We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
SS-4
STUDIO
SURVEY
Shown here are Shirley Temple as "Philadelphia Thursday", and her screen father, Henry Fonda, as "Colonel Thursday", in a scene from the John Ford-Merian C. Cooper production, "Fort Apache", made by Argosy, and released by RKO.
These three badmen in Argosy's forthcoming "Three Godfathers", MGM release, are Harry Carey, Jr., John Wayne, and Pedro Armendariz, all casting apprehen¬ sive glances over the wide expanses of desert as they try to escape the law.
maintaining the highest quality at all times.
Achieving this objective requires close supervision. Ford literally breathes down the neck of his scripters and musical directors. He casts pictures himself, and his reputation enables him to attract top names at reasonable prices. Partner Cooper qualifies as quite a star-maker, having introduced Katharine Hepburn to the screen.
Currently finishing “Three Godfathers,” a Technicolor special for MGM, their talent for economical production once more is paying off, with the high rating film expected to be brought in for less than $1,000,000, including color charges.
It Wasn’t A Matter Of Luck.
the saviour of RKO, for he rescued the studio from threatening bankruptcy with the unforgettable “King Kong,” paying employes with script redeemable from the film’s profits. The sensational grosses not only paid the loyal help, but put RKO right back on the map as a leading major.
Both Cooper and Ford served in the two World Wars, with Cooper serving as a pilot in the first struggle, and twice going down in flames. In one of the biggest news stories of that year. Cooper escaped from the Bolsheviks, after leading the famed Kosciusko Polish Squadron against the Russians, trekked 1,500 miles across desolate and frozen wastelands, and finally reached safety in Latvia.
John Ford And Partner, Merian C. Cooper, Have Shown That Experience And Economy Go Hand In Hand In Production
Over at' Argosy Pictures, where John Ford and partner Merian C. Cooper hold forth, the current boxoffice slump was strictly news. For the company was still busy counting record returns from its “Fort Apache,” while several rivals were moved to comment, “Just the luck of the Irish.”
But luck can go so far. When a film like “Fort Apache” comes in $800,000 under the budget, there’s plenty of skill and good management involved. For both these boys are well schooled in the know bow of making films, and this is the basic ingredi¬ ent of the constant gain in prestige of their Argosy product.
Ford, already winner of three “Oscars,” directed such outstanding films as “Stage¬ coach,” “How Green Was My Valley,” “The Informer,” “Grapes Of Wrath,” and “The Long Voyage Home.” Starting in the business as a prop boy, he learned to do any chore on the set, and pictures which he directs bear the mark of his wide knowledge of the cinematic art.
Through the production of such lowbudgeted, but potent, films as “Four Feathers,” “Grass,” and “Chang,” Cooper learned the value of economy in shooting films. Many industryites consider Cooper
In the old days, these two pioneers worked together in grinding out silent one-reelers in a day and feature length films in a week, sometimes less. Two years ago. Ford and Cooper, both back from extensive war service, resumed their part¬ nership. They announced the making of profitable entertainment through sensible management as their cardinal objective.
John Ford Merian C. Cooper
So FAR these partners have ably demon¬ strated that they know what the public wants. In doing so, they have shown that quality, economy, and popularity can go hand in hand, and “luck” has had very little to do with that. — P. M.
Production Lines
{Continued jrom preceding page)
Producer Jules Levy has signed that intrepid world adventurer, Frank “Bring ’Em Back Alive” Buck, to star in “The Adventures Of Frank Buck In Africa,” to be filmed in color as his next picture. Taking a full crew into the interior of Africa's south' Sudan for a six-month safari, will mark the first time any film company has been allowed by the British
Government to operate in that area.
* * *
Producer Jack Wrather, whose “Strike It Rich” for Allied Artists caused him to spend quite some time recently in the oil fields of Texas, has indicated his inten¬ tions of building a motion picture studio in Dallas. Judging from the influx of these fabulous Texas oil men into the Holly¬ wood film scene, the Dallas studio seems to be based on pretty sound logic. With oodles of surplus millions to play around with, these men, according to Wrather, a native Texan, who has more than a pass¬ ing interest in “black gold,” find the mak¬ ing of motion pictures both an interesting
and profitable enterprise.
* * *
Harry Popkin, whose Cardinal Pictures has completed the $1,000,000 “My Dear Secretary” for United Artists release, says that although banks are tightening up on their loans to independent producers, those with solid backgrounds will have no trouble if their story properties are sound.
THE EXHIBITOR
September 1, 1948
i.
i