Variety (March 1959)

16 PICTURES N.Y. Distribs Bit Ho-Hum on Belated Pact With Under-Coonter-Sold Spain Proposed Spanish deal was sub¬ mitted to the Motion Picture Ex¬ port Assn, board in N. Y. last week with the personal recommendation of Frank Gervasi, MPEA’s Mediter¬ ranean manager, for acceptance. However, the board failed to act. Deal would make available 80 licenses for U.S. films, including 40 for the companies. Rest would go to Spanish independents w T ho’ve bought American product but must now wait for a license to be able to release it. There’d be a 30<:c remit¬ tance from Spain, conditional on dollar availabilities. One of the reasons why the board didn’t act on the deal was that one of the pic mopany.reps who attended had to check back with their outfits. While the com¬ panies don’t feel the Spanish pro¬ posal is anything much to shout about, they’re also resigned to ac¬ cepting the fact that it’s probably the best deal to be had at. this time. “At least it'd give us five licenses each,” commented one foreign exec. Universal, which has sold out to a local Spanish distributor, is a major stumbling block on the Spanish deal. One of the reasons why the Span¬ ish deal is so hard to come by is that the companies, stirred into action by United Artists, have been selling pictures to Spanish indies left and right, starling the moment the embargo on sales to Spain was lifted.- Quite apart from inter-de¬ partmental friction in-the Spanish government, these sales have tended to cut the ground from un¬ der Gervasi in his attempts to negotiate an overall deal. ‘Me & Colonel,’‘Journey’ Official for Arg. Fest; ‘I Want to Live’Added Three American films tone in¬ vite and two “official” entries) will participate at the Argentine film festival at Mar del Plata March 10-20. Robert Corkery, Latin Amer¬ ican supervisor and v.p. of the Mo¬ tion Picture Export Assn., is fly¬ ing to Argentina to represent the industry. i The two official entries at the fest are “Me and the Colonel” and “The Journey.” Participating by in¬ vitation is “I Want To Live.” Fest is non-competitive and has the ap¬ proval of the International Federa¬ tion of Film Producers Assns. U.S. participation at the fest comes in the wake of news that, as expected, American films were put into a preferred category under newly issued Argentine import reg¬ ulations. This means that the Hol¬ lywood product will have to pay neither an import deposit nor a, surcharge. Schwalberg Continues To Head Cinema B’nai B’rith; Lodge Hits 20th Year Alfred W. Schwalberg, founder and first president of Cinema Lodge B’nai B’rith, was unanimous¬ ly elected to again head the or¬ ganization at a luncheon Held Fri¬ day (27) at Toots Shor’s Restaurant, N. Y. Officer slate for the coming year will also include Jack Weiss- man as treasurer and Abe Dick- stein, secretary. I Some 10 vice presidents were elected. They include Ir.ving R. Brown, Jack Hoffbprg, Maurice B. Leschen, Milton Livingston, Joseph R. Margulies, David Picker, Sol Rissner, Norman Robbins, Nathan M. Rudich and Leonard Rubin. Now in its 20th year. Cinema Lodge will install the new officers at a luncheon to be held April 16. Guest speaker at the election luncheon was Dr. Lewis Webster Jones, president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He' spoke briefly on how “brother¬ hood” could best be achieved. Meantime, all past presidents of Cinema Lodge in a tribute to Schwalberg have agreed to act as honorary chairmen for one year for each of the agencies.that com¬ prise the fabric of B’nai B’rith activities. Howie Exits Assn. Job Hollywood. March, 3. James S. Howie resigned yester¬ day as secretary-treasurer of the Assn, of Motion Picture ProdQcers after 21 years with organization. He continues in an advisory and consultative capacity. He joined AMPP in 1938 and be¬ came secretary-treasurer in 1943, Prior to joining org he was a dep¬ uty in the State Attorney General’s office in L. A, Rossellini May Direct In Italy After 5 Years Rome, March 3. After almost five years of -work abroad, Roberto Rossellini may di¬ rect a film in this country this year. Zebra Film producer Mor¬ ris Ergas has revealed the director is already working on the script for “General Della Rovere,” to-..| gether with Sergio Amidei (who collaborated on “Open City”) and Diego Fabbri. Pic is based on a story by Indro Montanelli. Cast has not been set, with Ros¬ sellini undecided as to whether to use a name or an unknown. Success Shorts —^ Continued from page ' the picture always have done the better business.” f Counsel for Fisher declared' “the ■ insufficiency of prints is by design | or otherwise.” He contended that 1 this "preferential distribution of a | choice film” causes the two Fisher j theatres “on the outside” to forego ; profits to which they are as much 1 entitled as the selected seven | houses, inasmuch as the established ! film industry clearance designates ! all’in the same availability slot. It’s I also alleged that conspiracy in re- j straint of trade is involved. I The owners of the two houses • other than Fisher’s not getting “Mame” didn’t join him in the present action, but say they’re sym¬ pathetic to it and expect to bring damage suits if the basis for the latter are believed to exist. Fisher also owns and operates a local 28-day neighborhood “fine arts” house in addition to his two 28-day uptown theatres. Pollock to Write Book Hollywood, March 3. Louis Pollock, publicist of Writers Guild of America West for the past three years, exits his post on May 1. Pollock, who has been on the guild’s pub relations committee for 10 years, plans to finish writing a book. He will handle special as¬ signments for the guild. ft VIDEOTAPE iy Dynamic new dimension in TV programming | CORPORATION | •« AHMX coup. REDWOOD CITY. CALIFORNIA P'Sriety ■ Wednesday, March 4, 195*9 Uncluttering G’rama Continued from page 7 —— Cinerama-geared theatres in the United States and abroad. Cine¬ rama Inc. would also take the con¬ tract agreement with Robin Inter¬ national Cinerama, which holds the rights to [ exhibit Cinerama films in certain foreign countries. 15 Houses A total of 15 Cinerama th^tres are currently operating in the'TJ.S, and Canada. There were a total, of 25 Cinerama outlets at the peak of the medium’s operation. Cine¬ rama houses . are running in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Hollywood, Philadelphia, Washington, San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. The K.C. and Toronto installations will be closed shortly. Twelve theatres are currently operating abroad, with seven more scheduled to open shortly. Those running - include London, Paris, Osaka, Tokyo, Caracus, Havana,! Buenos Aires, Honolulu, Sydney, Melbourne, Madrid and Barcelona. Set to open soon are outlets in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Rio de Janiero, Sao Paulo, Singapore, and Kuala Lampur in Malay. Robin Interna¬ tional,. headed Nicolas Reisini, has the rights to operate the Cinera- j ma houses in London, Paris, Osa- | ka, Tokyo, Rome, Milan, Mar¬ seilles, Dusseldorf and Berlin. The Rome, Milan and Marseilles instal¬ lations have been temporarily | closed, but are expected to re¬ open. Robin also operated the | Cinerama installation at the recent [Brussels World’s. Fair. Film & Dance —— Continued from page 1 not act to renew it the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth are empowered to enact it because of previous legislation, according to a State Attorney General rul¬ ing. This unless the lawmakers pass a bill requiring standard time throughout the state. At last week’s hearing the Farmers Union, Farm Bureau and Grange representatives told the legislators that DST doesn’t work for farmers. A dance-band com¬ plaint was sounded by polka or¬ chestra leader Fezz Fritschie of the New Ulm Goosd-Town band. “I’ve seen ballroom opera¬ tors pulling their hair as they looked out their windows and the sun was still up in the sky and wondering when the crowd would come. People just will not dance in the af¬ ternoon.** DST proponents were heard on two afternoons the week before and included officials from Chambers cf Commerce throughout the state. There are a number of bills on the subject in the legislature. [ Charlie Winchell, United Para¬ mount circuit president-general manager here, heads the Commit¬ tee for Standard Time which is in i ' the fore of the fight against DST. TOA’s Kerasotes Continued from page 5 the activation of TOA’s group In¬ surance plans, its role in the organ¬ ization of the Congress of Exhibi¬ tors, its call for a training program for projectionists and theatre oper¬ ators, its urging of local advertis¬ ing for saturation openings, and the improvement in its public re¬ lations program under A1 Floer- sheimer Jr, * Kerasotes also disclosed that TOA hopes to bring its Constitu¬ tion up to date. Proposed changes will be acted upon at the associ¬ ation’s annual convention in the fall. The TOA topper revealed that an agreement, had been reached although contracts have hot yet been signed, to stage a trade show with the National Assn, of Con¬ cessionaires at the next annual con¬ vention in Chicago, Nov. 8-12, at the Sherman Hotel. TOA will meet alone in Los Angeles in 1960. Kerasotes also reviewed the new efforts of states and municipali¬ ties to introduce censorship and licensing bills. He termed these efforts as “a real menace to'our freedom of action” and he noted that “the threat appears to be-' spreading.” Pontiac’s 27-City Loop, 14 in Clay Products Tie Closed-circuit television business j meetings entered the “double- header” class last week with same-day telecasts in the automo¬ tive and building industries. The first telecast originated in Detroit at 1 p.m. and brought to-; gether .12,000 Pontiac dealers and salesmen in 27 cities for a national closed-circuit sales meeting pro¬ duced . and networked by Theatre Network Television. The second telecast, handled by TNT for the Structural Clay Prod¬ ucts Institute, originated from New York at 4 p.m. The program brought together architects and building trades executives in 14 U.S. and Canadian cities in an educational seminar on architect¬ ural esthetics and materials for modern design. Annual Goldwyn Award Via Foreign Pressmen Hollywood, March 3. An annual Samuel Goldwyn In¬ ternational Film Award has been set up by producer for the best foreign film each year as selected by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. ‘ First award, in form of a bronze plaque, will be made by Goldwyn personally at org’s banquet Thurs¬ day (5) at the Cocoanut Grove. ‘Mame’ Feb. Lead —, Continued from page 5 when only playing in four or five spots. “Perfect Furlough” (U) copped fourth spot while “Inn of Sixth Happiness” (20th), second in Janu¬ ary, wound up fifth. “South Seas Adventure” (Cinerama) copped sixth money. Pic has been fourth in January. “South Pacific” (Magna) finished seventh as against sixth in the pre¬ ceding month. “Gigi’,’ (M-G), long high in this monthly reprise, took eighth money. It had been 12th in January. “Rally Round Flag, Boys” (20thV captured ninth place, doing better around the country, where on con¬ tinuous run, than in N.Y. where it started on hard-ticket policy. “Bell, Book, Candle” (Col), which finished ninth in January, wound up 10th. “Windjammer” (NT), which has been around for some time and was a runner-up pic in the preceding month, was 11th. “Horse’s Mouth” (Lopert-UA), a newie, rounds out the Top 12 list. “I Want To Live” (UA), which was 10th in January; “Up Peri¬ scope” (WB) and “Anna Lucasta,” another from United Artists, were the rUnner-up films. Several new vehicles were launched just as the month neared its end, and a majority showed ex¬ cellent promise, notably “Sleeping Beauty” (BV), “The Journey” (Metro), “Hanging Tree” (WB), and “Black Orchid” (Par), torrid so far in Chi and N.Y. “Never Steal Any¬ thing Small” (U), another newie, was fair in N. Y. and Frisco while “The Trap” (Par), also new, so far has been disappointing. “House on Haunted Hill” (AA) has done so well to date that it promises to be one of the year’s big grossers for Allied Artists. “Re¬ markable Mr. Pennypacker” (20th), a February opener has been un¬ even. French “My Uncle” (Continen¬ tal), a runner-up film in the preced¬ ing month, still was showing enough to rate that category three different weeks in February. “Doc¬ tor’s Dilemma” (M-G) also racked up some pleasing engagements. "I, Mobster” (20th) and “Night To Re¬ member” (Rank) hinted nice future possibilities. Argus 'Films Inc. has been au¬ thorized to conduct a motion pic¬ tures business in New York, with capital stock of 200 shares, no par value. Emanuel Silverman, was filing attorney .at Albany. Minneapolis, March 3. “Despite her reported involve¬ ment with Eddie Fisher,” N. Y. Times film critic Bosley Crowther hopes that Elizabeth Taylor will win the Academy Award for which she has been nominated, he said here. ► In a talk at the Womens Club, Crowther acclaimed Miss Taylor one of “our most distinguished i younger actresses” and said he feels that “it’s a great misfortune that a personal embarrassment can become a professional embarrass¬ ment.” Crowther’s expressed attitude in the matter brought an “ominous murmur of ‘oh, no’s’” in the aud¬ ience of women, as Teported by staff writer Helen De Haven in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune. Crowther indicated He isn’t at all certain that “movies for exhi¬ bition . will survive their present fight against television for exist¬ ence.” But if they do, he believes, they’ll be “better than ever.” “I call the group that films have lost the ‘Pavlov’s dog audience,’” said Crowther. “They react from habit, like the dogs that Pavlov trained to be hungry when they heard a beU. They’re satisfied with what tv has^to offer.” _ Crowther said he considers Alec Guinness’ performance in “The Horse’s Mouth” the past year’s best acting job and he recom¬ mended the French film, “He Who Must Die,” as “one of the most powerful pictures” he has seen. “Response to ‘Die ? will indicate how much the American public wants to see strong drama excel¬ lently acted,” said Crowther. “As a discriminating audience, you must prepare to tolerate topics in films which hitherto have been taboo,” concluded Crowther. “There will be arbitrary censor¬ ship, but you must encourage the best films have to give.” ‘Hard-Sell’ Levine —; Continued from pace 3 — importer circles is that it couldn’t be too much more than a guaran¬ tee of a few hundred thousand dol¬ lars. But in doing it up so big on the exploitation end he’ll need a gross of well over $1,000,000 just to break even. Distribution will- be via states righters, according to the present plan. However, at least a couple of major companies have expressed interest in taking over the releas¬ ing rights. Levine has started something new—and, yet, very old. It’s old- fashioned, hard sell showmanship, of. the type that hasn’t been seen lately. And 1,000 tradesters are in line for the exploitation lunch¬ eon to see how it works. Post-’48 —— Continued from page S —^ time taken the stand that its mem¬ bers are entitled to a cut of any pix made or shown for toll=tv, and its newest demands reiterate that policy. There are other demands, still being drafted, but the hike in mini- mums and* tv proposals are the highlights. ! Membership of the screen branch at the same meeting unanimously okayed strike action against a number of producers who have li¬ censed or sold post-’48 pix to tv with no cut for the writers of those pix. Action will be taken if no satisfactory agreement is reached between the guild and producers regarding a split for the scripters. Prexy Ken Englund of the screen branch presided at the meeting. New York Theatre —‘RA1II0 CITT MUSIC IUI—. Rockefeller Center • Ci 6-4600 I DEBORAH KERR-YULBRYNNERI in ANAT0LE UTVAICS Production of I “THE JOURNEY” I From M-G-M In METROCOLOR I ond GAIA NEW STAGE SPECTACLE I Bos the Lecturer Vs. Clubwomen Liz Taylor Ought Not Be Embarrassed Profession¬ ally, He Says—But Ladies Don’t Agree