Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1950)

Motion Picture Daily Wednesday, May 3, Set Agenda for French Envoys A three-week schedule of activities has been set up for the three French film delegates who will arrive here this morning on the i\6". He de France to familiarize themselves with the Motion Picture Association's of America's Advisory Unit for Foreign Films. The three delegates are: J. P. Frogereais, president of the French Film Producers Association ; Robert Cravenne, executive director of UniFrance Films, and G. Lourau, the French government's deputy director of cinematography. Their initial week will be devoted to study of the Advisory Unit program and various conferences. On May 10 they will meet with MPAA president Eric Johnston in Washington where they will also be feted by the French Embassy. Talks also have been arranged for them there with government officials. A week later they will visit Coast studios, production officials and confer with Joseph I. Breen, Production Code Administrator. British Lion (Continued from page 1) General Film Distributors, has drawn to his new company other former key men in the Rank organization, among them Barrington Gain, who was one of Rank's closest financial advisers; Josef Somlo, former producer and managing director of Rank's Two Cities Films, and Ralph Bromhead, former director and general manager of Rank's Eagle-Lion. Woolf will retain sales supervision within British Lion over his Independent Film Distributors' product. His first picture under the new agreement will be Albert Lewin's "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman," in Technicolor and starring James Mason and Ava Gardner. The picture is now shooting in Spain and will be completed on stages here. The new arrangement insures Woolf's producing units the reasonable use of British Lion's Shepperton Studios, which 20th Century-Fox recently relinquished, transferring its production activities here to Rank studio facilities. British exhibitors received the news of the Woolf-British Lion deal with enthusiasm, certain that it will result in a complete revision of bookings and will ease their film quota obligation problem. American film men here also welcome the new situation, acknowledging that Eric Johnston's unit booking plan had been occasioned only by Rank's tactics in playing good American pictures as second features with questionable British product. They also foresee improved trading conditions, inasmuch as British Lion has no circuit commitments. Rank has progressively curtailed production throughout his organization and this year told stockholders he might discontinue production entirely in June if entertainment tax relief was not forthcoming from the government. The budget went to Parliament last month with no provision for entertainment tax relief. ABPC also has joined in the general tapering off of production activity here for some time past. Reviews 'Colt .45" (Warner Brothers) T IMPRESSIVE production values have been put into "Colt .45," a large* scale outdoor action drama in Technicolor. Randolph Scott and Zachary Scott are the male leads, symbolizing good and evil, respectively, with others in the cast including Ruth Roman, Lloyd Bridges and the late Alan Hale. The story, revolving around the introduction of the new Colt repeating pistols, has all the grand whoop-de-doo that makes Westerns popular. The plot contains greater development than usual in a Western, but with occasional strains on credulity. Randolph Scott portrays a gun salesman who has his Colt pistols stolen by Zachary Scott, a dangerous outlaw. Before long Zachary is terrorizing the frontier, killing and looting in wholesale measure. Randolph vows retribution, but by the time he catches up with Zachary, the latter has a large gang behind him and is deeply entrenched in town corruption. Efforts to expose Zachary backfire, Randolph finds himself mistaken for an outlaw, and as a consequence, has to take it on the run. Another angle of the story involves a romance between Randolph and Miss Roman whose weakling husband, Bridges, is killed by Zachary after the two outlaws have a falling out. Helped by a friendly tribe of Indians, Randolph vanquishes the outlaw gang, and in a hangup climax, puts the finishing touches on the cringing Zachary. The screenplay, by Thomas Blackburn, serves as a resourceful groundwork though there are bits of dialogue that seem out of character. Saul Elkins produced and Edwin L. Marin directed. Running time, 74 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, May 27. Mandel Herbstman 'Kind Hearts and Coronets" (J. Arthur Rank — Eagle-Lion) f IKE a straight-faced individual telling an ostensibly serious story which turns out to be a joke, "Kind Hearts and Coronets" plays tricks on its audience. It starts off as the Duke of Chalfont is awaiting the hangman's noose and the atmosphere is very serious, indeed. But as he pens his memoirs, which make the screenplay, certain humorous incongruities creep in. Although the central character is engaged in the somber business of eliminating the 12 persons standing between him and the coronet of dukedom, the treatment is in the nature of satirical comedy in the most delicate vein. Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson and Alec Guiness are the principals. A Michael Balcon production, presented by J. Arthur Rank, "Kind Hearts" doubtless will be received approvingly especially in those theatres which cater to devotees of product distinguishable from Hollywood's standard. It is very British and stresses subtlety to the extreme of sometimes obscuring the intended humor. In the main, though, it is well done for its type, making an interesting addition to the list of English pictures which burlesque the placid, imperturbable characteristics of Englishmen. Robert Hamer directed and Michael Relph was associate producer. Hamer and John Dighton wrote the screenplay. Running time, 104 minutes. General audience classification. For May release. Gene Arneel "Rocketship X M* ^%Pvit£'^ °HS) Hollywood, May 2 L APLOITATION possibilities are good in this imaginatively conceived ■•-' and executed film about a rocket ship that sets out for the moon and lands on Mars instead. Interest and suspense are well sustained and a measure of credibility is achieved. Children especially will find "Rocketship X M" absorbing. The picture was produced, directed and written by Kurt Neumann with Alurray Lerner as executive producer. The technological department provided effects which are the more striking because they are realistically dramatic without bing fantastic. The acting is uniformly effective, the well-matched cast underplaying assignments in a way that adds to conviction. The story opens with the take-off of a rocket ship manufactured by private interests under government security restrictions. A crew of five set off for the moon but are diverted from their course in the ionosphere and land on Mars, where they discover that "inhabitants" of that planet have been reduced frorn a high state of civilization to savagery by something comparable to atomic warfare. Two of the five die on Mars. The others, attempting a return to earth, manage to transmit their report before the rocket ship crashes and is ruined. Lloyd Bridges and Osa Massen are romantic members of the crew but this phase of the narrative is kept well subordinated. The supporting cast includes John Emery, Noah Beery, Jr., Hugh O'Brian and Morris Ankrum Running time, 77 minutes. General audience classification. Release date June 2. Combine Two Top Mexican Studios Mexico City, May 2— Merger of Mexico's two leading studios, the Churubusco and the Azteca, is now underway. Emilio Azcarraga, exhibitor and radio station operator who, with RKO Radio established the Churubusco studio in 1945, and Cesar Santos Galindo, principal Azteca stockholder, conducted negotiations for the pact. Services Tomorrow F or Jerry Herzog Funeral services will be held here tomorrow at the West End Funeral Parlor for Jerome (Jerry) Herzog, 60, who died yesterday at Wadsworth Hospital, Aianhattan. He was a veteran of many years in the motion picture business, most recently as a distributor of foreign films. Surviving are the widow and a daughter. SIMPP Okay (Continued from page 1) ducers by the corporate, would be for second-money ai completion financing, with inc vidual banks supplying fir' money as at present. Approv was voted by the membersh at a three-hour luncheon mee ing during which the plan w, explored in detail an^ pr liminary steps fully fer!,hi out. Hg*" Proposes Research Body The first step, Ardrey said, | engage a suitable research bod) compile complete records, statist and otherwise, on all pictures duced by SIMPP members and o interested independents during past 12 years, from inception to : grosses. Ardrey said he was <; vinced, by the Bankers Trust's A experience in financing independt 1 that the combined records will s I investment in independent produc along the lines to be followed by i proposed corporation is very att tive to large holders of risk inf ment capital, which he indicated ;. is in the most plentiful supply in past 20 years. He stated flatly, howevc that if the combined recoi does not show this, he favo dropping the whole financii project. After extended questions on point by individual members, SIM president Ellis Arnall deleg;. George Bagnall to begin collecting information which researchers wi require, with George Yousling, -v president of the Security First tional Bank, assisting him. Plan Policy Board Ardrey said the proposed corpi tion would be controlled by a sei man policy board, composed of im ment bankers, an economist, a proc tion man and other appropriately lected parties, but its affairs woul< administered by a management which would pass on loans on t merits. Ardrey said the Banl Trust is willing to pay the cost of proposed research, if the figure is unreasonable, but does not seel favored position in the ultimate Declaring that production inv ments have been extremely profit; in the past, but are down 50 per now due to the general difficulty i ducers have in obtaining second-mo financing, Ardrey said the Banl : Trust is desirous of investing at! $10,000,000 in first-money financiiif this time. Coast Services for Ernst Laemmle, 49 Hollywood, May 2. — Funeral s< ices were held here this aftern at the Beth Olam Cemetery for Ei Laemmle, 49, director and a nepl of the late Carl Laemmle, who < yesterday. The widow and tl children survive. Ralph Blum, 56, Agent Hollywood, May 2. — Ralph Bl 56, veteran talent agent, died suddt last night at his home from a Ik attack. The widow, the former C mel Myers, a son and two adof children survive.