Variety (November 1957)

Wednesday, November 6, 1957 PAsJEtT PICTURES 5 !! New York Sound Track Director Preston Sturge* on the state of comedy: “Good business* men detest humorists/' Dave Karr’s future within Loew’s a matter of some spec .. . « He’s the former Washington legman for Drew Pearson who has developed as an expert on proxy in r fighting and who is now very close-to Joe Vogel . . . Prentice-Hall and Hawthorn Books’ royalty checks to au¬ thors accompanied by the following printed quote On a small slip of paper: “Royalties are nice and all-that but shaking the beads brings in money quicker. , . Gypsy Rose Dee, author” . . , Rev. Harold Gardiner (on the staff of America,, the Jesuit publication) planning a book on “The Catholic Viewpoint on Censorship” via Dou¬ bleday . . . Rodney Biuh» 20th’s promotion topper, last week marked his 20th’s year with the company ... Emile J. Lustig planning to preem his “Captain von Koepenick” at the World Theatre, before Christmas . Trade and government reps of Italy, France and Germany due to huddle with West German Minister of Economics Dud wig Erhard at Bonn Nov. 26 to discuss Common Market questions. Indie designer Sanl Raw re film ads: “We design our ad campaigns like firecrackers. You put ’em together, light 'em, and then toss 'em out and hold your ears.. The bang, if it comes, doesn’t last long.” . . . Mag¬ na’s. “South Pacific” into the Criterion March 15 . .. France’s Jules Det¬ ain (“Rififi”) up to direct the film version of Francoise Sagan’s “Those Without Shadows.” Msgr. Thomas F. Little, exec secretary of the National Legion of Decency, informs Variety that none of the 10 Legion-condemned for¬ eign films during the year ended Oct. 1 was “recommended” by Ro¬ man Catholics abroad. Several were popular successes however. In past years there have been several instances of the American Legion con¬ demning films which had Catholic endorsement overseas. No such cases arose in 1956-57. Montreal - bora William Shatner, cast, by Metro for one of “The Brothers Karamazov,” has been given co-star hilling, along with Yul Brynner, Claire Bloom, Maria Schell, Lee J. Cobh, Richard Basehart and Albert Salmi. Shatner’s father’s a Montreal clothing manufacturer. Talent agent David Graham, N.Y-based for many years, lit out for the Coast some months ago to hook up with the Sacramento .Music Cir¬ cus for the summer. That chore finished and having “fallen in love 1 With California, his yen is now happily satisfied by an affiliation With the Wm. Shiffrin agency in H’wood (outfit handles many film stars) . . Jesse L. Lasky, at a conclusion of a replay, via NBC-TV Wednesday (30V, of a “This Is Your Life” half-hour originated live last June, join- ; ed Ralph Edwards to report that he had since received ‘‘20,000 let¬ ters” endorsing his proposed “The Big Brass Band” picture dealing with high school bands. “I'want to.promise them it will be made," the Veteran producer declared. Jeff Chandler with June Allyson-in “Ride a Tiger” at . Universal . . . William Bowers to script “H6w to Break into the Movies” for producer A1 Zugsmith at Metro , . . Lindsley Parsons is reactivating “Far Wan¬ derer” and Will put it before the cameras early next year with Sterling Hayden starred . .Jeff Richards opposite Mamie Van Doren in “Born Reekless” for Lakeside Productions at Warners . . „ Grant Williams, under contract to Universal for the last two years, was granted his re¬ lease ... Newcomer Connie Stevens, signed to play opposite Jerry Lewis in “Rock-A-Rye Baby,” won a non-exclusive pact with Paramount call¬ ing for one picture "a year and an option for a second, for seven years . , . Diane Jergens loaned by 20th-Fox to Jaguar Productions for the co-femme lead in “Island of Lost Women” ... U.S. Color Lab Inc. has been authorized to manufacture motion pic¬ tures film, with office in New York. Capital stock is 200 shares, no par value. Directors are Garvin P. Kiernan, Charles M. Caldwell-and Joseph Ames Thompson, c/o United States Corp. Company, 50 Broad Street. Flock of rumors already afloat anent a successor to the late Charles J. Feldman at Universal, . .Jerry Pickman excited about the film Jbusi- ness potential in Tokyo (60 theatres back to back in one area that makes Times Square look like the hintrlands in comparison), lie’s back in town after his first visit to the Orient. .. There's to be no copying Mike Todd as the first anniversary of “Ten Commandments” at .the Criterion is marked. Just a buffet luncheon at the theatre Friday (8). Allied Artists; which had a loss of $1,783,000 in its past fiscal year, which ended June 30, may have turned the corner. Company is thought to have operated on a profit basis in the first quarter of the new year. - George Stevens’ “Giant’ Via Warner Bros, has rolled up.a $15,000,- 000 domestic gross to date ... At 20th-Fox, the talent hunt fora young girl to play the lead in Stevens’ “Diary -of Anne Frank” continues, with large numbers of young hopefuls flooding the castirfg department. Stev¬ ens says he’s willing to cast an unknown. Any bets? New American Library plans to issue three editions," totaling 2,100,- 000 copies, of Erskine Caldwell’s “God's Little Acre,” prior to the re¬ lease of the Anthony Mann-Security-United Artists film version early next summer’. . . Publicist Gabe Sumner engaged to Jean Leiblich of Youngstown, O . . James Mason and Dorothy Dandridge,, who played starring roles in “Island in the Sun,” will, be .reunited as the costars of “Infamy,” suspense drama to be produced and directed for Metro by Andrew L. Stone from his original story . . . Universal, which has been shooting Erich Marla Remarque’s novel, “A Time to Love and A Time to Die,” as “There’s a Time to Love,” has decided to stick in the or¬ iginal title . . . Producer Alan Pakula arriwed in NY. this week after a two-week trip to France, Germany, Spain and Morrocco* in connec¬ tion with his forthcoming production, “That Others May Live,” based on Elliot Arnold's upcoming novel, “Rescue.” ... It’s a small world dept: Henry Lester had heard that Use Kubaschew- sld of Germany’s Gloria Films was in New York. He wanted to get in touch with her,.but didn’t know where. Then he walked into a liquor store uptown and the cleric boasted of having many,theatrical customers. “As a matter of fact, I’m making up an order for one of them right now,” he said. Lester looked at the label. It was addressed to Mrs. Kuhaschewski at the Sherry-Netherlands,. End of coincidence. Three unit publicity men have been assigned by Warner Bros, for up¬ coming pic. Phil Gersdorf isr working on “Kind Sir” in London, Irwin Franklyn will handle "Across the Everglades” and- Carl Combs “The Nuns Story” in the Belgian Congo ‘... Paul Henreid’s “Cabaret” opening a German film series at the new 72nd St. Playhouse in Manhattan to¬ night (Wed.). German diplomatic reps will attend. New house com¬ petes with the long-established Casino Theatre on 86th St. .Isn’t the Casino planning to go into the distribution of Gefman films? ; The question of the availability of films appears to be'the predom¬ inant woe of exhibitors judged from the comments and discus¬ sions at Allied States Assn.'s con¬ vention last week at the Concord Ho + ei in Kiamesha Lake, N. Y. Repeatedly speakers, as subse¬ quent resolutions, indicated that the Allied members, mostly made up of small town and subsequent- run situations, felt that they were not getting important pictures in time to cash in on the national publicity expended for the films. The consensus pf opinion among the delegates gathered for the con¬ vention was that the film com¬ panies were deliberately withhold¬ ing important pictures from the smaller situations (either for spe¬ cial holiday bookings or other reasons) and were scuttling the time-honored clearance systems. Paramount was a particular target of the Allied exhibs. It was charged that Par’s releasing pol* icy on “The Ten Commandments’ was harmful to the theatres in the smaller communities since they were unable to hook the picture during the period when interest in the property was at its peak. Many theatremen felt that by the time ‘10 C’s” arrives at'their theatres, the value of the buildup the pic¬ ture has received will be substan¬ tially dissipated. There was fear, too, that the example set by Para¬ mount will soon be followed by other film companies as evidenced by the two-a-day policy estab¬ lished by Metro and Columbia for “Raintree County” and “Bridge on the River Kwai” respectively. Seeking a solution to the avail¬ ability and clearance problem. Al¬ lied gave notice that it will con¬ centrate 'its -efforts in future ar¬ bitration negotiations towards se¬ curing a broadened definition of clearance to limit to reasonable lengths the actual time between prior-run and subsequent-run the¬ atres. Abram F. Myers, Allied hoard chairman, in outling Allied’s (Continued on page 16) Arties ‘Sink or Swim’ With N.Y. Times; Public Whistles To Crowther Tune Tix-Sindlinger Film industry has suffered its sharpest boxoffice decline in re¬ cent years as a result of the prev¬ alence of Asiatic flu and the pub¬ lic's fear of catching the bug at theatres. Albert E, Sindlinger, market analyst, disclosed results of a survey showing United States at¬ tendance fell to 30,240,000 during the week ended Oct, 26. compared with 42,000,000 in the comparable week of 1956. Reached by telephone in Chi¬ cago while en route to the Coast, Philadelphia-based Sindlinger said his investigations showed that a loss of 10,000,000 tickets was di¬ rectly attributable to the flu scare. ' Particularly hard hit were such metropolitan areas as New York and Chi. During this same week, Sind- linger’s company counted 32.621,- (Continued on page 20) Pretidenf of th* MPAA ERIC JOHNSTON pats occMt or tho Industry's Saadiy Jafcila#* la his place OR Jubilees for Everybody * * * onoriicr Editorial Foataro fit tho spcomiitq 52d Anniversary Number of USstiEfr ♦ Cause and effect in the foreign film field,, as exemplified last week by the review of the N. Y. Times* Bosley Crowther of the Italian “Ca- biria” and the film’s performance at the boxoffice, again has .indie distributor circles humming. It has proven to them, once again, the extent to which the Times is paramount in determin¬ ing the success or failure of im¬ ports in the N. Y. arties. Some accept the paper's influence philo¬ sophically. Others rile at the power of one man—in this instance Crowther—to virtually determine not only the success or failure of a foreign picture, but also to thus control What in-recent years have become very large Investments in overseas pix. It’s an accepted fact that, with the top imports, the Manhattan run is as important as ever in that it very often sets the tone for the rest of the country, both in terms of exhibitor and critics’ reaction. Thus an “artie” flop in N. Y. rarely has j a chance to make a go of it in the rest of the U. S., though some ex¬ ploitation films actually do better by opening out-of-town, away from the N. Y. reviewers and, incident¬ ally, also away from the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency which usually doesn’t rate films until they show up on either of the Coasts. In the case of “Cabiria," which stars Guiletta Massina and was ac- , claimed when it was shown at the Plan is afoot for the Samuel j Cannes film festival earlier this Goldwyn organization to handle j?® a £ ( J! ya ^ for Lots of Cobum Hollywood, Nov. 5. Whoduniteer Victor Rosen, an ex-newspaperman, is wind¬ ing up a two-year chore of wiling the biag of Charles Coburn. MCA will agent the work as soon as Rosen has boiled down the manuscript. First draft ran 1,700 pages. Deal is simmering for SatEve- Post to carry a two-part spread of highlights from the book, which will be marketed as ‘You’re Only Young Once.” Book will cover career of Coburn - from his show biz baptism at age 13 as a program boy at the old Savannah (Ga.) Theatre, By_ 17 he was man¬ ager of the house; at .21 he turned actor, in 1898. Book is being primed for publica¬ tion next year, when Coburn will celebrate his 60th thespie anniversary. 60 Prelim Dates ForTorgy&Bess’ On Hard Ducats distribution initially of the pro- U. S. distribution), virtually every • paper except the Times liked the duceris “Porgy and Bess,” which is picture. The only semi-negative now in the preliminary planning; review came from Crowther, who stages. It’s thought that the Gold- * followed up this Sunday (3) with wyn company, of which James Mul- ; additional criticisms, extending in- vey is president, intends to road- j cidentally not only to “Cabiria" but show the picture on its own in up to about 60 situations, with the sub¬ sequent release to he taken over by an established distributor. In this connection, it’s noted that Metro, distributor of Goldwyh’s most re¬ cent picture, “Guys and Dolls," has made overtures about taking -over ’Porgy,” If the current plans materialize, it would mark the first time that Goldwyn entered the field of dis¬ tribution. The angle, of course, is the obvious one. The money values of roadshowing are estab¬ lished more than ever via “Ten Commandments” and “80 Days Around the World.’ Further, Gold- wyn is said to feel no need for a (Continued on page 20) Legit Producers Drug Magnate Discouraged with the odds of¬ fered by Broadway and the legit stage, Peter Lawrence and Jerry ______ _ ( Leider have formed Rima Produc- major distribution tieup with this I tions and. plan to produce a num- kind of market approach. J her of film, properties both in* the It’s further reported that “Por-1 States and abroad, gy” is to he lensed in the Todd-AO ’ First film, to be scripted and di¬ process. j rected by Preston Sturges, will be Goldwyn, of course, is free to i base< L on Shaplen’s long call the releasing turns in that h e ■ arranges for his own financing in- ! JJU ®^ X?5f SSOn ^ dependent of any distributor. bms l? de late thirties, who later F ■ ■ * was shown to have been an ex-con¬ vict. Comedy will be shot in New York. Sturges called it “a piece of Americana” and said it was the i type of comedy that hadn't been j attempted. ft r J Ml l.L l This will be Sturges’ first Amer- f Of liood Oi neaitfl ? ican film in quite a few years. His a vt \ T c . j last was “Diary of Major Thomp- Mmneapolis, Nov, 5. son >» ( ca lled “The French They are Because, he says, he wanted to • a Funny Race” here) W’hich he spare his blood pressure, Bennie | made in France. , Berger,who quit this year as pres- j Lawrence and Leider both are ■ °* t b j l° ca l independent ex- rooted in the stage and this is their f hibitors body—a post he held for] first filmic effort Lawrence pro- • almost its entire existence—didn t J duced “Peter Pan” in 1950 and had attend the national Allied States j “Shinbone Alley” running earlier Berger Stayed Away From Allied Convention j attempted. annual convention last week. It Was the first such meeting Berger ever has missed. An Allied States director, Berger still be¬ lieves in belligerency toward “of¬ fending” film companies and he has been critical of incumbent Allied bigwigs’ conservatism. And with conservatives taking over the or¬ ganization here in the Twin Cities, tod, he has clammed up and taken a* back seat. “There are so many things wrong in the film industry that I fegred my blood would be boiling during convention discussions and that wouldn’t be good for my this year. Leider was his assistant. Film is due to roll in early 1958. Other properties lined up at® “Take Me to Your President,” based on the Leonard Wibberley novel and dealing with disarma¬ ment. It’ll probably be done in Britain. Duo also plans to make “Okinawa,” a war story with an ambitious budget. Lawrence said the Broadway gamble wasn’t worth the effort “On the stage, you can’t make money with the kind of things you want to do. And the other kind of thinks you don’t want to do. In films, oqce you get your property health, so I stayed away,” explains • on film, at least you stand a better Berger. j chance.”