Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1948)

13 COMPANIES HAVE 39 FILMS FOR RELEASE IN SEPTEMBER Five Done in Technicolor Including Two Musicals; Columbia Rotums to Block Selling, 12 Over September 47 Conditional Sales Are Out By PRANK LEYENDECKER NEW YORK — The 11 major companies, plus Film Classics and Screen Guild, will release 39 new features, plus four reissues, during September, generally regarded as the first month of the 1948-49 selling season. This compares with only 27 new features, including the release of “Life With Father” for advance engagements only, plus two reissues, during September 1947. Of these 39 pictures, five are in Technicolor, including the month’s two big musicals, “Luxury Liner” and “Two Guys From Texas,” and three are in Cinecolor. Only seven of the 39 are comedy pictures while the majority of the others are either action, mystery or straight western features. LINEUP BY COMPANIES Broken down by company, the September films will be: COLUMBIA — “Triple Threat,” with Richard Crane and Gloria Henry, and “Walk a Crooked Mile,” starring Dennis O’Keefe, Louis Hayward and Louise Allbritton, the first two on the 1948-49 program. 'The three final 1947-48 features, “Gentleman From Nowhere,” starring Warner Baxter and Fay Baker; “Black Eagle, the Story of a Horse,” with William Bishop and Virginia Patton, and “Singin’ Spurs,” an action musical with the Hoosier Hot Shots and Kirby Grant, are also on Columbia’s September list. EAGLE LION: “Northwest Stampede,” in Cinecolor and starring Joan Leslie, James Craig and Jack Oakie; “The Olympic Games of 1948,” in Technicolor, and “In This Corner,” with Scott Brady and Anabel Shaw, for September in addition to two Edward Small reissues, “My Son, My Son” and “International Lady.” MGM: “Luxury Liner,” in Technicolor with George Brent, Jane Powell and Lauritz Melchior, and “A Southern Yankee,” starring Red Skelton, Brian Donlevy and Arlene Dahl. MONOGRAM’S LINEUP MONOGRAM and ALLIED ARTISTS: “'The Babe Ruth Story,” starring William Bendix and Claire Trevor; “The Music Man,” with Phil Brito, Freddie Stewart and June Preisser; “Winner Take All,” a Joe Palooka feature with Joe Kirkwood jr., William Frawley and Elyse Knox; “The Sheriff of Medicine Bow,” starring Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton, and “The Rangers Ride,” with Jimmy Wakely. PARAMOUNT: “Sorry, Wrong Number,” the Hal Wallis prodction starring Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster and Ann Richards, to be released as the first of the 1948-49 pictures and “Beyond Glory,” starring Alan Ladd and Donna Reed, which winds up the 1947-48 program. RKO RADIO: “Good Sam,” a Leo Mc NEW YORK — Columbia Pictures has resumed block selling. The policy was revived about a month or so ago as a result of the supreme court opinion that block sales in themselves were not illegal so long as the exhibitor was not required to buy one picture in order to get another. Columbia holds that it is this conditional selling only which is illegal. Block selling had been halted following the antitrust decree of December 31, 1946 in which the three-judge statutory court linked block selling with conditional selling and banned both. The supreme court, however, eliminated the block selling ban when it handed down its opinion May 3 of this year and returned the decree to the New York court. Carey production starring Gary Cooper and Ann Sheridan; “Race Street,” starring George Raft, William Bendix and Marilyn Maxwell, and “Bodyguard,” starring Lawrence Tierney and Priscilla Lane. REPUBLIC: “Angel in Exile,” with John Carroll, Adele Mara and Barton MacLane. 20TH CENTURY-FOX: “Luck of the Irish,” starring Tyrone Power and Anne Baxter; “Escape,” British-made picture starring Rex Harrison and Peggy Cummins; “The Creeper,” a Reliance production with Eduardo Ciannelli, June Vincent and Onslow Stevens; “The Gay Intruders,” with John Emery and Tamara Geva, and the national release of “Forever Amber,” in Technicolor, starring Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, George Sanders, Richard Greene and Richard Haydn. UNITED AR’TISTS: “The Vicious Circle,” a W. Lee Wilder production starring Conrad Nagel; “Red River,” the Howard Hawks production starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift with Walter Brennan and Joanne Dru; “Cavalcade of the Olympics,” a record of the 1936 games, and “High Fury,” a Buddy Rogers-Ralph Cohn British-made production starring Madeleine Carroll and Ian Hunter. UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL: “The Saxon Charm,” starring Robert Montgomery, Susan Hayward and John Payne; “For the Love of Mary,” starring Deanna Durbin with Edmond O’Brien and Don Taylor, and “An Act of Murder,” starring Fredric March, Florence Eldridge and Edmond O’Brien. WARNER BROS. : “Two Guys From Texas,” in Technicolor, starring Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson, and “Rope,” first ’Transatlantic Pictures release directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in Technicolor, and starring James Stewart with John Dali, Joan Chandler, Farley Granger and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. FILM CLASSICS: “Sofia,” in Cinecolor, with Gene Raymond, Sigrid Gurie, Mischa Columbia salesmen now try to sell as many of the 1947-1948 releases as they can at one shot. The latest release schedule lists 36 features plus four action musicals and eight Durango Kid westerns plus two features of the 1948-1949 lineup. Salesmen have explicit instructions that an exhibitor may take one or two films only if he so desires. While the exhibitor does not have to take more than one film, the practice is that he usually buys a block of pictures to insure a steady supply of product for his theatre. Outside of Columbia, none of the othei distributor defendants in the antitrust suit is introducing block selling. Single selling is now in general practice. Auer and Patricia Morison, and “Unknown Island,” also in Cinecolor, with Virginia Grey and Philip Reed. SCREEN GUILD: “The Return of Wildfire,” with Patricia Morison, Richard Arlen and Mary Beth Hughes, and “Jungle Goddess.” Johnston-Rank Talks Opened in London NEW YORK — Speculation was rife in the motion picture industry here as to whether Eric Johnston, MPAA head now in London for conferences with J. Arthur Rank, Harold Wilson and other top British industry executives, will be able to make modifications in Rank’s plan to give British films top billing, regardless of merit, and relegate American films to “second features.” Because, under the British system, theatres pay a percentage of boxoffice receipts rather than a set fee for films (30 per cent for first features and 15 per cent for second features) this would mean a corresponding drop in rentals paid for American films. James Mulvey, president of Samuel Goldwyn Productions, who was to have made the trip to London as representative for the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers, canceled his plane passage August 20 after SIMPP members were unanimous in voting against his going with Johnston. The MPAA head gave out a statement on leaving in which he said that Walter Wanger, Samuel Goldwyn and David O. Selznick had agreed that Mulvey should join Johnston in the Anglo-American picture negotiations, but that several of the United Artists producers had refused to sanction the trip. 12 BOXOFFICE : : August 28, 1948