Ambassador

The Soviet Union's official ambassador to the movie industry is a man named Michael Kalatozov. Kalatozov arrived some ten months ago and was welcomed by a suitably distinguished gathering of Hollywood liberals. The occasion was celebrated by a "drinking" thrown at Hollywood's swankiest nightclub, Mocambo. The evening was presided over by Charlie Chaplin, then newly married to Playwright Eugene O'Neill's dark-haired daughter Oona.

Thereafter Kalatozov, an enigmatic, uncommunicative Soviet official, went about his business with mysterious and solemn placidity, abetted by the fact that he spoke no English when he arrived. He can now discuss the weather with some facility.

Last week Movieman Kalatozov was still politely uncommunicative but a two-hour grilling through an interpreter had elicited this information:

>> In ten months Kalatozov has seen some 120 movies, has shipped nine to Russia. The nine: Young Tom Edison, Bambi, The Little Foxes, Hurricane, The North Star, Der Fuehrer's Face, Saludos Amigos, Mission to Moscow, Sun Valley Serenade.

>> He has studied Hollywood picture-making techniques, talked with directors, screen writers, producers, cameramen.

>> He has opened negotiations for setting up a film exchange between the U.S. and Russia which will send at least 40 U.S. films a year to Russia.

>> He has tried to gain wider distribution for Russian films through U.S. theater circuits.

The five U.S. films most popular in Russia, according to Kalatozov, were: In Old Chicago, 100 Men and a Girl, Great Waltz, Lady Hamilton, Mission to Moscow. (TIME'S Moscow correspondent reported that, at its first showing, Moscow audiences found parts of Mission to Moscow slightly comical.) Kalatozov also said that Russia's favorite U.S. cinemactors are: Bette Davis, Charlie Chaplin, Spencer Tracy, Deanna Durbin, Mickey Mouse.

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