Harrison's Reports (1938)

4 HARRISON'S REPORTS geon, and Kent Taylor, produced by Edmund Grainger and directed by S. Sylvan Simon, from a screen play by Bruce Manning and Robert T. Shannon : Fair-Poor. "Merry Go Round of 1938," with Mischa Auer, Alice Brady, Joe Hodges, and Louise Fazenda, produced by Buddy DeSylva and directed by Irving Cummings, from a screen play by A. Dorian Otvos and Monte Brice : GoodFair. "Boss of Lonely Valley," with Buck Jones, produced by Buck Jones and directed by Ray Taylor, from a screen play by Frances Guilian : Good-Fair. "Some Blondes Are Dangerous," with Noah Beery, Jr., William Gargan, Nan Grey, and Dorothea Kent, produced by E. M. Asher and directed by Milton Carruth, from a screen play by Lester Cole: Fair. "Courage of the West," with Bob Baker and Lois January, produced by Paul Malvern and directed by Joseph H. Lewis, from a screen play by J. Norton Parker : Good-Fair. "Adventure's End," with John Wayne and Diana Gibson, produced by Trem Carr and directed by Arthur Lubin, from a screen play by Ben Grauman Kohn, Scott Darling and Sid Sutherland : Fair. The number of pictures reported since the beginning of the season are 17, rated as follows : ExcellentVery Good, 1 ; Good-Fair, 3 ; Fair, 6 ; FairPoor, 6; Poor, 1. The first 17 of last season, exclusive of the westerns, were rated as follows : Excellent, 1 ; ExcellentVery Good, 1 ; Good, 1 ; GoodFair, 1 ; Fair, 7 ; FairPoor, 6. A slight falling off in quality this season. Warner Bros. "The Great Garrick," with Brian Aherne, Olivia DeHavilland, and Edward Everett Horton, produced by Mervyn LeRoy and directed by James Whale, from a screen play by Ernst Vajda: Good-Poor. "It's Love I'm After," with Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Olivia DeHavilland, and Patric Knowles, produced by Harry Joe Brown and directed by Archie L. Mayo, from a screen play by Casey Robinson : GoodFair. "Expensive Husbands," with Beverly Roberts and Patrick Knowles, produced by Frank Mandel and directed by Bobby Connolly from a screen play by Lillie Hayward, Jean Negulesco, and Jay Brennan : Fair-Poor. "First Lady," with Kay Francis, Preston Foster, Verree Teasdale, and Walter Connolly, produced by Harry Joe Brown and directed by Stanley Logan, from a screen play by Rowland Leigh: Good-Fair. Up to "First Lady," the number of pictures reported is seven, rated as follows : ExcellentVery Good, 1 ; Very Good-Good, 1 ; GoodFair, 2; Good-Poor, 1 ; Fair, 1 ; Fair-Poor, 1. The first seven of last season were rated as follows : Very Good-Good, 1 ; Very Good-Poor, 1 ; Good-Fair, 2 ; Fair, 3. There has been an improvement this season. INDIANA EXHIBITORS AGAINST MGM BROADCASTING Associated Theatres of Indiana, having ascertained that the MGM air shows on Thursday evenings have hurt their box offices, passed the following resolution : "Whereas, we have found through a series of group meetings held in the State of Indiana that the majority of Exhibitors in attendance at these meetings, and all other Exhibitors contacted, agree that the Metro Air Show has definitely curtailed Box Office receipts on Thursday nights. "Whereas, we hrve further found that screen stars appearing on Sunday night programs have affected Box Office receipts. "Whereas, it is deemed impractical for the Producing Companies or their stars to attempt broadcasts at hours not conflicting with peak theatre attendance hours, because, of the difference in time in the various parts of the country, therefore, "Be It Resolved, that the Board of Directors of the Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana assembled this third day of December, 1937, have definitely gone on record as being opposed to motion picture stars appearing over the radio at any time and more particularly opposed to the motion picture studio produced programs which are now making their appearance on the air." What this paper cannot understand is why these exhibitors should have confined themselves to the MGM broadcasts. If the MGM airshows hurt business, the other airshows must hurt them just as much. Harrison's Reports hopes that Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana will pass another resolution condemning not only the MGM, but also the Warner Bros, airshows, as well as the airshows of Cecil B. de Mille and of all others ; also the appearance of all stars no matter what company they may be working for. SEX RELATIONSHIP IN PICTURES Before the revolt of the American people against sex vulgarity in motion pictures, almost every producer believed that no picture could make a "tremendous" hit unless it appealed to the sexual passions ; and that the greater the sex appeal the larger would be the crowds that would go to see it. The revolt of the churches, which led to the formation of the Legion of Decency and the consequent self-imposed censorship shattered, of course, that belief to a certain extent, with the result that the industry made more money than at any other time in its history (until the last depression, of course), by reason of that fact that parents no longer feared lest they and their sons and daughters see in a picture something that would embarrass them. Harrison's Reports has fought for clean pictures ever since it was founded ; it was prompted to adopt such a policy, not by any prudish feeling, but by a conviction that the American people, in the main, resented vulgarity in their entertainment. If there were needed additional proof to demonstrate convincingly this belief it has been furnished by Motion Picture Herald's recent check-up of the popularity of the different stars. The Herald divided the stars into three main groups, in accordance with the popularity of each star. The first group consists of ten names, and at the head of these stands, not Mae West, but Shirley Temple. I looked into the second group, the "Honor Star" group, as Motion Picture Herald has called it, consisting of fifteen names, but Mae West's name was not in it. I looked into the third group, consisting of thirty-six names, and there I found it, standing thirty-fourth on the list. Alice Faye, Bette Davis, Irene Dunne, Deanna Durbin, Kay Francis, Janet Gaynor, Carole Lombard, Luise Rainer, Ginger Rogers, Norma Shearer — all these women stars are ahead of her in the list. Even Freddie Bartholomew tops her ; he stands sixth in that list. Let us now take sex pictures to see how they fare : In the last three years I have not seen a sexier picture than "Expensive Husbands," produced by Warner Bros. According to the old theory, this picture should have made a "killing" business. But what does this week's box office check-up indicate? It shows that it has done fair to poor business. What has prompted this editorial is not a desire to criticize Warner Bros., for after all this company has made pictures that have brought honor to this industry — "Louis Pasteur," "Emil Zola," "Green Pastures" (even though it was not a big success financially) and many others, but merely to call the industry's attention to these facts to the end that some of those persons who still adhere to the old beliefs may be enlightened, and thus stop longing for the old days. There are greater profits in pictures that make people either laugh or cry than there are in pictures that kindle their sexual passions. Sex has practically destroyed the stage, and sex would have destroyed also the screen, had not better counsel prevailed.