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Editor Christiansen Makes
Good Actor in 'U' Film
NEW YORK—Arthm- Christiansen is not
an actor by profession but he adds considerable
realism to Umversal's "The Day
the Earth Caught Fii-e." For 25 years,
Christiansen was editor-in-chief of the
London Daily Express and he was tagged
to play the role of the editor of that
largest-circulation newspaper in the pictui'e.
Although he has the role of a
character named Jefferson in the film, he,
in reality, is playing himself.
Christiansen met with the tradepress in
the Universal board room on Wednesday
and told a little about himself. Actually,
he had been retained as technical adviser
on the picture by Val Guest, producer-director.
When the latter was looking for an
actor to play the role of Jefferson,
Christiansen, "90 per cent kidding," asked
Guest who could play the role of editor
better than the former real life editor.
Guest agreed and placed him in the part.
It was Christiansen's first contact with
the screen and he admitted he liked it.
Whether he will continue if the opportunity
arises, he is not sure. Although retired
from the Beaverbrook newspapers, he has
been serving as editorial adviser of Associated
Television and director of Independent
Television News.
Judging his own performances, Christiansen
said he was not so good in two sequences,
fair in one and very good in two
others.
His autobiography, "Headlines All My
Life," has been a successful book in England
and now has appeared in an American
edition by Harper & Bros.
He was a guest speaker at the National
Press Club luncheon in Washington on
Thursday.
Peruvian Avalanche Area
Aided by 'Cid' Showing
NEW YORK—Samuel Bronston, producer
of "El Cid," will give the proceeds of
one evening's performance of the pictm'e in
11 American cities to the stricken area of
Peru where an avalanche buried four villages
and killed an estimated 3,000 persons.
The benefit performance will be held on
February 13 at the Warner Theatre, New
York; Carthay Circle, Los Angeles; Alexandria,
San Francisco; Goldman, Philadelphia;
Cinestage, Chicago; Astor, Boston;
Tivoli, Toronto; Seville, Montreal; Roosevelt,
Miami Beach; Valley, Cincinnati, and
Music Hall, Detroit.
Landucci of Eastman Dies
ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Alfred Landucci,
president of Kodak-Pathe, Eastman
Kodak's associate company in Prance, died
January 26 in Paris at the age of 64, A
leading French industrialist who was twice
decorated by the government of France,
Landucci had been associated with the
Kodak company in France for nearly 40
years.
Producer-director Anatole Litvak will
begin filming UA's "A Shot in the Dark"
late this yeai".
De Rochemont Encouraged
About Industry Outlook
HARTFORD — Veteran film producerdirector
Louis de Rochemont, touring key
cities for Warners' "The Roman Spring of
Mrs. Stone," told Allen M. Widem, Hartford
Times, in an interview
"I'm not getting out of the motion picture
business because I'm sour about what's
happened or what may conceivably happen
in this era of competition for the recreation
dollar.
"If anything, I'm more encouraged than
ever over the tremendous opportunities
just waiting for somebody with enough distinctive
and creative abilities to come along
and tm-n out entertainment of merit.
"Audiences are more selective than
they've ever been and they're just not
patronizing everything that comes down
the turnpike.
"They will flock, certainly, to see pictures
of the caliber of, say 'West Side Story' or
'One, Two, Three' or 'The Hustler,' but they
simply won't show up for a story that
doesn't intrigue, doesn't invite the imagination,
doesn't proceed to entertain."
Marshutz to SIB Post
NEW YORK—James Marshutz, senior
TV producer for the J. Walter Thompson
Co., has been named vice-president and
sales manager of SIB Productions, the TV
commercial and industrial film affiliate
of Paramount Pictures, by Walter Bien,
SIB president. He will headquarter at the
Paramount home office.
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BOXOFFICE
Always in the Forefront With the News
*E-8 BOXOFnCE February 5, 1962