Motion Picture Daily (Jul-Sep 1949)

Friday, July 1, 1949 Motion Picture Daily 3 Zanuck Takes (Continued from page 1) ducted by Life, published last week. To blame the exhibitor for his attitude of wanting money-making pictures is wrong, Zanuck said, although he hastened to add that he is not entirely on the other side of the fence. Zanuck told a press meeting at the 21 Club here, prior to his departure for London, that the exhibitor "is not endeavoring enough to push, sell, whet the appetite of his audience for the type of picture which most of us would like to make." Although he explained he meant "successful" films, it was clear that he referred to product which departs from the routine. The exhibitor does not dictate, Zanuck said in effect, but he is a reflection of public tastes. "Possibly," he continued, "he (the exhibitor) has not been aggressive enough in altering the tastes of the public." He indicated that he would like to see theatremen giving unusual film fare special effort, preferred playing time. Twentieth-Fox has a backlog of nine films, which have not seen sent to New York as yet, as Zanuck said, in addition to six which the home office already is set to release, the latter being "House of Strangers," "Come to the Stable," "You're My Everything," "Sand," "Slattery's Hurricane" and "Thieves Highway." Zanuck has a heavy schedule abroad, beginning with foreign production conferences with George Seaton and William Perlberg on "Quartered City," concerning the Berlin airlift, in Berlin. He will then go to London on "Night in the City," to Paris on "The Big Fall," which is from Ernest Hemingway's "My Old Man," and then he will go back to London on editing "The Black Rose." Zanuck said he plans to continue production of films abroad at least for another year and beyond that if quota and other restrictions make it feasible. Review Small, E-L (Continued from page 1) decided before Small's arrival here is uncertain and probably will not be from the Coast late next week for final conferences, there were numerous indications that Young is not disposed to relinquish control of E-L, particularly on the terms proposed. Robert Purcell, who worked out the latest proposal with Serge Semenenko and Small in Hollywood last week, joined the talks with Young here yesterday. Indications are that unless Small agrees to a radical revision of the proposals next week the negotiations will be called off and Young will designate a new E-L studio head to get the company's production under way again. The Small proposals reportedly would give him immediate voting rights to 51 per cent of the E-L stock, which he would pay for on a deferred basis out of future earnings. He would put new working capital into the company but would not assume its existing liabilities. Monogram's Record Of 10 Series in Work Hollywood, June 30.— With the inauguration of a series of James Oliver Curwood stories, Monogram is now in active production on 10 series, it was announced by president Steve Broidy. "This is believed to set an all-time record for any studio," said the company. "Rope of Sand" (Paramount) A HIGH-TENSION melodrama of diamond-lust and vengeance has been 4 -~ provided for the two-fisted talents of Burt Lancaster in "Rope of Sand." It is a neatly polished action film set in the diamond area of South Africa and has an impressive cast that also includes Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sam Jaffe, and the darkly attractive French actress Corinne Calvet in her American debut. The picture should do prosperously in all situations that are receptive to rugged melodramas. Special location shots provide a decided enhancement. _ Once Lancaster returns to the diamond area, presumably to recover some hidden stones, he invites a violent sequence of events, plus some unexpected romance. His chief adversary is the sadistically cruel but clever police commandant, Henreid, who plays a grim cat-and-mouse game with him. Other personalities in the story are Rains, a cagey diamond company official who hires Miss Calvet to use her wiles to lure the secret of the hiding place from Lancaster, first, as part of her strategy, she pits Lancaster and Henreid against one another, but then when she falls in love with Lancaster, the story takes a different course as she tries to save him from the treachery of Henreid. William Dieterle, directing from a story and screenplay by Walter Doniger, has kept events moving relentlessly. The situation finally develops to the point where Lancaster is able to get the diamonds but is forecd into a choice of leaving the country with either the diamonds or Miss Calvet. Love wins. The story is rounded out by some brawls and beatings which seem excessively brutal. Lorre is an oddly-conceived, conspiratorial character who wanders in and out of scenes with offers of selfish help to Lancaster, while Jaffe forcefully portrays a doctor. Performances are effective all around and Miss Calvet looks like a fortunate discovery. Hal B. Wallis produced. Running time, 104 minutes. Adult audience classification. Release date, September 23. Mandel Herbstman M-G-M Sets 10 (Continued from page 1) ton Story" and "In the Good Old Summertime," in Technicolor, and slated as the next attraction for Radio City Music Hall. During August, there will be "The Great Sinner," now in its world premiere at Loew's State on Broadway ; "Madame Bovary," also penciled into the Music Hall, after "In the Good Old Summertime," and "Scene of the Crime." The September schedule calls for "Border Incident," "The Secret Garden" and "That Midnight Kiss," the latter in Technicolor. "The Secret Garden" will be M-G-M's second to be given special treatment before being made available generally to exhibitors. UA Financing (Continued from page 1) week to determine the possibilities of a new plan whereby the owners would provide second-money financing for production with the banks providing first money. It is said here that the objective is for a total of $4,000,000 in new financing and Sears endeavored to determine how much of that amount the banks would provide on condition that the owners put up the balance. Sears already has conferred with West Coast banks on the plan, it is understood. LeRoy Shooting Here Location scenes are being shot here night and day by Mervyn LeRoy for his new M-G-M film, "East Side, West Side." Among locations filmed to date by the producer, who arrived here last weekend with a production crew are LaGuardia Field, Triboro Bridge, Gracie Square, Gramercy Park. E-L Gets Jungle Film "Black Shadows," feature of hitherto-unphotographed Belgian Congo jungles, will be released by EagleLion Films in July. 'P. R.' Meetings (Continued from page 1) MPAA president; Francis Harmon, vice-president, and Ned E. Depinet, RKO president and chairman of the MPAA community and exhibitor relations committee. Depinet will be in Hollywood at the time and will attend the San Francisco meeting if business permits. Cecil B. DeMille, MPIC president, accepted for that organization, which will meet with the MPAA trio in Hollywood on July 13. Date and place for the all-industry meeting which will be held subsequently _ will be determined after all participating organizations have been contacted. Colorado Springs in August has been suggested for the latter meeting at which a permanent administrative organization will be formed and a campaign decided upon. NTFC As Ascap (Continued from page 1) lishers, according to NTFC. The project calls for the assigning of all rights of films produced for television to NTFC, which in turn would register them with the U. S. copyright office in Washington, wait the necessary period, and thereby cancel any prior existing rights. At yesterday's video distribution forum, John Mitchell, sales manager for United Artists Television, stated that films can be produced at costs necessary to meet the demands of video stations, agencies and sponsors. William Roach of O'Brien, Driscoll, Rafferty and Lawlor, discussed the progress of the Television Film Clearance Bureau, of which he is chairman. He explained that current methods being explored for the warranting of copyrights are : working through a bonding agency, and using a check list type of certificate limiting warranties to items checked. General discussion at the session determined that a major factor in the delay in TV film production is the Petrillo ban on video recordings. U. K. <B> Pool (Continued from page 1) try must make up its mind whether it wants a "B" pool or not. If it does, then the language of the agreement must be revised so that the American earnings of British pictures acquired over there will be included in the pool and other deviations prohibited. If the pool is not wanted, they say, the pretense should be abandoned. The decision is up to the American companies and probably will be made in the near future following meetings here. Meanwhile, Universal is the only company with appreciable earnings from British films in this market which has not attempted to side-step the intent of the remittance agreement. Pictures which it has distributed here under its agreement with J. Arthur Rank normally would account for more than $1,000,000 payable to the pool. Universal approved the original agreement, feeling that, as the largest American distributor of British pictures, it had an obligation to encourage their exhibition here. That was the original intent of the "B" pool plan, the feeling being that if the American companies could realize more on British earnings than the annual $17,000,000 they are authorized to withdraw, then effort would be made to get British pictures played here to swell the "B" pool. However, the bulk of Universal's British picture earnings here have been from "Hamlet," which has played special engagements only, most bf them arranged by Universal. It is now apparent that Universal will not put those earnings into the pool unless the entire situation is rectified. If this is not done, it is quite likely that Universal, too, will use the earnings from its British films here in much the same manner other companies already have done. As one Universal official puts it: "We can buy films in England, too." Wirth, Warners (Continued from page 1) Wirth is president of Warner Brothers Service Corp., which, like the cartoon company, is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Pictures. Harold Rodner, vice-president of Warner Service Corp., will assist Wirth. The cartoon characters created by Warner Cartoons include not only Bugs Bunny, whose antics in a dailv newspaper comic strip are serviced by Newspaper Enterprise Association to 600 papers, but also Tweety Pie, the canary; Porky Pig. Daffy Duck. Fabian, 35th (Continued from page 1) anniversary campaigns. Custom-made anniversary accessories, selling aids and novelties are being prepared by National Screen, Hollywood Advertising Co. and the Economy Novelty and Printing Co. A kick-off meeting for all managers has been scheduled for Wednesday, July 6, at the Hotel Astor here. Eagle-Lion Meeting Seattle, June 30.— Meeting today attle at the semi-annual conference of Eagle Lion are Jack Schlaifer, general sales manager; Wally Rucker, Seattle branch manager ; John Leo. district sales manager, San Francisco; Ralph Amacher, Portland branch manager.