Variety (Apr 1949)

jfajtofiahy, April 6, 1949 nCTIJBES HEAVY OAm CRIME PIC OUTPUT DoaliDg As Ires hk Exhibs 't'-^V^CBIlt circuit »*wM»#-v «• T*»<v«« 4^ ^ct^vujLvw wx;r« piayea'j a« first runs back to baclc. Tlie indies claim that gueli a policy is made possible only by special rental deals extracted by tlie favor- ' able position of the dominant chains. Latest Incident occurred in the Fox-West Coast theatres which advertised a double bill of Republic's "Wake of Red Witch" and ' universal's "Mexican Hayride," Bulletin of the Paciilc Coast Conference of Independent Theatre Owners clalma that in.indie situations Rep is asking a 100% Increase for Its picture, and Uni- versal is asking for a percentage on the Abbott & Costello pic; The . bulletin advises its members: "Next time a Republic or Universal' 'salesman calls on you demand terms which will enable you to .'* 4oi;a>le bill these two. If he won't, tell him to keep them." Dr. Dolto Details Honywood's Experinent with Kinescope MeAods Dr. Allen B. DuMont, prez of-f puSIont^ Television, revealed Mon- dW (4) that major Aim studios are Jnw experimenting with TV's kine- scope recording methods for pro- duction purposes. Twentieth-Fox is known to be among those studios which have already purchased equipment. He also confirmed the possibility of theatres projecting regular studio television programs via large-screen TV. Speaking at the teeoif session of the Society of Motion Picture En- ■ ginciers' convention at tfte Hotel atafler, N. Y., DuMont said Holly- Wood producers and directors are using the TV facilities for getting their' daily rushes out at ^uper- speed.Byinstallingtelecameras : In approximately the same position .as the film cameras, the directors can televise the action, record it on tUin off the face of a viewing tube and hftve it instantly developed and printed, thereby getting the rushes Within an hour instead of a day late. Projecting the system into the future, DuMont predicted that all ,111m will someday be shot that way. He pointed out that sound, once (Continued on page 25) hdustry Shorts' Nut Fixed at $28,000; Ail Agree on 50^ Rentals After a month's give-and-take between the Theatre Owners of America, repping exhibs, and Francis Harmon, Motion Picture .Assn. of America's veepee serving •s spokesman for dlstribs, TOA has agreed to accept a $28,000 figure •t the production, plus advertising cost, for each of the 12 public re- Iitions shorts made under MPAA auspices. On that basis, TOA has Offered to pay one-half regular •nort rentals for the pix with the understanding that dlstribs will waive all distribution charges. AOAers claim that regular shorts rentals, whittled to one-half, SSS'il? sufficient to meet the #28,000 nut. That point still remains in dis- pute since many of the dlstribs »re contending that a half-of-reg- uiar rental will not be enough to meet the investment. To prove its contention. TOA has asked the af- niiated circuits to turn in their totals on amounts paid by them lor regular theatrical briefies. When the totals are collated, ne- gotiating parties will again meet to kick around the question. ^_*eyeral short subjects sales man- nftn''o are convinced that a $50,- UUO figure set for total rental on »ny one regular short is optimistic. t % wgue that the fact that the P-r. briefies are a series of 12 will mean a gradual decrease in the •mount garnered from each, once the original impact slows. WB Unfreezes *Night' Hollywood, April 5. •Warners' "Night Unto Night," v!:^'\*"^'"?8 Ronald Reagan and Vi- ,iX Lindfors, is about to see the ''got of day after two years in oaikness. Picture, made in 1947, since It Will be released next month. Mitchum Back to Work Hollywood, April 5. Robert Mitchum, back in circu- lation after 50 days in the county clink, reported for work at RKO in "The Big Steal," » Don Siegel production which has been shut down for more than a month. Lensing will be resumed April 17 for four weeks on location in Mexico, followed by a few days on the home lot. Studios Periling As 4 Majors Roll Full Prod Slates Hollywood, April 6. Coming up out of the doldrums of unemployment, Warners is put- ting on a program of 46 pictures in the next 12 months, an increase of more than 100% over the 22 fea- tures filmed last year. i:ight of the 46 will start within five weeks, beginning with "White Heat," starring .Tames Cagney. Other starters in rapid succession will be "Always Sweethearts," "Barricade," "Chain Lightning," "Beyond the Forest," "Return of the Frontiersman," "The Miami Story" and "Perfect Strangers." These pictures will bring into play the whole gamut of Warners' stars, such as Shirley- Temple^ Barry Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart, Vir- ginia Mayo, Dane Clark, Raymond Massey, Lon McCallister, - Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten; Burt Lan- caster, Randolph Scott, Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, John Gar- . field. Kirk Douglas and John I Wayne. Some of these stars are on the regular Warners payroll and some are under one-plcturc- a-year contracts. In.addition to the 46 pictures coming up, Warners has a backlog of 18 features. Metro will start 11 pictures in April, May and June, compared (Continued on page 23) . . 1/0 AGTl PIX SATE mm.] By WHITNEY WILLIAMS Hollywood, April 5. Hollywood is meeting rising tide of interest in adventure by under- taking greatest program of west- erns in its history, and heftiest concentration on pictures with crime angle since the days when no producer thought, himself a producer unless he had a Couple of gangster films before the cameras. Total of 112' westerns are either currently in first release, finished, filming or propping, and in same four categories there are 58 crime films. This gives paying public grand aggregate of 170 pictures to give them a lift as they watch hero this many times go through plenty of action, be it on the range or city pavements. With westerns the real backbone of the industry, this type of enter- tainment is being readied in ever increasing • numbers. Currently there are 44 saddlers, with budgets ranging anywhere from $70,000 to $1,500,000 awaiting release, with 54 and better being propped. Five are now before the cameras, and nine are in first release. Crime pictures likewise have a healthy backlog, these numbering 27 with 20 more propping. Eight are. currently filming and three, in first release. Republic leads the field in west- ern group. Valley lot has eight completed, has three now' lensing and 10 b'eing readied. Columbia trails with 17 against Republic's 21, including nine finished and eight prepping. RKO is next with 14, tally embracing five in can, one shooting and eight on future agenda. Warners ' has eight on its- program; Universal-International^ United Artists^ seven each; Para- (Continued on page 26) Joe BerahanTs Cmecolor Exit Linked to Splitting FC from Co. MacNnnay's Imlie . ; Hollywoodj April 5. New indie company, formed by Milton Breui Fred MacMurray and William A. Seller, will produce "Border Line" independently on the Hal Roach lot, financed with their own bankroll, and with coop- eration of government officials in Washington. Setup calls for/Bren to produce, Setter to direct and MacMurray to star. RANK'S SCHOOL KIDS' PITCH FOR ADDED B.O, Prestige unit of Universal, han- ■ dling J; Arthur Rank's product I aimed for art house consumption, | has shoved off on a concentrated [ pit<:h for the estimated 8,000 non-1 competitive^, theatres. - scattered- through the country. Under orders from Nate Blumberg, U's prez. Prestige is attempting to widen the base of its bookings to take in the, thousands of theatres in towns and villages. Lawrence J. McKlnley, Prestige sales chief, is toilring the country to push the scheme. According to McGinley, most of the non-competitive houses in smaller situations have no matinee performances during the week. U's salesmen have been instructed to seek matinee bookings from these houses arranged with school tieups. The kids and their teach- ers take over the theatres for play- Ings of British plx specially adapt- ed for classroom study. Stromberg Pards With Sam Dembow Indie producer Hunt Stromberg and Sam Dembow, Jr., are enter- ing a production - distribution alii'- ance along: the lines of the Hal Wallis-Joseph H< Hazen combine. Under a new tieup, Stromberg will make films while Dembow concen- trates on supervising sales, arrang-' ing banking and taking care of other chores. Dembow will seek to establish a line of credit for the unit which means a switch from Stromberg's former method of get-' ting loans on individual produc- tions;'-;..:' ' First of a series of pix handled under the new partnership will be "Too Late for Tears," produced by Stromberg alone and released by United Artists. Two other pre ductions are slated for the unit, the first going before the cameras, Sept. 1. Both will be released by UA. Dembow ■ previously served on the UA board and acted as a rep for indie producers. Prior to that, he was an exec with Paramount for many years. 24 Non-Strikers In '45 Walkout Win ERB Award Washington, April 5. National Labor Relations Board yesterday (4) found the Assn. Of Motion Picture Producers, Warner Bros., Columbia and Loew^s guilty of discrimiftation against 24 non- striking studio 'workers. during the 1945 jurisdictional strike. The 24 refused to do "struck work" or to cross picket lines. The Board or- dered the eight employees restored to their jobs or the equivalent, plus back pay for any financial losses suffered. Two others were ordered reinstated without back pay, , and 14 were awarded back pay without reinstatement. Similar charges against Republic, 20th and RKO were dismissed, as were charges by two more WB em- ployees. ■ NLRB slapped a cease and de-. sist order,against AMPP, Warners, Columbia and Loew's, after finding them guilty of interfering with the rights of their employees to en- gage in "concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargain- ing or other mutual aid or protec- tion." ' Still pending is another phase of the big . studio jurisdictional strikes. On March 12, NLRB or- dered the Set Decorators to con- duct an election within 30 days'to determine whether they wanted to affiliate with the Painters or lATSE. The Labor Board has never gone into the question of who was at fault in the studio strike. . AMPP is required to notify its (Continued on page 20) ♦ Resignation of Joe Bernhard as president and director of Cine- color last week was preliminary to a possible split of Cinecolor and; Film Classics. FC is a 100%- owned subsid of the tint firm, with i Bernhard up to last week prexy of both outfits. He'll continue as topper of FC. There has been no definite de- cision yet on whether the split will be made, but it is thought to be highly likely. Matter probably will be decided in two weeks or so and then, submitted to stock- holders. While Cinecolor is pub- licly owned, Bernhard holds about 10% of : the outstanding shares and the Qonner , Estate of Philadelphia another 15%, so that if they ob- tain agreement between them they can exercise control. • Negotiations to date have been entirely friendly, but there is Un- derstood to have been some strain between , the two major stock- .' holders. Donner people, it is re- ported, are opposed to the divorce- menti while Bernhard favors it. It is understood that the Donners feel that with FC now moving into the black side of the ledger, Cinecolor is entitled to profit, since it car- ried the company along during its growing pains. Bernhard, on the other hand, wants to devote his full time to FC. Ed Alperson's Hookup FC was taken over: by Cinecolor about two years ago. That was shortly' after Bernhard, former Warner Bros, theatre topper, had bought controlling interest in FC In return for all the outstanding FC stock, Bernhard and his cd- r owner, Edward L. Alperson, each got 40,000 shares of Cinecolor. At (Continued on page 20) Hugh M. nick Tapped For N.Y. Top Censor Post Albany, April 5. Post of chief censor of all films commercially exhibited in New York State will be filled by Hugh M. Flick, disabled war veteran. Who got the highest mark, 89.268, in last fall's civil service exam. Starting salary is $6,700. Flick, who enlisted in the army as a private and worked up to lieutenant colonel, has served 15 years in the State Education Dept. The censorship post has been only temporarily ;fllled since April, 1945; when Irwin Esmond retired after 14 years in the job. Dr. Ward C. Bowen, state visual aide and radio director, has doubled as censoc since 1946. MEX STUDIO'S PITCH TO U. S. INDIE PRODS Hollywood indies who want to produce English-language films at RKO's Churubsuco studios in Mex- ico City have had a source of finan- cing opened to them through a new outfit, Filmicas, S. A., set up last week. Jointly controlled by Mexican and American Interests, it is getting together apd financing packages for production. It plans to back 10 to 12 piX' anhually. Milton Gladstone, N. Y. attor- ney, is organizer of the setups which will be represented on the Coast in putting the packages to- gether by agent Walter Batchelor. They estimate a 25% saving-in-pro- duction costs in Mexico, primarily via labor charges. Julian Gladstone, son of Milton, is proxy of the company. Other officers are Arthur Bohrer, N. Y. produce merchant; Mark M. Hor- blit, Boston industri'alist and attor- ney; Miguel R: Cardenas, former prexy of United Artists of Mexico, and Albert A. Sepulyeda, .Mex at- torney. Initial pic will be. "M," remake by Seymour Nebenzal- for UA re- lease, of the classic German pic. I Monte Proser, operator of the ! Copacabana nitery, N. Y., is also I getting a package together for j production with Gladstone finan- ' cing. Atlas Unloaded 330,000 RKO Common in Marcl^ Ginsberg Sells 500 Par Washington, April 5. , •■ Atlas Corp. unloaded warrant* for another 330,000 shares of RKO common in- three transactions last month, :Securities and Exchange Commission reported today- in its summary of insider , stock transac- tions for Feb. 11-March 10 period. Atlas still has warrants for 234,812 shares. Harry . M. Warner made 'three: gifts of Warner comn^on, totaling 4,300 shares in same month. He still holds 274,050 shares of WB common plus another 16,000 in a - trust account. Joseph E. Mc- Mahon, of ficer of Republic Fix, ac- quired 100 shares of that corpora- tion, his total holding. - Henry Ginsberg sold half of the 1,000 shares of Paramount common he held. His sons have another 275 shares. W. Ray Johnston got rid of 2,300 shares of Monogram common. He still holds 317 shares plus options for another 12,500. Loaw's, Inc., steadily gobbling up all it can find of Loew's Boston Theatres common, acquiredr an- other 224 shares to bring total to 125,250 shares. Charles C. Mos- kowitz bought 1,000 more of Loew's common and now has 3,500 shares. Harry Cohn added 100 shares of Columbia preferred to make it 300 shares. He also owns 141,327 shares of common. In Eastman Kodak $10 common, George H. Clark got rid of 150 shares but still has 57,600. Levin's 'Under lOOG* Pic Transcontinental Films, new pro- ducing outfit headed by Edward Levin, rolls its initial picture next Monday (11) as a New York loca- tioner. Budgeted at "under $100,- 000," the film is tentatively tagged ''Project X" and will be handled in: a documentary technique. Fi- nancing has been "privately ar- ranged." Edward Montagne directs while Rita Colton and Keith Anders have ^ top roles. Latter has been , under- : studying Alfred Drake in "Kiss Me, I Kate." It's the first venture into i full-length production for Levin, a ' Coast exhibitor.