Variety (April 1957)

Wedneftd*T» April S* 1957 8 *ICTUftfiS YANK CIVIL WAR IN SPAIN Is New 'European Common Market’ Universal’s 'Weirdies’ Ain’t Crazy; $8,500,008 Since ’54 a Lot of Clams London, April 2. f An attempt is under way to Bar British films distributed by Ameri¬ can companies from the new treaty- created European Common Mar¬ ket Matter will be pursued next month at Cannes, when Govern¬ ment representatives of the coun¬ tries concerned are skedded to meet for further discussions. It’s understood that the planned restrictions are aimed not only at the so-called American-made Brit¬ ish films, but at all British prod¬ uct released via U. S. distribs. Idea was discussed here last week with British , industry .execs by Jacques Flaud, head of France’s Centre National du Cine- matografie, in London for the French Film Week,, * It is understood that when the Government reps concerned are meeting in Cannes, leaders of the British industry,, among them prob- ebly Sir Henry L. French, presi¬ dent of the British Film Producers’ Assn.,' and John Davis, deputy chairman and managing director of the Rank Organization, will be on hand to canvas their points of view. Insiders believe that Flaud is sym¬ pathetic to the idea. Whatever the outcome of the Cannes meet, the final decision will not be taken until the end of May, when the member countries in ECM meet in Paris. They have called a two-day sesh, starting on May 28, to consider and examine the recommendations, of their sub¬ committee. Their findings will, presumably, have to be referred to the Governments of the coun¬ tries concerned for ratification.- Atlas Diversifies Show Biz Stake Atlas Corp. swung over to more diversification of its interests in the film business last jear, accord¬ ing to the annual statement for the year ended last Dec. .31, which showed .the indicated asset value of the company to be $9.60 per common share against $9.50 as of last June 30. This latter date was when the merger between Atlas and five other firms was completed. Atlas still retained its big stake in . Walt Disney Productions, war¬ rants in that company totalling 153,553 with a market _ value of $460,659. But it expanded its in¬ terest in films to include Warner feros. and Technicolor. It held 2,000 shares in-the former, valued at $56,500, and 20,000 shares of Techni. Atlas report showed the com¬ pany held 10,000 shares of Loew’s, Inc.;. 10,000 shares of Paramount Pictures Corp.; 4,000 shares of 20th-Fox, besides its stake fri Dis- hey, Techni and WB. Total value of shares and warrants in film is : sues was $1,344,212 while* the to-: tal .value of all common'stocks held by the corporation was $10,755,678. Republic of Colombia To Remit 60% Right Away; Rest Vice Installments Government of Colombia has ac- ce.eded to American film industry insistence that blocked film coin be included among the accounts to be settled via the recent U. S. loan granted to Colombia . by several private’banks. • Under the arrangement, the American^ will be able to remit 60% of their frozen monies in the country. The remaining 40% will be remitted in 30 monthly install¬ ments, the first of which was due March 1 . Some $1,200,000 of XL S. film earnings are currently frozen. Deal covers pix coin through 1956. ' * nry Ginsberg due in Manhat- 3* from Coast to attend funeral of brother, Dr, Charles Ginsberg. Dave Beck Film Cycle Hollywood, April 2. Lindsley ! Parsons. has beefed to ' the M'PAA Title Bureau over Edward Small’s registra¬ tion of five titles tied to .the current Senate investigation of corruption in Portland, Ore. Parsons is prepping “Portland Expose” for a start witmn the next three weeks. Small registered ‘‘The Port¬ land Graft Story,” “The-Port¬ land Story,” “Portland Graft Trial,” “Portland Racket Trial” and .“Portland Racket Story,’’ " all of which Parsons claims are “damagingly 'similar” to. his “Expose,” which Parsons claims he registered before 1 Small submitted. any of his titles. Big Change For Authors Legally Since 1920 Epoch Hollywood, April 2. The swing of the pendulum in the use of creative material to fa¬ vor the creator may have become excessive, Gordon Stulbdrg, exec assistant to Columbia Pictures veep Ben Kahane, told the California Copyright Conference here last Thursday. Speaking on the. control of dra¬ matic and music rights, Stulberg, a former counsel for the Writers Guild of America West, pointed to the situation before 1920, when re¬ gardless of how little he paid, the purchaser generally got complete and. unlimited use of the material. “Now, regardless of how much the purchaser pays initially, the crea¬ tor feels he should still participate, and under certain circumstances control, the future use of his ma(- terial.” “This could, be excessive,” Stul¬ berg warned the trade group. “Such restrictions could impose severe limitations on the proper exploita¬ tion of the work, to the detriment of both employer and author. There’s got to be a meeting ground in the middle.”, Stulberg also -traced the growth of creative rights societies, including such groups as ASCAP, Songwrit¬ ers’ Protective Assn., Author's Leagues of America and newly-or¬ ganized Writers Guild of America, and the development of. authors’ right to control their material and its exploitation. ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL IN TOKYO MAY 20 s Tokyo, April 2. At. a meeting of the Asian Film "Festival Executive Committee it was decided that out of a working budget of $23,611, $15,000 will be borne by participating countries, including Japfh, and the balance raised by donation. The fourth such festival, spon¬ sored by the Federation of Motion Picture Producers in Southeast Asia, will be held here this year, beginning May 20 arid running five days. Previous festivals were at Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong. The seven charter member coun¬ tries are The Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Ma¬ laya, the Philippines~and Thailand. Sani Spiegel Production Corp. has been empowered to conduct a motion picture production business in New York, with capital stock of 200 shares, no par value. Albert Heit and Irwin Margulies are di¬ rectors and filing attorneys. BY HAN|| v ’Madrid’, April 2. With America's major film dis¬ tributors long put pf the market here' Mpdf anxious 'if patch , ill? rip with the' Franco* government, ” a dramatic complication has blown up in the last 10 days a new dif-. ficulty for the -Motion Picture Ex¬ port Assn. This -is the presence in Madrid of a spokesman for “inde¬ pendent” American product who is prepared to wheel and deal priv- ' ately with Madrid’s Film Row 1 ijrhile the Eric Johnston spokes¬ man is operating at high govern¬ ment levels with the active coop¬ eration ' of the American ambas¬ sador, John 'Lodge. America’s MPEA and America’s Independent Film Producers Ex¬ port Corp. (overseas arm of Ellis Arriall’s Society of Independents) are represented here .by, respec¬ tively, Charles Baldwin and Jack Lamont. The one at the Ritz and the other at the Palace, the pro¬ verbial stone’s throw apart, neither has thrown even a hello in the past fortnight. Rivalry between MPEA and IFPEC is now common knowledge in Madrid and dissidence reveals fundamentally different sales and negotiating techniques. Hawks Lotsa Product Lamont came .to Madrid with enough product (Variety reported 60 to .80 films) to completely fill celluloid vacuum caused by 18- month MPEA embargo of Spanish market. Laitfont- pitch caught Mediter¬ ranean MPEA rep Baldwin holding quiet high level sessions with Spanish ministers in a major U.S. effort, backed solidly by the State Dept., to break through the dis¬ tribution roadblock arid reestablish normal film relations between the two countries. ’ Surprise indie move cut the ground from under Baldwin’s feet and latter’s hot cables to N.Y. brought Eric John¬ ston pressure on SJMPP’s Gov. Ar- nall with a plea for industry dis¬ cipline . Lamont subsequently cut back screenings to 24, limiting dollar sales to 15 pix, but the damage (Continued on page 27) Names for Real Hollywood, April 2. Because brand names -are Important to the story line, producer Lawrence Weingar- ten Has departed from tradi¬ tion and obtained okays to feature actual names of prod¬ ucts and organizations in “Don’t Go Near the Water,” his first indie for Metro. Tags which will appear in the film include NBC, ABC, Time, Newsweek, Gold Medal Flour, Dixie Cups, Encyclo¬ pedia Britannica and the firm of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fen¬ ner & Bean. 1957 Broadway Booking Goal: Peak-and-Out Broadway theatre operators, anx¬ ious to* obtain more peak weeks with product, §re no longer willing to keep an attraction as long as it maintains the agreed-upon hold¬ over figure. Many pictures, be¬ cause of a low holdover figure aimed at giving the picture a pres¬ tige Broadway run. have flayed beyond a profitable margin, it’s claimed. As a result, a number of Broadway houses are now demand¬ ing locked bookings, i.e., they’re accepting pictures only for a spec¬ ified number of weeks. It’s agreed in advance that the picture will exit the house on the cutoff date no matter what the gross happens to be that week. An important* locked booking deal wais set last week by Metro for “Something of Value”'with City Investing’s Astor Theatre. Deal calls for the picture to play for seven weeks starting in mid-May. * This, new policy, which a num¬ ber of operators are adopting, will help to some extent to relieve the ( Continued on page 84) National Boxoffice Survey Trade Sluggish; -10 C*»* First 9th Consecutive Week, ‘Allison* 2d, ‘80 Days* 3d, ‘Shrinking* 4th Income tax deadline and usual Lenten influences .are taking the bulk of the blanie for the current offish tone at the b.o. in key cities covered by Variety. However, part; of responsibility apjnarently rests on the quality of product be¬ ing played. • “10 Commandments” (Par) is finishing ijq first, place for the ninth consecutive.,week;fhat. it -has.been, national htiamp.?,.The. -C^cil\ B, DeMille epjc^.^ur^enHy irv.^9 keys* has held c6nsj^Uritly^bi^/to-[sriiash in nearly Ml ylo^tiori^' A “Heaven Knows, Mr. 'Allison” (20th) again' is capturing second place, only a step behind “Com¬ mandments.” It’s second time in a row that this pic has finished in this spot. “Around World in 80 Days” (UA) again is holding onto third place, climbing higher in numerous keys on its Academy award as the year’s best pic. “Shrinking Man” (U), fifth last week, is pushing up to fourth spot. “Seven Wonders of World” (Cine¬ rama) is capturing fifth money. “Tattered Dress” (U) is finishing in sixth spot, with a batch of fresh playdates. “King and I” (20th), generally paired'with “Anastasia” (20th), is capturing seventh posi¬ tion on its Oscar honors via re¬ turn dates. “Giant” (WB), also brought back to cash in on Acad¬ emy hoopla, is winding eighth. “Oklahoma” (Magna) rounds out the Top Nine this session, “La i Strada” (T-L), helped by its Acad-', emy award as top foreign pic, is back to finish as best runner-up film. “Full of Life” (Col), “Wee Geordie” (Indie) and “10,000 Bed¬ rooms” (M-G) are the other run¬ ner-up pix. Last-named barely made it since having few engage* ments classed as better than good or okay. “Funny Face” (Par), Mich opened this week in smash fashion a* the N.' the faster pic, looks to ’be the - most f omising of new pix. “Designing oman” (M-G) is rated fine on its st playdate, in Cfii. -’ “Delin¬ quents” (UA), also new, is not do¬ ing muph this stanza;- “River’s Edge” (20th) is rated good in Cincy, Washington and Cleveland. “Great Man” (U), okay In Cincy and Toronto, looms good in N. Y, “Friendly Persuasion” (AA) shapes big in Louisville. “Rebel Without Cause,” paired with “East of Eden,” this WB pair being back on return dates, is fair in Min¬ neapolis and good in Louisville. “Lost Continent” (Lopert), nice in N. Y., looks good in L. A. “Bat¬ tle Hymn” (U) is big in Pitt and glso Toronto, running into real coin In latter city. “Paris Does Strange Things” (WB), nice in Toronto, is mild to dull in three other keys. “Great Man” is rated good in Frisco, L. A. and N. Y. (Complete Boxoffice Reports on Pages 8-9) * It pays to be “weird.” At least that has been the. happy experience of Universal., A standard prac¬ tice of the film company has been to produce and release annually several pictures that broadly fall into the monster-horror-science fic¬ tion category. Generally, these films are low-budgeters, costing anywhere from $200,000 to $800,- 000. The returns have been more than satisfactory and have con¬ tributed considerably to Univer¬ sal’s coffers. From 1954 to the present—start¬ ing with “The Creature From the Black Lagoon,” a 3-D entry—U has issued eight “weirdie” films. Total production cost of the eight films amounted to approximately $4,- 250,000, Overall domestic gross from the eight entries is estimated at $8,500,000, indicating a healthy profit during a period of a general boxoffice decline. U’s current “offbeat” entry, “The Invisible Shrinking Man” brought in at about’ $750,000, is rolling up substantial takes in first-run situations arid in top the¬ atres. The picture is rated one of the more' successful of the “weird¬ ies” and is expected to gross as much as $1,500,000 domestically. The film company is following “Shrinking Man” with “The Dead¬ ly Mantis,” a $350,000 item sched¬ uled for late April and May re¬ lease, and' based on past experi¬ ence anticipates a gross of at least $ 1 , 000 , 000 . The titles of the films released since 1954 in addition to those al¬ ready mentioned include “Re¬ venge of the Creature,” “This Is¬ land Earth,” “Tarantula,” “The Creature Walks Among Us,” “Cu- rucu, Beast of the Amazon,” and “The Mole People.” Occasionally, U pairs a couple of these films and sells them as a package double bill. 20th Handling Own 16m in Canada Starting Sept. 1, 1957, 20th-Fox will take over distribution of Its own 16m product in Canada. Nar¬ row gauge films so far have been handled in the Dominion by Gen¬ eral Film Distributors. Number of 16m situations equip¬ ped for Cinemascope are still very limited, numbering no more than about 200. Company expects this situation to change drastically once it starts its 16m v C’Scope push. Alter Globe Corporation; Expect 11 Features To Hit Release Market Soon Hollywood, April 2. Assets of Globe Releasing Corp. have been taken over by the newly- formed Globe International Releas¬ ing Corp. which will produce and distribute theatrical and^ television films. Sam Nathanson is president of the new firm and Ray Pierson, veepee. Theodore J. Ticktin, for¬ mer GRC prexy will be chairman of the board of the new firm and act in an advisory capacity. Nathanson said Globe will have 11 films either in distribution or ready for release by the end of the month. Pierson, who will be in charge of all production, immedi¬ ately departed for Mexico to ar¬ range for the shooting of “Hell Tide,” to be prdouced by Ed Erwin under the banner of Bevilana Pro¬ ductions, and Roger Creed’s “Phan¬ tom” series for tv. Other upcoming product In¬ cludes “Duel Street,” a Robert Roark production; an untitled Jed Landin production; and “Age of Violence,” to be turned out by Ron¬ nie Sessano and Alexander Grass- hoff.