Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

64 MOTION PICTURE HERALD April 4 , 19 3 1 OP VCICE €r THE ■ NDLSTCy FROM JANUARY 25 to MARCH 14, showing every night, I have only got by on six pictures : "Check and Double Check" (RKO), "All Quiet" (U.), "Africa Speaks" (Col.), "Half Shot At Sunrise" (RKO), "Our Blushing Brides" (M-G-M), "Safety In Numbers" (Para.). The first four are especially worth running in any man's house. "Tol'abk David" (Col), "The Lash" (F.N.), "King of Jazz" (U.), "Byrd at the South Pole" (Para.), "Caught Short" (M-G-M), "Desert Vengeance" (Col.), "Love Among Millionaires" (Para), and "Trigger Tricks" (Col.) could not make the grade, and are all good pictures. "The Lash" is not so slow as critics report it. Do not be afraid of it. Put it on your best nights. "Outside the Law" (U.) is not much, just fair. "The Girl Said No" (M-G-M), "Seven Days Leave" (Para.), "Divorcee" (M-G-M), and "Laughing Lady" (Para.), gave us a terrible set back, yet the last two pictures are fine in ^heir class. The producers when they charge prices so that I can't make a dime on their average product are merely asking me to give them a dole — they are so hard up from the "big slump" I presume. How fortunate it is that I am a Croesus ! Well ! It's small town fellows such as I who have contributed "till it hurts" for those Hollywood actors' palaces. Such is the motion picture racket ! I just ran "Common Clay" (Fox), and I believe it is the best picture we have had in a long, long time. While it made no money it is very satisfying and you will do well to run it. It is a "Madam X" type of play and of absorbing interest. There is nothing objectionable about it. — Philip Rand, Rex Theatre, Salmon Idaho. ▲ ▲ A ' Thanks for the Congrats! NOTICED YOU HAVE INSERTED A complete release chart in the Herald issue of March 21. I wish to congratulate you on this move, if it is only to appear once a month. At the Allied convention in Chicago, a number of exhibitors stated they sure missed the release chart in the Herald. I trust the release chart increases your subscriptions.— J. R. McKiNLAY, Grand Theatre Company, International Falls, Minn. AAA Misses Music Survey I NOTICE WITH REGRET THAT THE Motion Picture Herald has discontinued the weekly survey of popular music. This was an invaluable help to orchestra leaders and organists and I used it as a handy guide to feel the pulse of the public's response to popular numbers ; both radio and "platters" being inadequate. I hope that the discontinuance of the survey is only temporary and the department will be restored. I subscribe to your publication. — Egan M. Dougherty, Organist Loew's Triboro theatre, Astoria, Long Island. UP UNTIL THE LAST FEW WEEKS you used to publish under the music section of your magazine a list of "Broadway Best Sellers." I've certainly missed this list lately as it is indeed itself worth the price of a year's subscription to me. Here's hoping you will reinstate same to good standing again. — James Moffitt, Auditorium theatre, Tampa, Kan. AAA Ditto for Zim Zlm WE REGRET VERY MUCH THAT YOUR music department does not contain is former list of the week's best sellers of sheet music. May we have this valuable service restored or retained from your Exhibitors Herald Publication. We are missing it very much in our theatre. — M. W. Zimmermann. Zim Zim theatre, Cumberland. Wis. AAA Needs Music Lists, Too I REGRET VERY MUCH THAT YOU have discontinued publishing a list of best sellers in popular sheet music. I am in the sheet music business and rely very largely on these lists which I have always found to be exceedingly reliable. — Clint McDade, Chattanooga. Tenn. Two to Five Hollywood (QP) — "It is not necessary to take a scene in talkies as many times as in silent; the distinction between a good and a bad performance is more sharply drawn in dialogue pictures." These are the ^ opinions of Cecil B. DeMille. tares, states De Mille, "I was accustomed to take at least five shots of each scene, and oftimes upwards of a dozen of the same scene. In my Cecil B. DeMille Current talkie 'The Squawman,' two takes were enough. "The difference is that you can tell pretty closely from the dialogue whether +he scene will be good. In silent, pantomimic pictures, without the yardstick of dialogue, one could not make final judgment of worth on a set. One could never know how a certain bit of pantomine would get over until you saw it on the screen. "Therefore, we shot very many more added takes than is customary in the talking picture medium." 1,270 Film Theatres In Japan; Increase 40 Yearly Since '96 Toitio — Picture theatres have increased in Japan at the rate of 40 a year since 1896, when films were introduced into that country, until today there are 1,270 theatres. These figures are brought out by a survey of Yoshiyuki Mizuno, of the Osaka Mainichi. In Tokyo and Osaka, there are over 10 film theatres with sound. Five of these have Western Electric equipment. "In addition to this rapid commercial development, the cinema has necessarily influenced national thought and the habits of the people," Mizuno declares. "Motion pictures have, in fact, become one of the important elements in Japanese civilization." Recently, 718 films have been produced in Japan, all of which were released. Most of the foreign product shown is imported from the United Stares. Mascot Sells 7 Franchises on Serials Mascot lias completed franchise arrangements on four 12-episode serials to be released this season. Tom Brenon, Affiliated Producers, will handle the product in the South ; George Montgomery, All Star Features, in the West, and Earle Cohen, also in the West. Columbia Holds Western Meet San Francisco — A regional convention of Columbia managers and salesmen in the territory from Denver west was held this week under the direction of L. E. Tillman, Western division manager. J. B. Riley is now managing the local office, having succeeded Phil Weinstein. Richards Film Ready April 15 Vincent Richards, tennis star, will make his first screen appearance in "Tennis Topnotchers," a Van Beuren-Grantland Rice Sportlight, set for RKO Pathe release April 15. Trial Set For Operators Sacramento, Cal. — Superior Judge John F. Pullen has set April 22 as the date of the trial of the group of projectionists charged with an attempt to dynamite a local theatre. Yorke Denies "Out" Rumor G. S. Yorke, Fox advertising director, denies reports that he is to resign. He starts this week on a circuit-wide tour. Darrow AMPA Guest Clarence Darrow was honor guest at the AMPA meeting this week, speaking on censorship. "Seed" at Rialto Universal has booked "Seed" into the New York Rialto for a run starting April 23 or April 30.