Variety (January 1961)

Wednesday, January 25, 1961 Msaer? PICTURES IS Magnas ’60 Rentals: $4,920,053 Magno Pictures Corp. registered a profit of $975,660 before taxes for the nine-month period ended Oct. 31, I960. For the same stanza of a year ago, the company showed a profit $475,087. The film rentals for the 1960 period totaled $4,920,053, about half the' 1959 take of $9,583,733 from the same source. An analysis of the financial report appears to indicate that the greater ’60 profit came from the cutdown in expenses. In 1960, for example, participation in income by producers amounted to $2,826,822 as compared with $7,106,901 the previous year. Simi¬ larly fees to sub-distributors amounted to $825,561 in '60 as against $1,535,088 in '59. Total income for the nine-month period of 1960 came to $5,112,634 as compared with $9,689,067 for the previous year. At the same time, expenses for the nine months were $4,136,974 in '60 as against $9,209,980 for the comparable period of ’59. Magna indicates that “South Pacific” is still a money-maker for the company. Negotiations are being completed for the 35m dis¬ tribution of the film in the foreign market, which has already started in England. On Jan. 1, the picture was taken out of release in the U. S. and Canada and will be held for future reissue. Young Producers Keep Bobbing Op William Kronick, at 27 , Learns on an $8,000 * Shoestring Put Up By Wall Street Add another name to the grow¬ ing list of youngsters cutting their film teeth via a successfully re¬ ceived short subject: 27-year-old William Kronick, whose 24-minute “silent" featurette, “A Bowl of Cherries,” is currently playing its premiere engagement at the Mur¬ ray Hill in New York on the bill with the Russo “Ballad of a Sol¬ dier." Kronick, a writer and director, devoted a couple of years as jaekof-all-trapes with the Louis de Rochemont organization, prior to -which he served a seven-month apprenticeship with Svensk Film in Stockholm. Though his first “Major" effort, “Cherries” is still regarded by Kronick as an “exer¬ cise,” a test to see if he could make a modern comedy, both satiric and slapstick. In the style of the great silent comedies of the past. That he has succeeded to a certain ex¬ tent is attested to by the fact that the shoct has been picked for national distribution by Ed Kings¬ ley, Kingsley International, who is submitting it for Academy Award consideration. Although told without dialog, “Cherries" does have a full musi¬ cal score by Richard Wernick. Its story is a light and looney tale of a young representational painter 4rom Texas (his name Is Sperman Williams) who comes to Green¬ wich Village to make his way. By the time the fadeout arrives, the hero has changed his first name from Sherman to Giorgio and is painting quite abstractedly. Wall St. ‘Shoestring' Film was entirely financed ($8,000) by a young Wall Street man, George Edgar, and shot in black/white, with a color inter¬ lude, In 12 shooting days, a prao tical fact which is noted with some pride by Kronick because, he says, he used as many different camera setups as employed in the average B feature. Cameraman on the pic was Graeme Ferguson, who shot Arne Sucksdorf’s highly acclaimed feature, “The Flute and The Ar¬ row." in India. Even though r an “exercise," “Cherries" does haye something pertinent to say about art and the artist's life in New York City, Kronick feels, and he says he can¬ not imagine trying to make a film which didn’t contain a personal comment of some legitimate sort. Thus he has no interest in gather¬ ing further film experience by turning out inexpensive “sensa¬ tional” type films, for which he feels he’d have no trouble getting the necessary financing. Bread-and-Butter At the present time he’s making^ ' his living expenses by researchng } 6tock film footage for an NBC pro¬ ducer planning to make a tv pilot. Off-duty hours are spent planning three feature film properties, one of which would be a film adapta¬ tion of a novelette by Jacob Presser, “The Breaking Point," telling "psychological horror” story that picks up where a story like Anne Frank’s leaves off. The second property Is an original set In New York, portraying the ar¬ tistic vitality of the city, and the third, a modem love story based on “Othello," but in which the inter-racial problem is played down to point of total exclusion. Interesting idea on “The Break-! Ing Point” is that Kronick has started preliminary negotiations to shoot interiors of the film In Israel, where he could receive substantial government aid through subsidies and availability of studios and equipment, in return for providing kqy technicians who would help teach Israelis U. S. film techniques. Story deals with a group of Jews in a temporary assignment camp en route from Holland to the con¬ centration camps in Germany dur¬ ing World War II. He'd like to shoot exteriors in Holland, but feels he could also do some of these in Israel too. Project, however, depends on Kronick’s coming up with neces¬ sary backing for his part of the production which, of course, isn’t always easy. As he says, it even takes a lot of dough just to do the groundwork on such a project, like costs of trips to Israel and Holland to conduct personal negotiations, which he hasn’t been able to do as yet. Questioned as to whether he had plans for any further shorts, con¬ sidering the critical success which he has had with his first, director answered with the story of every¬ one who has ever made a short subject: “I’d like to, but there isn’t any money in it.** However, if he can get rolling with a feature or two. he will continue with shorts, just for the fun of them. ■ ■■■.— ■■■i. ■ —A Screen Actors ,aa; Continued from pas* 4 fare fund, with limitation of $25,000 in salary per actor per picture. Day player minimum, is Increased from $80 to $85 immediately and to $90 this July, Weekly freelance rate is raised from $300 to $318.75, then to $337.50. Three-day con¬ tracts are eliminated. All minimum wage increases are retroactive to July 21, 1960. In new pact, actors will com¬ pensate for restricted tv and thea¬ trical rights on basis of actual salary (up to $150 per day and $562.50 per week) rather than on minimum rates, as in old pact. Percentages for the additional com¬ pensation also have been increased. New pact was negotiated by SAG committees of the New' York and Chicago branches. Ratification votes must be returned by mem¬ bership not later than Feb. 10. Films Nomigafed Continued from page B ment U.S.A.”) are nominated for: the best foreign acting award. Hayley Mills (“Pollyanna") with Wendy Hiller (“Sons and Lovers") and Rachael Roberts (“Saturday Night and Sunday Morning”) are candidates for the best British ac¬ tress. Laurence Olivier (“The En¬ tertainer"), John Mills and Alec Guinness (“Tunes of Glory") are among seven actors nominated for the best British actor. Shortlisted as most promising newcomer are Lelia (Goldoni (“Shadows"), Albert Finney (“Sat¬ urday Night and Sunday Mor¬ ning”), Joan Plowright (“The En¬ tertainer”) and four others. Short list for the best British screenplay includes 10 titles, with Bryan Forbes a double contender for his scripts of “Angry Silence” and “League of Gentlemen.” Dubbed Print • zssss Continued from page S N. Y. Times cric, who inspired the Big Debate, and who indicates he takes his stand only on the basis of firstrate dubbing. (Further, of course, the whole issue for purists pertains only to the manifestly serious art film. It’s provably pointless (at the boxof¬ fice) in terms of commercially ex¬ ploitable product, as witness Brig¬ itte Bardot, whose torso can do no wrong irrespective of tongue, ap¬ parently.) The Teitel experience, to be sure, isn’t unique — and what they all seem to underline is that, in view of the purist snog psychology, or¬ iginal soundtracks are sacrosanct. Maybe the Crowther camp conten¬ tion will somedayprevail, but sure¬ ly not at this time. In the ease of Teitel’s “Hiroshi¬ ma" print switch, the exhib gives two reasons for his action. For one, because of the pic’s sweet publici¬ ty he figured the Yank lingo would bait new trade without .causing purists to defect; and, secondly, he wanted the reaction of the four Windy City reviewers. But all were so opposed to dub, after checking out both versions, that, according to Teitel, they by-passed editorial comment to save him embarrass¬ ment. Actually, Teitel tested the b.o. prowess of dubbing on two earlier occasions, which should have sold him then but didn’t. Subsequent to their original soundtrack engage¬ ments at the World, he played dubbed versions of “The Bed" (Union) and “La Strada” (TransLux). In both instances, the dubbed playbacks took a boxoffice drub¬ bing, versus fancy grosses in the original. It took the tampering with “Hiroshima,” though, to clinch the case for Teitel and convince him there’s a rub to dub. Thematic Trends Should Get Lost -We’ll Be ‘Unkalancef: Broidy TRANSFER HENSEN, BROWN St. Louis, Jan. 24. Frank Hensen, manager of Loew’s Theaters here for seven years, has been transferred to New Orleans to take over management of Loew’s there. He has been succeeded by Lou Brown, transferred from Boston. Brown has been with Loew’s for 30 years. Loew’s operates the MidCity and Loew's State in St. Louis. By EDDIE KAFAFIAN Hollywood, Jan. 24. A “diversified" and “unbalanced” film, production program Is Allied Artists goal for 1961. Prexy Steve Broidy declared prior to his depar¬ ture for Madrid that his film com¬ pany would not follow any partic¬ ular trend in the shooting of pix. Instead it will concentrate only on those properties that can be pack¬ aged attractively enough to be po¬ tent at the box office. “An unbalanced film program is as strong as anything to ema would stay within the shootingbounds of 15 to 20 pix tnis year — all of which w'ould vary in pro¬ duction costs. Studio will also continue to distribute films pur¬ chased outright. As to what makes a successful box office film? He replied. "Certainly not the star alone. True the star gives the property impetus. But if the story is wrong, there is no star that can carry the film alone.” Unlike other major conrurses that have land and oil assets. A». . ,lh‘d Artists has none said Broidv. nate from any other major com And in view of ihis must den-nsf p?ny saJ’s Bro|dy. And then ex. soieiy 0n the making of orofitabie plained that by “unbalanced" sked 1 films. he meant filming vehicles that dif¬ fered from one another in locale and story. He cited such released pix as “Hell To Eternity,’’ World War II Marine yarn; “A1 Capone,” gang¬ land thriller, and the controversial “I Passed For White" as all being completely different — and yet big winners at the box office. “I don’t believe in dealing in nebulous and wishful thinking" said Broidy, adding; “there is no definite winning formula in the making of pix. Even the njultimillion-dollar spectaculars are no guarantee of being a nox-offlce smash." He reminded that there have been several big film specta¬ cles that have proven a bust in the theatres. When queried as to whether this meant that AA would by-pass the filming of so-called, spex-plx, he countered with: “No it doesn't. Our company will fol¬ low an unbalanced film schedule which, of course, will include big films as well as moderate bud¬ geted pix. Excepting that we will not make any film unless we have all the proper elements." Broidy defined the “proper elements” as the star, story, director, etc. Further, declared Broidy, that no property will face the AA cameras unless all the elements are avail¬ able. Stating that Allied Artists was not interested in just making pix to turn out product. But more in turning out films that would show a profit at the theatres. With this “unbalanced” film sked in mind Broidy disclosed that AA Critics’ Echo Fades to But Nothing A* a Rule of Thumb Midwest Favors Deletion of Any All Quotes, Including New York Scribes By JACK PITMAN Chicago, Jan. 24. Do the N.Y. film critics sell tick¬ ets In the outlands? Though there seems no accurate measure of their Impact, evidence abounds that west of Gotham the Wanda Hale, Paul V. Beekley, Bos¬ ley Crowther, et al, puffery means very little at the boxoffice— art films excepted. Despite this, film company ad-pub staffs continue to rely heavily on elliptical kudos lifted from the N.Y. press. Mostly, it appears, provincial buyers are apathetic to the timehonored practice. But in some areas the Manhattan by-lines are plain resented, nbtably in parts of the southwest and south, where Yankee praise can actually hurt the b.o. As a consequence, natur¬ ally, such quotes are seldom used. Usual practice among circuits, with their own ad departments, is to tailor canned campaigns from the homeoffices to suit the local orientation, and the result often is that the N.YT. critics are scissored out. Chi’s big Balaban & Katz ignores reviewers almost entirely, save for an occasional Time or Newsweek accolade. And pointedB&K thumbs down the local critics as well, partially for the rea¬ son it doesn’t want any hand In building up the Windy City frater¬ nity. A contention of the anti-quotes school is that if critics are so often ignored in the first telling, why should the trade think they can sell pictures out of context? Prime examples in recent annals of re¬ viewer impotenev, of course, are the Ross Hunter soapers for Uni¬ versal — such as “Imitation of Life” and “Midnight Lace,” w'hich were generally panned but proved pow¬ erhouses at the ticket windows. Ad-pub fieldmen (“don't quote me”) are as much opposed as any segment of the trade to reviewquoting. Outside N.Y., they doubt that the Manhattan appraisers mean much, although it seems to depend somewhat on how cosmo¬ politan the territory in question is. The critics, in short, can mean something only in areas familiar with the highbrow scribes of the New' Yorker, Saturday Review', N.Y. Times, etc. It’s pointed out, also, that quotes are sometimes employed solely as subterfuge, usually to obscure the moot content of a pic, or in cases where a film has to be sold without tipping the essential nature of the yarn. A quote, say, like “This is a dilly” might then spur trade. Understandably, quotes are con¬ sidered important to art thea¬ tres, though even this sphere of the business is starting to go in for some reappraising. Some filmites dealing with art product tend to rate the quotes practice as over Broidy then asserted that it would be fruitless to give out a coin outlay A A would spend in ’61. “How can we determine how much we’ll spehd without knowing which of our films will be orofitabie. Money taken in at the theatres will indicate how much we will spend on future product,” he concluded. Currently shooting at AA is “Armored Command,” which Ron Alcorn is producing in Germany starring Howard Keel. Tina Louise and Earl Hollimatfj and “Opera¬ tion Eichmann,” Bischoff-Diamond production which is being rushed thru filming for simultaneous re¬ lease with the March start of the Eichmann trial in Israel. In ^ preparation is “Twenty Plus Twr’o,” David Janssen, Jeanne Crain co-starrer which Frank Gruber pro¬ duces with exec producer Scott R. Dunlap; “Reckless, Pride of the Marines,” FrancJs D. Lyon directs for producer Lester Sanson: and “Confessions of An Opium Eater,” Albert Zugsmith production. AA also has w'estern distribution rights to Samuel Bronston’s film spectacular, “El Cid” currently shooting in Spain. Other films in preparatory stages include filmization of Her¬ man Melville’s novel, “Billy Budd” with Robert -Ryan and Peter Us¬ tinov co-starred: “Unarmed In Paradise,” the Ellen Marsh novel; the Kaufman-Lubin production, “Reprieve”; “79 Park Avenue” by Harold Robbins: “Streets of Mont¬ martre,” “The George Raft Story.'* blopic of the actor; and “Crashboat” which Lindslev Parsons will produce. Already completed and soon to be released by AA are the William Alland pic, “Look In Anv Window” starring Paul Anka; “Dondi” based on Gud Edson’s cartoon character and produced by Albert Zugsmith; “The Big Bankroll.” Arnold Rothstein’s biopic starring D. Janssen and produced by Bischoff and Di¬ amond and. Pearl S. Buck’s “The Big Wave” w'hich was filmed in Japan and stars Sessue Hayakawa. MOVIEIAB'S NEW TAGS Berman as Exec Veep — Gaski As Production Veep Movielab Film Laboratories. New York-based outfit headed by Saul Jeffe;e, has named Frank S. Bermanias executive v.p and Ted J. Gasla as v.p. 'in charge of piodution. v At the same lime. David E. Winer, member of the law firm of Baar, Bennett & Fullen, was named a director. Berman, also a director of the company, joined Movielab in 1946 and had been v.p. in charge of production. Gaski was formerly plant manager. ‘Birth of Nation’ mmmmm Continued from page 7 ssa gotten by cinema historians and done. Moreover, the blurbs have ! *be general public . . .’’ Different lost much of their potency in the i double bills will he offered daily case of simple declaratives, e.g , ! ^rom Jam 26 to F eb. 8. On F eh. 9, “terrific,” “must see,” etc. One art I Ta]b°t is offering the N.Y. pre¬ house hooker here thinks a quote ! m*ere Andre Cavatte’s “An E%e can hypo biz onlv when it’s descrip! for an Eve ” °n the sam<1 P™tive of the fiim’s content, and , "ram be “Meet Brendan Be¬ han,” a kme of BBC interview with thereby serving as in the ad. “sell” copy Kanis to Pathe Board Kurt E. Kanis, general manager of Pathe Laboratories New York plant, has been elected to com¬ pany’s board of directors. Kanis joined Pathe in 1949 to set up its 16m operation. He sub¬ sequently became sales manager and general manager. the Irish playwrgiht by ' Eamonn Andrews. At his theatre, Talbot is conduct¬ ing a campaign to get Charlie Chaplin to make some of his later films available to the theatre. He's asking the patrons to sign petitions, which will be sent to Chaplin, requesting him to rerelease in the U.S. such films as “Monsieur Verdoux” and “The Great Dictator.”