Harrison's Reports (1945)

Entered as second-class matter January 4, 1921, at the post office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Harrison's Reports Yearly Subscription Rates: 1270 SIXTH AVENUE Published Weekly by United States $15.00 RoomlKI? Harrison's Reports, Inc., U. S. Insular Possessions. 16.50 Ruom loii Publisher Canada 16.50 New York 20, N. Y. P. S. HARRISON, Editor Mexico, Cuba, Spain 16.50 . ,„ .. . „ . _, . " ' r ' " ic; 7R A Motion Picture Reviewing Service Australia 'New' Zealand' Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors Established July 1, 1919 India, Europe, Asia .... 17.50 Ug Editoria, Pol;cy. No Problem Too Big for Its Editorial Circle 7-4622 ibc a copy Columns, if It is to Benefit the Exhibitor. A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XXVII SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1945 No. 5 MORE ABOUT RATIONING OF RAW FILM STOCK Emphasizing that independent producers must be given direct allotments of raw stock in order to survive, Samuel Goldwyn, in an interview last Tuesday with the trade press, issued the following prepared statement : "More important than any previous issue facing the motion picture industry is the problem of rationing of raw stock by the W.P.B. "The question to be decided is whether the independent producers are to look to their Government or to the distributors for their raw film stock. Up to now, ration cards had been handed out to distributors and not to producers. The producers, as the original creators of the industry, demand a standing that will permit them to survive. No longer do they intend to remain subservient to the distributors who, by holding ration cards, have in many cases possessed the power of life or death over an independent producer. "Newsprint, the other great medium of public expression, has been rationed to the publishers and not to the wholesalers and distributors. "No producer complains because there is not enough raw stock to go around. They all know that there is a war on. Producers do complain that during a war the vast accumulations of finished films by the producer-distributor combinations is in effect a most dangerous and unsound hoarding. Some of these films have been stored away for a year or more. "We must prevent these accumulations and recognize that in effect, they constitute a hoarding that will strangle the creative efforts of the independent producer at the very time when the importance of the independent producer in this industry is greater than it has ever been. "There is a further point, a very important one, — which is that the purpose of film rationing is the public and for the public interest, — that and nothing more. In it, the independent producer has a great stake, and the public has a great stake in the independent producer. "The last point is that raw stock should be made available in increasing quantities for the distribution in the United States of pictures made in England and other foreign countries. An honest realization of the place of films in international understanding and in commerce would dictate this as basic and essential.'" Harrison's Reports has many times had occasion to differ in these columns with the opinions and policies of Samuel Goldwyn, but in this vital matter — the method used by the War Production Board in the rationing of raw film stock — it agrees with him wholeheartedly insofar as this method affects the interests of the independent producers. Mr. Goldwyn sums up the situation well when he says that the distributors, under the present method of raw stock allocation, possess "the power of life or death over an independent producer." As this paper disclosed in its issue of January 20, the W.P.B. rations the available raw stock to the distributors only, and it does not impose on them any rules or regulations as to the stock's disposition. In addition to using whatever quantity of their quota they wish for new productions, for positive prints of pictures, for positive prints of old pictures (reissues), and for the foreign markets, the distributors furnish to those of the independent producers with whom they have releasing agreements allotments of raw stock for new productions. These producers — men like Goldwyn and others who have been producing pictures independently for years — have no standing with the Government insofar as their raw film stock requirements are concerned; they must look to the distributors to fill their needs. And the deplorable part of it all is that the distributors are not compelled, either to give them some specific percentage of the rationed film stock, or to deal with them at all. In normal times, most of the distributors would have considered it good business to come to terms with a leading independent producer for the distribution of his pictures. In fact, it sometimes happened that the quality of the few pictures delivered by the independent was of a caliber that served, not only as the bright spots in an otherwise dull program, but also to raise the prestige of the distributor considerably. Today, however, the shortage of raw film stock, plus the abnormal theatre attendance, are enough to cool the distributors' enthusiasm for such a deal; every foot of raw stock given to an outside producer means that just so much less stock is available for the producer-distributor's own pictures, which, in these times, give him more profit per foot of raw stock than do the pictures of the independent producers from whom he can realize no more than a distribution fee. While Harrison's Reports has not heard of even one instance where a producing-distributing company has used its control over raw stock to freeze out an independent producer, it wishes to point out that, under the present method of stock allocation, such a situation is possible. Accordingly, a condition that enables one branch of the industry to possess "the power of life or death" over another branch should not be permitted to exist. This paper agrees that distribution has a definite stake in the available raw film stock. At the same time, the fact cannot be overlooked that both independent production and exhibition have equally important stakes. All three branches of the industry are inter(Continued on last page)