Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1937)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Wednesday, March 3, 1937 i Purely Personal ► NL. NATHANSON and the • missus, back from Miami, at "21" yesterday, to Toronto shortly and back to Florida for the M. P. T. O. convention. J. Robert Rubin lunching with Gilbert Miller whose play, "The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse," opened the Hudson last night. Sylvia Sidney had a date with Herb Cruikshank and Irving Hoffman, who had to tear himself away from Helen Morgan to keep it. Willard McKay started out by his lonesome, but shortly thereafter was joined by Leslie E. Thompson, Herman Robbins, Charles B. Paine and Dave Palfreyman. Seen here and there, as well, were Jerry Morris and Cecelia Auger; Jack Connolly, who sails the end of April to handle coronation coverage for Pathe News ; Jack Pearl, his wife and Mrs. Ed Sulli A. W. Smith, Jr., yesterday lunched with Buck Wilder, Virginia independent circuit owner, at the Tavern. Wilder is spending a few days in town renewing acquaintances. At another table Bill Powers, George Weeks and James Davidson talked about G.B. product in National Theatres. The Monday Knighters were represented by Charles Moses, Mitchell Klupt, Harry Shiffman, Henry Brown, Leo Justin, Morris Jacks and Irving Wormser. Joan Eberson discussed theatre electrical work with Charles Weinstein. Harry C. Arthur and Irving Lesser took a liking to apple dumplings, while Charles Leonard and Rodney Bush talked about Walter Wanger's advertising program. Anna Rosenthal, legal head of Grand National, had Elizabeth North as her guest. J. J. Milstein grabbed a quick bite and left early. Marvtn Schenck was sporting his newly acquired Miami tan. Mary Pickford, Glenda Farrell, Ruth Chatterton, Winifred Shotter, Gilbert Miller, Hassard Short and Max Baer are sailing today on the Berengaria. TO LOS ANGELES FLY "FIRST-CLASS' SLEEP Overnight in new FLAGSHIPS Over the all-year Southern Transcontinental Route, in NEW 14-berth Flagship Sleepers; the most luxurious, quietest, longest-range planes. Fly on the AMERICAN MERCURY, 3 stops only. Phone VAnderbilt 3-2580 or your travel agent Ticket Office — 45 Vanderbilt Ave. mom AIRLINES inc. Ingenious Crime Play Well Turned; A Cinch for Films Murder with charm, with criminal psychology and pathology tossed in to make it further intricate, took place on the comfortably filled stage of the Hudson Theatre last night. It had to do with Dr. Clitterhouse, an amazing fellow who tired of the routine of private practice for something more stimulating scientifically. What do thieves think about as they go about their pilfering? Does their blood pressure jump? Do their nerves tingle ? Dr. Clitterhouse did not know. He did not believe medical science knew and so he set out on a one-man crime wave to find out. Four burglaries came and went and even the doctor's good friend, Chief Inspector Charles of the Yard never suspected what might happen under an apparently normal veneer when it scratches itself into action. With the Law as Accomplice The eminent doctor even turns to the inspector for Scotland Yard's triple A recommendation of the safest "fence" in London. That contact once established, Clitterhouse, at last, is face to face with the genuine article. In fact, he is it. This gives him opportunity to take blood tests and to otherwise disport himself scientifically to the mystification of his gang. When he and his notebook have had their fill, his guinea pig ex pedition is over. But Kellerman, the "fence," is suspicious and, by remembering his respectable youth as a watchmaker, plants a paper contraption under the telephone dial which turns informer by revealing the number Clitterhouse always calls from crime headquarters. The other end, quite naturally, is his office on the more discreet side of the tracks. Finally in Too Deep At any rate, Clitterhouse discovers there is no such crime as the perfect one when Kellerman makes an appearance demanding not only the notes from which were to spring the Clitterhouse treatise but that the doctor go in for safe-cracking. Not much left to do but to drop heroin in Kellerman's whiskey, take him off to the country and drop him in the river. But on the body is found the doctor's telephone number and the net closes in. Comes Sir William Grant, K C. and a friend, to hear the story and to stake his reputation on freedom for the doctor through the casual observation he must have been mad. And thus, off goes Clitterhouse to the Yard, the inference being this is one genteel murderer who will escape punishment for his crime. It sounds strange, perhaps, to describe such a proceeding as entertainingly and thoroughly diverting, we're sorry — no, we're glad — but they are and vastly so. Sir Cedric Hardwicke is quietly amusing and very competent, as usual, as the experimental medico. The cast, each in its way, is made up of jewels of performance under Lewis Allen's stage direction and the successful Gilbert Miller's production aegis. This is the play by Barre Lyndon which was such a success in London and will be here. It is too ingenious and too Drop Sherman Bail In Union Fund Case {Continued from page 1) discharged on recommendation of Irving Mendelson, assistant district attorney, in a 22-page recommendation. Sherman's attorney, Hyman Bushel, said that within the next month he would move for a dismissal of the indictment and that the discharging of the bail was preliminary to such a motion. Sherman was president of 306 from February, 1933, to the summer of 1934. He was accused of taking the money from the union bank account and placing it in safe deposit boxes in the Guarantee Trust Co. The boxes were rented in the name of Charles Beckman, the financial secretary, and access also was given to Charles Hyman, who was then treasurer. Subsequently, the money was withdrawn from the boxes and it is charged it was turned over to Sherman. Sherman claimed the money was used for organization and rehabilitation. When pressed for an explanation Sherman is said to have told members of the union it was none of their business what had been done with the money. However, when different members of the union were questioned by Mendelson, they were unable to present facts showing that Sherman used the money for any but union purposes. S. & C. -Empire Deal To Date from Jan. SI (Continued from page 1) according to an official of the theatre organization, were granted in line with Sam D. Cocalis' plan to boost salaries where employes show their worth. A compulsory savings plan whereby all employes of the Cocalis Amusement Co. put away $2.50 a week is meeting with approval of approximately 55 theatre managers and home office workers, it was stated. Under the plan, the Cocalis circuit contributes a similar amount to the individual savings account. Last year, each employe collected $255. Asked whether the circuit was amenable to an amalgamation of Empire with Local 306, a circuit executive stated that such a move would be beneficial to the organization. Local 306 recently absorbed Allied M.P. Operators and it was reported that efforts would be made to consolidate Empire in the group. The Empire-S. & C. deal which expired Jan. 31 was for five years. completely well wrought to have any other future. Warners ultimately will place "The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" on celluloid as part of their arangement made with Miller some months ago and including "Tovarich." Under the code, of course, Clitterhouse will have to pay for his crime unless the boys in San Fernando Valley can think up another way out. We rather hope they do. Clitterhouse is too nice a bird to have his neck stretched. May Consider Films Act in This Session (Continued from page 1) introduced during this session of Parliament. He said he has noted the suggestion that payments for foreign films released in England should be balanced by payments for British films for export. Urges Divided Quota London, March 2. — F. G. W. Chamberlain, a member of the Bristol Branch of the C.E.A., has suggested in a letter to the Board of Trade that, in any revision of the Films Act, the quota should differentiate between first and second features, and that one first feature should have the value of two second features. He claims that this would prevent American companies using low class British films for quota. Approve New Trade Groups in England (Continued from page 1) sisting of four producers, three studio owners, and two members representing each of the other sections, to draft a constitution, which is planned to embrace every unit engaged in production, including American companies who produce in England. It is considered probable that the F. B. I. Film Group will disappear, and that the new organization may affiliate with the F. B. I. The present Film Group consists of producers only. Michael N. Kearney, present head of the Film Group, is expected to be selected as secretary of the new organization. Allan Messer Named To G.B. Directorate (Continued from page 1) board, 20th Century-Fox was given the right to appoint another director. Their original choice, Sydney Wright, an attorney and director of M-G-M and Empire Films, is said to have been rejected at the instance of Ostrer. It was pointed out further that if Messer, who presumably is representative of the 20th Century-Fox interests, had been named earlier, the distribution deal with C. M. Woolf might not have won the approval of the board, since the 20th Century-Fox interests are known to have been in accord with Maxwell in opposition to the Woolf arrangement. Gainsborough Has Loss London, March 2. — Gainsborough Pictures, subsidiary of Gaumont British, has reported a loss of £98,000 for the year 1936. Flash Previews "The Man Who Found Himself — Ordinary fare, telling of a young doctor's mental and professional regeneration. Marks the debut of Joan Fontane. "The Wedding of Palo" — Filmed in the Arctic regions, this is a light, ethnological study of Eskimo life and love. These pictures will be reviewed in full in a coming issue of Motion Picture Daily.