20th Century-Fox Dynamo (April 1950)

ARRAY OF BEST-SELLERS, HIT PLAYS AND TRUE-LIFE DRAMAS 1950-51 FEATURE OUTPUT PROOF MOVIES ARE BETTER THAN EVER ALL-STAR MUSICALS AND SPECTACLES IN GALA TECHNICOLOR ‘‘Movies Are Better Than Ever” is more than a battle cry for this company, which origin- ated that rallying slogan. It concretely describes the 20th Century-Fox feature output for the pre- sent and future. In other words, this company is supplying and will continue to supply its exhibitors with a product purposely designed to successfully cope with every competition, to accelerate motion picture theatre ticket-buying and to attract what the industry has come to call the “found” audience. When this company decided to sponsor the recent Showmanship meetings in every exchange city in the United States and to attract every theatre operator and manager to them, it did so in the knowledge that it would most effectively lead the way to healthier boxoffice business by providing motion pictures interesting a maximum of the population. It did so secure in the know- ledge that its own entertainments stood out as indisputable proof that “movies are better than ever”. This company could face 18,000 ex- hibitors because it could back its promise with performance. It could predict the avail- ability of a more potent means to stimulate patronage because it knows that no three companies in any year combined has provided such a gala array of mass-appeal attractions as it will turn over to exhibitors during 1950-51. Not only is the 1950-51 representative of the most potent of showmanship properties but in the 12-month period of the season, this company will make an increasingly larger number of specials available. For ex- arrple by the end of December, no less than 26 specials will have been delivered by this company’s production organization headed by Darryl F. Zanuck. That total will be exclusive of two super-specials that will be given their first public showings early next winter, but not put into general release until the first quarter of 1951. Moreover, the total of 26 is exclusive of independently produced attractions this company hopes to release by the end of December. But, before such "outside” specials are accepted for dis- tribution, their quality must be on a part with superior boxoffice-designed product that will be forthcoming from the 20th Century- Fox’s own Movietone City. Thus, while this company assures the delivery of 26 specials this year, the total of number of feature releases will be nearer 30, exclusive of the two super-specials to to which reference already has been made. However, in 1951 this company will release a minimum of 30 specials produced under the supervision of Mr. Zanuck. This increase in output will be possible through expansion, in the next several months, of producing facilities at Movietone City. This expansion is designed to provide the do- mestic release in 1952 of a minimum of 36 specials, according to President Spyros P. Skouras. To insure exhibitors a quality and quantity of product that will satisfy every entertainment yearning, this company is investing in its 195 0-51 a substantially larger sum than it has in any single year’s program-including the sore ailed lush World War II period. Of the total releases scheduled for domestic showing in the last eight months of 1950, exactly 10 have been completed or delivered to the 20th Century-Fox Home Office in New York, five others are in var- ious stages of editing and four are now before the cameras. That accounts for 19 of the specials scheduled for release through next December, starting with May. Starting with this month through Oct- ober no less than 18 additional productions will be sent before the cameras. Moreover, at the time this publication was going to press Mr. Zanuck had 33 screenplays 100% scripted or in treatment form. In other words, the second half of this year will see the monthly average of spec- ials released boosted to three. This is ex- clusive of "outside" product that may be made available. All specials scheduled for release through October have been filmed. These include "The Big Lift", "A Ticket To Tomahawk’’."Night And The City", “Broken Arrow", "Love That Brute", "The Gun Fighter”, "Where The Sidewalk Ends”, "The Black Rose”, "My Blue Heaven”, "Panic In The Street”, "Rawhide” and "No Way Out". By the middle of July, all specials to be released by the end of December of this year will have been completed. In other words, actual "shooting”on the early 1951 releases will get under way within six weeks. This performance, or schedule, best reflects the efficiency of the 20th Century-Fox creative personnel and its ability to work alongside exhibitors for the betterment of the box office, and to take an active part with them in the campaign to increase attendance. No studio is as organized as is that supervised by Mr, Zanuck where the future is concerned. No studio is better fortified with stories properties. No studio has such an array of outstanding producers, directors, writers and technicians. This claim was substantiated recently by what transpired at the Academy Awards dinner. The whole world is, indeed,, a stage on which this company will film its specials. This year nine specials are to be made abroad. They will be stories written, pro- duced and directed by American writers, producers and directors and featuring Amer- ican stars or international personalities with strong boxoffice stature in the domestic market. For example, Nunnally Johnson and Jean Negulesco will produce and direct the picturization of the current best-selling novel, "The Mudlark", starring Irene Dunne, in England, "Night And The City", with Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney, also was filmed in London. "No Highway” will be made in Newfoundland and England. Later the picturization of "Lydia Bailey”, another best-seller, will be produced in Haiti—and in Technicolor. "The Black Rose”, with Tyrone Power, was produced by Louis Lighton.and directed by Henry Hathaway, in Technicolor, in North Africa "The Big Lift”, with Montgomery Clift and Paul Douglas, was produced by William Perlberg and directed by George Seaton in Germany. Anatole Litvak will produce "Call It Treason” in Germany and France some time in the late Summer. Tyrone Power and Micheline Prelie right now are in the Philippines playing the roles in the picturization of the book, “Am- erican Guerrilla In The Philippines”. In mid-Summer, Danny Kaye and others will go to France where Bill Perlberg will produce a musical in Technicolor, titled “On The Riviera". The tentatively titled "The Australian Story” will be filmed, in Techni- color, with an all-star cast, in Australia starting early next Fall. Next Winter, Elia Kazan, who already has completed "Panic In The Street” and who will be recalled for the magnificent directorial job he performed on "Pinky” "Gentleman’s Agreement", and "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn", will go to Mexico to film “Zapata”. , Specials supervised by American ex- perts and with American stars also are planned for the next year to be made in South America, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Canada, Italy and the Near East. But, these specials will be produced there only because the scenic background are in those lands. Production abroad will parallel filming here. "Location” sequences will be filmed at exact locales here. For instance: "Panic In The Street” was wholly filmed in New Orleans. "Where The Sidewalk Ends” was "shot” in New York. “Rawhide” was mostly filmed at Pinewood, Calif. "Broken Arrow” was made in Arizona "A Ticket To Tomahawk” was made at Durango, Col. "The Gun Fighter” was filmed in Nevada. Fourteen specials in Technicolor will have been released or sent before the cam- eras within the next year, according to the official studio schedule. Among the 1950-5 1 specials now be- fore the cameras or scheduled to be started by next October are the following: "I’ll Get By” (a musical in Techni- color), "Stella”, “All About Eve", "Amer- ican Guerrilla In The Philippines” (in Tech- nicolor), "Trumpet To The Morn” (in Tech- nicolor), "Old 880", “The Mudlark”, "Halls (Continued On Page 9)