Variety (December 1957)

4 PICTURES PfoiiETy Wednesday, December 4, 1957 Loew’s is headed for a )^but with 4- the Dept. of Justice when and if the film corporation ' pursues its newly-drawn plan to seek to escape the theatre-divorcement phase of its antitrust decree. D. of J. sources, * as well as lawyers at other companies,; said this week there’s no precedent in which a de¬ fendant could avoid compliance with a court order such as the trust decree because trade conditions have altered in the interim. And the Department is whispered bent on seeing to it that such a prece¬ dent is not established. Position taken by Loew’s attor¬ neys is that industry ^conditions have so radically changed: as to render unnecessary the ordered theatre split. Indeed, it’s felt,, the divestiture could be harmful tQ the entire industry since Loew’s pro¬ duction program might be im¬ paired if the profit-making domes¬ tic exhibition situations can no longer be relied upon for fiscal bolstering. Further, it’s noted that the Paramount picture com¬ pany is free to return to exhibition and previously-divorced circuits are now going into production.. Logic? Maybe! But the D. of J. will not hold still for the . Loew’s argument. Point is made that di¬ vorcement was among the penal¬ ties imposed because of .monopo¬ listic practices found by the U. S. District Court -in New York and upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court. -With Justice antagonistic to¬ ward any move to continue Loew’s integrated corporate setup, the company has as its only other ave¬ nue of approach a petition filed di¬ rectly with the District Court. If .this is done, it’s hinted, the com¬ pany might seek to enlist the sup¬ port of many of the same inde-. pendent exhibitors who demanded divorcement years ago but now would prefer not to have it. These are the theatremen. who believe the separation of produc¬ tion-distribution from exhibition is responsible for the lessened amount of product available to them. Frisco Defense Opens San Francisco, Dec. 3. Defense case in Sam Gold- wyn’s $ 1^2 million. antitrust suit against 20th-Fox, National Theatres and Fox West Coast opened. yesterday (2) in Fed¬ eral Judge Edward P. Murr phy’s court. Two early witnesses were expected to be Fox West Coast buyer-statistician. Pete Lund- greri and Fox West Coast buy¬ er Bert Pirosh. Both testi¬ fied earlier, and at great length, during complainants side of case. Defense’s Case is expected to take about three weeks. San Francisco’s FromlZLandsit Vancouver, Dec. 3. Most every employee is sure he can rim the business better than the boss though few get chance to prove it. When slump boxoffice closed the town theatres in Haney and Abbotsford, British Columbia, projectionists Alec Marshall and C. Friezen-jumped in anl unshuttered their respective boxoffices. Reports indicate that both are proving a point by doing good trade. San Franciscp, Dec. 3. Hollywood’s .. Screen Directors Guild is considering participation in San Francisco’s International Film Festival opening tomorrow *4) night. If participation okayed, SDG is expected to tiy to recruit a number of top-drawer di¬ rectors to. be present at various nishts of the two-week fete. Festival, unsanctioned by Inter¬ national. Federation of Film Pro¬ ducers was extended one day by the sponsoring Frisco Art. Commis- „ sion to permit one more entrant, “El Vaquero and the Girl.” Festi¬ val co-ordinator Irving M. Levin also snagged one independent U.^S. picture. Franchot Tone’s “Uncle Vanya,” to bring total entrants to 15 from 12 nations. Full list, of entries, Dec. 4 through Dec. 18, is: "Captain of KoeDenick” < /> "11 Grido” /Italy) "If All the Guys in tho WotJd /France) "Aire of Infidelity** (Spain) "\parajIto (India) "Hulin? Mandirigma” "Kansl” (Poland). *‘Throne of Blood" (Japan) "Bolshoi Ballet” (Britain) "Uncle Vanya”- (U. S.) •"Three Men in a Boat” ( "Ouivitoq” (Denmark) "Freedom” (Ghana) "El Vaquero and the-. Girl” t "'i Bigrmo (Italy); Films will play 1,200-seiit Metro Theatre* and festival is scheduled for blessing from Frisco Board of Supervisors anr mayor on opening night. Everybody's Back Where They Were As to Venice; MPEA Awaits Federation Motion’Picture Export Assn, last week said it would go along with the International Federation of Film. Producers Assns. in formula- tings its stand re the proposed new rules for the 1958 Venice film fes¬ tival. Venice organizers . have stated they’ll go hack to their old. System of doing their wn picking and choosing for the fest. Method caused the Yanks to stay away from, the fest. in'1955: This year. Venice—in order to get IFPA approval—had to switch to a different selection method al¬ lowing countries to nominate their respective entries as per IFPA rules. However, Venice got rapped for its poor quality, which cued the Switch. While the American companies realize that Venice, coming at the bottom of the fest ladder each year, has trouble getting good films, they also appear unwilling to compro¬ mise on their right to select their own fest entries. Europe to N. Y. Jimmy Gardiner Jack Hawkins Arthur L. Mayer Tyrone Power Tom Rodgers Joseph H. SCidelman Margaret Webster Michael Wilding N. Y. to L. A. Rod Alexander Don Ameche Martin Bauiri Saliie Blair Eddie Elkort Mel Ferrer Ait Ford Tim Gale James .Garner Audrey Hepbur Lou Jacobi Jerry Lewis Bambis Linn Jack Lord N. Richard Nash Robert Thom L A. to N. Y. Caroline Burke Richard Carlson Rosemary Clooney Hans Conreid Frank Cooper Joan Crawford Charles Einfeld Clark Gable, Ben Gazzara Joe Glaser Paul Henreid Bernard Ml Kamber Peggy King Art Linkletter Alan W. Livingston Joe Mantell Walter Matthau Nicholas Nayfack Hugh O’Brien Michael Sean O’Shea William Perlberg George Seaton Sonny Shamberg BUENA VISTA FATTENS SKED VIA GERMANY Reaching out for new product in addition to its own studio-produced pictures, Buena Vista; Walt Disney distribution subsidiary, appears set to take United States and Gana-. dian releasing rights to a number of German films. It’s believed other imports,, some from France, also will be added to the lineup. Buena already has closed a deal for the first of the German entries, this being “Story of Vickie,” which was produced by Ernst Marischka, who also directed and scripted. Star is Romy Schneider who, ac¬ cording to. the distrib’s present plans, is to be given an ad buildup similarly as Brigitte Bardot has been spotlighted in recent weeks. Other outside product taken by the BV sales department includes two pictures from C. V; Whitney and RKO’s “Stage Struck.” MPEA Paris Post Spiegel to H-H-L Marc M. Spiegel, Continental manager of the Motion Picture Ex¬ port Assn, with headquarters in Paris, has. resigned effective Feb. 1, 1958. His successor Is Leo Hoch- stetter, the MPEA’s Far JCast man¬ ager; who’s being shifted from Tokyo; Spiegel’s new position is as v.p. and : foreign sales manager for Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions. From Paris, he’ll supervise their .sales: worldwide and in addition will act as production liaison on the H-H-L pix to be shot in Europe, Spiegel moyeover, coming in the wake of the successful conclusion by him of a hew two-year French film agreement, keeping intact the Yanks’ .220 permits; didn’t. come as. a surprise since he’s long known to have wanted, ‘'out.” On the other hand, though Spiegel's. res¬ ignation was. submitted to MPEA prexy Eric Johnston in London last month, and accepted then, none of the eompanies had an inkling that Spiegel was stepping out. MPEA explanation is that it wanted to keep Spiegel’s exit under wraps pending finalization of the French agreement. Though Spiegel’s . new position with H-H-L is an excellent, one, this is said to have been only one of several factors influencing his decision to change; One pit the prime functions of the MPEA Con¬ tinental manager is liaison \tith the companies’ Continental heads in Paris. Spiegel'at times found it; difficult to walk this particular tightrope. He’s generally credited • Continued on page 22) N.Y. to Europe jerpme H. Cargill ‘ Reg Connelly Erroll Garner Rex Harrisoii Arthur Hershkowitz Kay Kendall j Raoul Levy Duncan McGregor Hazel Scott Vat Star Eddie Cantor sagely anwnaratao. from is half* , can Vary of Shew Bis fxptrienca. Ills concept af 10 Commandments Of Shoic Biai another Editorial Feature In ttia upcoming 52d Anniversary Number af ^USriety f New York Sound Track Brigitte Bardot wants to do a picturewith . Frank Sinatra and, the desire being mutual, search is now on for a suitable script. A phenomenon of the current Broadway season was cited by Rich¬ ard Watts Jr., drama critic of the N.Y. Post, in his: “Two on the Aisle” column of Nov. 26. Under one of his weekly “Random Notes on This and That” pieces Watts wrote, “How many years has it been since a local drama Critic has failed to applaud a Hollywood performer appear¬ ing in a Broadway play? ,, . Yet I’m sure it won’t he long before film actress tells an interviewer that she’d be terrified to face the brutality of these movie-hating sadists . . . Come to. think .of, it, there’s something wrong with this theatrical season . ... No one has yet said the review¬ ers were wrecking the stage.” 1 On the same day that Charles M. Reagan submitted, his resignation as Metro’s sales v.p., Loew’s issued a revised listing of its officers. Rea¬ gan’s name continued on the list . . . There’s film interest in “The Im¬ mortal,” first novel by Walter Ross, BMI press chief and former War¬ ner Bros, publicist. Book, to be published by Simon & Schuster March, concerns an actor of beat generation who becomes more famous after his death than when he was alive.* Guess wiio? . . . The Will Rog¬ ers Hospital reports that 782 people of the amusement industry took advantage of the free chest x-ray facilities in operation at the Theatre Owners of America-Theatre Equipment and Supply Manufacturers Assn, convention and trade show in Miami Beach last week. X-ray sur¬ vey is part of a major health program inaugurated by the hospital. It is expected to reach full swing in 1958 \vhen chest x-ray surveys will be made on a national basis by arrangements with local divisions of the National Tuberculosis Assn. ... Ruby Dee and Virginia Maskelt signed with Sidney Poltier and John Cassavetes in “Our Virgin Is¬ land,” a Countryman Film being produced on location in the West In¬ dies ... W. Richard Nash to the Coast for script conferences with Sam* uelGoldwyn on his screen'adaptation of “Porgy and Bess.” . . .Artists rep .Peter Witt has added Leo G. Carroll as a client ; . . “The . Tarnish¬ ed Angels” Universal’s version of William Faulkner’*“Pylon,” set for key.city openings during the Xmas-New Year's holidays . . . New Amer¬ ican Library has issued a 600,000 first printing of the paperback edi-. tion. of “Don’t Go Near the Water” to tie in with the Metro film ; English actress Jessie Matthews'back to films via George Pal filmiza^ tio.ri of “tom thumb,” which Metro will release . . . Universal’s sales chief H. H. Martin off on a swing of the company’s western branches and for confabs with U-S studio toppers . . . Floris Ammahnati has been officially reconfirmed as Venice Film Festival topper for another year, per Senator Giovanni Pontt, who heads the entire Venice, operation, whichalso comprises legit, music, art and other events. Same source chose Mario.Natale for another year as Press Office chief ... Robert Ardrey, American screen and stage writer resident in Gene¬ va, Switzerland the last couple of years, is probably one of the travel- ingest. contemporary authors. In recent mouths he’s made professional trips to Johannesburg, Hollywood, Paris. London, Vienna, Corsica, Stratford-upon-Avon and Northnumberiand County in. England, and the Pyrenees. The trip to Johannesburg was to. gather material for a book about anthropology as revealed in South Africa, and the visit to London was to arrange for. publication by Collins; He Was in Vienna to cover the Hungarian rebellion, and has been working on a legit play about it. He also planed* over the Pole to Hollywood for confabs with producers Cheater Erakine and Robert Parrish about the film ver¬ sion of Thomas Lea’* “The Wonderful Country,” and has written the screenplay in Corsica and the Pyrenees, with time out. for a huddle with Erskine and Parrish in Paris. He plans to return next summer with his wife and two sons to his permanent home in Brentwood, Cal., probably to remain a year or so. Robert Taplinger, WB ad-pub topper, in introducing Joshiia Logan at- a luncheon last week: “I always: say that when a man needs ho in¬ troduction, he needs no introduction.” And with , this he sat down . . . Robert Brasillach’s play “Queen From Cesaree” Which ;was closed by the police in Paris because World War II resistance people raised a fuss recalls the unsavoury case of the dramatist who was co-author of a history of motion pictures. Before 1939, when still in his 20s, he published a novel, excellent volume of translations from classic Greek, and was journalist, and literary critic, of considerable promise. After serving in French army until France’s collapse in ’40, he became mouthpiece of Nazi propaganda in France, contributing inflammatory editorials to notorious Nazi-controlled mag, “Je .Suis Partout,” and publicly thanking Hitler for taking France. ; ..Brasillach was arrested at time of liberation, immediately tried and executed. Nicholas Farkas, head of Farkas Films, has acquired a building on Third Ave. to expand his facilities. Distributor of foreign pix former¬ ly was a few doors below. Coincidentally, his brother Aladar is a liter¬ ary agent who also concentrates on the foreign market. There’s nothing like getting lost in the Bronx. It happened to Spyros P. Skouras and his retinue a couple of months ago when they jour¬ neyed uptown to 20th-Fox’s experimental theatre. Last week, it hap¬ pened not only to the bus taking the press to a Cinemiracle demon¬ stration, but also to Jack L. Warner, who missed tho whole tiring while, cruising around the Bronx; “territory” . . . Mylene Demongeot, French beauty starred in “BonjOur Tristesse,” was asked for opinion of di¬ rector Otto Preminger last week. She summed it up iii a single word: “Violent!” ... . Director Mark Robson went to London to try and snare Sir Laurence Olivier as a costar with Ingrid Bergman in his planned “Inn of 8th Happiness.” It’ll be shot on Formosa . .* . National Theatres prexy Elmer C. Rhoden said last week his circuit’s newly-owned tv station in Kansas City wouldn’t be used for toll-tv purposes; NT hn joined Paramount’s Telemeter in applying for a Los Angeles franchise; French producer Raonl. Levy plans to go to Russia in 1959 to loca¬ tion a film based on Turgenyev’s “First Love” there. Claude Autant- Larat is skedded to direct. State Dept, discloses that Americans are going abroad in larger num¬ bers all the time. During the first nine months: of this year, the Depart¬ ment issued no fewer than 500,826 passports and passport renewalls for an all-time high. Interestingly enough, the largest single group of passport recipients—some 28%—were housewives. Almost 65% of all persons w-ent over for pleasure. Having done fine with his release of the quoted appellation, he now calls himself VWee Geordie” K. Arthur . /. Joseph Heldt, formerly the Theatre Guild’s ad-pub director, is now press director for “River Kwai” special engagements . , . Legion of Decency sent out a special release to remind that, while it approved “Peyton Place” (i .A-III, -Unobjectionable for Adults), this didn’t mean it had changed its mind about the .original Grace Metalious novel . . . DuPont has. dropped efforts to develop its ow* color process but is going ahead with fieldtesting, the new Cronar thin safety base . . . Columbia’s Harry Novak very sick iij a Paris hospital. In addition to everything else, he broke his leg oyer the weekend . . . . Warner Bros., moved into its new Fifth Aye/ headquarters Monday 12), had gremlinsl fouling up the phone systerri.