were Canadian pioneers. He specified that children must be admitted to Saturday mati¬ nees for a nickel. Town council closed the house and—just like any ex¬ hibitor—blamed bum business on television. Texas to Unveil ‘Thrillarama For Trade Come May The “all quiet” on the new process front, a condition happily accepted in exhibitor quarters, was broken last week with the revela¬ tion that a Texas outfit is prepared to market a new widescreen projec¬ tion system which can be shown with regular equipment and re¬ quires no theatre alteration. Known as Thrillarama, the new de¬ velopment is~the property of Thril¬ larama Productions, Inc., a Dallas outfit composed mainly of theatre- men. The new company is headed by Albert H. Reynolds, president, and Dowlen Russell, vice president. The basic principles involved in the new process are said to have been ponceived by Reynolds who wafrked on the system together with Russell and “top technical men of the industry.” First film in the new process— “Thrillarama Adventure”—was pro¬ duced by Raphael G. Wolff Studios, a Hollywood company specializing in industrial and documentary films. The Wolff company, it’s stated, also developed the special camera equipment required for the new process “at a cost of approxi¬ mately $50,000.” The first picture in Thrillarama will be unveiled in Texas early in May. Descriptive information regard¬ ing the process reveals a similarity to Cinerama. It is a two-strip process as compared to Cinerama’s three-strip system. The. “taking” equipment consists of two cameras mated on a special base mechanism and using a special optical system of mirrors and lenses. It’s said to be capable of covering an area more than twice that of a normal camera. The scene is . filmed in two parts on separate film strips using the full aperature on both. (Continued on page 16) SCORING TIME CUT VIA T0DD-A0, FACILITIES Hollywood, March 20. Two to three films can be han¬ dled simultaneously by newly com¬ pleted recording, scoring and dubbing facilities which Todd-AO’s motion picture production division is making available this week to industry. v It’s stated that scoring time can be reduced 25% for defi¬ nite savings in costs, via special closed circuit tv operation between stages and Todd-AO control room. Device permits mixer to see what’s* going on in adjoining stage, is in instant, direct contact with conductor, sound operation has six channel orthosonic setup. Conver¬ sion of stage three at Kling studios at cost of around $1,000,000 has provided what S. A. Sanford, gen¬ eral manager of division, believes is most modern recording-scoring¬ dubbing stage in Hollywood. Facil¬ ities permit 96 soundtracks to be put together simultaneously In dubbing process, films can be dubbed in any one of several .dif- fferenjt qcreensize versions. By GABE FAVOINO Chicago, March 20. Prexy John Balaban of the Bala- ban & Katz theatre chain thinks it’s ironic that film industry prac¬ tices currently the target of loud¬ est attack by independent exhib¬ itors, were urged, by the indies themselves as a panacea for the industry’s “evils,” in the fight lead¬ ing to the divorcement of produc¬ tion from exhibition by the Gov¬ ernment consent decree. As Balaban sees it, the wheel has come full circle now with the in¬ dependents asking for an end to competitive bidding and urging the circuits be permitted to enter pro¬ duction. Balaban, a 47-year film vet whose showbiz career has seen him rise from usher to circuit presi¬ dent and spans distribution, ex¬ hibition and even the films’ latest threat, teevee > had this to say to Variety about competitive bidding: “I think it is one of the most destructive practices in the indus¬ try, particularly in view of the current shortage of pictures, and especially when the picture being bid for is the only one of any quality available.” A Conservate State Lebanon, N.H., March 20. Voters here have approved enforcement of a 40-year-old curfew law which requires all unaccompanied young people to be off the streets by 9 p.m. The kids found a friend, however, in Police Chief Clar¬ ence Wright, who said the cops would give youngsters an extra half-hour to emerge from film shows and youth meetings. Hoch of Zurich: Europe Favors One-Size Only Hollywood, March 20. Swiss film theatre owners are urging a standardization of screen size and projection processes, a Swiss distribution exec told Holly¬ wood last week. + Indicating that he was being neither optimistic nor pessimistic, Universal’s prey Milton R. Rackmil told the company’s stockholders at the annual meeting in New York last Wednesday (14) that he is tak¬ ing a realistic view in predicting that the company’s business would hold its own in 1956 and would probably equal the 1955 take. He implied that the fnaintenance of the 1955 level, the second high¬ est in the company’s history, is quite a challenge in today’s mar¬ ket of television competition. The company’s second quarter earnings, he said, would not be better than the first 13 weeks of the current fiscal year, but he noted that U’s first quarter was the best in the industry. Meeting was a comparatively mild session without prolonged sharp exchanges between manage¬ ment and stockholders. The out¬ come of the meeting was obvious- since Decca, the parent company, controlled 74% of the outstanding common stock. Much in evidence, however, was Lewis Gilbert, peren¬ nial minority stockholder. Gilbert was charged with attempting to inject Decca problems in the U meeting. Views Re Video "Angles The B&.K topper said he knew of cases where the amount bid for a film by an exhibitor was greater thaq the amount he could possibly gross by playing it. He recalled the days when eight major companies would each produce from 50 to 70 pictures a year and a theatre would generally play only one company's product. “Sure,” he said, “of 60 pictures we bought each year, half were bought on a perhaps 30% percentage and the other half on flat rental. We might lose some money on a percentage picture, but there often were a dozen good grossers among the flat rental films that more than made up for it. At the end of the year we could renegotiate with the distributors and adjust the losses, and we didn’t have to play all of the company’s pictures anyway.” Balaban went on to say that in the pre-consent era the exhibitor had a better choice of pictures. “After all,” he said, “you’re likely (Continued on page 16) Paris, March 20. “1/ the French, who loathed it at first, could acquire a taste for. Coca-Cola, sometimes to the exclu¬ sion of wine, then there are no lim¬ its to changing national taste and the United States could learn to like French films" So reasons Henry Deutsch- meister, head of Franco-London Films here. He credits New York independent distributors with not¬ able aid to the cause but adds, “they just can’t get us widened playdates in the States. Only the majors can help us.” Showman points out that France has no illusions of “competing” in America with American product. It would be dandy if each major took two French releases annually and he thinks enough product would be. available via dubbing of action and costumes stories, leav¬ ing the native Gallic material to the U.S. art houses. Deutschmeister has just com¬ pleted a two-language picture, “Marie Antoinette” starring Mi¬ chele Morgan and Richard Todd. He has been assured booking by ABC in IJngland who also supplied an Anglo writer and star, but the film is primarily a Gallic produc¬ tion. This may be the proper way tp make films slanted for Anglo- American markets, he feels, wiLh- Rudolf Hoch, sales manager for Columbus Films Inc., which reps Allied Artists in Switzerland, head¬ ing a group of 14 Swiss exhibs visiting Hollywood, declared: “As do exhibitors of many other European countries, we find it im¬ possible for economic, technical and practical reasons to introduce all the different screens and dif¬ ferent projection, processes.” Outdoor dramas rank as the most popular type of film in his country’s 553 theatres, according to Hoch, who added that films pri¬ marily aimed at the juve trade will flop in Switzerland. Except for car¬ toons, he said, children under 18 are prohibited from attending film theatres.. Hoch, who headquarters in Zu¬ rich, in one of the German-lan¬ guage cantons, where majority of American film companies have reps, reported that all foreign-lan¬ guage films, whether English, Japa¬ nese et al, exhibited in these can¬ tons are shown in their original version, with use of subtitles. out making hybrid films that would appeal to neither. “Antoi¬ nette” was made in two distinct versions with one completely French and the other English. Things that the French would ac¬ cept, such as the accusation of Marie Antoinette having commit¬ ted incest with her son, could be shown in the French version but not in the other. A system of pre¬ dubbing could also be instituted with the French company assuring this for an American looksee as to general possibilities of the pic for their markets. The first' film to be made with a complete American version is Jean Renoir’s “Elena Et Les Hommes” (Elena and the Men) with Ingrid Bergman, Mel Ferrer and Jean Marais. The American ver¬ sion was written by the former CBS radio writer, Cy Howard, and differs from the Gallic version in certain respects. However, one drawback was the difficulty the actors found in playing the same scene consecutively in two differ¬ ent lingos with slightly different impact. Warners will take this for the U.S., and it is being watched as a forerunner by film circles here as to whether this is the first- wedge in the American market and whether it will show that a film can be made for the American market here. In answer to stockholder queries, Rackmil and other U officials pro¬ vided the following information: The company has no plan to sell its backlog to television since it did not believe the time was “propitious.” The company’s major business, Rackmil stressed, is sell¬ ing to theatres and that U would make “darned sure” not to “do (Continued on page 49) See Italy Back To Color Prints Vexation Again American film companies have had indications that the Italians again want to press the question of U. S. color printing in local Italo labs. The Italians are said to want 50% of all Hollywood tint re¬ lease to be printed up locally. This, in addition to the fact that the new Italian film legislation is still bottled up, is a source of con¬ cern to American film execs who are also chafing under the Rome refusal to issue advance licenses. The Italians argue they can’t come across with the permits until the question of the legislation is set¬ tled. Eric Johnston, Motion Picture Export Assn, prexy, will stop off in Rome on his way back home from his current Fareastern tour. John¬ ston also plans to go to Paris, and may go to London, which is shap¬ ing up as a potential trouble-spot as the local industry is to recom¬ mend to thg Government what should be done to aid the business there. There is a possibility that Griffith Johnson, MPEA v.p., will join Johnston in the Rome talks. The printing question has come up periodically to plague the Americans who claim that the Italian labs aren’t even set up to handle the kind of work volume they demand. Apart from that, the quality of the color work being done in Italy varies. When thfr Italians first brought up that problem, the MPEA agreed to investigate: later the U. S. distribs said they’d do a reasonable amount of tint printing locally. The Italians have on their books a law under which they could force the U. S. outfits to do all of their black-and-white printing in the country. There have apparently . been hints that this could easily be amended to take in color pix.jJS well. It’s the local labs which are putting the pressure on the Gov¬ ernment to get the work. French Film Problem in United States Deutschmeister Argues, ‘If French Can Learn To Like Coca-Cola, Yanks Can Like Gallic Pix*