Variety (January 1958)

Wednesday, January X, 1958 PICTURES SUP OF THE CENSORS’ BLUE UP Despite New ‘A3’ Category, Legion Hangs Taiewell to Aims’ With 15’ Although it now has a new rat ing, A 3 (Unobjectionable ..for Adults), the National Legion of Decency last week put “Farewell to Arms” into its B, or Objection¬ able in Part for All, category. Also B-Rated was “Man on the Prowl.” There have been indications that the Church how will make some efforts to alert Catholics to the “dangers” of a B-rated film. In the past, this rating has made little difference. In objecting to “Farewell,” the Legion stated: “In the guise of dramatic realism, this film pre¬ sents material in such a sensation¬ al: and excessive manner that it is judged to be morally unaccepta¬ ble for entertainment motion pic¬ ture purposes.; Furthermore, there is not: sufficiently; clear moral com : pensation for the undue emphasis on illicit love" • (In the picture, the heroine, Jen¬ nifer Jones, becomes pregnant while carrying on a lengthy affair with Rock Hudson. She finally dies in childbirth after agonizing pain while he, who has been through terrible wartime experi¬ ences, ends a broken man.) In handing a B-rating to “Man on the Prowl,” the Legion said it tended to “justify the use of an immoral principle in plot solu¬ tion.” 'God treated Woman’ On Continue Their Struggle Los Angeles, Dec. 30. Bulwarked by a temporary re¬ straining order issued by Superior Judge Kurttz . Kauffman, “And God Created Woman” opened its run at the. Vagabond Theatre here last week and will continue unmo¬ lested at least until Friday (3). At that time, Judge Kauffman will hear arguments on why the re¬ straining order should not be ither extended or discontinued. Attorneys for the Vagabond took the unusual step of seeking the re¬ straining order before the picture opened, contending that when po¬ lice raided the theatre recently and halted showings of “Fire Un¬ der Her Skin,” they promised to come back and halt “Woman” on the grounds that it Was “even hotter.” Brigitte's Drooly Mall Washington, Dec. 30. Brigitte Bardot fans get very serious about it, accbrding to Ed Rosenfeld, Trans-Lux manager here. Rosenfeld has. received 26 holiday fan letters addressed to France's new sexsatlon, all care of the. Plaza Theatre, 275 seater in the Trans-Lux chain. “And God Created Woman,” the Bardot, starrer, has* been playing to s.r.o. crowds here for eight weeks. She obviously has project¬ ed only too well. CINERAMA DECAMPS BUFFALO Recent. Grosses Not Meeting Operating Net at Teck, Buffalo, Dec. 30. Cinerama will close “Search for Paradise” at Teck Feb. 1 an<* de¬ part Buffalo permanently. Local management admits receipts have hot met expenses and that Buffalo support does not warrant continu¬ ance. Weekly grosses have dropped from over $20,000 after opening in March of 1355 to $5,000 and un¬ der recently! Sub-lease of Teck by Stanley Warner expires next March when house will revert to Lowe's, the original lessee, which has ten years more to go. Cliff Hall, owner of El Rancho Drive-in at Palatine Bridge, N. Y., is again a patient in the Veterans Hospital at Albany. He underwent surgery there in October and later Was discharged. THEY STILL TALK Dick Nash’s Word To Worrisome: ^ “BUT SHY LESS He’s Not Rewriting Torgy & Bess’ Spiegel on World Impact Of American-Made Films; ;• Mike Wallace In his last Thurs¬ day (26) N. Y. Post column queried producer Sain Spiegel, in part as follows: Q. Aren't movies the most power¬ ful propaganda instrument we have? Ai Yes. The motion pictures give you the strongest penetration of any method of propaganda in the world. Six months after a wave of rock and roll in America, you have a wave of rock and roll in the slums of Bangkok. It’s In¬ credible. Q. Well, is the. motion picture industry living up to. this respbnsibility? A. To be honest about it, no. Q. Why. A. Because in Hollywood we live in an ivory tower— or an ivory sewer! We have absolutely no idea of the effect that our movies have on people abroad. In America, we make the pictures as hard, as. tough, as lewd as we possibly can for home consumption. American audiences know how to separate the. good movies from the sensa¬ tional. But when one of these movies is shown abroad it's con¬ sidered typical of America. Q. Well, doesn’t Hollywood plan to do anything about this? What’s the: solution— censorship? A. No. I’m so wary of censorship that I don’t believe it’s the answer to any such problem. I think our responsibility lies in explaining the picture properly to the foreign au¬ diences. Take a picture like “Black¬ board Jungle.” I think we should explain that these are not average conditions in. Amerga, but that they are conditions only in certain parts, of America. Why not admit it? j ional 'Theatres Free of Gloom Kansas City, Dec. 30. A healthy upsurge in business! both for the chain and the entire motion picture industry; is antici¬ pated by National Theatres in 1958, according to a circuit-wide telephone conference hookup held last Friday (27) by President Elmer C. Rhoden with execs in each of chain’s, six division offices. Rhoden conducted mass confab from here, with Frank H. Ricketson Jr., veepee in charge of theatre opera¬ tions, presiding from Denver. In kudosing the “enthusiastic spirit” of the men In the field, Rhoden stated, “We have every right to be enthusiastic with the top product we have to sell in our theatres.” Circuit# topper also called attention to National’s first picture, “Cinemiracle Adventure,” lensed in company’s new wide¬ screen process, “which will be one of the greatest advents in the histpry of motion pictures.” Rhoden also detailed circuit’s di¬ versification program, which in¬ cludes the recent acquisition of tv and radio stations in Kansas City: Reporting on business In their own territories, each echoing, Rho¬ den and also Ricket son’s predic¬ tions for coming year, Were John B. Bertero, Alan May and MSpencer Leye, Los Angeles; Wil¬ liam H. Thedford, Frisco; James Runte, Seattle; Robert W. Selig, Denver; A1 Frank, Milwaukee; and Richard P. Brous, Kansas City. Hookup lasted 39 minutes. First meeting of 1958 will be held by execs early in January to review company’s program for 1958. By FRED RIFT Even though the . bastion of film censorship continued to crumble in 1957, and promises to weaken even more in the coming year, three lawyers and a former censor agreed last week that no radical changes Were in prospect for 1958. The consensus of opinion among the Censorship experts is that U. S. Supreme Court already has knocked the props from under the various city and state censor boards, but that the High. Court Can’t be expected to go further: for the moment in the direction in which it already has moved, l.e., to eliminate pre-relase censorship of films altogether. ; In fact, the opinion is . heard that the industry may be better off with censorship as it currently stpnds than with no formal Censor¬ ship at .all, and instead a . rash of local boards trying, to “protect” ] community morality,. There, is, further, some question as to the. practicability of post-re¬ lease. censbrship: There are those who say it satisfies the legal mind which tends to draw fine lines, but that— from the purely practical point of view— it can be justi as much of a nuisance as pre-release censoring. The Three Experts . The three lawyers — Ephraim London, Sidney Schreiber and Fe¬ lix Bilgrey— all of whom have fought for the freedom of the screen, all note and appreciate what Schreiber termed, “the ero¬ sion” that , already has taken place in the censor field. None* how¬ ever, seriously expected the Su¬ preme Court to take the final step in outlawing pre-release censor¬ ship: '“The Court gives every Indica¬ tion that it intends to continue judging cases on . their individual merit as it has done in the past,” said London. “It will not make the basic decision and, in my opinion, the exhibitors are better off that way. If the Court does rule out the censors, we probably will then see a great deal of censoring ac¬ tivity on the . city level. In two or three years, however, films Would be treated just like books.” London said he was certain that, whatever happened, post-release censorship would always be there.. In theory, ;a society without cen¬ sorship would be Ideal, he held, but in practice it just was not pos¬ sible. Arguing along the same, line was Dr. Hugh M, Flick, the former. New York censor how assistant to the N. Y. State Education Coinmissioiner at Albany. Flick; who had the reputation of being the most intelligent and enlightened censor in the country, said he felt certain that the Supreme Court was moving to “knock out the cen¬ sors -as we know them today.”. But, he added: " Make no mistake. The phe¬ nomenon of censorship trill be icith us ahoays. A society has the right to protect itself . In the instance of the press, a compromise was made . With films, things are in the transi¬ tion stage, A new formula must be found. In Flick’s, opinion,, that formula (.Continued on page 16) Four-Woman Censor Bd. Bans Brigitte Bardot To Memphis Gentlemen Memphis; Dec 30. French import, “And God Creat¬ ed Woman ” starring the new sexpot starlet; Brigitte Bardot, is banned in Memphis by order of the four-woman censor board, who went together and were unanimous in ruling that Bardot, highest sal¬ aried actress in French films, was “too much woman.” The Memphis ladies will not allow the Memphis gentlemen to take, .a gander, 0 Mrs. B. F. Edwards, who serves as chairman of the group, also told. Variety, the pic was “lewd: lasciv¬ ious and immoral," and said, “it could not be shown here under any circumstances — even if certain scenes were cut. West , Memphis, . Ark., usual switch-over for aR Memphis-banned releases, is dickering to . book the filml and expects to do boff biz. Charles Pathe, 94, Dies in Monaco Louis Lasco Iran written aii amuilng guide for. the perplexed on •j How To Look At Movies another Editorial Feature in tfie 52d Anniversary Number of PfatlETY OUT NEXT WEEK Monte Carlo, Dec. 30. ! Charles Pa the, French film pio * neer, died here Christmas Day on the eve of his 94th birthday. Origi > nator . of one of the first newsreels, ■ Pathe’s Gazette, M. Pathe first be¬ came interested in picture produc tion 60 years ago. ' He began by setting up a phono\ graph shop in Paris in 1896 and two years later, upon seeing the works of the Lumiere brothers, he > organized a picture department in £ association with his brother, Emile. In subsequent years his opera\ tions in film production and distri' button were expanded to world. wide scope, marking progress that he! himself described as “fantastic, unhopedfor.” That it indeed was ’ fantastic is demonstrated by the ' fact that the Pathe Freres started ; out by pooling only $500 each for the purchase of two kinetoscope * machines .invented by Thomas A. * Edison, and were soon to have 20 , such machines, each placed in a l separate French town. Films were ; rotated on a week-to-week basis, . thus was originated the exchange ( distribution, system. ;■ Pathe went into production with l a camera he acquired from Louis t Luiniere and acted as his own camt eraman, manufacturer, shipping . clerk and salesman. He went ahead , as equipment improved, making early features . and ttie newsreel, opening offices in England and the United States and exchanges in key cities throughout the world. In 1914 a producing studio was set up In jersey City where the “Perils of Pauline” serial was made. In 1917 the American branch of Pathe Freres was sold to the Mer¬ rill Lynch banking company. The ; reel, famed for its crowing rooster symbol, was taken over by RKO which in turn sold It to Warners. WB suspended its operation in Au¬ gust, 1956, for reasons of economy. Pathe retired in 1929. His broth¬ er, Emile, died In 1937. KATZMAN’S COLUMBIA 7 IN '57 TO BE DOUBLED Hollywood, Dec. 30. Sam Katzman, who made seven films for Columbia release in 1957, Will produce more than twice tljat total in 1958. He’ll do six in the first three months of the year, beginning with “Juke Box Jambo¬ ree” and “Pretty Boy Floyd.’’ Sextet, Katzman reported. Will comprise roughly “one-third” of his 1958 production activities. ► ' The . transference of a classic from one medjum ta another and particularly from a novel or . the stage to the screen Is bound to bring forth a storm of protest or comment from purists and experts. Everybody, it seems, has an idea as to how it should be done. This is the hotseat on which N. Richard Nash is presently perching: Nash has been selected by Samuel Goldwyn to write the screenplay for “Porgy and Bess.” Since undertaking the assignment, the playwright screenwriter has been bombarded with letters and comments from friends and un¬ knowns on just how the George Gershwin Ira Gershwin Dubose Heyward classic should be treated. In addition, there have * been a flood of misconceptions about what will appear in the film version. Nash, , who Is working on the Screenplay in New York, wants to clarify all the erroneous notions and at the same time present an indication of what he hopes to accomplish. “I don’t know where people get their information,” he said, “but somehow there appears to be an impression that §on le of the best-known songs, including “Summertime,” will be cut An¬ other misconception is that Porgy will no longer be a cripple.” Nash emphasized that these no¬ tions were completely untrue^ He said that he would employ all the well-known songs. “My feeling,” he said, “is to use all of the mu¬ sic. Perhaps some cuts will be made, where George Gershwin in1 dicated, Ira Gershwin, who has been participating In my Confer¬ ences with Goldwyn, and directir Rouben Mamoulian know where thei changes should^ be made.” Nash stressed that “Porgy and Bess” does not require any im¬ provement. “It would be presump¬ tuous of me to assume that I can improve it. My aim is to find out how I can fulfill it in a different medium.” His matin objective, Nash stated, “is to open the picture out where the play would not allow for it. Not to do it that way would make it a static picture.” He pointed out. that he has been extremely faithful to the material and has developed it in areas Where the confinement of the stage did not permit. The writer revealed that he had borrowed some material from the original novel. This material, he pointed out, does not alter the basic story, but reveals new facets of character in relation to the work the residents of Catfish Row perform. For example, the novel suggests, that they are fishermen, but. in the play they are never seen performing their jobs. “The new material,” Nash noted, “is not brought in from left field. It helps to enlarge the scope of the opera and is introduced only in relation to the demands of the music.” The picture, Nash reported, will open with a scene showing the Negroes of Catfish Row working on a wharf. The scene will be accom¬ panied by the singing of “Sum¬ mertime.” Later, the scene shifts to Catfish Row. In his effort to open up the picture, Nash has pro¬ vided full-blown accounts . of the hurricane, the. parade, and the pic¬ nic. “I am trying to fulfil the material to the extent that George Gershwin had in mind in trying to suggest things that could only barely be suggested on the stage.” Nash has also made sure that the picture conveys accurately the fact that it is a period piece and that it presents the way Negroes lived in a section of the south in 19l2. “The picture,” he said, “will be more specific, in terms of the period and It will be made clear that it is a saga of a bygone day.” The writer expects no difficul¬ ties with Negro groups about the subject matter or the manner of presentation. He pointed out that before the musical was sent abroad by the U.S. State Dept, it had re¬ ceived the unanimous . support of all Negro groups.