Motion Picture (Feb-Jul 1940)

COMMENTS ON THIS HERE PICTURE BUSINESS By LARRY REID Movies' Greatest Year THAT campaign of Motion Pictures' Greatest Year (remember the ballyhoo?) beat the gun by two years. With nothing much to shoot for and shout over, the film moguls took 1938 as the year to crow about their productions. So with the slogan mentioned above tacked onto an equally superlative "come on" — Motion Pictures Are Your Best Entertainment, Hollywood was determined to do something about winning back the cash customers who had deserted the theatres when the Queen "B"s buzzed over the land. If Messrs. Big had only waited till 1940 to make a fuss about their films they wouldn't have had to live down their 1938 slogans. Now they can point with pride to the accomplished fact that Hollywood can turn out A-l pictures instead of junk embroidered with ballyhoodooed adjectives such as "colossal," "superlative," "epic," "greatest ever," etc. These adjectives have sense this year. Why the 1940 product is so exceptional (and the year is very young) that it looms up already as a great vintage year. Though some of the big boys bought racing stables (they wanted the solace of seeing their horses run well in '38 even if their films were also-rans) they DID turn from their racing sheets and concentrated on their production charts the past season. Why can't a film be trained for a box-office race as well as a horse for a big stake handicap ? Anyway, they have entered some likely prospects for the 1940 Film Derby. So what to do? Why go prospecting for cash customers again. And so-o-o-o-o-o-o what have we here but a flock of fine pictures that are so exceptional in story plot, production, photography and portrayal that cash customers are flocking back to the erstwhile empty seats ! With but four months gone one good picture is crowding another for recognition and patronage. By the time Christmas arrives the country should be smothered with the greatest array of pictures ever shown. 100 PREDICATED to the policy since its inception of giving its readers the news of " the screen activities of studios and players — with special emphasis on the SUCCESS STORIES of the stars and how they made their upward climb to fame, MOTION PICTURE could give no greater contribution to its policy than a tribute to our late lamented publisher, Captain W. H. Fawcett. His is a success story that dwarfs the usual success stories of the stars whose lives are so much a part of this magazine. For where many of them were catapulted to fame through the aid and solicitation of the studios, Captain Billy lifted himself by his own bootstraps to a prominence as head of one of the largest magazine publishing firms in the world. Success came to him — not with outside aid — but through the twin efforts of his own keen brain and an unconquerable spirit. Captain Billy started from scratch in building his fortune and his niche in the world. He always kept his eyes on the goal ahead — never swerving in his determination to reach that goal — and reach it he did through obstacles that would have overcome men of lesser force and fortitude. A man loving adventure, he sought and found it. He found it in the army where he served in the Philippines and later in the World War, where he was commissioned a captain. Then with the war over he entered what many consider the most adventurous-romantic field of all — the newspaper field. And there his talent, now recognized and guiding him onward, carried him to the top rung of the ladder. Captain Billy was now on his way. But success never went to his head. He kept both feet on the ground. Like all men of real accomplishment he always helped those who stumbled in their progress. Humility is the gift of such men. Captain Bill was endowed with its riches. His friendliness with wounded soldiers invalided in veterans' hospitals gave him the idea of bringing cheer into their lonely lives. This he did with a mimeographed sheet of jokes and jingles. And through that modest beginning he became publisher of 20 magazines, including MOTION PICTURE. We, who knew him well, who worked for, and with him, now mourn him. But so do thousands of others who didn't know him intimately. Once a person met him (his friends were legion) he was attracted to him and liked him. And Captain Billy's nature, shy on the surface, was such that he instantly responded. His spirit of kindliness, his friendliness, his humility, his open-heartedness, his sincerity — these qualities live on. It is these very qualities that made it a pleasure to call him a true friend. It is these very qualities that set him apart from the crowd — one who stood forth a Real Man. It is thus that we cherish his memory. Taking Pride TAKE The Grapes of Wrath. What the screen has been striving for ever since it discarded diapers has been achieved here. For our money it's one of the few great pictures of all time. The movies grew up over night here. Take Gone With the Wind. It actually achieved all the advanced ballyhoo that Hollywood's heavy siege guns had trained on it, and while it hasn't as yet played the thousands of movie houses the report is it can't miss in grossing eventually the staggering sum of 25 million dollars. Take Dr. Ehrlich's Mag ic Bit lie t — another grown-up picture of the medical scientist who conquered syphilis — one of the great scourges of the human race. It's as honest as it is entertaining. Take Abe Lincoln in Illinois— which is far better than the play that won the Pulitzer prize last year. Take The Fighting 69th, a stirring bit of war drama that colorfully romanticizes a famous New York regiment that covered itself with glory in World War No. 1. Take Young Tom Edison — and Edison, the Man — pictures humanizing America's greatest inventor (Rooney as the boy, Tracy as the adult). Take Vigil in the Night, Dr. Cronin's new bestseller (you haven't forgotten his Citadel, have you ? ) which in film form tells the most absorbing and faithful side of the nursing profession ever revealed. Take Of Mice and Men — again a compelling story that surpasses the play. And Pinocchio, where Disney, again in the realm of fantasy, surpasses his Snow White if such a thing is possible. And take Northwest Passage which animates a very moving and vigorous story of pre-Revolution days of early settlers. Take We Are Not Alone, James Hilton's gripping story of tragedy that stalks a family. These are but samples of what Hollywood is giving you in 1940. There'll be more like them in the months to come. Yes, 1940 is truly Motion Pictures' Greatest Year. We'll forgive Hollywood for 1938.