Variety (March 1959)

12 I\TERSATI#SAL JsSstiEfr 'VARIETY'S' LONDON OFFICE t St. Martin's Place* Trafalgar Square u Mex Film Producers Making Full \ Survey of Industry Ills; May Cut Number of Pix, Change Prod. Type Mexico City, March 3. I fall off in Latin American receipts, The Mexican picture industry is j said that this does not matter be- about to take a long, realistic look! cause collections within Mexico at itself, with a view towards mak- j have been rising. Matouk. however, ing adjustments so that domestic j revealed that he still has to get and foreign markets can be main- j back the $320,000 invested in tained and if possible increased. j “Tizoc.*’ It is no secret that in 1958 the , Boxoffice receipts in Mexico quality of pictures made in Mexico . have gone up for native product nosedived to new lows as compared within the last five years. Accord- v.ith previous years. Even the film j n g to Peliculas Mexicanas, only union, interested in higher produc-; 30r- of investment was returned t ; on, criticized the consistently hy showings within the republic in poor quality of production. Most 1954. Today this has risen up to fPms were completed in two to 7QCf. Reason for the higher box- three weeks. office returns domestically is that Reduction of shooting time in in recent years producers have ob- Mexico to absolute minimums, with tained a better break on playing the exception of a handful of so- time. Thus, even in such first-run called superproductions, is geared houses as the Roble and Variedades to the industry plan of keeping (which formerly almost exclusively production near the 100-films per featured U. S. product), the ratio year level. More conservative in- today is 50-50. austry leaders have been advocat- Mass Media Seminar Salzburg, March 10. Beaumont Newhall, Cura¬ tor of George Eastman House* is in Salzburg, Austria, to lead a seminar of European stu¬ dents „ on "Studies of the American Cinema.” The 12- year-old Salzburg. Seminar in American Studies is running four parallel courses under the heading of "Literature and Mass Media.” The one month course is attended by some 48 students, 45 of which come from 15 different* European countries. The other three are Americans. Alongside of Newhall the instruction is led by Gerald Sykes, writer and critic; Alan Downer (he is heading an O’Neill .seminar) of Princeton University and Herbert Bruck- er, editor of The Hartford Courarit. Lotsa ‘La Paloma’ Titles For German Pix on Wings Of Billy Vaughn Disclick Berlin, March 10. Billy Vaughn's “La Paloma,” Favre LeBret on Cannes ‘Dangers Favorable Reception Worth Worldwide Prestige As Against Poor Evaluation of Competitive Entries POLISH 'HALKA' GIVEN Mexicans Present Concert Version of Moniuszko Opera It is all well and good to build j ~~ _ ing a drastic cutback to around 60 up boxoffice returns internally, ac- j huge bestseller in this country, f.!ms annually. With longer shoot-, cording to Raul de Anda, but what- may be responsible for the fact ing schedules, it is argued direc- ‘ j s needed how is to raise receipts ‘ that three local film producers have tors could turn out product hav- i n the foreign market as well. And registered it as a title, mg wider public acceptance not the only way. to do this, he said, J Kurt Ulrich wants to make it only m Mexico but also m the for-; i s to release quality product. f for Europa release, with Curt Jur- eign maiket. But to date any at-: Mexico traditionally has had a j gens as star. Gero Wecker (Area) tempt at cutting back production n , arket [ n South America. And the will do it for Constantin release, has met wuh stron., resistance, es- g^th American market has gone i while Artur Brauner’s CCC, the pecially from the weaker mac- for Mexican ranchcro (cowboy) | most powerful outfit around here, penaent proaucois. films, comedies and those treating i reportedly has hired the Polydor The quickie shooting schedules social problems. [recording stars Bibi Johns <Swed- do not work out well forunion per- ••' The trouble today is that even ; ish), Nina & Frederik (a Copen- sonnel either The 19oc and 1.958 in Mexico, exceDt for the prov- hagen Calypso duo) and little production statistics show that irces the ran chero pix are on the Gabriele (kid singer) for his “Pa- there have been longer periods o*. tlcc i inei Mexico is modernizing and Ipma” venture, inactivity between pictures for ermv j n g up culturally as well as! -Vaughn, who's due to visit Ger- both technical personnel and sup- industrially. And with production • many, is to make a guest appear- porang players. costs up, the problem is to turn ! ance in oiie of the above produc- Keep on Grinding Out ‘Quickies’ cut a feature that will appeal both ; tioris. Area claims to have Vaughn. In the good advice debate over to the domestic as well as the for- So does CCC. how to "improve” quality of Mexi- eign Spanish-language market. j Another top song here ^currently can pix producers, moan that it is. Producers. who see the hand- is “Patricia.” Perez Pra' " ' “ ‘ national popularity Mexico City, March 10. Moniuszko Festival was cele¬ brated here Feb. 27 in the main the¬ ater of the Palace of Fine Arts with a single performance of the composer’s "Halka.” Occasion was the completion of the 100th anni¬ versary of performances through¬ out the world. In this, the first centennial cele¬ bration for Sanislaw Moniusko’s work, audience heard most beauti¬ ful fragments of the four act opera. Moniuszko, born May 5, 1819,. in Ubiel. Poland, died June 4, 1872 in Warsaw’. While he composed other operas (Night in the Apenines, The New Don Quixote, The Ideal, The Lottery, etc.), he is most noted for Halka. Libreto for this was by Wlodzimierz Wolski. The Mexican National Symphony Orchestra directed by Abel Eisen- herg interpreted the music. Solo¬ ists included Salavdor Novoa, ten¬ or; Alberto Herrera, baritone and Rosita Rimoch, soprano, plus cho¬ rus of the Palace’s Opera Company. Yank Films Tops At Helsinki B.O. Helsinki, March 3. U.S. pix copped most of the take j at the boxoffice in the Finnish , capital last fall, but the most cov- {are essentially the same as last eted places went to other nations. ■ year, he said. . Hope for a "stronger” Ameri¬ can showing at this year’s Cannes film festival, which starts May 2, was expressed in N.Y. over the weekend (7) by Favre LeBret,- di- ector of the international fest. LeBret, back from a visit to the Coast and on his way to Paris, said he was eager for a representative turnout of Yank film stars and personalities, but that he was par¬ ticularly hopeful of getting the best available American film en¬ tries to compete at the fest. "After all, everyone looks to America,*’ he said. “Everyone is anxious to see what the new Hol¬ lywood product looks like. I am not sure that, in the past, we have had the best American pictures entered at Cannes.” He stressed that, in using the term “best,” .he did not mean necessarily and ex¬ clusively “artistic” films. "There is room in Cannes for many and various types of pictures," he said. "We don’t like to label them.” LeBret said he was aware that a certain fear existed of exposing product to the large corps of cor¬ respondents at Cannes, since dis¬ approval might hurt individual films. "On the other hand,” he em¬ phasized, "look what enthusiastic reception can do for a picture.” Participation at Cannes this year will be the largest in the history of the festival, Legret reported. The Iron Curtain countries again will turn out in full force. Finan¬ cial arrangements backing the fest t, , , ' “Patricia ” Pcrp7 Prarin enidpd 1 The best Yank contender, “10 While on the Coast, LeBret said lack of money and boxoffice name's thewaV'are decampfn" , » n ational popularity. Champi^n^by"'^ ^ich*^ m/gM ** Corner e ba"d U /lauoAhat „.* r ,-L - [ ^ li -b. ud ' r f ed fe=tures _ f5r the"m- : Kerridge Sees Exhibs tracts (upped v.ave scaled would ternational market. s result in raisin? cualltv. Its a ca*e - o* everybody blaming everybody else, meanwlr-le still grinding out one poor- film after the other. Raul de Anda. new h°ad of the Assn, of Mexican Film Producers, says quality standards tlrs year will go up. He chrmnions the plan of n^iking fewer but better pictures. The Mexican industry has the tech¬ nical knowhow, de Anda said, and the talent. All that it needs is "intelligent application of these rer sources.” He singled out "Miercoles de Ceniza” (Ash Wednesday), staging Maria Felix: “Pulea’-cito” 'Tom Thumb): “La Goffa” 'The T^amo), with Silvia P'nal and “La Sonri*a de la Virgen” '(Smile of the Vir¬ gin) as demonstrating the tru° abil¬ ity of the Mexican industry.. These j pictures were released last year. ; And in each case shooting time E. German Pic May Not Play London , , „ . . . Cannes. Oiie of the productions ; other British pic, “Indiscreet” he g aw was “Porgy and Bess,” iir» • ^ U T 1 * * ■ coppe< ? third coin. Both are which impressed him deeply. In- YVinemg Ys. ICUhnSIOD r?^~ A ™ eri ? an . rel | ases i n t he vitetoCannesmeans thatthepic- I _* Iri : 1 ture shown earns the distributor an extra license for France. Also, Auckland, N.Z., March 3. S discreet” may finally emerge It is up to the exhibitors to see ! champion of the 1958-59 season, (hat films come out on top in the ! Second in the fall statistics was impending television-motion pic- ■ ^h e S°viet pic, “Cranes Are Fly-J . 1. „■ . , .. ing, while fourth spot was cap- ture battle m erv. Zealand, said tur ed by GermanJ .. s ‘.. rhe Trap p p , R- J- Kerridge at a recent lunch- j Family.” Best French contender j London, March 3. * eorii Kerridge. head of the Ker- [was “Pot-Bouille,” which landed A press screening of “Operation ; ridge-Odeon organization here, j sixth money. The U.S. had nine Teutonic Su’ord” "has been can-h vhich lias a theatre chain in pix among the top 20. Great Brit- celled following General Speidel’s '< Zealand, said that tele, due j ain and France had three each indication that he was about to Set under way in March when [ while Finland and the Soviet Un¬ take legal action to prevent the official government testing will = ion landed two'each among the ; rhowing = of this East German pic- begin, ' va s inevitable and that top 20. j ture in London. The British Board ; bhn industry ypust face it. Other U.S. hits were “Great of Film Ccnso’s refused to give! “It will make the same impact | Dictator” (UA) (reissue), “Wild Is the film a certificate. By one vote, here as oversea^, but fortunately j Wind” (Par), “Touch Of Evil” the London County Council de-^ we have had the opportunity of I (U-I), "A Certain Smile” (20th), cided that it could be shown in I putting our house in order and ex- ! “Run Deep, Run Silent” (UA), theatres licensed by it. • hibitors must accept the chal- i "My Man Godfrey” (U-I), “Broth- Stenley Forman, head of Plato • lenge.” said Kerridge. He urged . ers Karamazov” (M-G) and "The . Films, the comnany distributing . exhibitors to take advantage of the ; Sheepman” <M-Gi. was never unaerfourwpe.es. going . the pic, took th : s action following : outstanding lineup of films and - to two months for ‘ \. ednesday. i e g ? i advice. Said Forman: “I was | said that he did not criticize pro-j Continental Distributing Corp, Fewer Films This Year advised not even to remove the ducers for selling their backlog of ! will handle release in 11 western This year, whether producers fi lm f*'om my office over to the film to tv. The money so gained | states of Francois Villier’s “The like it or not. there w ; !l be a limit- n ext street where the press was to i had helped to make the new, im-: Girl and the River,” French-made ing of production, at least by pro- have seen it.” 1 proved product. ' film, durers allied with the three nCfi- c'al distributorships. The Film ; 1 Bank will onlv give advances to j producers who can guarantee [ loans. Under this nlan total pro-! duetion may he only 84 films in its earnings in France are freely remittable. ^lodayfil Spoil 9*i Zu/vope 1959. However. the 5 ’e are the inde- The European market today consists of a series pendents, who obtain money from , of little brushfires for the American distributors, private sources. Raul de Anc.i has; it*s a market that can deliver huge grosses on the termed the independent* as “a top pictures, though the overall U. S. take has problem which may lead to satura- dropped along with the take of other countries. It’s tion of markets.’ But there is no a i so a market in which television is beginning to lpgal wav of making the i» °nnnd- loom large r&JK t , h n# r fiW d "nr ,L ™r h i On the whole, the U.S. industry isn't fadrg any = total of 108 films for the year. i ovorwhe]ming problems anywhe / e in Eur0 . B e t0 *_ day. The difficulties are small ones, each with a potential of flaring into a much bigger conffagra- ! tion. The biggest strength of the Americans is still | the fact that European exhibitors need the ; Hollv- with- the problem of saturation of mar¬ kets is there. But aside from overproduction, there's another, more serious prob- _-- 7-.-V--*- i uicu XiUiuycdii caiuuilui^ iiecu Liie. j lem facin? Mexican pictures. For! wood product and would be in dire straits the last two years there has been a steady decline in receipts from Lrtin American markets. One es¬ timate is that income from Latin America has dropped 409?;. Cer¬ tain producers place the blame on the political and economic situa¬ tion in many South American na¬ tions. But they gloss over the fact that product exported is-not up to the standards available from other film producing centers. Sees Biz Rising in Mexico out it. Here are the current trouble spots on the Con¬ tinent: Belgium: The U.S. distribs are still battling the new decree' regulating rentals. Also, the Govern¬ ment has allowed exhibitors to skip paying taxes on one franc of each admission, and the theatres •have been trying to avoid paying film rental on that frang also. On 100,000,000 admissions a year, that adds up. Switzerland: Suit is pending in which the dis- I tributors are trying to get exhibitors to drop-^heir Antonio Matouk, a younger j arbitrary limitations on film rentals. Mexican producer, admitting the I Germany: There's trouble brewing in this top Eu¬ ropean market, where tv has really begun to make itself felt. The Germans have gone to Bonn in an effort, to get the Government to go along with limi- tal’ons on American imports. France: Before there can be discussions on a new French film agreement (the old one runs out in June), the question of the remaining 40 licenses for the American companies must be straightened out. A compromise agreement on the permits seems close at hand, but remains to be firmed up. Spain: Deal is still pending, but regardless of whether or not it’s made, the market promises trou¬ ble. Fact that so many American films have been sold to Spanish independents, who must still get licenses to show them, doesn’t help any in negotiat¬ ing an overall agreement. Italy: Big tax problem, hut the market looks rela¬ tively free of other trouble in the wake of the new film agreement, which has yet to be ratified by the new Government. Sweden: A film aid commission has come up with several Tecommendattions. Uncertain yet how they might ^-affect the Americans. Finland: There’s a problem involving the fran¬ chise arrangements of the American companies. Austria: Censorship proposals are being fought by the Motion Picture Export Assn. Turkey: Import and financial problems still pend¬ ing as part of new regulations. U. S. Films Slump In Swedish Mkt. ^ Stockholm, March 3. A total of 393 films opened at the first-run cinemas here during 1958, comparatively the highest number of films shown during one year since 1927. It is also notable that the American dominance was less than usual, as only approx¬ imative^ 479o of the shown films were from Hollywood against the usual 60 to 70^. The breakdown shows 184 American films, with Britain at second place with 75. France was third with 39 and Swe¬ den fourth, with only 28 (against 40 in 1957). Studying the situation of the Swedish films, they faced a strange year during 1958. In the interna¬ tional competition, at Cannes and Berlin festivals, Swedish films scored successes, and the export of films from Sweden to abroad was higher than in many years, mostly thanks to the reputation of director Ingmar Bergman. But at home, 30 to 35 films to around 20 feature films produced. And of Swedish films opening the Stockholm first- runs, one was a one-hour documen¬ tary from the Ingmar Johansso.n- Eddie Machen prizefight at Gothen¬ burg. Another was a co-produdtion with German interests, "Nothing But Blondes.” This leaves a total of only a total of only 26 feature films opening here. Incidentally, it is the smallest figure since 1952 when only 25 Swedish-made films were shown. Coming up strongly in the Swe¬ dish market are German films, which reached fifth place last year, and also Russian films, with six films during 1958. The latter has been more or less out of the Swedish market during the last eight or nine years. Swedish censors had a busy year,, with the horror films the biggest problem.