Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 18, 1942)

Page 6 Warner Warns Against Waste “The thoughtless waste of 100 feet of film may cost the life of an American soldier who may be your son or your brother.” With these words Harry M. Warner, president, Warner Bros. Pictures, addressed a meeting of his studio executives, players, directors, writers and cameramen, called together to work out a plan for enforcing practical wartime economy in film production. “The dollar value of waste in making motion pictures, although extremely high, is not, in itself, the most important factor of today’s operating economy,” the head of the world-wide film organization stated. ‘It is the careless waste of material — material so vital to the defense of our country—that we must constantly consider. ‘It has been said that most of our enemies can live on what Americans throw away. If this is true we should be doubly conscious of what our carelessness allows us to destroy. One person’s waste may be only a single sheet of paper a day, but repeated by 130,000,000 other Americans. waste-paper becomes an item of shocking proportions. “A ‘take’ (scene) for a motion picture is ruined because a carelessly suspended microphone casts a shadow across an actor's face; or, a player rushes into a scene missing cues or lines and necessitating repetition of the operation. Measured in dollars such errors may seem a small matter. Considering needlessly ruined film-stock, electricity, manpower and machinery which might be employed for other uses, such carelessness, in many studios, takes on a tremendous significance. “American people still do not realize what all-out war effort demands,’’ Warner concluded. “We all must start to conserve our resources immediately. Waste is inexcusable in normal times. In these war days continued waste of material so sorely needed in defense work is worse than the sabotage of enemy agents.” Broadway Blackout Following Mayor lLaGuardia’s warning that electric signs throughout the city, but in Times Square particularly, be prepared for immediate blackout in case of an emergency, NY Officials yesterday ordered-a blackout of electric signs and store front windows at the close of each business day unless a guard is kept on the premises to switch lights off in event of am air raid alarm. NEW YORK TELEGRAPH ' (Armand Schaefer, Hollywood producer, to Leo Mishkin, movie critic) The truth is that probably not more than five pictures entirely free of corn have been produced in Hollywood during the last 10 years. By far the great majority of them have been filled to the brim with corn of the juciest garden variety. And if you'll look real closely, you'll find that no attempt has been made even to disguise it! Take every single one of the top ranking comedians on the screen —and radio, and stage—today. Most of them are former vaudeville headliners; their stock in trade is completely made up of vratt falls, dialect routines, mistaken identity gags, and the like —it’s all corn. It’s corm of the most exagerated variety and the most popular too. Witness the cleanup Olsen & Johnson have made throughout the country with “Hellzapoppin,” and are now making with “Sons O’ Fun.” Judy Canova, Abbott & Costello, Jack Benny, Laurel & Hardy, Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna and hundreds of others owe much to the potency of corn. You'll have to admit right off that “corn’’ does not carry the meaning of “silly” or burolic.’” It signifies something old, something time-honored even. A corny joke is not a bad joke, but an oftentold one. Agreed? If so, that happens to be the only concession I’ll have to ask you. That single agreement has changed the situation entirely. Instead of wondering what is corn, the question now must be what isn’t corn. For there are only seven or eight plots ever used in Hollywood, and usually a film emerges as a melange of five or six of these. The entirely original approach is so rare as to be almost non-existent. LEO C. ROSTEN (In the book, “Hollywood’— Harcourt, Brace, NY) The introduction of exhibitor— executives into Hollywood represents, to the mind of this writer, the most striking and significant development in recent years in the production policy of Hollywood. Two things are certain: (1) the power given exhibitor-trained men over production in Hollywood is one solution New York is trying for Hollywood’s recurrent problems; (2) the exhibitorexecutives have not improved the quality of motion pictures, but they have increased the profits of their companies. It remains to be seen if the trees will continue to bear golden fruit. Canadian FILM WEEKLY RECLEC TIONS. VA 2g a Ls io "Goda THE YOUNG REVIEWER (On “Children Also Are People,” a radio program) Jimmy: ‘In a children’s theatre, I wouldn’t have any horror pictures at all. Once I saw a picture with zombies in it and the record of my sleep for the next three nights ought to explain why I object to them.” Connie: “If I had anything to do with a children’s theatre, I wouldn’t have so many sports in the newsreel. It’s so boring. When the football season comes that’s all you get. They should have programs equally divided between sports and fashions. If we can sit through ten minutes of sport, you can sit through ten minutes of fashions.” Kenneth: ‘Fashion is no good...” Roy: ‘“ ‘Information Please’ is funny but sometimes they ask silly questions. I think entertainment is when they carry your life away into the movie. You feel you're in the picture too.” Jimmy: “But a picture stops being entertaining when they drag love into it.” Roy: ‘Oh, those love dramas. I don’t mind love but they should kiss and get it over with. As soon as I see love in a picture, I go right out.” Jimmy: “I don’t like love, but I know I will later on .. .” THE CHICAGO SUN (John O’Hara in an article headed “Touchiness and Mediocrity Prove Fatal to Movie Script Writers.”’) When a picture has been completed it is the custom for the star to give presents to everyone conmected with the picture—but never to the writers. When a picture is being sneak-previewed the writer s not told where to go to see his work, despite the efforts of the Screen Writers’ Guild. At the big Christmas party at Metro everyone on the lot, practically, was welcome; but the writers weren’t even notified. That’s a social matter, maybe, but remember that the party was Official, and the snub showed what the studio thinks of writers. Writers’ quarters are almost without exception on a noisy corner of the lot, so that those writers who can insist upon it work at home. The value of a writers’ work usually is judged by how mamy pages he can turn out rather than by how good a few pages may be. On the matter of pay the studios will haggle over a $100-a-week raise for a writer but will not protest if expensive crews are kept waiting while Baby has her afternoon tea. 1942. ‘Clouds 100 p.c. Can dn Holdover Going into its second month of Canadian playdates, Warner Bros. “Captains of the Clouds,” the ___ March 18th, Technicolor epic of the RCAF, h scored 100 per cent. holdovers, lieved to be a “first-time” in Dominion history. At least doubling and tripling of regular runs are typical of a coast-to-coast survey. For instance, in Ontario, North Bay and Belleville, ordinarily 2-day engagements, are holding for full weeks; in three-day spots such as Timmins and Kitchener, it’s a full week; in St. Catharines, eight days. The film is currently entering a third week at Loew’s Montreal, Canada’s second largest theatre; its fifth at Shea’s, Toronto, and second at Winnipeg’s Capitol. The movie is the first to go into a third stanza at the Capitol, Ottawa, best previous at this 2,500seater being ‘‘Northwest Mounted”’ with two. In Hamilton, it went into a fourth for a city record. Trade circles here have ‘Captains” tabbed as the _ biggest grosser of all time. Backing this crystal-gazing are the fourth-week figures of Shea’s, Toronto, 25 per cent. above first-week house average. “Sergeant York” is the first film to go five consecutive first-run weeks in Vancouver, playing th first two at the Orpheum, and then, to make way for “Captains,” into the Dominion for three more, with the Gary Cooper Academy nod hypoing extended time. “Captains of the Clouds” is doing tremendous business in the USA also, being held over in a majority of runs. It has been predicted that it will be the biggest moneymaker ever turned out at the Burbank studio. Ginger Rogers Back at RKO Ginger Rogers will return shortly to the RKO Radio Studios, scene of her greatest film triumphs, for two productions, it was announced by President George J. Schaefer. The first af the two vehicles will go before the cameras by June. President Schaefer in announcing the return of the star to her home lot, said that negotiations also had been completed with David Hempstead to produce the two features. Hempstead was b hind the production reins of “Ki ty Foyle,’ the title role of whicl¥ won for Miss Rogers the Academy Award in 1940. More recently Hempstead produced ‘Joan of Paris,” co-starring Michele Morgan and Paul Henreid, released by RKO Radio Studios. t