Colorization Battle Looms on Capitol Hill

“My ears are sore,” complained film director Martha Coolidge as she took a brief respite from her phone calls to Capitol Hill.

Like dozens of other Hollywood directors and actors, Coolidge had spent the last several weeks pleading with members of Congress to halt the colorization of film classics. On Thursday, the artists won a surprise victory when the House Appropriations Committee endorsed legislation to create a National Film Commission that could substantially discourage that kind of film alteration.

But the bloodiest fight over the issue is still to come. Next week, the House Rules Committee will debate whether to send the legislation on to a full House vote. And Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.), the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, could kill the proposal by arguing that his panel--not the appropriations committee--should have first crack at the proposal. If the rules committee agrees, that would be the legislation’s death knell, since Rodino opposes it.

The narrow issue of colorization--and the broader issue of an artist’s rights on a film--has caused a rift in Hollywood between those who own films and those who make them.

During next week’s legislative battle in the House, the Motion Picture Assn. of America led by MPAA president Jack Valenti, broadcasters led by television magnate Ted Turner, and others are expected to put up a fierce fight against the film commission proposal.

On the other side, dozens of directors and actors are calling key members of the rules committee, as well as Rodino. They also have been calling the film commissions in Rodino’s home state of New Jersey and in Florida, home to Democratic Rep. Claude Pepper, chairman of the rules committee.

“The motion pictures are a national treasure belonging to our country,” director Fred Zinnemann (“High Noon,” “From Here to Eternity”) wrote in a telegram Friday to Pepper. “They should be honored instead of being altered and sacrificed in the name of paltry extra profits.”

Director James Goldstone (“Jigsaw,” “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight”) has spent most of his time in the last several weeks lobbying Washington.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever played this game,” he said, adding that Thursday’s vote “was like getting a winning shot in the first quarter.”

The film commission proposal--tacked by film buff Rep. Robert J. Mrazek (D-N.Y.) onto a $9.6-billion money bill for the Interior Department and related agencies--passed 25 to 20 against the wishes of the House Appropriations Committee’s powerful chairman, Jamie L. Whitten (D-Miss.).

The Directors Guild of America, key organized backer of the legislation, has called on big-name directors and actors to plead the case for artistic control in Washington. The group has spent close to $500,000 on this lobbying effort, more than on any other issues in recent memory, according to DGA spokesman Charles Warren.

Director Elliot Silverstein, speaking on behalf of the guild, said that expenditure pales next to the resources available to opponents of the legislation.

“You’re going to see the powers of money opposing us,” he said.

Leading the opposition is the powerful Motion Picture Assn. of America, which represents Hollywood studios and producers.

“The amendment calling for the creation of a National Film Commission would rupture the daily conduct of the film and TV industries,” the MPAA said in a prepared statement Friday.

“This is why TV stations, video dealers, theaters and distributors are up in arms over the idea that a government agency for the first time would be classifying films. This is not a colorization issue; this is giving up the power over the daily conduct of our business to an ill-conceived government agency.”

Buddy Young, president of the Marina Del Rey firm Color Systems Technology Inc., which has been involved in colorizing films for Ted Turner, among others called the legislation “a form of censorship.” He added, “I wouldn’t want the government deciding for me what is art.”

Young’s company has colorized 52 films, including such classics as “Miracle on 34th Street” and “The Maltese Falcon.” He added that while he opposes creating a commission, he doesn’t think the legislation would harm his business.

“The universe of black and white products is so vast that any reasonable person would find only a few classics,” he said. More than 10,000 black and white films were produced, according to Young, and about 75 so far have been colorized.

Many supporters of a National Film Commission say the proposal is just a first step toward their ultimate goal: broad “moral rights” protections for artists.

“This might stop some of the desecration while the larger issues are debated,” said director George Schaefer, chairman of the UCLA theater, film and television department.

The nine-member National Film Commission supported by the appropriations committee would be authorized to designate certain films--those that form “an enduring part of our national heritage--as classics by listing them on a national registry.

Films on this national registry could not be colorized without changing their titles and providing an on-screen notice to viewers that the film was originally produced in black and white. Viewers would also be notified of any other substantial alterations.