Variety (July 1957)

Wednesday, July 3, 1957 UKstfEFf PICTURES 5 ‘Gunfight’ Shoots Way to Top of June; Industry Revives With New Product; Island In Sun’ Pace Is Strong (Following the -final week each V month Variety publishes a prog¬ ress report on the film boxoffices in the domestic market. This is a sumrning up of the record and ^ usually coincides with the,realiistic rankings of current releases .. How¬ ever, the monthly survey does not prefend to be fully national nor a tally of the nations admissions. It is substance of reports filed week by week b.y Variety correspond¬ ents in 24 key situations. —Ed.) June’s Jumpers 1. "O.K. Corral” (Par), 2. "Around World” (UA). 3. “.Island in Sun” (20th). 4. “7 Wonders” (Cinerama). 5. "Commandments” (Par). 6. “The D.L” (WB). 7. “Little Hut” (M-G). 8. “Desk Set” (20th). 9. “Wayward Bus” (20th). 10. “Face in Crowd” (WB). * After the depressed m'pbd en¬ gendered in U.S. film showmen by May's miseries the joys of June have encouraged a resumption of interest- In going on. May may have been a little worse than May often is. June was certainly helped by three or four blockbusters plus a generally improved quality of new product. The over-all grosses reflect the fact that four films in the past month were over $1,000,- 000 .grossers in the 24 cities re¬ ported by this journal. “Gunfight at O.K. Corral" (Par) Copped first:place in the June race for laurels by-a nose. Pid caught on from ' the first' and figured high in ratings for four successive weeks. “Around World in 80 Days” (UA) held on a close sec¬ ond. Stamina of this pic. even'in (Continued on page 20) Universal Earnings From Carefully-Budgeted Films Hailed in Bache Paper The shares of Universal “appear to be one of the overlooked equities in the motion picture industry,” ac¬ cording to a staff memorandum is¬ sued by a Wall Street brokerage house. The report, made by Bache & Co., points out that in recent years U has earned more money,„, r from film production than most of the larger companies in the indus¬ try. It notes, too, that U has not as yet consummated a deal for the sale or lease of its backlog films to television. According to Bache, the value of these films on a per share basis is equal'to. a major portion , of the market price of the shares. This factor, the Wall St firm stresses, coupled with U’s high asset value and its excellent past operating rec¬ ord, “reduces the speculative risks inherent in the shares of motion picture companies:” As a result, Bache terms U’s shares as “specula¬ tively ‘attractive for capital appre¬ ciation." No analysis of U can he complete without including Decca Records, according to Bache. Decca, it points out, controls over 80% of U’s- stock and this factor “implies; that an eventual merger of the two companies is probable.” Bache favors U’s policy of snak¬ ing medium budget pictures with wide appeal. It feels that perhaps this policy is the reason for U’s success. “High budget films may fail whereas a low budget film may meet with very favorable public acceptance,” says the Wall St. firm. “Thus, when a film produced at moderate cost attracts a large audi¬ ence, substantial profit accrues to the producing company. We Always Make Film Copy'Must’ Says Look Mag Look magazine last week cited “evidence” that films are still America's top entertainment Testimonial came in a letter from J,C. Herrick,, Look executive, je- printed in one of the series of COMPO ads in. Editor & Pub¬ lisher. . ■ Herrick wrote that, in 20 years of publishing, Look • had never had an issue without a “movie” or motion picture personality story; “More editorial space in Look has been devoted to amuse¬ ments (15% to 20%) than to any other category,” the Herrick Tet¬ ter ran. “With this policy. Look has grown to he one of the larg¬ est general magazines. “This I believe is evidence that the American public still regards the motion. picture as an essential form of entertainment. We are happy to note that more and more newspapers .are showing that they, too, recognize the movies’ reader- ship value. They are increasing the space they give motion pic¬ tures and are improving the ap¬ pearance of their entertainment sections.” Latter observations is somewhat at variance with the frequent and loud complaints of the film com¬ panies to the effect that the papers if anything are cutting down on “free” space devoted to films, often In favor of tv copy. Look, along with the other top general circulation mags, is heav¬ ily in competition for the Holly-, wood ad dollar. , Butter's Drive-In Post Austin, July 2. Clyde Btitter has been appointed executive secretary of the Texas Drive-In Theatre Assn, by Eddie Joseph, prez of the group. Buttler’s a local ad-press rep. He has spent years in radio and video in Houston and New Orleans. Ustinov Ducks 'Egyptian* Ottawa, July 2. Peter Ustinov says he never saw 20th-Fox’s “The Egyptian,” one of three Hollywood films he appeared in, “because I disliked making the picture so much.” Bearded English actor is visiting here with his Ottawa-horn wife, ex-actress Suzanne Cloutier, and their two children, one born in Hollywood. Her father is Queen’s Printer Edmond Cloutier. Ustinov opens in the lead of his West End success “Romanoff and Juliet,” which he authored, in Bos¬ ton about Sept. 9. George S. Kauf¬ man directs. He cr'^'s to hit Broadway in mid-October. The Motion Picture Exportj Assn, is currently investigating the planned uses of monies tied up in the socalled 40% account in Italy. Move' followed the Italian request for a $4,000,000 loan out of that ac¬ count to Italian production which is squeezed for adequate financing. The 40% account takes in coin which the,Americans are supposed to be using for production in Italy. According to the Italians, who com¬ plain there isn’t enough U.S. activ¬ ity production-wise' in Italy, there are now some $8,000,000 in the ac¬ count. They, want 509® of it as a loan. MPEA survey so far has shown that some of the companies don’t Increase in admission prices and possibly complete liberation of ad- mish scales are expected in Argen¬ tina following the elections on July 28. Disclosure came last week as the Motion Picture Export Assh. took issue with Bernard Gates, Al¬ lied Artists’ Latin American top¬ per, over his charge (Variety, June 19) that the U.S. distributors in latin republics were refusing to do anything about the Government- dictated low admission prices for low-wages economies. The N.Y. foreign managers ex¬ pressed surprise at Gates’ assertion in the light of known MPEA at¬ tempts to get local governments to raise admission scales as much as possible. Due to strong and continuous pressure from the companies, the local film hoards and MPEA’s Rob¬ ert Corkery, who’s in charge oi Latin America, admission prices have gone up in at least five coun¬ tries. The companies have held off for the moment In'Mexico when they Were assured by the powerful local exhibitor, group that the gov¬ ernment couldn’t be budged on the Issue uned present political cir¬ cumstances. . ■ Brazil Situation Itf' Brazil, where prices were raised as much as 80% for various ’scope pictures, the American com¬ panies have actually gone to court to challenge tie government’s right to fix prices. In other countries, too, there is continuous behind-the- scene activity and pressure to get prices upped. It’s conceded, however, that Latin American governments tend to. keep prices artificially low so as not to add further discontent among the working people who have very limited cash incomes. It’s conceded also that in one or two instances, after prices were raised, they had to he reduced again as the result of a popular outcry. In dollar area (Venezuela) and the Caribbean boxoffice scales already are quite high, and it’s the prevail¬ ing opinion in New York that it would he a mistake to push theiw up still further and thereby out of reach of the average person. In Chile, a price liberation de¬ cree was'signed on June 17. Admis¬ sions there were upped three times during the past 18 months, mostly due to the efforts of the MPEA working with the local film board. In Argentina, admission scales were upped last year, hut then again reduced, though not to*the original level. In Peru, there was a 100% increase a year ago. Here, again, .public outcry forced a cut¬ back of 50%. According to Cork¬ ery, it’d be foolish for the moment to press for more since the market couldn't stand It. In Colombia, the American in¬ dustry was in part responsible for the recent shift pf admission con¬ trols from the central government to the local mayors* have any money in_that particular account. (They are allowed to use or remit the remaining 60% in one way or another). Other compa¬ nies. have large amounts tied up, .though it’s said that the $8,000,000 figure of the Italians is exagger¬ ated. The companies that do have coin blocked say that these sums are either allocated for specific pro¬ duction projects planned for the future or else held in reserve for stories which the studios have on the planning boards and may do in Italy. In any case, it's contended, it isn’t true that, just because there may have been a4emporary lull in U.S. filming in Italy, the money is just lying there useless. Squeeze-Unsqueeze Speed Essential, Technical Problems in Lab Delay Movietone Newsreel Going C’Scope Fireworks at Drive-In Prudential Theatres will mark Independence Day eve tonight : (Wed.) at its three Long Island drive-ins with a “gigantic” fireworks display. These will be held at the All- Weather Drive-In at Coplague as well as at the Commack and Massapequa ozoners. Fireworks will precede the regular showing of the sites’ usual twin-hill film programs. Prudential points out there’ll he no increase in the admish scale for the aerial bombs, roman candles, etc. - Warners Endorse Freelance Sources For Socko Films Warner Brothers not only wel-| comes but “aggressively seeks” in¬ dependent producers with ideas and talent, Benjamin Kalmenson, WB exec v. p., told the company’s sales convention in New York last week. Kalmenson, stressing continu¬ ance of the Warner open-door pol¬ icy, said the company would “con¬ tinue to present fine pictures made by independent companies utilizing our production and distribution fa¬ cilities.” In a message to the meeting, prexy Jack L. Warner saw a bright future for the company. “There will be no letup In -our drive to maintain and further establish the position of entertainment leader¬ ship Warner Bros., has enjoyed since. the company’s founding,” Warner said. “With many of the current bestselling novels and top Broadway, hits bn our completed or in-preparation schedule, we are constantly adding to our pre-emi¬ nent story properties.- We also are negotiating important deals which will continue to bring to Warner Bros, the finest, most imaginative creative talent.” Earlier, Roy Haines, WB general sales manager, told his crew that they could expect “the most im¬ portant arid diversified product ever released by your company during the next six months.” He stressed that the product covered a wide variety of topics, appealing to all ages. In his talk, Kalmenson stated that “The day of mediocrity in mo¬ tion picture entertainment is long past. Our studios are interested in the purchasing of pre-sold prop¬ erties and by pre-sold I mean best- (Continued, on page 20) [ ITALIANS’ While the basic sentiment among the companies is still against an¬ other loan to the Italians, it is also true that the matter has not been put formally to the MPEA board, and—according to one good source —it may never be presented as a •formal resolution on which a vote | would he required. The loan idea was first ad¬ vanced to MPEA prexy Eric John¬ ston by Eitel Mofiaco of Italy’s ANICA in Rome in April. Feel¬ ing now seems to he that, if the American companies can prove that they have specific plans for utiliza¬ tion of the money, there then would he no very good reason for the Italians to tap the fund. Switch of the 20tli-Fox Movie¬ tone newsreel to Cinemascope maj be delayed pending expansion ol the company’s optical department in New York where footage can hi squeezed and unsqueezed rapidly. Certain problems have arisen since the original decision to put out a C’Scope, black-and-whit# reel. One of them is the commit¬ ment 20th has via its United Pres< television tieup. Also, certain for¬ eign accounts must be served in regular 2-D. The only immediate way of get¬ ting around all this would he to have the reel shot in double version, i.e. in Cinemascope and standrad. This, however, is considered much too expensive. Also, Movietone uses footag* from freelancers all over the world, and they send in their mate¬ rial in 2-D. Such film has to hi “squeezed” for a Cinemascope reel According to 20th technicians, the unsqueezing of CinemaScop* is no problem, though it takes time. Procedure is to virtually “scan* the Cinemascope negative frame* by-frame, concentrating on the ac¬ tion in the picture and eliminatin| the sides. Squeezing a normal pic¬ ture into C’Scope proportion! doesn’t represent much of a diffi¬ culty. Same unsqueezing proceduri would have to be followed by 20th should the company decide to gq along with any of the projected home pay-tv systems. CinemaScop* as'such can’t be shown on the air. For promotion purposes, 20th hat unsqueezed chunks of footage that were to be shown on various tv shows. Fail to Restore Censors; Pennsylvania Free Of Bluenoses for 2 Years Film censorship is a dead issue in Pennsylvania for at least an¬ other two years. State Legisla¬ ture adjourned late last week be¬ fore a bill designed to reestablish censorship could reach 'the floor of the House and it therefore ex¬ pired. Agitation for renewal of a blue- pencil stature had been strong and indeed it was feared that the censors would he legislated hack into action. Similar situation ob¬ tained in Ohio where a hill re¬ establishing a film censorship au¬ thority was allowed to die. Pennsylvania Legislature will not reconvene until 1959. PRESSAGENTS DECLINE ■SELF-PUNISHMENT Members of the N. Y. Screen Publicists Guild at a meeting last week overwhelmingly defeated a proposal for an increase in fines and subsequent expulsion from the union for non-attendance at unit meetings. Plagued by absences during the long period between contract ne¬ gotiations, a group within the Guild sought to raise the current fine of $1 for each meeting missed to $5 for the first absence, $10 for the second, and expulsion from the union for the third. Voting on the proposal brought out the largest turnout of SPGites in months. The SPG represents pub-ad staff¬ ers at Warner Bros., Columbia. Universal, United Artists, 20th-Fox and Metro. Promote Paul Kamey Paul Kamey, Universal publicist, has been hoisted by eastern pub-ad chief Charles Simonelli to 'the newly-created post of assistant eastern publicity manager. He'll aide Philip Gerard, the company’s eastern publicity manager. Kamey has been with U for eight years. Prior to that he was in the publicity departments Of Metro and 2Qth-Fox.