Motion Picture News (Nov-Dec 1925)

November 14, 1925 2245 Statement Decries False Promises Joe Brandt and Jack Cohn, of Columbia, Declare Producers Methods are Responsible for Existing Conditions IN a statement, issued this week by Joe Brandt and Jack Cohn, president and treasurer respectively of Columbia Pictures, these producers outline a definite indictment of broken promises and bad product, which they allege, have tended in the past year to destroy a market for worthy effort, and hold that these reasons are responsible for the present chaotic conditions which, they say, exist at present in the industry. The statement, in part, follows : "The present chaotic conditions in the motion picture industry are due to the broken promises of producers. Never in the "history of motion pictures has such a situation confronted the exhibitors as at the tail end of the 1925-1926 season, and the producers are, in a large measure, entirely to blame for a situation which has forced many exhibitors into a position where they feel unable to depend on, and have an entire lack of confidence in, the promises of producers to deliver the number of pictures they promised to produce at the beginning of the current year. "The overzealous and avaricious attitude on the part of some of the producing organizations at the beginning of the season, in announcing a formidable production program, has been responsible for lulling a great many exhibitors into a sense of confidence and false security which has been ruthlessly destroyed in many cases before half the season was over, by the retrenchment on the part of producers. Embellished announcements of tremendous production programs, which have later been <cut clown by as much as 50 per cent, in some Left, Joe Brandt; right, Harry Cohn. instances, has wrought havoc among the exhibitors dependent upon these companies for their play dates. "That the producers have learned the error of their ways is evidenced by the fact that announcements have already been made by many of the companies that they will not announce as many pictures for -production for the coming year as they did at the beginning of the present season. They have come to realize that promising to throw on the market more pictures than can possibly be consumed has brought about a condition whereby not only the producers income has considerably suffered but the returns of the exhibitors has also been materially curtailed, by reason of forcing the exhibitor to sign up for more pictures than he needed in order to get a few leaders among exhibitors to create a demand for production that they only hoped to make. "In this is the crux of the whole situation. Instead of offering fair competition among all the large motion picture producing concerns, they adopted this method of securing an outlet for product that common sense should have told them would mean flooding the market with surplus product. "Supply and demand must govern every business and the picture industry is no different to any other industry and this is the time for producers to ponder over the conditions as they were this year and realize that they must be conservative in their estimate of productions to be made in future. Once they have announced the number of pictures they should go through. The time to retrench is at the beginning of, not in the middle of, or at the end of the season. "The spirit of the fair play must be more evident next year than ever before as the unnatural and unhealthy competition which was prevalent this year has forced upon many producers the conclusion that less pictures of a better calibre will bring in more revenue to the exhibitor and more revenue to the producer — the public demand for better pictures has been blazoned forth in the newspapers and it behooves the producer to read the handwriting on the wall and get out of the system of machine-made pictures and produce less pictures of better Quality." Sheehan Lines Up Fox Productions General Manager on Coast to Launch Imposing Array of Stage Successes and Leading Novels for Next Season W INFIELD R. SHEEHAN, VicePresident and General Manager of Fox Film Corporation is in Los Angeles and will remain there for the next two months lining up product and preparing to properly launch the production program of the company for the 1926-27 season. His first announcement reveals an impressive list of stage successes and novels whose screen rights have been secured by Fox. The policy of the Fox studio, according to Mr. Sheehan, will be to produce this list of plays and novels during the next twelve months. Last week it was announced that Fox had obtained rights to six of the David Belasco stage productions. They are, "The Auctioneer," "The Grand Army Man," "The Return of Peter Grimm," "The Lily," "The Comedian" and "The Music Master." Fox also has the rights to "What Price Glory" and ''Cradle Snatchers," two remarkly successful Broadway stage productions. There are also to be produced the three John Golden stage successgs, "Pigs," "Going Crooked" and "Seventh Heaven." On top of all these comes the announcement that Fox has now obtained screen rights to the inimitable Charles Hoyt farces that set the world to laughing two decades ago. These Hovt plavs are, "A Trip to Chinatown," "A Milk White Flag," "A Black Sheep," "A Dav and a Knight," "A Hole in the Ground," "A Runaway Colt," "A Rag Baby," "A Brass Monkey," '"A Dog in the Manger" and "A Temperance Town." Similar successes have been obtained in the literary market, among the novels secured being A. S. M. Hutchinson's "One Increasing Purpose," "Down to Earth," by Julius Perutz, a leading Vienna author; "Frozen Justice," by Ejnar Mikkelson, a novel of Alaska to bz staged by John Ford, and "Married Life," by Ralph ' Straus. Another attraction of the program will be an intimate drama of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Empress Josephine. This is an original story by Benjamin Glazer. In addition to making preparations for the next season, Mr. Sheehan has speeded up production on the remaining pictures for the current season and has had casting director James Ryan sign up a number of stars to appear in them. Among the galaxy of stars and well known players who will be seen in Fox December and January releases are Betty Compson, Matt Moore, Clara Bow, Bert Lytell, Vivian Oakland, Earle Williams. Nigel De Brullier, Frank Keenan, Huntley Gordon, Herbert Rawlinson, Vera Lewis, Grant Withers, Stanton Heck, Reed Howes, Will Walling, Walter Pidgeon, Rose Blossom, Charles Lane, Roy At will, Francis Mac Donald, Kathleen Myers, Nina Romona, Gladys Brockwell, Warner Oland, John Oatrick, Oliver Hardy, Jacques Rollens, Gustave Van Seyferitz, Carolynne Snowden, Frank Currier and Virginia Madison. These players will be distributed in leading and supporting roles in such productions as "The First Year," which Frank Rorzage is directing; "The Peacemaker," a Buck Jones starring vehicle with W. S. Van Dyke directing; "The Golden Butterfly," directed by John Griffith Wray; "Daybreak," a Rowland V. Lee production ; "Palace of Pleasure," which Emmett Flynn will direct, and the modern sequence of "The Ancient Mariner," which Chester Bennett will supervise.