The Film Daily (1928)

Commission Move Against Para, a Test Case ? Uemfspmu Ji/'FILMDOH BLITHE NEWS ALLTHE TIME VlL. XLV No. 31 Monday, August 6, 1928 Price 5 Cents ''Lilac Time 9 f ■^ LEASANT entertainment, sugared plentifully for the most romantic. Showmen V 1 want to know if "Lilac Time" V 1 make money. It will. As a ^-office number it will slide over f plate without a bit of trouble. a piece of commercial property i , worth going for. The picture is fashioned in the I lal mold. Usual love stuff, usu,n romance, usual comedy — the I -inula hasn't varied a bit from t^ straight and narrow path that 1 ds to big grosses. Observations t gets sort of sticky with sentimen tity before the end. The story, to Uin with, was woefully thin. (orge Fitzmaurice, who directed, list have realized it before he had pceeded very far. Yet he permit tl excessive footage to burden down !iny major sequences when more ^sp would have helped. Colleen nore, in the lighter moments, does iry well. She has a perkness and (teness which click. In the more lamatic moments, the eiifort was Is effective. It appeared to us she trountered several snags which left Ir slightly floundering. Perhaps it IS the familiarity and artificial de lopment of the story that made it ;m so. The air stuff, however, rs mense. Carries a dramatic kick at is unmistakable. ^ It Should Be That Coast dinner to Laemmle. jreign newspaper correspondents esent. Many bouquets graciously ssed in Uncle Carl's direction, irticularly so for the entente corile he has developed abroad. It's tirely correct. Laemmle has done uch in that direction. Actually, not talk. Laemmle described Hollywood as e most international spot in tl e >rld. We agree it should be, but declare it is not. Hollywood often ins backward in its attempt to be ovincial. Entertainment for the >rld emanates from it, yet far too ^ny important cogs in its mainery build exclusive walls around emselves and conjure in their own inds what the world around them doing. How sad! KANN FATE OF BLOCK BOOKING IN INDUSTRY HINGES ON OUTCOME Vogue for Sound Beginning to Assert Itself in England Now London — England is beginning to go sound. Gainsborough, one of the most active producing units in the country, will use sound efifects for "The Wrecker" and "Balaclava" via the British Acoustic system. The "Daily Film Renter," surveying the situation frohi the production angle, discovers three separate systems are available for studios. Accepting as fact that J. D. Williams, John Maxwell and E. W. Hammons have jointly secured British rights to RCA Photophone. The (Co^itinued on Page 5) TALKERS TOTSHORTIIVED, mCR SAYS London — Talking pictures are a novelty, and a badly-done one and will not last more than four or five months, Joseph M. Schenck, United Artists president, is quoted as saying here. "We are not going to make talking pictures," he said. "We have not shown any talking pictures, and I am not going to show any until I am convinced that the public want them. "I do not believe that the present talking picture craze is more than public curiosity in a novelty. It is a novelty and it is a badly-done one. (^Continued on Page 5) STILLMANiALnO EASE SITUATIONJ[CLEVELAND Cleveland — A partial solution to the overseating problem in Cleveland will be reached in the next few weeks when the Stillman theater, a Loew house, closes permanently preparatory to demolition by the Statler hotel interests. This will take place at the close of the run of "Glorious Betsy" and "Lilac Time." Long runs at that time will be (Continued en Page 5) More Sound By ERNEST W. FREDMAN Editor "The Daily Film Renter" London — The Concordia Sound Film Corp. has been organized by Louis Blattner to market sound pictures, via the disc system, in the United States. SOUND HUST NOT LOWER QUALITY, HOFFMAN WARNS West Coast Bureau, THE FILM DAILY Los Angeles — Sound alone will not build up or hold a theater's business, although there isn't any doubt that sound pictures are coming along and will give an additional impetus to the business. M. H. Hoffman, vice president and general manager of TiffanyStahl, declares in warning producers thev must not forget the 18,000 or 19,000 theaters not wired for sound which need good pictures. Tiffany(Continved on Page 5) F. & R. CONTINUES ITS EXPANSION IN NORTHWEST Aberdeen, S. D.— Continuing the expansion program decided upon when the deal for sale of the circuit to Fox collapsed, Northwest Theater Circuit (Finkclstein & Ruben) has eliminated competition here, through acquisition of a half interest in Aberdeen Theater Co. This is a new firm formed to operate F. & R.'s Orpheum, and the Capitol, Lyric and State, operated by Walker Amusement Co. Case Will Go to Supreme Court for Final Verdict, Is Belief Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — Whether block booking is to continue in the industry, or branded an unfair trade practice and eliminated, depends upon out? come of the Federal Trade Commission's action to enforce its cease and desist order against Paramount. The action for a court order requiring Paramount to comply with the edict issued in July. 1927. was filed last week in the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in N'ew York. Because of the commission's determination to outlaw block booking, the Paramount case is to serve as a test of the commission's power to eliminate trade practices which it considers unfair. The commissionfof— some time has planned action against every distributor employing the block booking method of sales, but whether such steps will be undertaken depends entirely, it is believed, on what disposition the court makes of its petition for an order to enforce its block booking ban. Whatever the outcome in the Court of Appeals, it is believed that the case will be carried to the Supreme Court. WIS. LABORMATION OPPOSESJOUND nLMS Kenosha, Wis.— Because, it is claimed, sound pictures threaten to throw out of work many musicians of the state, the Wisconsin Federation of Labor opposes them. The federation termed sound films, "canned music machines" and is going on record against them. Southern California Chain Planned by Alperstein West Coast Bureau, THE FILM DAILY Los Angeles — With the Melrose here as the first house of the circuit, a chain of southern California theaters is planned bv Emil Alperstein of New York. A 2,000-seat downtown house in a 12-story office building is one of the proposed projects.