Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1947)

SIUDIO SIZf-UPS pfiODUcii sfciion JULY 21, 1947 Behind the Scenes of Film Production COLUMBIA Vidor-Cohn Feud Settled nPHE 1' EUD between Prexy Harry Cohn and Charles Vidor, which ra ,cd such bad publicity a few months back, has apparently been settled. Vidor has signed a new contract with the studio to prouucc eight pictures on an indie basis during the next four years, 'ih-; s'.udio will nip off a neat fifty per cent of the profits on the \ idor product. Harry Cohn, it was reported, did not participate in the deal directly; but his consent was required before such a doal could have been closed. Vidor is setting up a fund of $1,000,COO to buy story properties and he plans immediate starting of iiis new activities. One of the considerations in the new contract is that Vidor will make no more of the "Crime Doctor" series to which he had been assigned (some say as punishment for his bad behavior) by the studio. With the Vidor affair settled, the newest blow-up at Columbia involves Director Andre de Toth. The studio has served notice on all other studios and producting units that De Toth is still under contract to them and cannot v/ork elsewhere without studio permission. The studio claims a California Supreme Court rulin-:? holds the seven year contract signed in 1943 as binding De Toti; has made three films since he walked out at Columbia and it is possible that the studio will be able to put a restraint on these under the present ruling. STUDIO DICKERS MORE INDIES With seven independent producers already working on the Columbia roster, the studio this week began negotiations to nab olf Mark Hellinger and the Skirball-Manning unit, recently exited from Universal-International. Producer Hellinger, of course, has been talking deals with every major studio in town. But the Columbia offer is the best by far financially since President Cohn is willing to cut his profit to the bone in order to add the prestige of Hellinger product to his banner. The Skirball-Manning team is being tempted on the same basis of low soiling charges. Columbia can use a couple of really top n.imes on its roster and this seems to be their fight to get them. Announcement this week from the studio that the Beckworth Corporation had taken over the Rita Hayworth productions for the next seven years came as a cryptic and complete surprise to the industry. No further details were forthcoming. As it stands now, Beckworth Corporation will release and distribute two Hayworth pictures a year for the next seven years and will also have charge of all Hayworth productions. What the financial terms of the deal were is unreported. EAGLE-LION A & C Sign With E-L 'pHE GROWING TREND, at this studio, towards a good solid list of independent productions shows up in the recent deal signed with Abbott and Costello. The comedy team, permitted one outside fi'm a year by Universal-International, will make "The Noose Hangs High" for Eagle-Lion on a $1,600,000 budget Terms arc on a percentage basis with the team set to collect a healthy portion of the profits. "Noose," set to go before the cameras Aug. 18, is the first so!o film which ABC will make under this new pact with U-I permitting them to make one outside picture per year. The newly started "T-Man" is Edward Small's first film for E L release in a two picture deal recently concluded. The picture is being shot with only one Hollywood actor in the cast Dennis O'Kecfe. The company is on location with shooting .scheduled for Washington, D. C, New York, Boston, Montreal, Chicago Sa-i Pedro. In each town, amateur local talent will be used in the picture "to lend .luthcnticity." The story is based on case records from the Treasury Department and it is to be kept absolutely factual. USING TRICK CAMERA TRUCKS Another innovation Small is using in this film is the specially constructed Belgian Glass trucks. These have mirrored exteriors permitting a camera to peer out but no one to see in. Thus, the producer expects to get street scenes which will be absola cly real. Cost on such production may exceed what the normal budget on such a film would be but Producer Small feels the additional expense will add selling power to his picture. The second film now in work on the E-L schedule is also being given an unusual location treatment. This one, "Wild Conquest" (temporary title) is being shot up in Canada on a ranch belonging to the Duke of Windsor. E-L Chief Robert Young arranged the deal with his friend, the Duke. It is the first time such an arrangement has ever completed although the property is ideal for exterior shooting. Albert S. Rogell is Producer-director on this piece with David Hersh rating an executive producer tag because of the money he is investing. M-G-M Production Soars ■pARLIER this year, the gloom boys in the industry were sure ■■^ that everything was headed for destruction when MGM announced a great curtailment in their production program. That pessimism should be completely dispelled if Metro is still being used as barometer. At this point the studio has five films in work v>'ith nine more scheduled to go in the next two months. This is a record even for a good year and for a mid-summer schedule in a year when film business is supposedly dropping, it is an all-time high. Five of the new nine scheduled will be in Technicolor. Joe Pasternak will lead off the mid-summer parade with "Luxury Liner" reuniting the Walter Pidgecn-Jane Powell team of "Holiday In Mexico;" Clark Gable is scheduled for "Homecoming," Mervyn LeRoy directing for Sidney Franklin; Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon follow with "Speak To Me of Love;" Frank Capra's "State of The Union" is being rushed for a starting date; Arthur Freed will start "Easter Parade," the Irving Berlin musical in typical Metro fashion complete with the whole MGM roster of musical and comedy talent; Walter Wanger will start his "Joan of Lorraine" with Ingrid Bergninn starred; "The Big City," starring Margaret O'Brien, from an old script which Joe Pasternak is dusting off for shooting, "Hills of Home," with Robert Sisk producing and "Upward to the Stars" under the George Haight helm wind up the list. NEW ROLE FOR GABLE? Despite the fact that MeLro executives believe "The Hucksters" will be one of the studio's top grossers for the year, there is p worried bit of huddling going on concerning the future roles of the studio's favorite boy Clark Gable. It seems to be the consenu.ss at this point that Gnbic is running beyond the romantic "lover" role with which he made his own fortune and a healthy one for his bosses. Gable, himself, has rebelled at some of the "typical" roles producers have offered him (especially after the "Adventure" flop) and the trend seems now to be toward "character" roles: Nothing too heavy, just the kind of thing where he doesn't "get the girl." How female audiences will respond to this transition for the actor is yet to be proved. But at sneakpreviews of "The Hucksters" teen-agers were audible in comments which indicated that perhaps the transition time had come. There's no doubt that Gable is still one of the top box-oflSce powers in the industry. The ad campaign on his current film is one of the biggest in the studio's history (and that where big ad campaigns are practically routine). One thousand prints of the film gr out simultaneously, a mass opening in 100 cities, a hypoed 24-shcct, newspaper, magazine and radio campaign and the inevitable MGM tag line (this time: "Gable's New Star, Deborah Kerr) is scheduled to pull "The Hucksters" and Gable right up over the summer lull to top business. METRO DICKERS "INNOCENCE" "This Side of Innocence," a current best seller nov.' owned by JULY 21, 1947 H