The Film Daily (1939)

16 Tuesday, August 22, 193'f U. S. MAJORS BOOST BRITISH-MADE PIX {Continued from Page 1) year had four British films made for quota in conjunction with Irving Asher, will double the number in 1940. This numerical increase in schedule will be attended, Cohn declares, by Jean Arthur and Cary Grant appearing in features here. Additionally, other talent from Hollywood is being contemplated. Wesley Ruggles, Cohn added, is the probable director of the Arthur Grant opus. Virtually coincident with the Columbia plan for expansion in the U.K. Ralph Hanbury announced at RKO Radio's two-day convention that the company has decided to produce three top-flight features annually in British studios, in light of the success of "The Saint in London." Further crystallization of these plans awaits the return here of William Sistrom from the U. S. Reported intention of RKO Radio to make the trio of multiple-credit pix under the quota is interpreted as being in addition to those which are to come from the Leslie Howard-Walter Futter combine, and the pictures via Herbert Wilcox. Barney Balaban is quoted here as having declared that he expects Paramount to have an even more ambitious program in Britain during 1940 than ever before, with an annual increase thereafter, and foresees the time when many of the greatest Paramount attractions will come out of British studios. He added that David Rose, company's head here, can have any story, talent or technical resource he sees fit to request from the Paramount lot in Hollywood. H. M. Warner's visit to England for conferences with Sam Sax, organization's British production chief, is linked to expansion of present feature policy. Robert T. Kane, British production head for 20th-Fox, is due to arrive in New York today for home office conferences on forthcoming product. Monte Banks, Kane's production executive, is already in the U. S. for preliminary huddles. Twentieth Century-Fox' deep interest in British-U. S. production link is manifest by Darryl F. Zanuck's recent citation that every picture made in the company's Hollywood studios is written and shaped for British consumption, and that good films from the U. K. are highly acceptable to the American public. Seek Reinstatement Reinstatement proceedings will be instigated in Bronx County Supreme Court Thursday before Justice Benedict Dineen by Nathan H. Elman, attorney for Joseph Kimmel, in answer to the action of the Empire State Motion Picture Operators' union in ousting Kimmel from the union recently. Pays $5 to Hear Himself Sing Extra, and unwanted, sound accompanied the finale of M-G-M's "Tarzan Finds a Son" at the Meserole Theater, Brooklyn, on Saturday night. So inspired with the pix was John Pimblett, film fan, that he rose in his balcony seat and raucously sang "Itty Bitty Fishes." The ushers demanded that he stop. Then Patrolman Herman Walker issued threat of arrest . . . but to no avail. The chanting fan ceased only because of lack of breath while grappling with the policeman who took him into custody. Pimblett admitted in court that the charge against him was accurate, and Magistrate D. Joseph d'Andrea fined him $5 for disorderly conduct. Einfeld Predicts Biggest Season from All Studios (Continued from Page 1) arrived in New York yesterday morning from the Coast aboard the 20th Century Limited. This conclusion, he explained, is justified because each Coast lot is determined to put forth ace story properties, allocate adequate budgets, and make the features with care and enthusiasm. Warners' new season lineup, he added, is geared to exceed in point of big pictures any program since company's inception. Situation currently on the Burbank lot, said Einfeld, is highly satisfactory, a total of 17 features already having been completed, and several nearing that stage, which means that supply at this time is sufficient until late December. Among the big pix ready are "Dust Be My Destiny," "A Child Is Born," "Gantry the Great," "The Roaring Twenties," "On Your Toes," "Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex," "The Return of Dr. X," "Kid Nightingale," "City of Lost Men," "We Are Not Alone," and "Four Wives." Warners is considering, Einfeld disclosed, elaborate plans for the world premiere of "Elizabeth and Essex" in London. The film will be backed in the U. S. by a $250,000 national publicity-advertising campaign, as will "On Your Toes." Jack L. Warner, vice-president in charge of production, is scheduled to arrive in New York from Burbank in about two weeks. Picketing May Be Resumed At Springfield Paramount Springfield, Mass. — The possibility that the Paramount Theater may be picketed again looms strong as two members of the TMAT refused to return to work under conditions of employment offered them by the Western Massachusetts Theaters, Inc. which operates the Paramount and other theaters here. The men who refused to return were Ralph Krasnow, former assistant manager of the Arcade and Myles Gibbons, former chief of staff at the Paramount, who were invited back following informal settlement of a dispute between the TMAT and the theater company. According to the two men, the conditions of their re-employment were far from satisfactory. Each was to be relieved of his assistant managership duties, and each was to be put back into uniform. While the hours and wages of their new jobs were not unsatisfactory both men declared that there were being demoted. Blue Law Enforcement Showdown in Delaware Wilmington, Del. — Enforcement of Delaware's ancient Sunday "blue law" approached a show-down when Attorney-General James R. Morford served notice that if the General Assembly does not immediately bring the 144-year-old statute within the scope of modern life, enforcement agencies will proceed to enforce it as it stands. Morford explained his position in a letter to Caleb M. Wright, attorney for Charles S. Horn, proprietor of the Blue Hen Theater, Rehoboth Beach, who has been recently fined three times for opening the movie house on Sundays, after doing so weekly for four Summers without interference. Horn was content to pay his $4 fine each Monday but pciice began tagging patrons at the box-office. Wright had objected in his letter to the singling out of movies in the enforcement of the Sabbath laws. Urging repeal or amendment of the old law, Attorney-General Morford in a letter to Governor McMullen and the Legislature said: "If the law were to be enforced it would result in arresting the driver of every truck using the highways on Sunday, the operator of every fruit and produce stand along our highways open on Sunday and the proprietor of every other place where any merchandise is exposed for sale at retail on Sunday. "Frankly, I can see no reason why this section (the blue law) should not also apply to all of the restaurants, inns, and tea rooms along our highways where food, cigarettes, cigars, soft drinks, and the like are for sale and dispensed." Co-Op. Theaters of Ohio Now Buying for 80 Houses Cleveland — Co-operative Theaters of Ohio, operated by Milton A. Mooney and the only co-op in the state, js now buying and booking for approximately 80 houses Mooney reports, of which about half are serviced out of Cincinnati. Latest houses to come under the Mooney banner are L. B. Wilson's Liberty, Wilson and Broadway, Covington, Ky.; Louis Weithe's Bond Theater, Cincinnati, and the Kentucky and Derby theaters, Latonia, Ky.; William Morrison's new Globe Theater, North College Hill, a Cincinnati suburb; the New Holland Theater at Holland, O., operated by F. McQuay, and the Royal, Akron, owned by the late John G. Dietjen and now being operated by his son, Paul. LETTERS Mr. Chester B. Bahn, Editor, The Film Daily, Dear Chester: Your editorial reiteration of a demand for the instituting tit , Press Relations Bureau is vVy timely and expresses an urgent need. Speaking not at all for the domestic field, with which I have nothing official to do, but for the foreign end of this business, I see such a Bureau filling an imperative need. Too many of our stars are permitted to make injudicious statements on occasions of arriving and departing; too much prejudicial news is permitted to creep into press despatches sent overseas; too many obviously propagandizing correspondents are permitted to enter our country in the guise of friends and to send out stories inimical to America's interests and to the interests of the film business. Even the best-intentioned of our executives sometimes give cut harmful stories, unintentionally of course, but harmful in the long run. As witness the case of certain executives a few months ago who, because they felt that the European market was' shrinking to nothingness, boastfully gave forth the news that the difference would be made up by heavier exploitation of the Latin American market — as though they were suddenly discovering a new field of activity for the first time. Latin America, which has always contributed magnificently to America's coffers, naturally resented this "exploitation," hurling into our laps a lot of new defis, a sheaf of new decrees, and bringing down on our heads the full force of a very justifiable wrath. This is but one instance of a costly mistake that the Press Relations Bureau would avoid. Please put me down as one who not only applauds such a project, but who will throw in his "tuppence" to help it along in whatever fashion he can. Sincerely yours, Foreign Publicity Director of a Major Company. Dunlap Leaves This Week For Mono. Board Meeting Scott R. Dunlap, Monogram production head, will leave Hollywood for New York Thursday to attend the regular board of directors meeting. Dunlap will remain in the east for several weeks after the meeting to discuss the new 1939-40 schedule with W. Ray Johnston, president. Immediately upon his return, "Mr. Wong at Headquarters" starring Boris Karloff will go into production.