Harrison's Reports (1948)

92 HARRISON'S REPORTS June 5, 1948 television station, which in turn is leasing the rights to sixteen other stations throughout the country. A number of these same Korda films are being reissued by Film Classics, which, according to reports, has invested over $100,000 in new Technicolor prints for Korda's "Drums" and "Four Feathers." Variety states that a Film Classics' spokesman maintains that these reissues will not be shown on television until played off by the theatres, but he conceded that his company did not own the television rights to any of the Korda pictures. What guarantee, then, can Film Classics give to the exhibitors that these two pictures, if booked, will not be shown on television for a specific time? In the case of old pictures, their indiscriminate sale to television stations serve to undermine the business of the theatre owners who, in the final analysis, make it possible for the producers to remain in business. Many exhibitors are so agitated by the television competition the offending producers are building up that, in retaliation, they are thinking of boycotting their new pictures. And who can blame them? In the case of new pictures, such as the "Hopalong Cassidys" that are now being produced in two versions, there exists a potential problem that should be given deep study by the different exhibitor organizations so that all exhibitors may know how to obtain a maximum of protection before closing a deal. THE TOA'S YOUTH MONTH FILM Prints of "Report for Action," a training film financed by the Theatre Owners of America as the first step in its campaign against juvenile delinquency, are now being distributed in the nation s 3 1 exchange centers by 20th Century-Fox. Made by the "This is America" unit of RKOPathe, the 17-minute documentary subject is not designed for public showings but is intended to serve as an animated guide for civic and welfare workers in more than 1500 communities, which will set up local conferences to carry out the suggestions of the National Conference on Prevention and Control of Juvenile Delinquency, a group composed of nearly one thousand educators and welfare workers, who convened in Washington at the invitation of Attorney General Tom C. Clark to study causes and cures for juvenile delinquency. Concise in form, the film opens with an alarming statement that every four minutes of the day or night somewhere in America a boy or girl is arrested for a crime serious enough to warrant finger-printing. After brief flashes of youngsters in trouble, the film swings to Attorney General Clark and shows the structure and workings of the National Conference. Then follows a graphic pattern to be followed in each community, with practical suggestions as to how to set up a steering committee, organize panels on each known cause of delinquency, alert the community through publicity, and coordinate all actions so that the community will be presented with a sustained program. In making the film available to any group at the request of local mayors and other civic leaders, Charles P. Skouras, National Chairman of the TOA's Youth Month Committee, is asking exhibitors throughout the country to lend their theatres and their screens for the showing of the film during nonoperating hours. This paper urges every exhibitor to give Mr Skouras his fullest cooperation in this worthy movement, so that every community will be made fully conscious of the importance of the problems and welfare of its youngsters, and of the need to establish a sound program of home training, educational methods, and recreational facilities. INVASION The St. Louis territory, long the stronghold of Fred Wehrenberg, president of the local MPTO and chairman of the TOA's board of directors, is being invaded by National Allied. Andy DieU, former executive secretary and field representative of the MPTO in St. Louis, has been designated by the Allied leaders to spearhead the drive, and he has already set up an initial organization meeting to be held at the Sheraton Hotel in that city on June 8. The independent exhibitors in the St. Louis territory have long had a need for an exhibitor organization that is able to take an unequivocal stand on issues that have a direct bearing on the interest of an independent theatre owner. They will find such a truly independent organization in Mid-Central Allied Theatre Owners, which is the proposed name of this new link in Allied s ever-growing chain of regionals. The June 8 meeting will feature talks by several of the top Allied leaders. The St. Louis independents who attend this meeting will find it a revelation, for no other exhibitor organization can match the service and benefits that are available to Allied members. BRITISH CRITICS HURL EPITHETS AT THEIR OWN This paper is sorry to observe that our British friends, the picture-makers, have adopted the worst style of the worst period of American film-making. We refer to the picture "No Orchids for Miss Blandish," which deals with American gangster life. According to the May 24 issue of Life, the picture has been criticized by the London critics as severely as any American picture has ever been criticized. "A piece of nauseating muck," said one critic. Others said: "As fragrant as a cesspool"; "Has the morals of an alley cat and all the sweetness of a sewer"; "Thoroughly un-British." Harrison's Reports is glad of one thing — the British critics for once took their eye off American pictures to focus it at home. 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