Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1946)

Wednesday, January 9, 1946 Motion Picture Daily 3 Reviews "Abilene Town" (United Artists-Jules Levey) A PHASE of the bitter and violent struggle between the hard-bitten cattle barons and the ambitious homesteaders for possession of the Great Plains of the West in the decade following the Civil War provides the story and background for this action melodrama produced by Jules Levey. Starring Randolph Scott and Ann Dvorak, "Abilene Town" is an exciting and interesting film with good proportions of romance and suspense and delivers solid entertainment on the screen. The locale of this saga, which derives from the Ernest Haycox novel, "Trail Town," is Abilene, Kansas, in 1870. Being the railroad terminal town for the herds of cattle being driven up from Texas and the homesteaders moving out of the East to settle the Great Plains, Abilene is tense since the two groups have become avowed enemies. Scott is the local marshal in Abilene and Miss Dvorak is the singer of sultry songs in one of the local bistros. Abilene is a town divided within itself, the good folk liroing one side of the main street and the lawless elements the other. Even Scott's backers, the local merchants headed by Edgar Buchanan, waver between support of the lawful homesteaders and the lawless cattle barons, but Scott is determined to bring law and order to Abilene. He has a supporter in Rhonda Fleming, daughter of Buchanan, and an opponent in Miss Dvorak, with whom he is in love. With the support of the homesteaders following a crisis in the lawlessness, Scott brings order to Abilene town and wins Miss Dvorak. Edwin L. Marin's direction serves to highlight the action and to keep things moving rapidly. Levey has provided a satisfactory production for this type of film. Herbert J. Biberman was associate producer and Harold Shumate did the screenplay. Miss Dvorak sings three songs appealingly. Scott is adequate as the fearless marshal. Others in the cast include Lloyd Bridges, Helen Boice, Howard Freeman, Richard Hale and Jack Lambert. Running time, 89 minutes. General audience classification. To be released Jan. 11. Milton Livingston "Because of Him" ( Universal) DEANNA DURBIN'S sure-fire vocal equipment has been almost completely by-passed for the second time in recent months, and, consequently, Universal's "Because of Him" doesn't quite measure up to the mark of some of the Durbin musicals. She does provide three songs, however, and they are the high spots of the film. Charles Laughton is extremely effective as he broadly plays a famous stage star, while Franchot Tone is more than capable in the role of a playwright. Edmund Beloin's screenplay, from an original by himself and Sig Herzig, concerns Miss Durbin's attempts to worm her way into the leading lady role of Laughton's new Broadway play in the face of the determined opposition of Laughton and Tone, the author. She wangles an introduction to Stanley Ridges, Laughton's manager, by getting Laughton to autograph the letter of introduction ; pulls a suicide gag that is stage-managed by her friend, Helen Broderick, and by stubborn persistence convinces Laughton that she can act. But Tone, although the love-light glimmers in his eye, remains unconvinced, and he is not going to have an amateur messing up his play. Tone quits as stage director and has his name removed as the play's author. The play is a hit and Laughton alters the closing lines to steer Miss Durbin into Tone's arms. Richard Wallace directed smoothly, Felix Jackson produced, with Howard Christie as his associate. Miss Durbin scores with "Danny Boy" and also effectively sings Rogers' and Hart's "Lover." Donald Meek is neat in his role of a butler. Running time, 88 minutes. General classification. Release date, Jan. 18. Charles Ryweck Trial Briefs {Continued from page 1) tistics as though the sharp competition between the defendants did not exist and imputes to each defendant the consequences of the aggregate ownership of all the defendants," it maintains. "The primary issue is — has the government proved a conspiracy to restrain and monopolize?", the Warner brief declares. "If contrary to our expectation, there should be any finding against us of transgression, it is then true that the government certainly has an additional headache of titanic proportions in claiming that the relief should be destruction of the industry by divorcement," it contends. The RKO brief, 56 pages and a supplement of 63 pages, declares : "The primary issue raised by this hearing is whether RKO either in the course of its operation as an integrated unit or by combination or conspiracy with any other defendant or defendants, has committed any acts which unreasonably restrain or monopolize interstate commerce in violation of the Sherman Act." 20th-Fox Position In its 64-page brief, 20th CenturyFox and National Theatres concludes : "A judgment having been heretofore entered herein by consent of all the parties, the government's failure to make out any case of law violation does not permit a judgment dismissing the complaint. . We submit that a supplemental decree should now be entered endorsing the decree of Nov. 20, 1940, in so far as it is now extant and specifically denying the government's prayer for further relief." Loew's brief is not yet available. Conclusions in Paramount's 65-page brief were given in Motion Picture Daily yesterday, as well as in the brief filed on behalf of Universal and United Artists by Edward C. Raftery, which questions the very necessity of such a brief in view of the paucity of the case stated by the government among these two defendants. "In view of the' fact government's counsel had seen fit to at least mention United Artists and Universal about thirty times in its brief, in the interest of caution, rather than necessity, this brief is submitted," it declares. While distributor defendants with affiliated circuits who were parties to the decree generally suggest modifications of the decree and continuation and broadening of the arbitration provisions, in their briefs the "Little Three" ask for outright dismissal of the action against them. Would Reduce Competition "To apply the rule of the cases relied upon by the government and to decree dissolution rather than enjoin any illegal aspect of the contracts involved," the joint defense brief declares, "would have no effect other than to reduce the competition between the five largest companies in the industry. While this might afford greater opportunities to others who are not in their same position, there is certainly nothing in the Sherman Act which sanctions a leveling process or justifies bestowing upon these others such unearned benefits," it asserts, concluding that the government is entitled to no relief upon the record of the case. Columbia's brief, filed by Schwartz and Frohlich, justifying the practice of selling by the "block-booking" method as inuring to the company under the Copyright Act, declares, "What the government seeks primarily is divorcement of theatres. Since Columbia owns no theatres and never owned any, that relief does not affect Columbia to the slightest degree and does not justify keeping Columbia in the case." Columbia's argument is that the government only introduced two forms of license agreements and six contracts out of over 100,000 contracts made by the company over a 10-year period and examined by the government. Columbia denies that these contracts are tainted with some illegality as the government suggests. The defendants emphasize in their briefs that in and of themselves they do not possess the ability to enjoy a monopoly of the industry as the government has charged and hit repeatedly at the method of joining defendants together to arrive at statistics. Four 20th Managers Win European Trip Atlanta, Jan. 8. — Harry G. Ballance, 20th Century-Fox division sales manager here, and Paul Wilson, Atlanta district manager, will join winners from other sections .on an expenses-paid four-week tour of European capitals as rewards for their outstanding achievement in a sales drive conducted by the company. Ballance's division, which includes both the Atlanta-Southeastern and Dallas-Southwestern offices, made a clean sweep of the sales race. The Southeastern office, sparked by Wilson, romped home with first place in the district's race, while the Southwestern office in Dallas, under Phil Langdon, attained second place. In addition to Wilson, Ballance and Langdon, Ernest Landaiche of the New Orleans office will make the trip to Berlin, Paris, London and Rome. The party will fly to Europe. Telegraph Strike (Continued from page 1) ficials of the American Communications and Equipment Workers, 6,000 of whose members currently are striking against Western Electric, have served notice that they will throw picket lines around telephone exchanges throughout the country this morning. This repair workers' union is an affiliate of the National Federation of Telephone Workers which has a membership of 263,000 who would not be expected to cross the picket lines. Western Union personnel outside New York are associated with American Federation of Labor and not a party to the strike. Paramount Gets Break At industry home offices telephones provided an adequate substitute for Western Union service. Paramount appeared to be the least affected with a teletype machine linking it with the studio through telephone facilities. Other telegraphic machines at the home offices are operated through Western Union and were not functioning. WAC Distribution (Continued from page 1) means of distribution to be provided accepted government pictures, it is understood here. This would of course cover, additionally, films from other sources such as the American Red Cross which is readying a feature in conjunction with its 1946 drive. This would indicate that no new distribution organization would be formed. The matter of contact between the committee and exhibition's Theatre Activities Committee, now being organized, reportedly has yet to be given definite consideration. It is understood that a distributor policy will be allowed to work itself out with the handling of the first few pictures from outside sources. 20th-Fox Managers (Continued from page 1) Neger, formerly sales and office manager of the Indianapolis exchange, has been appointed manager of the Milwaukee branch replacing Harold L. Beecroft, formerly manager of 20thFox's Milwaukee exchange, who has been appointed manager at Dallas, under Harry G. Ballance, Southern sales manager. Vincent J. Dugan, former salesman in Salt Lake City, has been promoted to manager of Denver, replacing Arthur Abeles, who has resigned to go into business for himself. J. M. Podoloff, manager at Minneapolis prior to entering the Navy, and recently discharged, has been named manager at San Francisco. Dietz and Spring (Continued from page 1) conditions in England and on the Continent. Dietz will familiarize himself with production and distribution and will confer also with Ben Goetz, head of the company's production activities in England. He plans to return here by plane about the middle of next month.