Motion Picture Daily (July–Sept 1938)

Uscay, September 13, 1938 MOTION PICTURE DAILY fara. Studies (lew Houses in Great Britain Hollywood Preview (Continued from page 1) jr. Griffis reported. He said that jiiiess optimism was marked among f company's representatives in key St? abroad and the expectancy is ,u the improvement will continue. Mr. Griffis reported that Parapunt's first two British productions ; nearing completion, one starring nth Chatterton and the other, Elisath Bergner. The third production 11 be "Lawrence of Arabia" which probably star Leslie Howard. ik minor quota picture may be made addition to these to complete Faraount's British quota requirements for € season, he said. Ben Goetz, in charge of British proMrtion for M-G-M, was also a pasnger on the Normandie. He ought with him a print of "The itadel," which was completed at the fmpany's British studio just prior his departure. Mr. Goetz left for e coast by plane last night where will spend two weeks conferring ith studio officials on the company's iture productions in England. "Mr. Chips" Is Next The next picture to go into work, [r. Goetz said, will be "Goodbye Mr. hips," starring Robert Donat. Disctors, cameramen, technicians and robably some players will be as!gned to this and other M-G-M prouctions in England by the Culver By studio, he said, but specific asIgnments will not be determined un1 he has conferred with west coast fiicials. Mr. Donat was another X ormandic assenger. He said he planned to regain in New York for two weeks. His ontract with M-G-M calls for five lore pictures. He will make two conecutively and then have six months yc stage work before starting his lird and fourth picture, he said. Sonja Henie, another Nortiiandic rrival, will go to Chicago at the end f the week for a brief visit before eturning to Hollywood to begin work •n her next picture, "Love Interest," or 20th Century-Fox. She spent most •f her vacation in her native Xorwav. "Too Hot to Handle" (.M-G-M) Hollywood, Sept. 12. — "Too Hot To Handle" is full of excitement. There's something interesting doing all the time. In condensed fashion it embraces all the thrills of a bizarre serial. It has a travelogue background— war-blasted Shanghai, Xew York City, rural up-state, in a plane above a burning ship at sea, and the Brazilian jungles. Clark Gable and Myrna Loy are the stars. Their work pars, sometimes excels, that of any of the six preceding pictures in which they have been teamed. Walter Pidgeon is Gable's professional and romantic rival. They constitute a skillful trio, performing always in crowd-pleasing style. Walter Connolly's agonies, pestered by Gable, suffering divorce and alimony troubles, provoke wild laughter. Leo Carrillo, Henry Kolker, Marjorie Main, Willie Fung, the other support players, hold the pace set by the featured contingent. The Len Hammond story, the screenplay by Laurence Stallings and John Lee Mahin, gave the players something substantial to work on. Director Jack Conway took advantage of that quality. In "Too Hot To Handle," Producer Lawrence Weingarten has delivered exhibitors an attraction they can exploit to the skies. It tells the story of newsreels and newsreel camera men. Its Gable and Carrillo in Shanghai, getting and missing shots, driving the boss back in New York, played by Connolly, frantic ; scooping and being scooped by Pidgeon, faking shots when double-crossed by him. Framed by Pidgeon, he crashes his car into Miss Loy's plane, rescues her from the naming wreckage, falls in love with her. He quits his assignment and escorts her back to New York. Romance grows and he learns the story of her jungle-lost, but believed living, brother. The sequences devoted to photographing the burning munitions-laden ship are sensationalism plus that won merited applause. Pidgeon makes him share them, though as a price of his silence that concerned the duplicity Gable practiced on Loy. Both are fired by their respective bosses. They hock the equipment to provide Loy with funds to go in search of her brother. The picture moves into the jungles. Gable outmagics the voodoo medicine man and finds the missing man. While hokum is stressed to the breaking point, he and Carrillo photograph Pidgeon and Miss Loy rescuing the long lost man. Gable's shots of the event are the sensation of the nation when the rescue party arrives in New York. Connolly is triumphant. But Gable is out shooting a blood and thunder gangster roundup when Miss Loy finds him again. Running time. 105 minutes. "G." G. McC. Theatre Gains Big, Reports On Drive Show (.Continued from page 1) attendance increases, according to campaign officials. All circuits have been requested to send in reports on weekly business, with comparisons, if possible, with the period immediately prior to the start of the campaign and with the same period a year ago. Comprehensive reports from circuits other than the two named have not been received yet, it was said. The reports on hand indicate that current business is running 20 to 45 per cent ahead of the weeks immediately preceding the opening of the campaign and is approximating the business done a year ago in many sectors. Few reports thus far, however, show any substantial gain over the figures for the same period last year. Campaign headquarters plans to issue periodic reports on business as information is received from national circuits and the field. It is expected that it will require several weeks more before a comprehensive picture of boxoffice results from the campaign's "Movie Quiz" prize contest and national advertising can be obtained. Dakota Appeal Move To Be Made Shortly (Continued from page 1) :ually automatic, although it may rejuire some time to obtain the signatures of the three Federal judges who pnstituted the statutory court which -uled on the North Dakota law, as all .hree are presiding in widely sepa"ated jurisdictions at this time. It is believed, however, that the appeal papers will be filed with the U. S. Supreme Court in Washington by midOctober. Republic Signs Another Republic Pictures of Missouri is the latest franchise holder to sign Republic's new five-year franchise which increases the percentage to the distributing company. Barney Rosenthal and Nat E. Steinberg, heads of the Missouri company, have returned to St. Louis after closing the pact. Canada Film Imports From U. S. Show Gain (Continued from Page 1) film imports from the United States and France, while those from Great Britain were reduced. The footage during the past fiscal year from the United States was 3,347,186, compared with 3,050,249 for the year 1936-37; imports from France rose to 1,482,822 feet for the last fiscal 12 months from 1,160,000 feet. Films from the United Kingdom totalled 560,367 feet, against 967,000 feet for the prior year, a decrease of 406,633 feet. The value of motion picture imports from the respective countries for 1937-'38 was reported as follows : United States, $266,968; France, $119,104, and United Kingdom $44,761. The heavy increase in films from France was due to the growing demand for French-language pictures in the French-Canadian sections of the Dominion, principally Quebec, Northern Ontario and Manitoba. Warners Sign Hopkins Hollywood. Sept. 12— Warners have signed Miriam Hopkins for two films. The first picture scheduled for the actress is a version of James Hilton's novel, "We Are Not Alone." Production is set to begin some time next month. Hays Explains Drive As Radio Hour Guest Will H. Hays, as a guest last night on the Lux "Radio Theatre," took the radio audience behind the scenes to explain the Motion Pictures' Greatest Year drive. The campaign was undertaken, he said, to "earn more friends" for the film business. He "broke down" the motion picture dollar, explaining how 65 cents of every consumer dollar remains in the community in which it is spent, 10 cents goes to the distributor and only 25 cents goes to Hollywood. Oklahoma Lining U p Big MPTOA Program (Continued from page 1) Mr. Loewenstein, display booths ; Byron F. (Dinty) Moore, entertainment; J. H. Griffith, Jr., and R. R. Falls, golf. Affairs for the women will be handled bv Mrs. H. R. Falls, Mrs. C. O. Fulgham, Mrs. J. H. Griffith, Jr., Miss Ona Johnson and Mrs. B. F. Moore. Karns Quits Paramount Hollywood, Sept. 12. — Roscoe Karns left Paramount today after six years, planning a European trip before making a new affiliation. "Quiz" Contest Going Big, Saunders Finds Great patronage interest in the "Movie Quiz" contest in the midwest was found by E. M. Saunders, M-G-M division manager, during a field trip from which he returned yesterday. Gone five weeks, Mr. Saunders observed the start of the drive during his tour, and says that while in some cities the demand for the booklets started slow, it later gained considerable momentum. Quiz Books in Demand Mr. Saunders said that exhibitors are finding the plan of "making the patrons ask for the booklets" and not passing them out indiscriminately is working out to good advantage, as requests show definite interest. This was the intention of the drive committee in recommending this method of distribution to theatre managers. All of M-G-M's big circuit deals are now closed and the field men are concentrating on the secondary accounts, Mr. Saunders said. A number of deals were signed during his swing of the western territory, which included visits to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Chicago, Kansas City and Detroit. Theatre business has been definitely on the upswing in the last three or four weeks, Mr. Saunders reports. Hit Drive Ignoring Air Philadelphia, Sept. 12. — The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, meeting here over the weekend, adopted a resolution "deploring the discourtesy displayed to radio" by the motion picture industry in concentrating its expenditures for its Motion Pictures' Greatest Year campaign in other media than radio.