Wednesday, February 4 , 1 9 5 3 J^RSSff PICTURES

EXHIBS WARY OF 3-D HANGOVER , ! 1 , . •• 4 _ _ _

20th-Fox Regearing Entire Schedule To Cinemascope in Shift to 'New Era

Hollywood, Feb. 3. -Twentieth-Fox Is regearing its

entire program to its new process which will be known as Cinema­scope, prexy Spyros Skouras and production chief Darryl Zanuck announced this week.

Cinemascope, which simulates third-dimension to the extent that objects and thesps appear to be part of the audience, is the new trade name for the company's newly-acquired French large-screen process formerly called Anamor-phoscope. Its single film strip and single projection machine elimi­nate the use of glasses, a vital com­ponent of all other strict 3-D proc­esses.

In making the announcement, Zanuck stated "that it is Mr. Skou­ras,' and my eonviction that next Oct. 1 the motion picture industry •will enter a new era, as far-reach^ ing as the transfer from silent pic­tures to sound in 1927."

Oct. 1 is the date set for release of "The Robe," first picture to be filmed in this new process and •which goes,before the cameras on Feb. 16 as a $4,000,000 production. Start, which has been postponed several times since its originally announced Jan. 19 iakeoff, has now been set for this later date to al­low realignment of sets to fit the enlarged scope and new dimensions of the system.

A total of 11 films are slated for production via the new method,

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5,000 3-D Theatres Present 20th-Fox plans call

for some 5,000 theatres across the country to be equipped to show pix made in the Cinema­scope process by the end of 1953. Since that total should include all key houses it's fig­ured that it will be sufficient to support the Cinemascope films, which will not be made in double version for flat-screen, 2-D projection.

It'll be some time before either the special lenses or the screens required by the Cine­mascope will be available to exhibs, since no manufacturing arrangements have yet been made. "The Robe," first of the 20th pix to be photographed in the Cinemascope process, will open on Broadway in October.

Reveals He Copyrighted Cinemascope Title 4 Yrs.

Ago for Kinescope Setup Hollywood, Feb. 3.

Twentieth's announcements of Cinemascope "surprised" KLACr TV general manager Don Fedder-son, who personally copyrighted that name four years ago. Title is used for station's film' syndicated product.

"I'm quite surprised 20th is using the title without a thorough title search to find out who owns it," said Fedderson, who added that he's studying the matter with sta­tion attorney John Heme. Title was registered in 1949 on a process for kines with special lighting so that they have the appearance of mo­tion pictures. Five shows were made under the Cinemascope tag in 1950-51 and were sold to 14 markets, Fedderson revealed.

2-D PIX (WHATZAT?) INTO PROD. BY 20TH

Hollywood, Feb. 3. While 20th will tee off its 3-D

activity Feb. 16 with the "Robe," it meantime will continue to make several 2-D films as originally scheduled. "Blueprint for Murder" starts Thursday (5) and "Inferno" (formerly "Waterhole") starts the same day as "Robe." Darryl Za­nuck, 20th's produtcion chief, is eyeing the production lineup and is expected to make a decision this week on which pix will be scrapped for concentration on 3-D. Meanwhile, a loanout deal from Metro on William Powell calls for the stint to start by March 31, so studio is seeking a new property. Powell was originally scheduled fpr "Happy Scoundrel," status of which is now indefinite.

Projector lens which 20th used to demonstrate Cinemascope here last week is en route back to France for readjustment. Further demonstration will be held for com­pany toppers who didn't see the showing last week. -

Now Call 'Em 'Flats' Developments in the field of

three-dimension illusion films has resulted in new pic termi­nology in trade circles.

Conventional films, as dis­tinguished from 3-D's, are now being referred to as "flats."

Sees Glasses Ultimately Out

In 3-D Foliowup Unless the industry finds ways

and means of offering stereoscopic films sans glasses, the next logical technological development in the industry will be large screens and "directional" sound rather than 3-D. That was the opinion ex­pressed /in N. Y. Friday (30) by Fred J. Schwartz, v.p. and general manager of Century Theatres.

Schwartz said he was impressed by what he had seen of 3-D, but added: "A lot depends on what further progress is made in the tri-dimension technique. As long as there are glasses, 3-D will be very big for from four to six pictures. After that, its novelty appeal will fade and the b.o. will depend again on the quality of the films them­selves."

Century, operating head called for renewed . consideration of an industry-sponsored, research group where engineers would investigate and develop new processes. As Schwartz envisions it, there would be an executive council which would consult with the engineers and give the green light to various specified institute activities, with the economic angles worked out in advance.

"Individual studio research isn't enough," Schwartz asserted. "The companies go off in different direc­tion, duplicating costs and effort. All that accomplishes is to keep the industry continuously off bal­ance. Quite apart from that, we need all-industry standards so as to avoid confusion every time some­thing new comes up."

Exhibs generally subscribe to Schwartz's view, but make the point that many theatres will find it physically impossible to enlarge their screens beyond a certain point.

STUCKOMEOUIPT. Confusing multitude of new 3-D

and large-screen systems is be­ginning to worry exhibs who don't want to get stuck with equipment for one process that can't be used for another. Upshot was the The­atre Owners of America board de­cision in N. Y. last week to ap­point a committee to study stand­ardization of the various 3-D methods with the Society of Mo­tion Picture and Television Engi­neers.

A SMPTE spokesman said in N. Y. Friday (30) that the Society had not yet been officially in­formed of the TOA move, but that it was considered a logical one under the circumstances. It was suggested that SMPTE eventually might call in the engineers of all trl-dimension systems for a dis­cussion with the Society's stereo committee.

Current situation is pictured as parelling that of the days when sound came in, and the confusion still existing in the phonograph field with the introduction of three different record speeds. LP record innovation for a while stymied the record industry and severely cut down sales of phonographs.

Standardization of at'least some parts of the 3-D systems has been discussed informally between Al­lied and SMPTE. First practical move by the Society would be to

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Nick Schenck, Harry Cohn Stress -:' Need for Uniform 3-D System

M-G's 2 In Cinemascope Hollywood, Feb. 3.

Metro will make two or three pictures in the new Cin­emascope, Dore Schary re­ported over the weekend, as a result of having seen, with Metro prexy Nicholas M. Schenck, the system which 20th-Fox is putting on the market.

Schary is one of several studio toppers who expressed definite interest in the new system.

Cinerama Mapping Det. Bow March 23

Joseph Kaufman, exhibition top­per of Cinerama Productions, left for Detroit over the weekend to look in oi- progress being made in installing the medium in that city, set for a March 23 unveiling. Kauf­man will also confer with Zeb Epstin, regional manager for the Detroit operation. He disclosed that no other theatre in Michigan would show Cinerama for at least a year.

Theatre chief returned to New York Friday (30), following a Coast visit during which he con­ferred with board chairman Louis B. Mayer and production chief Merlan C. Cooper. Kaufman said Cinerama was mulling four or five productions and that camera work

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3-D Prod. List Grows Longer

Hollywood, Feb. 3. In addition to the adoption of

Cinemascope by 20th-Fox, more and more film companies are going into production or experimenting with new proj'ectional processes.

Walter • Mirisch, executive pro­ducer of Allied Artists announced he will start filming a 3-D in April. Whether it will be in Natural Vi­sion or some other system will be announced this week.

Hal Wallis, whose upcoming Martin-Lewis starrer will be pro­duced independently, is consider­ing filming it in three-dimensions.

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3-D Costing Loew's 300G to Convert 31 N.Y. Theatres

Conversion to three-dimension will reportedly cost the Loew's N. Y. metropolitan circuit approxi­mately $300,000. Chain is set to show Natural-Vision's "Bwana Devil" in 31 houses for a week's day-and-date run two weeks after the pic's engagement at Loew's State, N. Y. Latter run begins Feb. 18 and is slated for two weeks.

Estimate for installation of the 3-D system is based on the equip­ment required as well as labor costs. A new metallic screen neces­sary to obtain the tri-dimensional illusion will be needed for each of the 31 theatres. In addition, in­stallation of the screens and adjust­ment of projection and sound equipment will have\ to be done during off-hours, tinfe usually des­ignated as time-and-a-half or dou­ble-time periods by labor unions. Furthermore, there'll be coin out­lays for the special film magazines as well as polaroid glasses.

Distinction of being the first Hollywood 3-D dance director is claimed by LeRoy Prinz, who handled a can-can . number in "House of Wax" at Warners;

No Letup In 3-D Continued from page 1

ner, Jr., acting for J. L. Warner as liaison on WB's advent into 3-D. Already Lou Edelman has been slated for a second N-V chore for WB, and a third is on the horizon.

Most sweeping in impact is 20th-Fox's Cinemascope, which has apparently resulted in a strong stock market spurt to 20th-Fox stock, and has captured the imagi­nation of Hollywood as being, per­haps, the ultimate overall tech­nique (See detailed story on Page 7).

Cinemascope calls for a special lens on the shooting camera, and a special lens on the projection machine, but it is only one ma­chine— not three as with Cine­rama. However, the effect is es­sentially the same.

Zanuck strongly believes that for the general welfare of the business a one-lens technique has to be evolved. That anything else is NG for th*e industry.

20th-Fox will license its Cinema­scope, just as Natural-Vision gets $25,000 per picture and 5% of the gross.

Dore Schary has also been strong against the polaroid (or any other eyeglass) system, and while Natural-Vision is the inven­tion of Gunzburg's brother, an op-tologist, top studio opinion is that the glasses are also fraught with eye-trouble potentials. Schary is particularly graphic: "What does

it do? — it creates two distorted images which are then brought into focus by the glasses. That's against the law of nature and must hurt the vision."

Jack Warner's attitude is one of showmanship, the same adven­turous showmanship that cata­pulted WB to the heights with Vitaphone. "It's a novelty, good for a fast dollar at the boxoffice, a great hypo to the theatres, which sure can use something, anything, to hypo the b.o.," says Warner. (The studios concede WB has been astute in rushing "House of Wax" into production although one or two others still hope to be the first of the majors in the theatres ahead of WB).

While Paramount rushed a polaroid system into production for "Sangaree," it is understood that Par prexy Barney Balaban, in New York, discussed the 20th-Fox technique with Spyros Skouras and favors that system.

By arid large, the backlog isn't a major worry because "we still have over 40,000 theatres all over the world as our market," says Schary, "so nobody is going to be caught in midstream."

CineTama enjoys an unique ac­ceptance a m o n g Hollywood top­pers. "This is in a class by itself —it's like the Ringling Circus, a big show all its own, and to be played like a traveling attraction in a few large key cities," says Zanuck.

With Hollywood's helter-skelter entry into three-dimension produc­tion employing various methods and processes, Nicholas M. Schenck, Metro prexy, and Harry Cohn, Columbia chief, have issued state­ments calling for a uniform system of 3-D production and exhibition. Schenck, who returned to New York Monday (2) from Coast hud­dles relating to 3-D, said Metro technicians have been working on a system similar to 20th's Cinema­scope.

"To make uniform the future presentation of pictures in theatres throughout the world," Schenck declared, "it is Loew's intention to join with 20th in making available one system for production and exhibition."

Cohn, issuing a statement in Hollywood, expressed hope for a uniform process which will ease the transformation for both the pro­ducer and the exhibitor. "Columbia has been making studies and con­ducting tests to improve produc­tion and projection techniques along 3-D lines," Cohn declared. "There would be havoc in the in­dustry, particularly in the exhibi­tion field, if several companies come out with varied processes requiring different equipment and theatre screens of different sizes

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Boris Morros Reveals Three-Dimensional Film

Plan; Created in Vienna Vienna, Feb. 3.

Boris Morros, American pic pro­ducer, formerly associated with Paramount, has just announced here the granting of Austrian patents on what he describes as "the first real three-dimensional motion pictures." The Morros sys­tem involves only the installation of a special screen. No spectacles, special projector or Cinerama-like screen are, required, he states^

According to Mqrros his system uses a "screen in depth" with seven multiple reflecting media behind the main projection surface. These surfaces may be made of fiberglass, plastic or aluminum. He estimates installation costs at a maximum of $2,500 for houses seating up to 2,000; $4,000 for 3,000 seats and a top of $5,000 for the largest thea­tres. " / '

Morros claims he is the sole in­ventor of the system and that it is unrelated to any other, including the Soviet Russian stereo setup which has been much publicized by Moscow but never demonstrated for westerners.

The Morros system will "add to the depth quality" of ordinary two-dimensional film; but full three-dimensional effect requires stereo­scopic photography via any sys­tem. It is fully adaptable to any color system without changes. Morros has been working on the screens for two years here, and plans to manufacture demonstra­tors here for use in London and Paris, before Introductory showings in the U. S.

U-I's Top Secret Hollywood, Feb. 3.

Thesps working in U-I's top-secret film, "It Came From Outer Space" are being required to sign loyalty pledge that they won't di­vulge nature of plot or dialog until film is released.

Film starts this week behind locked doors, with Richard Carl­son, Barbara Rush and Charles Drake heading cast.

U-I is using a new 3-D process.

Leaser's 3-D Switch Because of legal difficulties

in clearing the name, Sol Les-ser's Tri-Opticon 3-D program of short subjects, now playing in over 40 cities across the country, has been changed.

It's nbw called Stereo-Tech-i niques.