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NEWS HIGHLIGHTS OF 1947
By CHESTER B. BAHN
Editor. THE FILM DAILY
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THE ANGLO-AMERICAN IMPASSE. All other industry news developments of the year 1947 pale into virtual insignificance when arrayed alongside of the confiscatory 75 per cent ad valorem tax imposed upon American film imports and the quick follow through of the MPEA in halting the further How of Hollywood product London-wards. The British action, a result of the Kingdom's acute dollar situation, was not without advance warning. June's adveni brought the first hint of a film import cut when Hugh Dalton, Chancellor of the Exchequer, addressed a British Labor conference. In late June, a FILM DAILY headline warned, "U. K. Threatens Heavy Duty." In early July, Commons armed the Chancellor of the Exchequer with the necessary powers, and on Aug. 6, the 75 per cent duty was imposed. Two days later, the MPEA acted to ban shipments. Various alternative formulas were advanced from time to timeas the weeks sped along, but none found acceptance. As the year ended, there was no hint of earlv compromise, the Labor Government firmly holding the duty line while American distributors would have no part of it.
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INTERNATIONAL. As if the dark British situation, imperilling American him remittances up to $68,000,000 annually, were noi enough, the industry's economy was subjected to other sledge-hammer blows on the international front during 1947. It was with reason that MPAA President Eric A. Johnston told the Committee for Reciprocity Information that the loss of foreign trade would spell economic chaos. Australia having accepted the industry's proposal to invest 30 per cent of American remittances down under for a 10-year period, within a matter of weeks made a further cut, effective Jan. 1, limiting remittances to 50 per cent of the 1946 base year quota earnings, with all earnings over that figure to be retained Down Under. On the base year, the amount remittable during 1948 will be $3,300,000. France shaved remittances from $24,000,000 asked by the MPAA to $11,000,000. However, up to Dec. 31 French remittances to the U. S. actually stood at some $2,000,000, leaving approximately $9,715,000 still frozen there. The remitted $2,000,000 transferred early in 1947 was said to represent 25 per cent of the American money due up from 1939 to June 30, 1946. Sweden having first frozen 50 per cent of U. S. film rentals, and then halting U. S. imports, later slashed remittances to one-third. Argentina imposed a "temporary" ban on remittances, enforced a 1944 decree setting minimum domestic playing time. Denmark halved remittances, with the MPEA spurning the plan. Norwayslashed U. S. imports 60 per cent. Burma banned remittances of dollars, and
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