Meet Richard Czinner — Producer (1950) 🇺🇸
“The New Pioneers” will undoubtedly be a strong contender for Academy Awards honors.
by Paul Manning
This pulsating, realistic short on the subject of Israel has been produced with a quality found in many top-ranking Hollywood films. The only fact which seems to be lamented is that the film ends as quickly as it does.
Credit for this fine chore, of capturing the splendid pioneer spirit of this new and vital nation, Israel, goes to the producers, two enterprising young men, Richard Czinner and Baruch Dienar. The New Pioneers is the first commercial film made in Israel about Israel. Czinner edited all material sent to him via air by Dienar. Due to technical difficulties in Israel, it was necessary to send the exposed film clear around the world from Israel to Hollywood, where Czinner had the film developed overnight, and had it aboard a plane bound for Israel within 24 hours. Truly, this is making pictures the hard way.
Paramount arranged for the release of the short within seconds after the initial screening, a tribute to its excellence. With this first giant stride already made, Czinner, former advertising executive and veteran of five years overseas service as adjutant of Psychological Warfare for U. S. Intelligence, has now set his sights on bigger game. He has secured the rights to the fabulous story of Jimmy Braddock, the former world heavyweight champion whom the late Damon Runyon liked to call “Cinderella Man.” Walter Winchell also is intensely interested in the prospect of this film on behalf of his favorite project, the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund. Czinner has assigned screen scenarist Howard Irving Young to create a script based on factual episodes in Braddock’s extremely colorful and exciting life.
The finished script dwells principally on the warm, human interest veins on Braddock’s life, those which Runyon grew to know so well. The finished script is now under major studio consideration.
With the wealth of material available on Braddock, the close cooperation of Winchell, the magic of the name, Damon Runyon, and the talent of Czinner, it would seem no self-respecting studio could afford to overlook the potentials of such a property. — P. M.
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Good Things to come from Hollywood… “Of Men and Music”
Every once in a great while, a special type of film comes along which lends a fine dignity to the industry.
by Paul Manning
Such a picture is Of Men and Music, a World Artists, Inc., production, released by 20th Century-Fox. To the producers of this picture goes our personal kudo for having at last created a worthwhile format for bringing the very best values of the concert stage and its most gifted artists to the entertainment of the masses of moviegoers. The producers, Rudolph Polk and Bernard Luber, bring into sharp and tuneful focus not only the matchless artistry of their principal players, but also have cleverly built the scripts to give the audiences an intimate glimpse into the personal lives of these concert artists. Of Men and Music presents Artur Rubinstein, Jascha Heifetz, Jan Peerce, and Nadine Conner, and Dmitri Mitropoulos conducting the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York. All four sequences are produced in the best manner of motion picture production with high fidelity recording. This will assuredly be warmly welcomed by any motion picture audience as first rate entertainment. In this editor’s opinion, the exhibitor playing Of Men and Music will not only be rendering a wonderful service to his community, but will also reap a neat financial reward. — P. M.
Rudolph Polk and Bernard Luber, upper left, World Artists, Inc., produced Of Men and Music for 20th-Fox release, while Jan Peerce and Nadine Conner, pictured at upper right in a scene from the film, are starred, with pianist Artur Rubinstein, lower left; Dmitri Mitropoulos conducting the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, lower center; and violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz.
Collection: Exhibitor Magazine (Studio Survey), December 1950