Variety (June 1957)

Wednesday* June 12, 1957 P'XfaEfr PICTURES »♦ ♦ ♦♦♦»♦♦♦♦♦ * ♦»»»» + »♦»»+»♦»»■ I Danish Film Rentals Breakdown ii Can Yank Films Crack Danes Boycott? Test Comes July I^-Some Exhib* Sign, Others , Hold Out—Bitterness Rises In Kingdom By FRED HIFT Copenhagen, June 11. Starting July 1, at least -12 thea¬ tres in this Danish capital will again play new American films, and-the Hollywood boycott of the Danish market, which started May 2i, 1955, will be officially dented. Four houses in the provinces also • will open with the U.S. product. Denmark has about 476: motion . picture theatres, which by custom . are licensed by the Government to old actors, pensioners, sports groups, etc. The big question, bit¬ terly debated here, is: Will the rest of the 460 .theatres fall in line and meet the American terms, or will they continue to refuse to pay the higher rentals? The answer to the question is of importance to more than just the eight major American film com- parties, who during the past two years have lost some $2,000,000 ’ by sticking stubbornly to their contention that they can’t do business on flat 30% rental terms. It will be watched throughout Scandinavia, and in other places throughout the world. For the issue goes beyond indi¬ vidual stubbornness, or even prin¬ ciple. It involves the broader ques¬ tion of American film trading ethics, ahd poses the . ultimate question: Can a market, even a small one like , Denmark, survive and thrive in the long run without American attractions? It .is too early to get the an¬ swers. For one, the opposing par¬ ties are disagreed on the actual boxoffice effects to date of the (Continued on page 28) TED O’SHEA’S HEART STILL WITH THAT HON Albany, June 11. Highlight of the Webster Rose¬ wood vs. Schines suit for damages Under the antitrust laws, held in Albany before U. S. District. Court Judge James T. Foley, was the deep loyalty to Metro, his long-time - former employer, manifested dur- ' Ing testimony by. E. K. (Ted) O’Shea. O’Shea, now world sales man¬ ager for Magna, interjected so many comments favorable to Loew’s that Judge Foley at one point laughingly commepted, “You are proud of Metro.” On ahother occasion, when the veteran sales executive disagreed with Francis T, Anderson, attorney for plaintiff. Judge Foley admon¬ ished: “This is.not like a courtroom in the movies. Don’t argue with the lawyers; just anwser their ques¬ tions.” O’Shea tried to go into details on explanations of Metro's policy as to “master agreements” and “franchises”—there Were two of the latter, he said*and both were designed to Jielp deserving vixhibi- tors, in Ohio and Texas. Trick* and Twist* (of Time) Bob Hope and Ox-New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey will share the dais spotlight at the United Cerebral Palsy Hu¬ manitarian Award dinner (honoring Dewey) at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria June 25. Hope portrays late N. Y, Mayor James J. Walker in the latter’s hippie, “Beau James.” In the years ago Dewey was a staff prosecutor for the See- bury Committee whose prob¬ ings caused Walker’s removal from office. ‘World 5 Filins Hit Screens in Fall First of four films condensed from Life Magazine’s 13-part “The World We Live In” series will be ready for theatrical release this falL Initigrler, titled “The Earth Is Bora,” is * said to have taken three and a Half years to complete because of the use of new cinema¬ tographic techniques involving stop-motion animation and live- action. The picture, completely financed by Life, wgs produced and filmed by Transfilm, a business and com¬ mercial film company. Walter Lowendahl, executive v.p., super¬ vised the production. “The Earth Is Born,” which has a running time of some 30 minutes, is now in its final processing stage. The. three other films, which will be of the same length, are in the script and stolyboard phases. Nego¬ tiations are currently taking place for a distribution deal. The first installment deals with the Earth’s origin. Prominent as¬ tronomers, geologists and geophys¬ icists served, as technical consult¬ ants. The three subsequent films are expected to be completed in about a year. Zachary Schwartz directed' the first film and was responsible for many of the technical innovations. The stop-motion sequences were made by the Joop Geesink Studio, a Dutch firm specializing in stop- motion effects. The script was written by Arnold Sundgaard and Paul Stevens serves as narrator. William Schumann provided the musical score, which Was recorded In Carnegie Hall by a 70-piece or¬ chestra conducted by Frederick Prausnitz. Richard Widmark in role as pro¬ ducer signed Fred Steiner to do the score for ‘Time Limit.” By HANK WERBA Madrid, June 11. An uneasy “what now?” reigns over Film Row in Madrid as nego¬ tiations between Spain and tlie Mo¬ tion Picture Export Assn, reached a point of no return. .Dramatic collapse of parleys is reflected in tone of MPEA rep Charles Bald¬ win’s communique to Variety as last minutp effort to reach even an interim arrangement went up in smoke. There is unconcealed bitterness among MPEA toppers who face continued paralysis of normal film operations here as the distrib im¬ passe between the two countries, now in its 22d month, seems slated to continue indefinitely. Film industry observers believe MPEA will go all-out to tighten its film embargo imposed on the local market in Aug. ’55, when Spanish film authorities, in the face of successful talks to renew the ’54 agreement, imposed a surprise 4-1 decree (pre-dated to July ’54) com¬ pelling U. S. film companies here to distribute one Spanish feature for every four U. S. films re¬ leased in Spain. With the .4-1 decree almost an embarrassingly insignficant issue in'recent parley, expected MPEA counter-attack to seal off Spain from U. S. pix now has as its pri¬ mary object agreement with Spain to restore MPEA positions here as comparatively close to 1954 pact terms as possible in order to guar¬ antee a minimum profit basis at (Continued on page 28) Schaefer’s Spanish Deals For ‘King & Four Queens’ And Twelve Angry Men’ ♦Fact that new American pic¬ tures continue to be played in Spain despite the Motion Picture Export Assn, “boycott” was given a new spotlight this week. George J. Schaefer, who reps varoius inde¬ pendent producers in distribution matter, disclosed in New York he recently sold “King and Four Queens” and “12 Angry Men" to Spanish distributors, that this is not an uncommon practice, and it’s a certainty that Stanley Kramer’s “Pride and the Passion” will be peddled in the flamenca territory. “I'm not obligated by any MPEA boycott,” stated Schaefer^ Theoretically, but not actually, MPEA companies withdrew from Spain two • years ago because of trading disagreements and haven’t been back since. This hasn’t worked (Continued on page 24) Henry Horner s Tie Up AO the Rights’ Advice Conflicts With Literary Trend BIG FETE FOR WOBBER 1,000 Expected at Frisco Variety Club’s Godspeeding San Francisco, June 11. Variety Club of San Francisco will throw a party honoring Her¬ man Webber’s 50th anniversary in film business June 26. Western division boss Tor 20th-Fox will soon retire. Club is inviting more than 1.000 guests for luncheon party at Shera- ton-Palace Hotel’s Garden Court. In addition to local associates of Wobber, guest list includes a num¬ ber of Chicago and New York film execs plus Adolph Zukor, Nate Blumberg, Jesse Lasky Sr. and Robert Lippert. Johnston Chides Fee’s Doerfer Wild Swings Washington, June 11. Eric Johnston has told FCC Commissioner John C. Doqrfer that the latter doesn’t know what he was talking about in stating “television is cleaner and lesser offensive than motion pictures.” Doerfer was quoted, in an inter¬ view in International News Serv¬ ice, to the effect that Hollywood is making cleaner pix only because it knows that, otherwise it can't sell them later to tv. “The fact is,” wrote Johnston to Doerfer, “the television code has little or . nothing to do with the program content of movies made especially for television viewing and nothing at all to do with, the (Continued on page 20) M. Pickman Scrams Gems; To Produce on Own Hollywood, June 11. Milton Pickman, who has had a wide background in production and distribution, has resigned from Screen Gems and Briskin Productions to enter independent theatrical film-making on his own. Exec has a number of packages for lensing both in the United States and England and plans to commence operations in the tail. Pickman joined the Briskin unit at SG six months ago to set up properties and talent. + Hollywood, June II. To protect yourself (if a pro* ducer) in what he terms “show bis clinches,” director Harry Horner believes that you should acquire all rights to a property when closing a- deal with its author, although trend in literary sales is separation of rights. Horner, who is also a vet stage designer and is now prepping the staging of the French opera, “Car¬ melites” for the San Francisco Opera Co., points to the recent “Helen Morgan” telecast on CBS’ ‘Playhouse 90” Series, as an ex* ample. “This show was aired prior to the release of the Warner Bros, theatrical film version. If Warners had previously obtained all of the ‘Morgan’ rights, they wouldn’t have to worry about a tv version. Can you Imagine having over a million dollars wrapped up in a film and then prior to its release, someone else produces it on tv or on the stage?” Horner recalled that he closed a deal with the German author Franz Spencer for all rights to “Window Facing East” which he first plans to produce as a legit, than as a theatrical film. Scripts of "Window,” which is storied around the late Czechoslovakian minister Jan Masaryk, have already been submitted to Paul Muni, Mel- vyn Douglas and Charles Boyer, for the lead role. * In certain instances, however, Horner does think that if an indi¬ vidual owns all the rights to a prop¬ erty, he can afford to first televise his project prior to filming or stag¬ ing. “A tv showcase wouldn’t hurt in this case, because it would be under your supervision, and^ybu certainly wouldn’t hurt any future presentations of your package,”, he remarked. Horner, who has signed Dorothy Kirsten fot the lead in “Carme¬ lites” which bows Sept. 20 in San Francisco, is currently negotiating with writer Eraett Lavery for all the rights to the “Carmelites” prop¬ erty, so that he can produce a straight legit staging following the opera run. If the deal goes through, Horner may even present it as a tv spec, prior to its Broadway stag¬ ing. (Authors League of America and especially its Dranatists Guild component is dead against Horner's credo.) Writers Guild West Cools Off Drops ‘Gag Rule* WhicfcrCaused Furor—Now Court* Good Will Hollywood,- June 11. That controversial “gag rule” which aroused such a storm of criti¬ cism during the recent, heated elec¬ tion campaign of Writers Guild of America West was revoked at the first meeting of the newly-elected council, last week. There are “cer¬ tain qualifications” to the move,.but on the whole it meets the demands j of critics who blasted the ruling, j Seeking a more liberal press re¬ lations, the council also voted that from now on, all news of council meetings will be made available to the . press without restrictions, where legal or-policy commitments do not conflict. During the heat of the recent campaign, several members of the council resigned in protest at what they labeled a “gag rule” prohib¬ iting them from discussing guild business with guild members or having any . talks With the press, even on nori-confidential matters. However, in reviewing its code of working rules, the council changed all that. It decided all business coming before It may be discussed by council members with the gen¬ eral membership. Matters involv¬ ing pending labor negotiations or otherwise not communicable on ad¬ vice of counsel, would still be treat¬ ed as confidential. The public relations moves stem back to talks begun several months ago by the retiring council when such recommendations were first made and favorably received, al¬ though actual enactment was held up until a full study could be made by the governing members, the guild said. Also at the meeting, chaired by prexy Edmund L. Hartmann, chair¬ manships of various council com¬ mittees were assigned, with accept¬ ances: received thus far from,Frank Nugent, again charging the build¬ ing committee, and Herbert Baker, chairman‘of a committee to work on development of a projected tv series by the guild. NAT’L SCREEN TAKES OVER METRO TRAILERS Metro has decided to abandon the production of its own trailers and has set a deal wuh National Screen Service to assume the task. Exit of M-G from the trailer pro¬ duction field will leave Warner Bros, as the only major film com¬ pany turning out its own trailers. The other film companies, as an economy measure, have trans¬ ferred the job to National. Under terms of the deal, the film company will have complete control of % the contents of the trailer. Metro’s sales and pub-ad departments will have final super¬ vision. National will sell and dis¬ tribute starting Sept. 1. COLUMBIA’S EARNINGS $1.18 Per Common Share Vs. Year Ago’s $1.49 ! Columbia this week reported j earnings of $1,504,000, or $1.18 per ‘ common share, for the 39 weeks ended March 30. Comparison is made with the 40 weeks ended March 31, 1956, which brought a profit of *1,855,000 or $1.49 per common share. Per-share earnings are after pre¬ ferred 'stock dividends and are based on the 1,122,800 common shares outstanding at the end of the new period. Universal stock has hit a new high of $30.87i£ per share, at¬ tributable to the unloading of its baokloe tr> Sown n<»ms