The Film Daily (1935)

SEEK QUICKER ACTION ON NEW UNION SCALE {Continued from Page 1) tion of such power to the committee will be asked at a special meeting of Local 306 to be held tomorrow at Odd Fellows Hall, Brooklyn. Indications now are that the probable basic hourly wage scale to be adopted will range between $1.60 an hour, which the managers have already offered, and $1.80 an hour. The union membership will hear at its meeting tomorrow a report from the committee which journeyed to Washington to ask George E. Browne, president of the I.A.T.S.E., to rescind the I. A. order prohibiting the local from calling a strike. Browne is reported to have refused to revoke the strike ban. 7 Special Dates Set On "Special Agent" "Special Agent", a Warner-Cosmopolitan production, has been booked into seven key city situations for special pre-release engagements, according to an announcement from the company's home office. The dates are the Rialto, St. Louis; Warner, Memphis; Worth, Fort Worth; Missouri, St. Joseph, Mo.; Melba, Dallas; Mary Anderson, Louisville; and the Palace, Cleveland. "Special Agent", which features Bette Davis, George Brent, Ricardo Cortez and Jack LaRue, will be nationally released Sept. 14. A LITTLE from "LOTS // By RALPH WILK Para. Assigns 4 Directors West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Four directorial assignments have just been made by Paramount. Lewis Milestone will direct Claudette Colbert in "Roaring Girl," and on completion of this production Wesley Ruggles will direct Miss Colbert in "The Indestructible Mr. Talbot." Benjamin Glazer will produce both pictures for Paramount. Frank Tuttle has been assigned to direct "Millions in the Air," which Lewis Gensler will produce. William Seiter has been assigned to direct the Charles R. Rogers production, "Easy Living." Publishing Mooney's "Crime, Inc." Martin Mooney, whose story idea was the basis of the screenplay by Laird Doyle and Abem Finkel of "Special Agent," the Cosmopolitan production soon to be released by Warners, will have his new book, "Crime Incorporated," published by Whittlesey House early in the fall. GB in St. Louis Circuit Deal GB's entire 1935-36 program has been bought by the St. Louis Amusement Co. circuit for all its houses in the St. Louis territory, it is announced by George W. Weeks, general sales manager to GB. Jack Harris, St. Louis branch head, negotiated the deal. HOLLYWOOD pRITZ LANG'S first American directorial assignment under his M-G-M contract will be "Mob Rule," an original story for the screen by Norman Krasna, author of "The Richest Girl in the World." Joseph Mankiewicz is the producer, and Spencer Tracy probably will have the leading role. T T T Gene Autry left last week for New York, where he will make 15 recordings for the American Record Co. Included will be some of the songs from his Mascot feature, "Tumbling Tumbleweeds." He has just finished "Melody Trail," at Mascot. ▼ ▼ T Little Shirley Temple is the No. 1 star as far as the fans of Fairmount, Minn., are concerned. When her pictures are played in the prosperous farming town they are played simultaneously at the Nicholas and Strand, the only two theaters in Fairmont. Incidentally, the operator of the houses is W. L. Nicholas, veteran exhibitor, who is also mayor of Fairmont and a Republican leader in Minnesota. "Our Gang Follies *of 1936," a special production wiith music, went into production yesterday with the reopening of the Hal Roach Hollywood studios. Gus Meins is the director, with Gordon Douglas assisting. T T T RKO cast assignments: Edgar Norton for "Love Song," starring Lily Pons, and William Davidson for "Tamed," starring Ginger Rogers. A yet untitled comedy featurette starring Edgar Kennedy, one of his "Average Man" series, has been started at RKO Radio's studio under the direction of Fred Guiol, who recently finished the new Wheeler and Woolsey feature comedy, "The Rainmakers." Lee Marcus supervises. T ▼ T Edward H. Griffith has received a letter of appreciation signed by ten of the outstanding writers in the film industry for his recent statement regarding the prevailing practice of directors and actors taking liberties with scripts. "A good story is so complex a piece of literary mechanism and situations and characters are so intricately constructed, that even the slightest liberty in transcription may ruin the author's work," Griffith declared. "Because a writer is a skilled craftsman and knows his trade better than a director or actor could know it, I demand absolute adherence to the written word. To permit a player to 'ad lib' so much as a single word in production is an admission of weakness on the part of both the player and the director and an insult to the intelligence of the author." ▼ ▼ ▼ Lily Pons, brilliant Metropolitan Opera star now making her motion picture debut in "Love Song" for RKO Radio Pictures, will return to the radio later in the fall. She has signed a contract to appear on the cigarette program on which she sang last year over the Columbia Broadcasting System, singing alternate weeks with Nino Martini. The music will again be conducted by Andre Kostelanetz, who has just returned east from the RKO studios where he went, at Miss Pons' request, to conduct the operatic sequences in "Love Song." Columbia has exercised its options for the services of C. C. "Buddy" Coleman and Arthur Black, assistant directors. » T ▼ Arthur Hohl and Wyrley Birch, Columbia contract players, are the latest additions to the cast which is being assembled for "Guard That Girl, in which Florence Rice and Robert Allen are featured. T ▼ T Irene Castle has been engaged by Paramount to play the role of the dancing teacher in the Joe PennerJack Oakie musical, "Collegiate." Others in the cast include Frances Langford, Ned Sparks, Lynne Overman and Elizabeth Patterson. Ralph Murphy will direct, from an original story by Alice Duer Miller. Lyrics and music for the piece have been written by Mack Gordon and Harrv Revel. * T T T W. C. Fields, has returned in much improved health to his Encino ranch from a two-week rest cure at Soboba Springs. ▼ » ▼ "Klondike Lou" has been definitely set by Paramount as the title for Mae West's forthcoming picture. Victor McLaglen will be one of Mae's leading men in the piece, which is to be directed by Raoul Walsh. LOEW, RKO CIRCUITS NOT EXTENDING DUALS (Continued from Page 1) cur only where opposition, through similar policies, compels it. At Indianapolis, Loew's State has joined the dual-feature trend. Initial week-end business under the all double-feature policy in New York was reported yesterday by Loew's and RKO as good. Whitehead in Relief Post On Activities for Actors Ralph Whitehead, executive secretary of the American Federation of Actors, has been appointed to the reclassification board of the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration by Miss Hallie Flanagan, federal director of national theater projects, and in his new post will go over the names of performers on home relief and recommend those capable of appearing in the vaudeville and circus units being formed by the government. Three new vaudeville and five new circuit units are now being cast under direction of Charles Mosconi. A protest has been sent to President Roosevelt by Whitehead against the federal relief wage scale for actors which has just been raised from $94 to $103.50 monthly. Paramount Title Changes West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood— "Two Fisted" is the new title under which Paramount will release "Gettin' Smart," which James Cruze is directing and which will have Lee Tracy, Roscoe Karns, Grace Bradley, Kent Taylor and Gail Patrick in featured roles. The Jan Kiepura-Gladys Swarthout picture, "Song of the Nile," has been renamed "Give Us This Night." It starts Sept. 23 with Alexander Hall directing and William LeBaron as producer. Warners to Film "God's Country" West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — James Oliver Curwood's novel, "God's Country," will be brought to the screen by Warners with Bette Davis and George Brent in the leading roles. Peter Milne and Charles Belden have been assigned to write the screenplay. New Bell & Howell Releases Chicago — A seven-reel 16mm. version of Eisenstein's "Thunder Over Mexico" is among the new releases in Bell & Howell's Filmosound Rental Library. Other additions include two two-reelers, "N'Manga," African film, and "The Masked Raider," and a one-reeler, "South Seas," Zane Grey film. "Experience" Hearing Friday Arguments will be made Friday in the New York State Supreme Court in connection with motion of Harry Levey for a temporary injunction restraining the Voice of Experience, Rex Pictures Corp., Attorney Elmer Rogers, B. K. Blake and Columbia from proceeding with the "Voice of Experience" series of shorts. In his action Levey seeks transfer of the distribution contract with Columbia to the V. O. E. Pictures Corp. Start Fla. Stamp Tax Suit An action to compel RKO to pay the new Florida stamp tax has been started in that state, with the defendant distributor as well as other major companies taking the attitude that they are exempt as film contracts are not closed within its limits but instead are approved in New York. The tax is figured at 10 cents for each SI 00 involved in a contract.