Variety (December 1950)

Wednesday, December 13, 1950 PICTURES m PROFTT HYPO IN Reports of severe difficulties^ faced by United Artists if the cur- rent “mystery deal” on the Coast falls through were proving highly di sturbing to top-echelon industry- ites this week. They feared that the UA hurdle would be immedi- ately hoped on by industry detract- ors as evidence of the inroads of television on films. ; Actually, of course, there Would he no such implication. UA has been in hot water of one kind or another • for much : of its 31 years, and present difficulties are merely a culmination of long- standing ownership and manage- ment travail: • ^ I Execs of other companies figure,-! however, that that will be hard to, i explain to lay writers and com- mentators. Particularly so since a gooci many of them have no desire to under,stand and will undoubted- ly find a good “angle” in UA’s troubles in light of the recent b.o. decline and TV competition. Result, it is feared, will be a public relations black eye. It may have serious effect on the boxof- fice and on the stock and securities of other companies, majority of which have never, in their history been more substantially solvent. There’s been some vague discus- sion in top industry circles of pos- sible steps to help UA in the pres- ent crisis. Feeling is, however, that there’s little can be done while ownership is in the hands of.! (Continued on page 29) Cutrate 2d-Runs For CIO Assn. Backfires, Creates Detroit Stew Detroit, Dec. 12, A plan to show second-run films to members of the CIO Motor City Cooperative Assn, at cut rates has backfired and stalled. Besides that it has raised temperatures in ex- hib circles, who feared that their uniform price structure might col- lapse, and has brought vehement denials of the whole deal from management of the theatre in- volved, The whole scheme was brought to light when a CIO publicity re- lease to labor papers had this to say: “The best motion pictures showing in Detroit can now be seen by Co-op and union members for 44c. This is the result of the latest co-op collective buying agree- m.ent." (The huge co-op operates grocery stores and has cutrate agreements with national appliance dealers.) The release continued: “The special price agreement is with the Regent theatre. This theatre pre- sents up-to-the-moment current pictures immediately after their first showing. By seeing these lat- est pictures at the Regent you will (Continued on page 29) BEN HENRY LEAVING U AS ENGLAND REP ^ Ben Henry, Universal’s represen- tative in England, is leaving the company at the end of this year. AiTangement, entirely friendly in nature, is a money-saving operation ^br U.; ■■ Unlike other majprs, which have iheir own distribution setups, U's product is handled in England by J ,Arthur Rank’s General Film Dis- Jibutors. Feeling of U toppers is inat, as a result, services of a high- priced exec such iis Henry are not Bookings of. product, circuits have been andled satisfactorily from the ’ b., leaving only accounting laud^^ bs actually necessary in Eng- ^S^bry, who has had long ex- R/^bbce in exhibition and distribu- ^on, has been With U Since World hilt-^ number of other sine.ss interests and will occupy bi. time.with them. ... » •. • ; Howard Dietz (in fruifrated Iambic ptniomcter) Inditci an ode to The Crystal Ball an omusing featiire in the upcoming 45th Anniversaiy Number of 4- Dallas, Dec. 12. Interstate circuit disclosed today (Tuesday) that it has abandoned all plans for exhibition of “Oliver Twist.” Robert J. O’Donnell, gen- eral manager of the big southwest chain, declared: “We will uphold Interstate’s policy of not running any film without a Productipn Code Administration seal.” The J. Arthur Rank pic was slated to open in a group of In- terstate houses in various parts of Texas Jan. 19. The booking was made prior to refusal of Joseph X. Breen, Production Code adminis- trator for the Motion Picture Assn, of America, to give the pic a seal. Film has been subject to great controversy on the charge that it is anti-Semitic in its treatment of the Fagin character. Breen nix was on that basis. Paradoxically, Rank as the pic’s producer has himself been against showing the film in the U. S. However, Robert R. Young, controlling stockholder in Eagle Lion Classics, the distribs, (Continued on page 78) Despite the continued hoxoffice slide during ^950, indications are that filirt companies as a whole will show an increase in net profits of about 10% over 1949. With some firms having already Rled their full-year reports for fiscal 1950 and all having filed at least nine-month indices, available offi- cial figures and estimates to date show net earnings for nine conir panics of $34,722,422 as against $31,328,117 for the parallel periods of the previous year. Companies included in the com- pilation are the seven majors, plus Republic and Monogram. United Artists, being privately owned, I files no fiscal statements. Six of the nine firms are shovv.- ing a considerable improvement in net profits as they near the tape for 1950, while three have lost ground against the 1949 fiscal pe- riods. Ahead are Columbia, Metro^ Monogram, Paramount, Republic ^nd Universal. Behind are RRO, 20th-FOx and Warner Bros. Accounting for the improved profits picture is the slash in costs the 'companies were able to make j during 1948 and 1949, primarily in budgets. Many of the releases which showed up in the 1949 fig- ures were made at peak costs, some of them having been ad- mitted weakies which were held on the shelf until they could bd hid- den no longer. By the 1950 fiscal (Continued bn page 29) on RKO Control: .' Far Fub-Ad Voepea. Max YoungBtein favors New Pix Selling Techniques an internsting editorial feature in the forthobming 45th Anniversary Number of Warning On TV Damage At B.O. Bops Pix Shares Apparently touched off by Charles Skouras* statement re- garding the heavy inroads TV has made on film theatres, motion pic- ture shares responded adversely during the past week. Forecast for further’' declines in biz made by Warner Bros, in its annual state- ment last week also added to the gloom. WB shares currently are only one-quarter bf a point from the year’s low of 11. While numerous film issues ral- lied in yesterday’s (Tues.) market, the gains were only fractional. With 37H by Loew’s aiid United Paramount Theatres the greatest advances. UPT up at 17^8 ,as against the year’s low of l^Vs. Loew’s quotation oi 15^8 contrasted with the ’50 low of 141-'^, Columbia is selling for. 11; year’s low is SEE H’WOOD FOR MEET Race has developed between two sets of U. S. backers to get before film and video pFodUcers new sys- tems of optics that will provide elaborate backgrounds and sets at g\ji TMivfTCi*mV I ^ fraction of the cost of the real Or INDUjIKY tAbLSjthing. One group is headed by ! Hollywood producer Sol Lesser, j the other by former Universal exec Matty Fox. Both systems were developed in France, They bear some general resemblance to the “independent i frame” system With which J. (Continqed on page 27) Meeting of company proxies and studio heads for a toi>^echelon onceover of the state of the busi- ness now appears likely to take place in Hollywood-—if at all, Time would probably be mid-January or later. Original intention was to hold the session in Phoenix last Week- end. It was decided, however, that the travel involved was too great for results that might be ac- complished. Discussions, as a re- sult, arose for conclaving in New York, or Washington, but they’ve also been shelved in favor of the Coast. Television inroads, sagging b.o., labor contracts, censorship and other problems have been suggest- ed for the agenda. HUSTON ON ‘EARTH' Hollywood, Dec. 12. John Huston will direct retakes for “Gone to Earth,” joint Selz- nick-Korda production lensed in England last year, David Farrar is sailing froni England Saturday (16) for retakes with Jennifer Jones, and then re- ports to UI to start pact with co- star stint in “Golden Horde,” op- posite Ann Blyth. Possibility loomed this week that Howard Hughes next year will face a proxy fight with a powerful group of Wall Streeters for control of the RKO productibn-distribution organization. Result might well be dissolution of the company and sale jof its more-thah-40-year stockpile of films to television. Leader in this movement is Les- ter GreenWald, partner in the in- vestment firm of B. Li. Taylor & Co., and a large holder of RKO Shares. He is in the loose con- federation of big RKO stockholders recently organized on Wall street, but is openly in favor of more radical action than | that to which '.the others are yet ready to commit .themselves, ; I Whole Wall street grolip, which , claims to represent more shares than Hughes’ 929,000 (24%), is bitter about the RKO topper’s man-; agement policies, but is withhold- ing action pending further study and advieer Most potent stock- holder in the group Is David J. Greene, with something over 300,- 000 shares, ranking him second only to Hughes. Much less reticent than the ' others, Greenwald declared this I (Continued i>n page 31) Controversial Danisii Picture Gets Final Nix By American Customs Customs bureau nix has appar- ently finally voided chances of importation into the U. S. of the Danish-made “We Want a Child” despite protestations of a group of leading American citizens. Pic is currently cleaning up throughout Europe, ranking as the second largest grosser of the year there. Walter Gould, who was attempt- ing to bring the film into this country, has given up his efforts in face of the adamant attitude (Continued on page 78) Trade Still Sluggish; ^Solomon’ No. 1 for Fourth Successive Week; ^Dance/ ‘Eve' Next Biggest Universal is 9ViB; low is IVa . Re- public common is 3%; low is 3, While 20th-Fox common is 19.^8, the low 18. RKO wound up 7V4 yes- terday; ’50 low is GVs. S. P^JSkduras Back at D O- ’Twentieth-Fox prez Spyros P. Skouras returned to the -home- office Monday (IT) following f* week’s huddles on the Coast with studio execs. * Veepee A1 Lichtman, who ac- companied Skouras to Hollywood, will remain there at least anotheF week for further conference with production veepee Darryl F. Zanuck.'- ' ’ ^ Film theatre biz in first-run situ- ations is very sluggish for the j most part this stanza, with Christ- 1 mas shopping and usual pre- I holiday influences taking a , heavy I toll. Several key cities also were hurt by continued snowstorms; bit- ter cold and heavy rains. For ex- ample, New York, which was slow enough last Thursday (7), was stag- gered at the boxoffice by warnings i of a storm that did not material- ize. City’s biz Was further dam- ! aged by heavy rain the following I Sunday night. “King Solomon’s Mines” (M-G) ’ continued to dominate the field al- i though on holdover and extended- ' run in many keys. Its total is about half what it was, in the pre- ceding week but enough to win first place for fourth successive stanza. “Let’s Dance” (Par) is fin- ishing second after winding up third for two weeks, running and well ahead of “All About Eve” (20th), which moves up to third Slot fifter being fourth last round, i,, 'Fpurth ,beit is “Two Weeks With Love” (M-G), which was sixth a week ago. “Joan of Arc” (RKO), out on pop-scale basis now, is tak- ing fifth money while “West Point I Story” (WB) is sixth.. ‘Harriet Craig” (Clol), with a batch of new bookiRgs, and “Jackpot” (20th) round out the top-eight list in that order. ' Runnerup films are “Kansas i iUl, ^ VBceakthraugb” (WB), “I'll Get By” (Par) and “Mad ; Wednesday’* (RKO) in that se- quence. “Kim” (M-G), which opened with a big session at N. Y. Music Hall, looms as one of tOp new- comers. “Odette” (EL), also new, was sock in Montreal and strong in Toronto. “Highway 301” (WB), while dull and mild in some spots, came through with nice sessions j in Philly and Washington. An-j other newcomer, “Sun Sets At Dawn” (EL), shapes robust in Bos- [ ton. “Mystery Submarine” (U),: looms strong in Balto, good in Frisco. “Rio Grande” okay in Denver, Orleans” (M-G) . (Rep) is doing ; “Toast of New looks smash in Montreal. “Red Shoes” (EL) con- tinues nice on pop-price Tun in ■N. Y. ... . .. i “Milkman”, (U), dOing fairly well. in Toronto, looms satisfactory in Denver. “State Secret” (Col), good in Boston, shapes okay in Frisco and Cincy. “Macbeth” (Rep), neat’ in Washington, looks ,stout in Chi. , “Miniver StoFy” (M-G) is so-so in Providence. “Killer That Stalked N. Y.” (Col), slow in Chi, is weak in PrOv. “Dark City” (Par) looms fine in Montreal. “Two Flags West” (20th) shapes okay in Frisco. “Glass Menagerie” ■ (WB), okay, in Omaha, is fair in Denver. {Complete Boxoffice Reports k .4'***-» Trade Mark Registered FOUNDED BY SIME SILVERMAN Published Weekly by VARIETY, Inc Harold Erichs. President 154 West 46th St., New York 19. N. V Hollywood 26 6311 Yucca Street . Washington 4 1292 National. Press Building Chicago 11 612 No. Michigan Ave. London WC2 6 St. Martin’s^Pl.. Trafalgar Sq. Subscription Annual $10 Foreign $11 Single Copies 25 CenU ABEL GREEN. Editor Vol. 181 No. 1 INDEX Bills ........... Chatter :. ..: Film Reviews .......... House Reviews .......... Inside Legit ........... Inside Music .. ........., Inside Pictures ......... Inside Radio .:...... . .. Inside Television .,. ^... International Legitimate Literati. ... Music .... New Acts . .. ....... Night Club Reviews ... Obituaries .. 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