Harrison's Reports (1949)

76 HARRISON'S REPORTS May 7, 1949 reward the good and insist, as far as they can, that the producer take all the loss for the bad. That's not holding up their end. That's not giving proper support to the business. . . I wish that Bill Wilkerson were an exhibitor and, on the day when a picture flopped in his theatre, I should like to see him go to his office and write out a check for, say, one thousand, two thousand or more dollars, and send it to the producer with a letter reading something like this: "Dear Mr. Big: Here is a check from my past profits to compensate you, in a measure, for the loss you will sustain on 'Going Up,' which flopped at my box-office. "Of course, you did not start out to make it bad, but it turned out that way and I don't want you to sustain all the loss — I must bear part of your burden." In view of the fact that the majority of the pictures produced nowadays are bad — a fact that even Mr. Wilkerson himself admits — can you guess how long he would con' tinue to operate his theatre before he puts in a petition in the courts for bankruptcy? Mr. Wilkerson is either an amateur exhibitor or doesn't know what he is talking about. The business of the producer is to make good pictures, and the business of the exhibitor is to play them and get the best results out of them for both the producer and himself. If a picture turns out poor and the producer's cut of the intake is low, so is the profit of the exhibitor, no matter whether he played the picture on a percentage basis or had bought it on flat-rental terms. There have been, of course, instances when an exhibitor sent the producer a check in an amount beyond the contract, but it has been when a picture took in more than either the exhibitor or the distributor hoped it would get, but to my knowledge there has been no case when the producer of a boxoffice hit, following the same line of reasoning, sent a check to an exhibitor to compensate him for any loss he may have sustained on the picture, either because of bad weather, or because the subject matter did not appeal to his patrons. Bill Wilkerson should stop giving free advice to the exhibitors, particularly since he knows nothing about exhibition in modern times, and should confine himself to advising the Hollywood producers on how to make better pictures. "The Mutineers" with Jon Hall, Adele Jergens and George Reeves (Columbia, April 22; time, 60 min.) Very ordinary. It belongs to the class of pictures that the exhibitors would not miss if it were not made. At best, it is suited for the lower half of a mid-week double bill. It is a melodrama, based on a story that does not ring true. The outstanding feature is the act of the loyal crew in subduing the hijackers by means of a high-pressure water hose. There is some action, and the spectator is at times held in mild suspense as a result of the fact that the lives of the sympathetic characters are put into jeopardy. The photography is somber : — Jon Hall signs up as a first mate on the Island Princess, a freighter captained by Lyle Talbot, his buddy. Just before the ship is due to sail, Talbot is found murdered on the dock with a large sum of counterfeit money in his pockets. The boat sails under another captain with several passengers aboard, and Hall, suspecting that the murderer was among the passengers, sets out to apprehend him. His suspicions fall mostly on George Reeves and on Adele Jergens, Reeves' attractive blonde companion. Also among the passengers were a number of goons in the pay of Reeves. It was Reeves aim to hijack the ship in mid-ocean, use counterfeit money to buy merchandise, and thus make a big profit. In his investigation of the ship's holds, Hall discovers a trunk full of arms. He rushes to notify the captain, but by the time they return the trunk is gone. To get on the good side of Hall, Reeves allows him to win fifteen hundred dollars in a poker game. But Hall discovers that the money is counter feit, similar to the money found on Talbot's body. Before Hall can act, Reeves and his goons attack the crew and take over the ship. Hall, to avoid bloodshed, pretends to side with the hijackers and orders the crew to obey Reeves' commands. One night Hall fakes a fire in the hold and Reeves' men drop precautions to put out the blaze. Then Hall, by arrangement with his crew, attacks the hijackers. Realizing the futility of the fight, Reeves has his men smash the radio, raid the galley of all foodstuffs, and barricade themselves in the engine room, where they stop the ship's engines. With the ship stalled in mid-ocean, and with his crew facing starvation, Hall gets a brilliant idea: He orders the men to rig up sails from odd pieces of canvas found on the ship, and in due time manages to get the vessel moving, although at a slow rate of speed. Meanwhile the radio man repairs the ship's radio, enabling Hall to send a message to the Lisbon (Portugal) police, informing them of his predicament. When the ship docks in Lisbon, the police come aboard and arrest the hijackers, leaving Hall satisfied that he had avenged the murder of his friend. It was produced by Sam Katzman and directed by Jean Yarbrough from a story by Dan Gordon, and a screen play by Ben Bengal and Joseph Carole. Harmless for children because of the fact that virtue triumphs in the end. "Tucson" with Jimmy Lydon and Penny Edwards (20th Century-Fox, May; time, 65 min.) Just mildly entertaining program fare. It is one of the low-budget pictures that Sol Wurtzel has been producing, perhaps the last one, for contracts for the production of this type of pictures has been discontinued by 20th Century-Fox. It is a light comedy, with hardly any laugh-provoking situations. What is depended upon to furnish the laughs is a boisterous feud, a sort of Potash and Perlmutter affair, between Joe Sawyer and Walter Sande. But the comedy falls flat. The only thing in favor of the picture is the youthfulness of the players, and two songs that have catchy melodies. The photography and production values are fairly good, but the direction and acting are ordinary: — Jimmy Lydon, playboy student at the University of Arizona, almost fails to pass his examinations because he had been devoting most of his time to training Billy, his quarter-horse, for the approaching rodeo, instead of studying. Because Jimmy is in love with Penny Edwards, the dean's daughter, the dean (Grandon Rhodes) takes an interest in him. He warns Jimmy to take a greater interest in his studies if he wants to get somewhere, but to no avail, until Jimmy, through a blunder, causes a class laboratory explosion that blinds Charles Russell, a fellow-student and pal of his. Shocked by the accident, Jimmy sobers up. He withdraws from the rodeo and sells his horse to enable him to meet his blinded friend's medical bills. He then pays close attention to his studies, and offers to help Russell through his courses so that he might be enabled to graduate. His withdrawing from the rodeo and his selling of the horse leads to a misunderstanding with Penny. Joe Sawyer, Jimmy's father, is dismayed when he learns what his son had done and quietly buys the horse back so that he will be able to compete against Harry Lauter, his rival for Penny's hand. Lauter's father, Walter Sande, was a long time rival of Sawyer's, and both had been carrying on a boisterous feud. On the day of the rodeo, Sande challenges Sawyer to a heavy bet, which Sawyer accepts. Sande, however, was unaware of the fact that Sawyer had bought back his son's horse and had entered it in the quarter-horse race. While Sawyer enjoys the discomfort he had caused to Sande. Jimmy wins the race, settles his difficulties with Penny, and looks forward to a happy post-graduate future. Sol Wurtzel produced it and William Claxton directed it, from a screen play by Arnold Belgard. Harmless for the family circle.