Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1935)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Saturday, January 12, 1935 MOTION PICTURE DAILY (Registered U. S. Patent Office) Vol. 37 January 12, 1935 No. 10 Martin Quigley Editor-in-Chief and Publisher MAURICE KANN Editor JAMES A. CRON Advertising Manager Published daily except Sunday and holidays by Motion Picture Daily, Inc., subsidiary of Quigley Publications, Inc., Martin Quigley, President; Colvin Brown, Vice-President and Treasurer. Publication Office: 1790 Broadway, New York. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address "Quigpubco, New York." All contents copyrighted 193S by Motion Picture Daily, Inc. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Other Quigley .publications. Motion Picture Herald, Better Theatres, The Motion Picture Almanac and The Chicagoan. Hollywood Bureau: Postal Union Life Building, Vine and Yucca Streets, Victor M. Shapiro, Manager; Chicago Bureau: 407 South Dearborn Street, Edwin S. Clifford, Manager; London Bureau: Remo House, 310 Regent St., London, W. 1, Bruce Allan, Representative. Cable address: "Quigpubco, London"; Berlin Bureau: Berlin Tempelhof , Kaiserin Augustastrasse 28, Joachim K. Rutenberg, Representative; Paris Bureau: 19, Rue de la Cour-desNoues, Pierre Autre, Representative; Rome Bureau: Viale Gorizia, Vittorio Malpassuti, Representative; Sydney Bureau; 600 George Street, Cliff Holt, Representative; Mexico City Bureau: Apartado 269, James Lockhart, Representative; Glasgow Bureau: 86 Dundrennan Road, G. Holmes, Representative; Budapest Bureau: 3, Kaplar-u, Budapest, II, Endre Hevesi, Representative; Moscow Bureau: Civtzev Vrazhek, N. 25, Apart. 146, Moscow, U. S. S. R., Bella Kashin, Representative. Cable address: "Samrod, Moscow." Entered as second class matter, January 4, 1926, at the Post Office at New York City, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year: $6 in the Americas, except Canada $15 and foreign $12. Single copies: 10 cents. MPTO-IEPA Merger Moves Are Dropped (Continued from page 1) least. The committee reported that members of the M.P.T.O. unit would save money on equipment and insurance through a merger. A resolution condemning the practice of distributors of interchanging percentage pictures following a showing in a territory was passed at the meeting, at which Lewen Pizor, elected president last week, was installed. Mexico's '34 Film Output SO Features (Continued from page 1) were started late in 1934 will be finished this month and released early in February. The 1935 schedule for Mexican producers calls for making 36 full-length features. They will make no shorts, this year. Dinner for Boettinger Hollywood, Jan. 11. — Hays office employes here will give John Boettinger a stag dinner tonight. He leaves tomorrow by plane for the east. Fox Ends Disc Sales Fox exchanges are dropping all accounts using disc reproduction. Looking 'Em Over The Wandering Jew (Olympic Pictures) A serious subject, fraught with strong possibilities of creating much discussion and even controversy. Adapted from the well known play by E. Temple Thurston, "The Wandering Jew" tells of the legend of the man who spat on Christ as He traveled His journey to Calvary and thereafter was doomed to wander the globe, deprived of the haven and the peace in death until Christ returns to the earth. The film version, which was produced by Twickenham Studios of London and directed by Maurice Elvey, is divided into four phases. The first takes place in Jerusalem where the premise is established. The second is centered in Antioch in the time of the First Crusade. The third in Palermo in the 13th century, and the fourth, which is the most telling dramatically, in Spain during the height of the power of the Holy Inquisition. Conrad Veidt fills the dominant spot in all four. The premise maintains that the Jew, committed to eternal wandering, must so do to expiate his misdemeanor. In the first three episodes, the character delineation mapped for Veidt paints him in cynical and almost brutal colors and, because of that, may arouse Jewish opposition. In the fourth, Veidt appears as a kindly, soul-saving physician who meets the displeasure of the inquisitors through the beneficence bestowed upon a woman of the streets and because, a Jew, he is also a heretic. The implication in the latter portions is that Veidt, weary of his wanderings and in final, full realization of his cardinal sin, has learned the full import of his error and, welcoming death, is accorded divine relief, not at the stake to which he is pinioned, but by intercession from a higher power. This is the picture which M-G-M purchased some months back and then dropped after rabbinical circles in New York had made urgent protest. Since that time, the understanding is the original version, admittedly anti-Semitic in certain of its content, has been edited from eleven to nine reels. The current version at the Criterion bears visible evidences of the process of emasculation to which the production has been submitted. Controversial in the extreme if for no other reason than several versions of the legend of "The Wandering Jew" are extant, this British picture strikes this reviewer as argumentative in the extreme. Whether or not it will prove itself good box-office is a question which he is not prepared to determine and so urges exhibitors who contemplate booking it to see for themselves what the film has to offer. In point of performance, Veidt stands out above all others. In the Spanish sequence, in particular, does he deliver the most powerful of acting jobs. The production itself has been made on a lavish and colorful scale. It is replete with pageantry and the glamour of periods and times long since relegated to history. In the main, it is accurate to diagnose the dramatic values as interesting and occasionally high. No production code seal. Running time, 83 minutes. "A." KANN Vanni Silent on Shift A. J. Vanni, who recently resigned as manager of the Poli, New Haven, to become Warner district manager handling all theatres outside of Philadelphia, refused to comment on his new association yesterday when queried by Motion Picture Daily. He referred all questions to the Warner home office. Vanni left for New Haven last night after a one-day stay in New York. "Forsaking" $135,000 "Forsaking All Others" wound up a 17-day run at the Capitol with a gross of $135,000. For the first three days, the take was $33,000, for the next seven, $66,000, and the last week $36,000. House Drops "PresidenF Omaha, Jan. 11. — Complaints caused the "The President Vanishes" to be pulled at the Orpheum, Blank house, last night as preparations for its opening had been completed. Upstage Stars Irk K. C. (Continued from page 1) doors in their compartments, and the reporters and cameramen leave empty-handed. This naturally reflects on the local men, and they are burning up, as it puts them on a spot with the dailies. What they cannot understand is that while publicity departments spend large sums of money to obtain publicity, why they cannot persuade their personalities to condescend to interviews during train stops at the Union station. St. Louis Jury Indicts Para., Warners, RKO (Continued from page 1) Abel Cary Thomas, Warner secretary and general counsel; Ned Depinet, president of RKO Distributing Corp., and George Schaefer, who is listed as president of the three Paramount subsidiaries named. The action is the result of a feud growing out of transfer of control of the Ambassador, Missouri and Grand Central theatres from Warner control to that of a company organized by Allen L. Snyder. Fanchon & Marco operate the houses for this new company. Snyder was the complainant in this case. He charged a conspiracy to shut off first run product from his houses for the benefit of the Shubert and Orpheum now operated by Warners. Block booking did not enter into the local investigation, it has been learned, although it was said the probe went beyond the angles of the original complaint and that its inception has caused the Department of Justice to extend its investigation to Hollywood. Carlisle Only Film Man to Report Stock (Continued from page 1) to disclose that any other reports have been received from men in the film industry, although for the past six months the law has required that the holder of more than 10 per cent of the stock of any corporation, the stock of which is dealt in on any exchange, must report any changes in his holdings within a month after they occur. A fine of $10,000 or two years imprisonment or both, is provided for violation of the law. Worker Insurance Up in California (Continued from page 1) on 65 per cent of the workers' average weekly wage, the committee recommended. Contributions would begin Jan. 1, 1936, with benefit payments starting Jan. 1, 1937, to workers who had lost their jobs either temporarily or permanently because of business conditions. Part time employes would be exempted from payments. Short Service Sunday Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock at the Congregational Church, Amityville, L. I., for Dr. William H. Short, director of the M. P. Research Council, who died suddenly Thursday in Philadelphia. The body will be shipped to the Short home in Wisconsin for burial immediately after the services. Dr. Short is survived by his widow, four sons, James S., Frederick W., Robert D. and Douglas F. Short, and a daughter, Frances E. Short. Kent to Return Jan. 23 S. R. Kent, president of Fox, is due back from the coast Jan. 23.