The Film Daily (1948)

W*^ DAILY ; Monday, August 2, 194! Writers Must Offer More than Rewrite Taleiki Original Thinking Needed, Schary Declares at Colo. University Writers Meet (Continued from Page 1) any other creative art. "No rose blushes unseen. It may take a little time to bloom, but the demand for original thinking is so great that somebody always will find the new talent." Reviewing the evolution of the screen writer from a title writer to now, Schary emphasized the present trend in which young writers think in terms of originals over which they would have more production control. He declared the screen should be mature. Just because one cannot Commenting on his split with Howard Hughes, Dore Schary observed Friday: "I said good-bye before Hughes and I got to the point of getting mad at each other. But we parted friends. We just did not agree on basic things." say a four-letter word, Schary said, is no reason the screen cannot be mature, continuing, "Good art is not neceessarily the portrayal of ugliness. There are mature subjects beyond incest an dadultxy, and even these subjects, if handled with tact and intelligence and good taste, can be discussed on the screen." Beale Leaves State Dept. Post as Film Expert Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — T. Wilson Beale concluded his brief stint as State Department pix expert Friday. He left for vacation, to return in a month to a new assignment. Beale's successor was tentatively chosen last week, but the final decision had not been made at a late hour Friday. Holt Signs Jane Wyott West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Producer Nat Holt has completed negotiations for Jane Wyatt to portray the starring woman doctor role in "Canadian Pacific." Production starts shooting Aug. 8th at Stoney Indian Reservation near Calgary, Canada, under tJie direction of Edwin L. Marin. Sturgis-Gront to Produce Sturgis-Grant Prods., Inc., has been formed to produce special purpose films and filmstrips, Warren Sturgis, president, announced. Other officers are Dwinell Grant, vice-president, and M. C. Romilly, secretarytreasurer. STORKS VOICE Of THE PRESS "TItere's Nothing Wrong, Etc." THERE is a favorite saying among showmen which they cluck to one another in parlous ' times — to wit, that "there's nothing wrong with business that a couple of good pictures won't cure." It's a naturally popular saying because it nurtures the comforting thought that the customers will come a-running just as soon as you give them a good film, regardless of other circumstances and of their previous experience with the screen. The only trouble with it is that it simply isn't so, and this has been fairly well evidenced by behavior in the past several months. As much as some people are reluctant to admit it openly, movie attendance has been slumping ever since the war and, along with that at legitimate theaters and night clubs, has shown marked declines recently. This fact was substantially indicated in a survey which this paper made last week. Mild booms in this or that area have not checked the general decline. Yet a searching review of the pictures which we've seen since the first of this year reveals that a notable number of them have been well worth calling "good" — at least, in this critic's estimation — and a few have been better than that. If it only took "a couple of good pictures" to cure a business slump, this one would be cured. . . . No doubt, the present embarrassment is due — at least, in part — to the rise in the cost of living which has knocked family budgets for a loop. A lot of erstwhile movie money is now going for meat and shoes. And plainly more "entertainment dollars" are being spent for other things — automobile trips, baseball tickets, new radios and television sets. Heavy installment buying is also soaking up a lot of coin. — ^BOSLEY CROWTHER in the New York Times. • • The Last Resort XHE THEATER learned the drawing power of significance and laughter early this year, but Hollywood tried everything else to overcome the British tax, television and the musical glasses before, in sheer desperation, it turned to quality as a last resort. Hollywood toyed again with the idea of giving away dishes to get people out of the television bars and for a while we were threatened with a revival of bingo and miniature golf. Then it tried making a few good pictures, and, to its own surprise, it worked. Hollywood probably doesn't quite believe that quality will last, and neither does the cautious public, which, as might have been expected, hesitates longer before paying $1.50 than it did 40 cents. But it might be a good financial tip for Hollywood to stick to quality a while longer before relapsing into spiritual bankruptcy and cutting all salaries except those in the higher brackets while simultaneously abetting ignorant Congressmen in giving the public the impression that the studios are really "fences" for the Kremlin. — M. R. WERNER in the New York Herald Tribune. • • Money Matters IS IT STILL NEWS that a Hollywood movie is usually born on the stone floor of a bank? And that this celluloid dragon, scorching to death every human fact in its path, must muscle its way back to its natal cave, its mouth full of dimes and nickels? If theater has existed in its finest forms as festival, holiday and celebration of the human facts, the Hollywood film obviously exists only as the celebration of cold, canny (not so canny!) investment, with the resultant desire to make every movie as accessible as chewing gum, for which no more human maturity of audience is needed than a primitive pair of jaws and a bovine philosophy. "More light!" Goethe cried on his death bed, not "More profits!" He, of course, was not faced with the temptation of a private Gallup poll, calling itself "Audience Research, inc.," which told one studio to whisk away from my desk four months' work on Dreiser's great novel, "Sister Carrie," because as a film it could end only in financial disaster. When I reported this piece of commercial prescience to the old but yet magnificent Dreiser, he growled, "But they're really cocaine sellers out here. Are you surprised? Life is all in the icebox for Hollywood." He said other things, too, but they make nasty reading of a Sunday. — CLIFFORD ODETS in the New York Times. Foundation to Produce Children Youth Films . Chicago — John Schier of the Oriental Theater reports the arrival of Marion Linda Schiei. H'est Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Children and Youth Film Production Foundation has received its papers of incorporation, as a non-profit foundation. Purpose and objective of the Foundation is the production of motion pictures specifically for children and youth. These pictures are to be in the entertainment class, with authenticated educational potential. Officers are H. J. Stollins, president and treasurer; Estelle L. Stollins, vice-president, and Effie Clark Leavitt, secretary. Austrian "Lysistrata" To Distinguished Films Distinguished Films has acquired a new Austrian version of "Lysistrata." Film was completed in Vienna early this year, with the approval of the U. S. Occupation forces. English titles. Release date will be announced later. Dezel Branch for Omaha Kansas City — Albert Dezel Prods, of Detroit will open an Omaha branch today is considering establishment of an office at Des Moines, according to Walter Lambader, local manager. June Tax 'Take' Tops 1947 by $4 Million (Continued from Page 1*^°^' was nearly $4,000,000 above tiiat fo June, 1947. The only previous montl when the 1948 take exceeded th 1947 total was February. June total was $31,639,479, com pared with only $27,829,983 a yea earlier and only $28,309,290 in Ma; of this year. Unusually large collections in th first Illinois and the first and thir New York districts helped swell th totals. Wolfson-Meyer Chain Tel^ Permit Cancelled by FCC Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — The Wolfson-Meye Circuit, in Miami, was dealt a bars blow last week as the FCC cancelld the construction permit for televi sion station WTVJ, Miami. The cancellation was based upo: the Commission's allegation tha Wolfson-Meyer was brought into th^ licensee corporation after the per mit had been granted, without FC( approval, and that more than a yea later a financial statement was filed dated six months earlier, which die not reveal the circuit as holder o: stock in the corporation. Levin Producing Puppet Series for Television Paris (Via Air Mail) — Meyei Levin, producer of "The Illegals,' has begun production on a series o: puppet films to be used ultimately for television. Series will be madi with the Luxembourg Marionett^ Theater, which is headed by Rob ert Desartis. Classic French puppet characteij "Guignol," will be featured in ths treatments. Distribution is planneq in the U. S. and England. Schwartz & Frohlich Moves Legal firm of Schwartz & Frohliclj St. Building was purchased by th^ attorneys several months ago. Hollywood Neurotic, Psychiatrist Holds Vienna (By Air Mail) — Hollywood is full of neurotic people, Prof. Frederick Hacker, Austrian psychiatrist, reported on his return from the film capital. Hacker stated that many of the screen stars he treated actually hated Hollywood, continuing to work there because of the attraction of money and the prospect of world fame. Split between their artistic leanings and the material desires. Hacker continued, often produced a deep emotional tension, so that more and more of them look for help from a psycho-therapist.