Variety (April 1959)

84 l.VTEKXATIOVAl, FILMS_ Tele Takes 10,000,000 Away From Cinemas Claims German Film Unit By HAZEL GUILD tv films and features, including the maximum number allotted in the Frankfurt. land;* set the time for important “Television sets have reached a tv programs so as not to conflict total of nearly 2,500,000 in West with the leading film nights (hence Germany; this figure, multiplied no major tele shows on Saturday by four, gives the approximate nights, for instance), number of people who are missing If the organization can actually from the film theatres.” control these factors, members feel So points out SPIO. the leading it can save the film industry, industry-wide organization of Ger- Would Curb Length of TV Pix man films. Exhibitors have also been agitat- With film business having dipped ing for legislation to insure that 8~ to 12 r c in West Germany last ‘tele films are not.over half an hour year, producers and distributors in length. They feel that the are engaging in an all-out battle to shorter pix would not be competi- combat the growing influence of tive to a full evening’s entertain- tele. ment offered in the cinemas. Mean- One of the SPIO officials, S. Lub- while, on other fronts, the power- liner. who is also the owner of sev- ful Central Assn, of Film Theatres eral German cinemas, spearheads just took a strong stand against a four-pronged attack on tv. His American films playing on German reasons for the unfairness of the tele screens. competitive tele set are: The group pointed but that j 1. Movie-making is based on ■ “sales of pictures produced prior | private financing, with little if any to 1948 to American tele have done | government help (other than sup- irreparable damage to the Ameri- j port for occasional documentaries can film industry. Since these : or prizes for award-winning films ). sa.e often also include Europe, this Television, on the other hand, is m.;st represent a terrible threat! supported by the public with no risk to the European film industry as j at all to the tele stations and no : well." i individual investment. Each of the I I l addition, some German pro-; seven tv outlets in West Germany j ducers are protecting themselves ! is controlled by a private, non-! from having their stars too widely profit organization, set up under exposed on tv screens. During the rules of the state in which it !l9f V, about 215 German film actors operates. j and actresses appeared in both 2. Tele has innumerable tax j films and tv. Now the film-makers advantages in that it operates are inserting clauses in the con- through non-profit organizations, tracts of those who earn over $7,500 The film theatres on the other for a film that they are banned hand, paid about $38,000,000 in fron appearing on tv for a mini¬ taxes to the government during mum three to a maximum six 1957. months after the release of the 3. Censorship heavily effects picture. the film industry, in that films are SPIO is intensifying its publi- censored in Germany according to city campaign to beat tele, urging the age group. Tele on the other that all news media, including tv hand, has no similar censorship, itself, be used to show the achieve- other than that exercised by he ments of the film industry, con- private organization controlling tinuing joint publicity with the the station. COMPO campaign, urging more at- 4. Import of films into West tractive pix programming. Then, Germany from other lands is con- too, the German government has trolled, with the Americans limit- just decided to up its financial aid ing themselves voluntarily to to films, spending close to $500,000 slightly over 200 pix a year (and for films and documentaries this the German producers agitating for year. That includes a total grant a volun ary total reduction of all of $125,000 to 40 top German docu- American films, MPEA and indies, mentaries, $185,000 for various to 200 >. German film prizes and $75,000 to About 6.000 American films aid the International Film Fest in brought out prior to 1948 are now’ Berlin. available for tele. If they’re al- - lowed on the German tv screens, iica oki eypamciam m the results will be catastrophic for UFA ON EXPANSION KICK the cinema business. ~— : — What are the German filmites 01d v . Combination Acquires Two doing to combat tv? The German ! New Significant Properties film industry has just formed a new i -- “T association, first of its kind in i Frankfurt, April 7. Europe, and with no equal in the i UFA, th e Duesseldorf - based U.S. Named Verwaltungsgesell-; headquarters of the gradually schaft fuer Fernseherichtung (Ad- j 6? owin g UFA monopoly of theatre minis’rative Organization for TV ! distribution, production and exhi- Rights), the group which headquar- ! hition, has acquired a pair of sig- ters in Wiesbaden includes distribu-; nificant properties, tors, producers, exhibitors and film ! As the German federal govern- technicians among its members. : men t is making moves to repriva- Idea of the group is to collect! tize its industries, it is selling the all tv rights on German films, with ! majority interest in Deutsche the organization to function as a Wochenschau GmbH of Hamburg, partner in producing German tele one of the weekly newsreels. Big- films. If a tv outlet wants a film, gest buyer is UFA. it must first negotiate with this Als o, UFA is apparently acquir- company, although it can hire any ing some interest in the Unter den individual producer to make the Eichen Studios in Wiesbaden, Stu- pic. Group will control the num- dios, last of the old pre-war UFA ber of old films to be sold to tele properties to go under the auction- and the year of release, allowing eer’s hammer as part of the Allied no new’ pics allotted to tv. It will demands that the group be broken see that tv as much as possible up, has been sold to Taunas Films, utilizes the technical services of Although UFA denies financial the film industry, shooting on Ger- participation in the sale, it is ar- man film stages and possibly show- ranging with Taunus that UFA ing telecasts of news in cinemas, films be produced in the studios It hopes to settle import of foreign there. 'ARIETY British Trade Unionists Plan Visit to Russia London, April 14. For the first time ever, a dele-, gation of trade unionists in British entertainment has been invited to visit the Soviet Union as the guests | of Russian entertainment workers. The delegation planes out for Mos¬ cow April 12, and will return to London 16 days later. Sir Tom O’Brien M.P., general secretary of the National Associa¬ tion of Theatrical and Kine Em¬ ployees, will be the leader of the delegation. George Elvin, secretary of Assn, of Cine and Television Technicians, will be its secretary. Among the unionists on the junket wdll be Jimmy Edwards and Serge Ganjou iVariety Artistes’ Federa¬ tion); Hardie Ratcliffe (secretary of the Musicians Union); Gerald Croasdell (secretary of British Equity); Rosamund John, a former Equity veepee; and Ralph Bond, general: manager of ACT Films. The delegation aims to visit a number of theatres and film stu¬ dios and also hopes to be invited into workers’ homes. Burma Cries For More Pix Cameras Tokyo, April 7. Director John Sturges enroute to Hollywood from location shooting in Ceylon and Thailand for Metro’s “Never So Few,” said that produc¬ ers are beginning to incur ill feel¬ ings in Burma. Oddly enough, it’s not for anything they have done there, but for what they haven’t done—namely,- bring their cameras in. * Sturges told Variety: “Burma just doesn’t look like Burma unless you get into the hills. Ceylon is the standard for Burma.” Sturges, who worked with dou¬ bles, filmed three weeks in Ceylon and 10 days in Thailand adding up to what he estimates yil-1 be 10 % of the Frank Sinatra-Giha Lollo- brigida starrer. Another 40^ will be filmed on sets built in Hawaii to match the jungle shots. The bal¬ ance will be filmed at the studios. Regarding the footage acquired in Ceylon and Thailand, Sturges commented: “Unless you bring the whole cast, it’s actually better to shoot with doubles. If w r e had the principals w’e’d have needed lights and generators arid heavy equip¬ ment.” Because of its location—set in Burma but partially filmed in Cey¬ lon—Sturges is aware that “Never So Few,” adapted from the Tom Chamales war novel, will; be com¬ pared w’ith “Bridge on River Kwai” (Col). But he said: “It’s totally different.” Story concerns a soldier who finds himself in command of 800 natives. Despite the language barrieri a bond ties them together. ‘Colonel’ Tops Tel Ariv Tel Aviv, April 7. “Me and Colonel” Is playing a big 13th week at a Tel Aviv first- run house, doing three shows a day. Paramount’s “Teacher’s Pet” is in the third round and “Tunnel of Love” (M-G) is just opening. Opening this week is “Gigi” (M- G) which has an extensive advance despite little publicity in advance. Wednesday, April 15, 1959 Jamaica’s Three-Window Film Houses Islands Amusements Fairly Sedate—After All There’s Noel Coward in the Background By ROBERT REINHART Kingston, April 14. Jamaican equivalent of “salud” or “mud in your eye” is “cheers” and it’s huzzahs the film distribs and exhibs feel on this no tele¬ vision island. Whatever present economic or other troubles there may be, at least local teevee isn’t one as yet. How r ever several In¬ terested groups have applied for television licenses but Govern¬ ment is so far not prepared to make any decision. Gross annual film admissions are in the neighborhood of $1,- 500,000 to $2,000,000. Mostly American product, with some British. Scale of prices is very low with tops of 4-5 shillings (about 70c). By comparison there are lots of $2 hard tickets for firsrt- runs in Puerto Rico. Product from some companies is late in arriving here. Trinidad, much more distant from Continen¬ tal U.S.A. and also part of the West Indies Federation has been getting its prints earlier. For box occupants, Kingston film attendants on a Sunday night is quite a formal and oh-so-British affair at the Carib, a snazzy mod¬ ern 1,800 seat house. There are three windows to handle tickets for boxes, stalls and balcony re¬ spectively. Ushers are dressed in neatly starched white mess jackets. With no other mass Island enter¬ tainment available, other than radio or niteries for tourists, film biz is thus comparatively flourish¬ ing. Sunday nights at the Carib w’ere until recently very black and white tie affairs and even now have some of the audience atmos¬ phere of an opening night at a Broadw’ay playhouse. Even so prosaic a matter as a newspaperman’s courtesy pass to the films is handled with an ele¬ ment of British West Indian style and graciousness. A ticket for box- office exchange is marked “With the Compliments of Palace Amusement Ltd. While not actual¬ ly engraved, simulates engraving. Two circuits here are the (older) Palace Amusement Co. Circuit serving 31 island houses with ap¬ proximately 25,000 seats and the newer Tropical which controls about .18 houses. Palace Circuit was for years an island monopoly headed by Audley Morais until controlling shares were bought out in 1947 by the J. Arthur Rank organization. It’s now headed by J. S. Smeeden, managing director and Lloyd Alberge, asst, general manager. Tropical is home grown, smaller and headed by Arthur Rus- se‘ll Graham. Dudley G. McMillan, an adver¬ tising man, is in several local enterprises and is also a part- time impresario. He brings both longhair and rock ’n’ roll attrac¬ tions to Jamaica. Among his offerings have been Yehudi Menu¬ hin and Bill Haley. McMillan formerly operated the Colony Club and brought in many Stateside, performers. Long de¬ sirous of having his own theatre, he built, mainly in partnership with the Palace Co. the State on the site of his nitery, the Colony, of which now only a bar, adjacent to the theatre remains. Many American vaude acts which played his nitery have enjoyed his and his wife’s hospitality and stayed as guests at his home. Jamaican government .. once booked Louis Armstrong intp th% local stadium and gave away, the’ tickets. Principal tourist trap in season Is the Glass Bucket, a nitery. Jamaica Broadcasting Co., Ltd. controls Radio Jamaica and ‘the Rediffusion Network. Advertising Is carried. Radio Jamaica has T transmitters on the island. For many homes where electric power presents a problem, rediffusion meets this via personal subscrip¬ tion arrangements by running’m direct wires. Louise Bennett Coverley Is prob¬ ably the biggest island theatrical personality and has appeared in both London and the U.S.A. She’# a lyricist, folklorist scholar , and. actress. ^ Noel Coward is of course an. island commodity, used in adver¬ tising and publicity for promotion of the Island but is of course from the Mother Country. A new theory in hotel operation Is reportedly being promoted by Bertram A. (Sandy) Watkis who is pushing the idea of mixing tour¬ ists with local gentry at the Fal- condip. a new 53 room hotel in Ocho Rios; Watkis believes that tourists only come in contact with local persons on a service level and wants to make this a meeting place. Also believes that though Jamaicans may not be discrimi¬ nated against in most hotels, no¬ body makes much of a pretence of making them feel welcome and wanted. Saroyan’s New Plan To Make Documentary-Type Yugoslav Pic Stalled Belgrade. April 7. American writer William Sar¬ oyan, came to Yugoslavia for the second time within the last twd years, this time to finalize ah agreement with the Avala-Film, producing company of Belgrade, to shoot a feature after one of hi# recent stories. But the whole prop¬ osition still is hanging in mid-air. If Saroyan returns to Yugoslavia it would be as a tourist, he said. He disclosed that the negotia¬ tions with Avala-Film encountered some trouble, only because the Yougoslavia side insisted on co¬ production with Hollywood or at least with some American film pro¬ ducing company. Hence, he left disappointed and somewhat bitter. Saroyan’s idea was that Avala- Film finance the production and that besides writing the screen¬ play after his own story on Yugo¬ slavia’s development and the way of life, he act as director, scripter and film cutter. The film would have been shot in Yugoslavia, showing; its factorie# and mines—but it would not be a documentary film. He would use only Yugoslav talents, and no pro¬ fessionals. Hunter-Rodriguez Pic Deal Mexico City, April 14. A long-term production deal Is being worked out by Jeffrey Hunter and producer-director Is¬ mael Rodriguez. Involved Is coproduction of si* major color, widescreen pictures, with a new producing company to be known as Mexico Films, S.A. Distribution: /OaUna v/ fii n JUdson 6-1442/3 BETTER BUSINESS WITH German Films Producer's Representative: m United German Film Enterpriser Inc. FILM EXCHANGE, INC. C, M856 ® .1564 Broadway, New York, N. Y. |f|| Munio Podhorzer, pres.