Half a Step Behind

"There are three kinds of producers," says Stanley (The Men] Kramer. "Those with ideas and no money, those with money and no ideas, and those who command a sufficient amount of both." In his eight years as an independent movie producer, almost three of them with the backing of Columbia Pictures. Wonder Boy Stanley Kramer placed himself in the third category. He startled his competition and movie critics with such films as The Sniper, Champion, Cyrano de Bergerac, Home of the Brave, Member of the Wedding, High Noon. Some of these, and a few others (The Four poster, Death of a Salesman, Eight Iron Men), did poorly at the box office; nonetheless, each was a fine piece of craftsmanship.

Last week tense, brooding Producer Kramer dissolved his company and, by mutual consent, ended his partnership with Columbia, although he had made only eleven of the 30 pictures stipulated in his five-year contract. The break was no surprise to Hollywoodians. who understood that Columbia's President Harry Cohn had agreed with--and perhaps urged --Kramer to close shop after finishing The Caine Mutiny and The Wild One (both still unreleased). Kramer. 40. explained: "My particular talents gravitate to making one picture at a time and then selling it ... Before I started on this multiple production, I believe my strength was in being one-half step ahead of motion-picture production. But in the last two years, I've been half a step behind." In fact, Kramer had put himself and Columbia about $6,000,000 behind.

What happened to the Boy Wonder? One critic has said: "There's little compassion in Kramer's pictures. They are cold, metallic, and beautifully done . . . But they are devoid of humanity. They don't touch your heart."

This week Kramer organized a new independent company. Plainly distressed over his experience as a mismatched cog in the Columbia machinery, he says philosophically: "I think the most important thing is whether or not I have the right to existence in Hollywood. The motion picture is not only an industry, but an art form too ... To make the best films I know how, I must go back to doing one film at a time."

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