The Film Daily (1938)

: Tuesday, November 8, 1938 ifttu DAILY LOEW FINDS U. S. PIX HOLD MEXICAN LEAD (Continued from Page 1) :is here on vacation, told The Film : Daily. "American and other foreign pro . duct'^should view with satisfaction « "he progress being made by the Mexican motion picture industry," said i Loew. "The growth of the native ■ industry is, to my mind, favorable to all other film product as it tends to encourage thousands of people, ' still unfamiliar with or even unfriendly towards the motion picture, ' ;o attend film shows. It is also creiting a widespread demand for new j louses to accommodate an ever-in \ ;reasing audience." Referring to American pictures especially, which have held first )lace in the Mexican territory, Loew leplored that they, in common with >ther foreign-language pictures, are lot appreciated fully by a considerible portion of the native popula;ion. "It's regrettable," he said, "that here are still so many illiterates I vho, not speaking the English language, are also unable to read the ;uper-imposed titles in their own." On the future trend of American ilm production, as regards the inernational market, he said: "My stay n this country has only confirmed ne in my belief that American prolucers must make more pix with creater international appeal. My lepartment is striving more than >ver before, to insure an increase n the number of such pictures." Loew has inspected a number of ocal houses, among them the Aleneda, chief de-luxer in Mexico, and he Iris, with Carlos E. Niebla, genial manager of the local M-G-M xchange. Loew also has made the ounds of the Mexican studios and ppeared favorably impressed. Texas Allied May Hear Distribs.' Concessions (Continued from Page 1) lotel here this morning. Cole arived here over the week-end from Chicago where Allied's group and he distributors' representatives eached an "oral agreement in priniple." Powell Signs With Metro 'est Coast Bureau, of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood ■ — William Powell has igned a new long-term contract nth Metro, and will start work on new "Thin Man" picture soon af =r the first of the year. Solution by Spoor? Chicago — New form of film entertainment which he is preparing will solve the double feature problem for exhibs., says C. K. Spoor. Spoor adds that it is "progressing definitely and rapidly." ALONG THE wiTfi PHIL M. DALY T T T • • • PICTURES must be improving we were looking over a collection of old stills of the Early Silent Era when we stored 'em away in the trunk we did so because in those days they were Outstanding sort of masterpieces of cinema art as well as photographic art and boy, did we get a shock ▼ T T • • • ONE prize specimen is a still photo of "Wine" (Universal-Jewel) the caption reads: "We'll always be pals, won't we, mother?" and you should get a load of daughter in her evening gown with the switch in her hair while mother looks like something washed up after the hurricane T ▼ T • • • ANOTHER one "The Telephone Girl" it shows a snake in the grass in the form of a man trying to get the poor telephone girl's number and she looks so coy and innocent, like all telephone girls a tear-jerker called "The Signal Tower" is captioned: "Please, please leave my room before my husband returns.". . . . and the villain only sneers at the beautiful young bride, while a baby that looks like Charlie McCarthy peeks out of a trunk "Fifth Avenue" was a glamorous, stupendous spectacle the still shows as many as five dancing girls posed on the set A. H. Sebastian produced that one for Producers Distributing Corp in another called "Chastity" (First Nat'l), Katherine MacDonald appears, and an older gal of Great Experience in pointing to the man of affairs behind false whiskers, as she warns: "Hush! He can make you or break you!" oh, well in the old days directors, writers and players used to collect good dough for that sort of cinema entertainment yes, yes, pictures MUST be improving T T T • • • BRINGING back the waltz was launched in the metropolitan area last Saturday when the World-Telegram ran a two-page spread touting the coast-to-coast dance contest and showing how the selection of America's Waltz King and Queen will be conducted in this territory during the next month there will be the eliminations in designated hotels and dance halls winners of these will compete in further eliminations at the State Theater in December eventually the finalists in all twelve zones of the nation will be brought to New York by M-G-M to compete for the title at the great dance festival to be held in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria on Dec. 12 the World-Telegram will keep plugging this contest daily till that date and that's some tie-up to negotiate on any newspaper T T T • • • IN THE coming issue of Esquire there is a new trend in ritzy industry advertising it is a full-page ad for "Trade Winds" as conceived by Lynn Farnol for the Walter Wanger production the story of a round-the-world trailing of a beautiful gal wanted for a murder the picture shows a flashlight picking out the sleuth with the gal in his arms only the faces visible in an all-black background the caption is: "Believe it or not I was waiting for a clue!". . . • First plug in a picture for "Movies' Greatest Year" appears in Universal's "Lady Luck," with the slogan "Motion pictures are your best entertainment" cleverly worked in dialogue. . . • Bette Davis has a by-line story in the Nov. 19 issue of Liberty mag « « « » » » JAPAN WILL ADMIT 250 U. S, FILMS (Continued from Page 1) by Julian D. Bermann, M-G-M manager for Japan, Korea and Formosa. Bermann ends his visit to the home office today when he entrains for Vancouver. He sails on the Empress of Canada Nov. 12. Each first print is basically evaluated at 1% cents per foot, or at about $120 per 8,000 feet, the hypothetical average length of a feature as formulated in the negotiations with the Japanese Finance Ministry. Participation of each company in the $30,000 print quota is to be based on the number of features exported to Japan during the last three years, it is said. The Japanese Government left this matter to be determined by the U. S. distribs. The new settlement, despite the fact that it is designated as "temporary" by the Japanese Government, gives U. S. companies something approximating normal latitude in that country, Bermann asserted, and is, from a practical point of view, a "generous" concession to American interests. Since Technicolor and other color processes have no branches or laboratory facilities of their own in Japan, Bermann pointed out, features made in these media will be under a definite handicap under the import print quota law, because if any U. S. distributor in Japan brings in more than one color print, which would be essential, each such print would have to count under the new law. There is no limt to the number of black-and-white prints, he stated, which can be made in Japan for any one feature, once that feature has been admitted. Zukor to Eng. This Month; Graham Successor Indefinite West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Adolph Zukor is expected to be able to leave Hollywood for England where he will be in charge of Paramount's British production, by the end of this month. Whether a successor will be named to John Cecil Graham as Para.'s managing director in England, it was stated by Para, officials, is up to John W. Hicks, Jr., foreign manager, who is in England. Hicks it was further stated will not remain permanently in England but will return to New York. "In Person" Policy Cleveland — Vaude is out and p.a.'s are in at the RKO Palace. Set under the "in person" policy are: Gene Autry. due Friday; Gypsy Rose Lee, Ozzie Nelson and ork. the Boys' Town unit, Ted Lewis, Kay Kyser, Folies Bergere, third edition; Eddie Duchin, Hal Kemp, Sammy Kaye, Ben Bernie, Bob Crosby and Tony Martin.