Boxoffice-December.02.1950

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pOR SOME TIME past the Cinema Exhibitors
Ass'n has been pressing the British
Newsreel Ass'n to drop the arrangement
whereby all newsreels were simultaneously
pressing for a rise in hire charges. Granada
Theatres in particular had been so insistent
that they would not pay the new rates that
for some time they ran their programs without
a newsreel. Now that circuit is back
with newsreels again, but this time it is an
American reel which is outside the association.
Granada is showing in its 60 theatres,
and also at such independent locations which
book it from them, the Heart reel, Telenews,
two editions of which are being flown here
each week and telescoped into one weekly
edition.
Sidney Bernstein made the deal with Telenews
on his last trip to the U.S.A. and the
reel is being edited and processed here by
National Screen Service. In addition to the
matter sent direct from America spot news
is being supplied by the London bureau of
Telenews.
If more contracts are entered Into for the
supply of the reels to houses outside of the
Granada chain the new entrant into the
newsreel field may well bring down the price
of this service—at least for the time being.
While Telenews has only a small organization
in this country it would be possible
for the reel to undersell the British companies,
but there is that if the demand grew
the staff need for more coverage of British
news would obviously add to the overhead.
It has never yet been proved to anyone's
satisfaction that the newsreel adds materially
to a theatre's turnover, but Bernstein's move
in bringing back the reel would Indicate that
it must at least have been missed in the
Granada chain. The charge against newsreels
in the U.S. that they show old news
which viewers have seen on television cannot
yet be made here for although the BBC
has had a television service operating since
long before the war. it is not yet in universal
use here. The main reason is that radio and
television sets carry a high purchase tax in
common with so many other manufactured
articles and the working classes cannot afford
the outlay. Also, since the BBC has not
unlimited funds for their programs the
television here cannot compare in the standard
of its entertainment with a good movie.
PARAMOUNT'S CARLTON Theatre in the
Haymarket looks like paying heavily for its
a.uota this year. After the short run of "The
Elusive Pimpernel," which did very poor business,
It has opened with another British
Lion release, "The Naked Heart," which looks
like continuing the bad record. Not a Korda
picture this time, although released by his
company, the present film was produced by
Nelson Scott and directed by Marc AUegret.
It stars Michele Morgan, Kieron Moore and
Francoise Rosay.
"The Naked Heart" is a very expensive production
that was dogged by bad luck right
from the start. Based on the novel "Maria
Chapdelaine" the story is set in French
Canada in the year 1912 and when a permit
for dollars was refused to shoot on the actual
location the unit went to Austria as ihe
By JOHN SULLIVAN
nearest country with a certain fall of snow
for the exteriors. Arrived there they found
that the snow was the lightest for many
years and this was the first of a series of
setbacks.
Sometimes a setback at the start puts the
crew and actors on their mettle and a good
film is the result. Unfortunately in this case
the reverse is the fact and the picture is
slow, tedious and unbelievable. Miss Morgan,
competent as ever, has little help from her
script which makes her appear an irritating
woman who cannot make up her mind which
of the tlu'ee suitors she should choose. After
far too long a time she decides to settle for
Jack Watling, who is completely miscast as
an illiterate French Canadian trapper. His
Oxford accent among the miscellany of
broken French makes him sound more like
a Rhodes scholar than an uneducated backwoods
boy.
American audiences will be irritated by the
slow direction and overacting of "The Naked
Heart" and Canadian audiences will more
probably be actively annoyed.
J. ARTHUR RANK had some hard words
for independent exhibitors at Leeds during
his recent tour of the provinces. "It would
help us materially, he said, if second run
theatres would go in for more exploitation
schemes. We offer to pay 50 per cent of
the exploitation costs, but they want us to
pay the lot and we will not do so."
Rank had already made these charges at
Glasgow, earlier in his tour and repeated
at Leeds after the local CEA branch had
sent him a telegram complaining about the
remarks made in Scotland.
Apart from the above. Rank also commented
on the Eady plan. He said: "Sir
Wilfred Eady has been a friend of the industry
and has made a good start by putting
on one farthing per seat to help production,
but that is not enough. We need
more help if we are going to get British
film production on a sound basis."
The next step in his tour was to Liverpool
and there, the day after his Leeds .speech
Rank told a press conference: "Out of 12
pictures with the biggest gross at the boxoffice,
six were British and six American.
But the six Briti.sh took more than the
American and certain American films grossed
less than the worst Briti-sh pictures. I would
like exhibitors to take greater advantage of
exploiting to the full those British films
which are of real merit."
THE BENEFITS of Anglo-American production
for independent producers being
obvious the trend is continuing. Marcel
Hellman has just finished his big musical,
"Happy Go Lovely." which was made partly
with American money and now another
independent producer has returned from
Hollywood with a three-picture deal.
This time it is Edward Dryhurst who has
announced that he will make three films
in association with U.S. interests. The first
will be "Castle in the Air," which is based
on a successful London stage show. The
second, "A Bullet in the Ballet," is a comedy
thriller based on a novel by Caryl
Brahms and S. J. Simon. This subject was
originally bought by Ealing studios and has
been bought from them by Dryhurst. The
third production will be made jointly by
Dryhurst and Frederick Brisson and is titled
"Forbidden Cargo." It will be made in Spain
with Dennis O'Keefe in the lead.
Denver Variety Tent 37
Elects New Directors
DENVER—Variety Tent 37 elected the following
directors for 1951: Duke Dunbar, Hall
Baetz, Robert Selig, William Hastings, Ralph
Batschelet, A. P. Archer, Bernie Hynes, Fred
Brown, Joe Ashby, Joe Stone and Harry
Green, and the last five chief barkers, including
Robert Garland. Robert Hill. Tom
Bailey, Milt Hossfeldt and Pat McGee. They
will meet December 31 to elect officers for
the coming year.
The club is putting on an intensive membership
campaign, and hopes to add at least
100 new members. Batschelet, manager of
the Paramount, is chairman of the drive.
Census Shows TV Viewing Holds Up,
Motion Pictures Are Most Wanted
HOLLYWOOD—Movies are the "most
wanted" entertainment on television; theatre
TV is apparently not a popular device,
while Phonevision or some similar
pay-as-you-view method of watching top
films on home video receivers would find
considerable favor with a majority of television
audiences.
Those are among the findings in the
fourth "tele cen.sus" to be undertaken by
students of Woodbury college, Valley college,
Redlands university and San Jose
State college, ba.sed on a "random area
sample" of some 3,000 TV set owners in
Los Angeles, the San Francisco bay area
and the fringe areas of San Bernardino
and Riverside, Calif.
Findings in the door-to-door survey:
TV is not a novelty that will wear off;
there is only a 6 per cent drop in viewing
time with persons who have had sets for
a year or more and only a 7 per cent drop
where sets have been in operation for
two years or more.
Sixty-eight per cent of those interviewed
said they go to the movies less
often since purchasing TV receivers.
Sixty-seven per cent would not pay the
average boxoffice price to see TV on a
large-size theatre screen—even if the show
were available only in that theatre and
not on home video, while 28 per cent indicated
they would patronize such theatre
television performances.
Thirty-nine per cent would pay $1 or
more to see a first run picture on their
home screens; 39 per cent would pay 50
to 85 cents.
Eighty per cent want color TV when it
becomes available.
54 BOXOFFICE December 2, 1950