Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1942)

4 Motion Picture Daily Thursday, January 8, 1942 $122,600,000 Box-office Tax Set for '41-42 (Continued from page 1) nine cents, while the 1943 fiscal year will include the elimination of all exemptions, which became effective last Oct. 1. Calling for total expenditures of $59,000,000,000, the financing of the budget will call for an additional tax revenue of $7,000,000,000, the President said. Details of the tax program will be laid before the House Ways and Means Committee next week by Treasury Secretary Morgenthau. The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to receive $4,991,219, or §77,510 less than was appropriated for this year, the reduction being due largely to the completion of equipment purchases. Of the total, S2,300,000 is for the regular work of the commission under the Communications Act and $2,667,619 for its national defense activities. Reviews St. Louis Complaint Dismissal Reversed (Continued from page 1) tributor to offer a run in accordance with Section 6 of the decree. In its decision, the appeals board criticized the arbitrator for recourse to "technical, legal objections" in arriving at his findings. The board reversed the dismissal of the complaint and directed Loew's to offer the Sosna a run under Section 6 provisions. Costs were assessed against the distributor. It was pointed out during the original hearing that Loew's had furnished the Sosna a number of films but discontinued licensing it because of the theatre's 5 and 10-cent admission scale. The appeals board pointed out that a distributor may move for reopening of a some run proceeding to obtain relief from an award which has the effect of reducing the distributor's revenue, after complying with such an aw^ard. Pathe Laboratories Buys Control of PRC (Continued from page 1) Robert Young represented Pathe Laboratories in the negotiations. Briges said yesterday that an expansion of PRC operations probably will follow the completion of the deal. I lie PRC board of directors will meet here later this month. Adams Named PRC Milwaukee Manager Clevc Adams has been appointed manager of the Milwaukee exchange of Producers Releasing Corp. by J. N. Jovaney, Chicago franchise bolder, who controls the Milwaukee branch. Adams was formerly manager for Grand National in Milwaukee and also in Chicago. Brandt Takes Theatre The Gramercy Park Theatre, 127 East 23rd St., Manhattan, formerly a Rapf & Rudin house, has been taken over by P.randt Theatres. "Valley of the Sun" (RKO) BASED on a story by Clarence Burlington Kelland, which ran serially in the Saturday Evening Post, "Valley of the Sun" is a rip-roaring western filled with fighting Apaches on a rampage, crooked Indian agents, fisticuffs and a first rate cast. Included among the latter are Lucille Ball, James Craig, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Dean Jagger, Billy Gilbert, Peter Whitney, Antonio Moreno and Tom Tyler. Craig finds himself an outlaw after he aids an Indian to escape from the authorities who have given the Indian an unfair trial. Jagger refuses to permit Craig to ride on a stagecoach but the pair meet again just as Jagger is about to marry Miss Ball. The Apaches capture all three, together with Gilbert, the local judge. Craig arranges for their release on the promise that Jagger will return the loot he has swindled from the Indians but the latter double-crosses him and the picture ends with the Apaches staging a big raid, running Jagger out of town and leaving Miss Ball to marry Craig. The Apaches on the war path form the high point in the activity and it is well staged with hundreds of savages swooping down on the town. Other high spots include an Indian marriage ceremony, a test of strength between Craig and Tyler, and a fist fight between Craig and Jagger. Moreno is cast as a friendly Indian chief while Tyler is in the role of Geronimo. Hardwicke, an exiled Englishman, befriends Craig, as does Whitney, who is cast as a half-witted boy. George Marshall directed and Graham Baker produced. Running time, 84 minutes. "G."* Edward Greif "Arizona Terrors" (Republic) THIS is about the swindling land grabber and the modern Robin Hood who comes to the aid of the victims. The western is nicely directed, well played and has a liberal amount of fast action. It's a good one for western audiences. In the principal role is Don "Red" Barry. With him are Lynn Merrick, Al St. John, Reed Hadley, John Maxwell, Frank Brownlee, Rex Lease, Lee Shumway and Tom London. In the story Hadley poses as a Spanish nobleman and claims ownership of the grazing land in the territory. After his claim is upheld in court, he imposes stiff taxes on the ranchers, evicting those unable to pay. Barry and St. John thereupon go about as the "Ghost Riders," rob the collectors and return the money to the ranchers. The two are jailed and sentenced to die. The sheriff, Shumway, fakes an execution and permits the two to escape. The big showdown comes and Hadley is exposed. George Sherman was director and associate producer. Running time, 56 minutes. "G."* Eugene Arneel 'Road to Happiness' (M onogram) Hollytvood, Jan. 7 JOHN BOLES' first picture in some time is of a kind and quality to set the customers complaining about his long absence from pictures. It is a story of a father and his son, Billy Lee portraying the latter, told with sincerity and considerable power in direct sequence. Boles matches his vocal proficiency, displayed in three songs, with an acting job of the best. Produced by Scott H. Dunlap, one of whose talents is the accomplishment of maximum results from minimum budgets, the film is a treatment by Robert D. Andrews of Matt Taylor's American Magazine story, "First Performance." Phil Rosen directed with sureness and essential simplicity a cast which includes Mona Barrie, Roscoe Karns, Lillian Elliott, Paul Porcasi, Sam Flint, Brandon Hurst, Byron Folger, Selmer Jackson, Harlan Tucker and Antonio Flauri. The picture opens with Boles, a singer with operatic ambitions and training, returning to New York from abroad to find that his wife has divorced him in favor of a millionaire and taken his son into her custody. He regains possession of the boy but cannot find employment, signing up finally as an actor in a radio serial and foregoing his operatic career, which the boy and coincidence ultimately bring into his grasp. It is a plain tale of family relationships told in terms suitable to the nature of the production and its sought market. Running time, 83 minutes. "G."* Roscoe Williams ■ *"G" denotes general classification. Mexico Produced 40 Pictures in 1941 Mexico City, Jan. 7. — Production in 1941 was 40 pictures, an improvement on 1940 when the output was only 27. Production this year is estimated at about 50. Only three of the 21 producers who belong to the Association of Mexican Producers of Motion Pictures reported a 1941 profit. They were Posa Films, S. A., Jesus Grovas & Co., and Films Mundiales, S. A. Unity Keynote of 306 Installation (Continued from page 1) installed included Steve D'Inzillo, vice-president; Nat Doragoff, recording secretary ; Charles Beckman, financial secretary ; James Ambrosio, treasurer; Bert Popkin, New York business agent, and Jack Teitler, Brooklyn business agent. The last four named were reelected. Herman Gelber, newly elected president of Local 306 of the Motion Picture Projectionists Union, filed proceedings yesterday in N. Y. Supreme Court against Matthew M. Levy, former attorney for the union, to compel Levy to surrender all of the union's legal papers in his possession. According to the petition, Levy's retainer expired at the close of 1941, but the latter refused to surrender the papers, claiming a lien of $27,500 for legal services. Gelber contended that only $2,000 is now due Levy. Nathan Frankel has been appointed provisional attorney for the union by Gelber, the petition disclosed. NLRB Backs Reader Guild's Name Change The National Labor Relations Board has notified Paramount, 20th CenturyFox, RKO, Universal, Columbia and Loew's that unless objections are filed before Jan. 10 the name of the collective bargaining agency for screen readers employed in home offices will be chajiged from Screen Readers Guild to Screen Office & Professional Employes Guild Local 109, CIO. The SRG was certified on Sept. 17 but subsequently joined the CIO local and asked the NLRB to change the name. Resume Minn. Trial, Depinet a Witness (Continued from page 1) wyn, Walt Disney, Lang & Stephens, Jerry Brandt and others, whose product his company had sold separately. Depinet injected some humor into the proceedings when he told Judge Albin S. Pearson there is little glamour in film production. "Don't let anyone fool you, your honor," he said. "A studio is just a good, old-fashioned workshop." The hearing will continue tomorrow. Riskin to Do Script Hollywood, Jan. 7. — Robert Riskin has been assigned to write the script of a new "Thin Man" film to star William Powell and Myrna Loy.