Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1941)

6 Motion Picture daily Wednesday, December 3, 194 Censor in NY Bans Only 8 Films in Year (Continued from page 1) eliminations in 111 films the previous year. Statutory reasons were : indecent, 241 ; inhuman, 35 ; tending to incite to crime, 18; immoral or tending to corrupt morals, 195, and sacrilegious, 14. Reduction in rejections and eliminations was due, Esmond said, in part to frequent conferences between his division and license applicants, as well as with producers and exhibitors, whereby it was possible to suggest a plan of revision of pictures in order to relieve them of objections under the statute. Record Receipts in Year Gross receipts of the division for the year ending June 30, 1941, were the greatest in the 20-year history of the censor board. The income totaled $316,095 for the 12 months, as against $311,800 the preceding year. Expenditures were up to $68,418 as contrasted with $63,877, with a net revenue to the state of $247,677 against $247,922 for 1939-'40. Since the board's inception Aug. 1, 1921, to June 30, 1941, the state has received $4,710,170, expending a total of $1,446,521, with net revenue of $3,263,648. The revenue is derived chiefly from a charge of $3 per reel oh originals and $2 per reel on prints. From 22 Countries Although foreign pictures dropped sharply, Esmond reported the same number of foreign countries, 22, was represented, although they were not always the same countries. Foreignmade pictures reviewed were from : Great Britain and its possessions, Germany, France, China, Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, Italy, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Austria, Argentina, Norway, Cuba, Greece, Palestine, Puerto Rico and Siam. 300 at Screening of Warner Ballet Shorts "Spanish Fiesta" and "The Gay Parisian," Warner two-reel subjects featuring the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, were screened yesterday at Fefe's Monte Carlo for an audience of about 300 persons, including General Eleazer Lopez-Contreras, president of Venezuela ; many of New York's Social Registerites, film personalities and the press. Among those attending were Tamara Toumanova, Mrs. Leonore Warner, Jeffrey Lynn, Monty Woolley, Dorothy Kilgallen, J. Reagan McCrary, Irving Kolodin. Mark Hanna, Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., Tom Beck, A. G. Vanderbilt, and Lucius Beebe. Variety Club Elects In Baltimore Tonight Baltimore, Dec. 2. — Baltimore Tent, No. 19, of the Variety Club will hold its annual election of officers tomorrow night. A special party has been arranged for entertainment of the voters. Reviews "Babes on Broadway" (M-G-M) Hollywood, Dec. 2 WHEN the title-card reading "Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in " Hashed on the screen of the Alexander Theatre in Glendale the paying guests shrieked their delight. When the next title-card announced "Babes on Broadway" they screamed anticipation of the entertainment to come and settled into their seats in a hush of expectancy. Thereafter they alternated between chuckles, howls, bursts of applause and stretches of restlessness, punctuated by a couple of touches of weeping, indicating by their behavior at the end that a lot of entertainment, perhaps even a bit too much, had been witnessed. It is a sort of omnibus-type property that M-G-M has fabricated for its No. 1 Star and his No. 10 associate (their rankings in last year's Motion Picture Herald-Fame poll) and the picture is, as is typical of its kind, very, very good in the good spots and quite to the contrary in the bad ones. It is great stuff when the entertainers are entertaining individually, dually and collectively, in songs, dances, impersonations and satires, and it is, perhaps in part by contrast, extraordinarily inept in the narrative stretches between these numbers. The story with which the players are occupied between musical numbers is another variant of the tale about people who want to stage a show but lack funds. Fred Finkelhoffe and Blaine Ryan, who wrote it, devised a number of switches and angles, some good and some hard to take, but whatever virtue or cost there may be in audience recognition can be counted on to manifest itself. The names, as listed, are Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Fay Bainter, Virginia Weidler, Ray McDonald, Richard Quine, Donald Meek, Alexder Woollcott, Luis Alberni, James Gleason, Emma Dunn, Frederick Burton, Cliff Clark and William Post, Jr. Rooney, top man in a trio which includes McDonald and Quine, supplies half a dozen sparkling sessions of song and dance, topping them and himself with a burlesque of Carmen Miranda which had the customers screaming. McDonald twice takes over complete command of camera and set, soloing in two dances — one of them interrupted three times by audience applause — which establish him alongside Fred Astair and Ray Bolger. It is as a musical, of course, that showmen will be exploiting the attraction and in doing so they are warranted in going the limit. They can say, for instance, that the picture contains 15 musical numbers, among them some of the best they've ever seen, and they can promise that Busby Berkeley, director of the picture, has seen it to that all of his past experience in the field of dance direction is reflected in the enterprise. Produced by Arthur Freed, manifestly with complete liberty as to budget, the picture is strong enough in music and in solo performances to be forgiven its story. Running time, 118 minutes. "G."* Roscoe Williams A "Dr. Kildare's Victory" {M-G-M) NEW love in the person of Ann Ayars enters the life of "Dr. Kildare" to fill the spot made vacant by the "death" of Laraine Day in the previous issue in this series. While it may take some time for Miss Ayars to win the affection in the hearts of the audiences which Miss Day achieved over a period of time and many pictures, Miss Ayars gives every indication that she is entirely capable of filling the spot. At least for Miss Ayar's first picture in the series, Lew Ayers pays little attention to her wiles, apparently still mourning the death of his former sweetheart. Cast as a debutante glamour girl, Miss Ayars is brought to the hospital with a piece of glass piercing her heart. After a successful operation by Ayers (with Lionel Barrymore on the sidelines explaining what takes place), she has a rapid recovery and promptly falls in love with her doctor. The picture ranks well up with the rest of the series. A fellow-interne ( Robert Sterling) of Kildare's is dismissed for violating a rule which required him to bring Miss Ayars to another hospital because of a territorial division between the two institutions. Sterling plans to go ahead with his marriage to Jean Rogers, a nurse, but the latter is also dismissed when she sends away a patient in observance of the same rule. Finally, Barrymore and Ayers succeed in planting a story of the episode in the newspapers and a more humanitarian rule is effected, together with the reinstatement of Sterling and Miss Rogers. Alma Kruger, Walter Kingsford, Nell Craig, Edward Gargan, Marie Blake, Frank Orth and George H. Reed are among the rest of the cast. Major W. S. Van Dyke II directed. Running time, 92 minutes. "G."* Edward Greif * "G" denotes general classification. Housewife Matinee Philadelphia, Dec. 2 T OCAL theatres offer deJ—d fense worker matinees and children's matinees for the convenience of such patronage, and now the 56th St. Theatre comes forward with "Housewives' Matinees." To enable the housewife to come early and leave early, and still be able to see the whole afternoon show, the * new policy calls for the 1 matinees to start at 1 P.M., heretofore starting at 2 P.M. The policy will prevail from Mondays through Fridays. RKO Annual Drive Will Begin Dec. 2t The RKO annual billings drive wil be known as the 1942 Ned DepincDrive, and will run for 20 weeks from Dec. 20 to May 8. Depinet i vice-president in charge of distribu tion. Nat Levy, Eastern district man ager, will be drive captain, and witl Harry Gittleson, editor of Flash house organ, will start Monday on ; tour of exchanges. Sales Manager A. W. Smith, Jr. Eastern Division Manager Rober Mochrie, Western Division Manage Walter B ranson and Canadian Di vision Manager Leo Devaney wil join the trip at intervals during it visit to 38 branches in the Unite: States and Canada.. The various dis trict managers also will tour with th captain in their respective territories which include : Northeastern, Gu Schaefer ; Eastern Central, Charle Boasberg ; Southeastern, Davii Prince ; Midwestern, Jack Osserman Prairie, L. E. Goldhammer ; Rock Mountain, H. C. Fuller ; Western, j H. Maclntyre. Elliott to Do Jungle Film for Monogran Hollywood, Dec. 2. — Clyde E. El liott, producing director of Fran Buck's "Bring 'Em Back Alive," ha signed with Monogram to produce new adventure film in the Sout American wilds. He will leave shortly for a stay c several months in the jungles c Matto Grosso and the Amazon are; He plans to expose about 200,00 feet of film. The picture will trace th adventures of a young man explorin the jungles. The tentative title i "Catch 'Em Alive." PRC Expands Its Field Sales Ford The field force of Producers Re leasing Corp. has been expanded b Arthur Greenblatt, general sales man ager. New salesmen appointed are Oliver Wog, Los Angeles ; Georg Cooper, Milwaukee ; J. B. Cummin' Atlanta ; J. Brimmer, Omaha ; F. . Lee, Denver ; Mark Ross, Chicago. A number of new circuit deals i the Midwest, South and East hav been closed, according to Leon From) kess, executive vice-president. Form Producing Firm Sacramento, Dec. 2. — Capitalize at $200,000, ABC Picture Co. ha been incorporated here to produc motion pictures and television prr