Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1948)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 9, 1948 Easier Film Market Likely As Releases Show Increase (Continued from Page 5) Classics, which previously had been handling reissues, entered the market to make a fifteenth distributor. The data breaks down as follows : Releases Unrcleased Company 1947-48 1948 Allied Artists 2 5 2 Astor . 1 1 0 Columbia 29 29 OJ 30 21 22 Film Classics . . 9 3 MGM 25 19 17 Monogram .... 19 18 6 Paramount .... 18 19 16 RKO 31 17 24 23 34 8 0 Screen Guild . . . 8 9 Selznick 1 » 1 1 20th-Fox 22 35 27 United Artists . 15 15 16 26 30 24 19 16 28 . 270 278 229 U-I Increases Releases to 30 Universal-International will release 30 features, 61 shorts and 104 issues of its newsreel during the 1948-49 selling season, Vice-President and General Sales Manager William A. Scully announced Wednesday in San Francisco at the opening of a west coast regional sales meeting. Scully's announcement raised the number of releases originally anticipated by President Nate J. Blumberg at 24 and was said to be based on a survey of of exhibition which indicated to the Universal sales chief that the market could absorb the larger amount of pictures. Shorts -The shorts program will consist of 13 Name Band musicals, eight musical westerns, eight Variety Views, eight novelty subjects, eight "Sing and Be Happys," two two-reelers, a onereel "Christmas Dream" and 13 Technicolor "Cartunes" to be reissued. Ten of the feature program is already completed, Scully said. They are: "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands," "Rogue's Regiment," "The Countess of Monte Cristo," "Mexican Hayride," "You Gotta Stay Happy," "Live Today for Tomorrow," "The O'Flynn," "Criss Cross," "Family Honeymoon," "Red Canyon" (formerly "Black Velvet"). Others in production or to go in production are : "The Life of Riley," "The Story of Sam Bass," "The Amboy Dukes," "The Night Watch," "Ma and Pa Kettle," "Come Be My Love," "Arctic Manhunt," "Abbott and Costello and the Invisible Man," "Gambling Lady," "Bagdad," "Western Story," "Take One False Step," "Moon Over Java," "Cripple Creek," "Tomahawk." Warner Bros. Backlog At 28. New High Warner Bros, with a backlog of 28 completed pictures, the largest in its history, will arrange its release schedule to conform with the upturn in market conditions, Hollywood sources this week said following a meeting held by the company's toppers at the Burbank, Calif., studios. The company, which said it planned to continue analyzing market trends and expected to "maintain a high level of employment" in the studios meanwhile, as it went ahead with its production plans. The study of the markets has already resulted in a reshuffling of some release dates with the following pictures now set: Oct. 9, "Smart' Girls Don't Talk" ; Oct. 23, "Johnny Belinda" ; Nov. 13, "June Bride" ; Nov. 27, "Fighter Squadron," (Technicolor) ; Dec. 23, "Decision of Christopher Blake" ; ' Jan. 1, "One Sunday Afternoon," (Technicolor) ; Jan. 15, "Whiplash," Zachary Scott; and Jan. 29, "Adventures of Don Juan," (Technicolor). Republic Lists 34 Features A 1948-49 releasing chedule consisting of 34 features, 16 pictures with outdoor or western locales, four serials, four one-reel novelties and eight Roy Rogers reissues, was announced this week by Republic. The 34 features are split into 14 A's and 20 B's, while the outdoor series will comprise : Six Allen Lanes — "Sundown in Santa Fe," "The Renegades of Sonora," "Sheriff of Wichita," "Death Valley Gunfighter," "Tucson Trigger Man," "Navajo Trail Raiders"; six AllStars — "Fort Dodge Stampede," "Prince of the Plains," "Outcasts of Virginia City," "The Las Vegas Kid," "Arizona >Badman," "San Antone Ambush" ; four new Roy Rogers in Trucolor — "The Golden Stallion," "Hills of Oklahoma," "Down Dakota Way," "The Far Frontier" — and eight Roy Rogers reissues — ' 'iShine on Harvest Moon," "In Old Caliente," "Frontier Pony Express," "Saga of Death Valley," "Ranger and the Lady," "Colorado," "Robinhood of the Pecos," "Young Bill Hickok." The four serials are "Federal Agents vs. Underworld, Inc.," in 12 chapters ; Clyde Beatty's 15-chapter "King of the Jungleland (a revision of "Darkest Africa"), "Ghost of Zorro" and "Pirates of Treasure Island," both in 12 chapters. 14 A's, 20 B's The schedule, as announced by President Herbert J. Yates and Executive Vice-President William R. Grainger, lists a total of 14 A pictures and with 20 Bs, release dates for some of which already been set (STR, Sept. 25, p. 6). The A's listed are : "Wake of the Red Witch," "Eagles in Exile," "The Missourians" (Trucolor), "Belle of the Gold Coast" (Trucolor), "The Vanishing Westerner" (Trucolor), "Crosswinds," "The Sea Eagle," "Panama Passage," "The Golden Horde," "Faces in the Sun," "Belle Starr and the Daltons" (Trucolor) and three untitled. The 20 B's follow: "The Hideout," "The Silver Tide," "Streets of San Francisco," "Homicide for Three," "Duke of Chicago," "A Fool's Gold," "Daughter of the Jungle," "Flaming Fury," "Rose of the Yukon," "Post Office Investigator," "New York Police Secrets," "The Tough Girl," "Undertow," "Escape From Alcatraz," "Thunder Over the Sierras," "Lady Robinhood," "Lay That Pistol Down," "The Marines Take Over," "The Federal Marshal," "Typhoon." The four one-reel cartoon novelties in Trucolor are produced by Impossible Pictures and are: "Bungle in the Jungle," "Beyond Civilization to Texas," "Romantic Rumbolia," "The Three Minnies." 'Columbus' Roadshow Universal-International plans to roadshow J. Arthur Rank's Technicolor "Christopher Columbus," Vice-President and General Sales Manager William A. Scully declared from San Francisco this week. Republic Offers Trucolor to Producers Republic is discussing several deals by which it will make the Trucolor process available to independent producers provided the shooting is done on the Republic lot, President Herbert J. Yates told Showmen's Trade Review in Hollywood this week. Yates said this requirement that the outside product using the color process be made at Republic was due to the fact that the studio's technical crew is familiar with the Trucolor process and can get the best results with it. At present "Montana Belle," produced by Bob Welsch and Walter Colmes' Fidelity Pictures, is the first such independent production to be made under the required conditions at Republic, Yates added. Safier to Distribute 'Concert Magic' Morris Safier announced this week from Hollywood that he was taking over distribution of "Concert Magic," the full-length picturization of a concert which features performances by Violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Pianist Jakob Gimpel, Contralto Eula Beal and Conductor Antal Dorati. Safier said that he would handle distribution of the film, directly with theatres in some instances and through states' rights outfits in others. UA Sets Up Video Distribution Unit United Artists this week embarked upon a policy of selling features and shorts for television use and organized a special , department in its organization to handle such sales, Paul N. Lazarus, Jr., executive assistant to the president, announced. The new department, under direction of John H. Mitchell, formerly with Mutual Broadcasting and radio program developer for an advertising agency, will operate through the UA exchanges. Whether the product offered to television will be reissues or new product was not stated. Wis. Checkers Won't Need License Checkers in Wisconsin will not have to take out a private detective's license and be bonded, Attorney General Grove L. Broadfoot ruled this week, apparently reversing himself on an earlier ruling. Broadfoot found that checkers, such as those of Confidential Reports, did not come under the state's private detective board because their checking activities were not secret and were made with the knowledge of the exhibitor. ji Thomas Armat Dead Funeral services for Thornas Armat, 81, inventor of the Bioscope, firs't I practical motion picture projector, were held ajt Fredericksburg, Va., this weekend. Armat's invention was first used at Koster & Bial's in 1096.