Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1950)

STUDIO SIZE-UPS MONOGRAM-AA NIPPON DISTRIBUTION DEAL SEEN AS VITAL GROSS HYPO SONOGRAM AND Allied Artists got a nice shot in the arm with the signing of the first post-war distribution deal for American films in Japan — a deal which should greatly bolster the company's grosses. Under the agreement, Shochiku Film Enterprises, Ltd., a California firm, and Monogram International Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Monogram, will turn over the product of the two companies to Shochiku company, a Japanese firm, for actual distribution. The Japanese organization owns 850 houses and leases an additional 500 in Japan. The terms call for both completed and up-coming product. This department also learns that Steve Broidy, Mono prexy, is secretly planning a high-budget melodrama, to be made in a semi-documentary fashion, based on the life and activities of a gang leader now prominent in the news. There's gossip that it may be either Frank Costello or Los Angeles' Mickey Cohen, although that can only be tabbed as rumor. In any case, it will have to be filmed under the guise of fiction, in view of a Johnston Office ruling forbidding the filming of stories based on the lives of actual crime figures. When the message picture, "A Modern Marriage," first reported here last issue, is completed, Broidy plans to roadshow the feature, and is now completing arrangement with Paui Popenoe, director of the American Institute of Family Relations, to make a leciure tour of key cities in conjunction with showings. PARAMOUNT STUDIO UPHOLDS BALABAN PROMISE OF "WIDEST VARIETY" JN LOOKING OVER Paramount's current backlog of pictures, one can't help but be impressed by the wide diversity of product and subject matter. Included in the list are pictures based on Broadway hits, best-selling novels, magazine serials, short-stories and popular radio shows. There can be little doubt that Barney Balaban has kept his promise of a year ago, to turn out the most diversified program in the company's history. By actual break-down, the backlog includes 65 per cent dramas, and the balance of a light comedy type. Here is the list: "Dear Wife," "Fancy Pants," "Let's Dance," "Riding High," "Mr. Music," "Samson and Delilah," "Captain Carey, U.S.A.," "Copper Canyon," "No Man of her Own," "United States Mail," "The Furies," "Paid in Full," "September Affair," "Captain China, "The Eagle and the Hawk," and "The Lawless." The announcement that Paramount has signed Nat Holt to a producer post, was another red feather in the company's cap. Holt will make two pictures during the coming year, both of them outdoor epics on the order of his recent stints for RKO and 20th Century Fox, where he maintained his independent unit. Holt has been a producer since 1942, when he moved over from his post as western division manager for RKO theaters to a producer berth at RKO studios. In another contract deal, Paramount has just signed Ray Milland to a new six-picture pact. The new agreement replaces an old one which still had three years to run. REPUBLIC NEW WESTERN STAR SLATED FOR YATES-STYLE BUILDUP j_JERBERT J. YATES has just r.et nside a $5,000,000 production, advertising and exploitation campaign, to be divided equally over a five-year period for the purpose of building Rex Allen into one of the industry's top western stars. Yates plans to star his new find in five pictures per year, and will send him on numerous personal appearance junkets throughout the United States and Canada, between the shooting of his films. The studio has already built up a backlog of three Allen starrers to launch the big campaign. This group includes: "Arizona Cowboy," "Redwood Forest Trail," and "Hills of Oklahoma." In actual dollars and cents, the campaign probably exceeds that allocated to the build-up of any sagebrush star in the business even including Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. With grosses still pouring in above expectations on "Sands of Iwo Jima," there's no question that the company is now in a financial position to start spreading its wings by building new stars. In the first 97 engagements "Sands" has played, it has racked up an astounding gross of $2,205,000. Even those returns are incomplete, inasmuch as the picture is still running in several of the original 97 situations. Yates said, the other day, that he anticipates a domestic gross alone of more than $10,000,000 on the picture, which far surpasses anything in the company's history. Allan Dwan has just inked a new term ticket as a Republic director. The deal calls for two pictures per year, with the right to make outside commitments. His first assignment under the new contract will be a western, as yet untitled. RKO NEW GRAINGER PACT LAYS STRESS ON EXPLOIT-PICS W7ITH HOWARD HUGHES now more W actively at the helm of RKO, there can be little doubt that exploitation pic tures will play an increasing part in thej company's future product. So it's notj surprising to learn that Edmund Grainger, under his new RKO pact, will concen-i trate entirely on subjects that lend themselves to grandiose ballyhoo. Under terms of Grainger's RKO deal, he will! be financed 100 per cent by the Hughes organization, although operating independently. The pact calls for five pictures and if present plans work out, the first one will go before the cameras by early summer. Another pact that is rapidly shaping up is one involving RKO and the newly formed Winchester Corp., headed by Howard Hawks and Edward Lasker. Under the projected setup, Hawks will function as an autonomous production unit, acting as producer on some of the features and as director on others. Lasker, in all cases, will serve as an associate producer. This department's forecast that Hughes would insist on all RKO features being held to a 90-minute running time, now seems to have taken form as an executive order. Several features currently being edited, are being severely scissored to comply with the directive, but it is understood that there will be no exceptions granted. Even "Stromboli," which ori ginally went well over that running time, had to be sheared down to conform. John Mitchum, brother of Robert, has been signed to enact the chief heavy in "The Johnny Broderick Story." Robert Ryan, who was originally announced for the starring role, is reported to be on the verge of withdrawing, due to conflicting dates with another assignment. 20th CENTURY-FOX NON-FORMULA PRODUCT WILL LURE LOST PATRONS— ZANUCK jQARRYL F. ZANUCK, speaking befon the 14th annual district managers conference of National Theaters, in Loj Angeles, the other day, went on record a: favoring non-formula pictures as the an swer to the current boxoffice lull. H( pointed to two of his own productions "Pinky" and "The Snake Pit," as example; of the type of off-the-beaten-path movi< plots that will lure the customers bad into theaters, and pledged that his com pany would continue to seek out that kin( of entertainment for the exhibitors. Outlining his future production pro gram, the aggressive Fox production chief, told the conferees that the trend i: toward more realism in motion pictures He also appealed to the exhibitors to dis play more showmanship by supplementinj national publicity, advertising and exploi tation campaigns with ideas designed t< best fit their local needs. He pointed ou that recent surveys indicate a wide vari ance in business in the various sections o the country. Some areas reflect consisl ent big weekly grosses, he said, whil others are showing sharp declines. It i up to the exhibitors on the local levei 18 FILM BTTLLETI