Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1950)

4 Motion Picture Daily Tuesday, May 16, 1' Reminds Localities Of Tax Possibilities Washington, May 15. — The cut in the Federal admission tax voted by the House Ways and Means Committee, if finally approved by Congress, opens "a big area of taxation to the localities," the American Municipal Association reminds member cities and towns. Green on UN Films (Continued from page 1) Italy. "Walsh now is en route to the conference, on appointment by President Truman. After calling attention to the fact that the UNESCO conference envisions employing the medium of motion pictures and the iheatre, the Green letter added that Walsh "is well acquainted with the subtleties of Communist techniques in attempting to infiltrate this important medium. "Walsh's experience during the past several years with the aspects of his industry which have so direct a bearing on international relations are such as to make him preeminently qualified to serve as an advisor to the United States delegation." Nassours Sell (Continued from page 1) $2,250,000 purchase price. The studio has been operated as a rental lot, except in instances when the Nassours used it for making their own pictures, and it will be continued largely on that policy by the new owner until such time as KTTV expansion requires the use of its entire facilities for television purposes. Nassour said, "We shall now be free to enter more actively into independent production, and will produce many more pictures than we have in the past. We have never lost money on any picture we've made, and now we can give our full time to production." ^TWA=TWA=TWA=TWA=^ s I | TWA offers the III most flights weekly a e direct to these cities in I EUROPE PARIS ROME ATHENS MADRID GENEVA ZURICH For information, see your travel agent or call TWA, Reviews "Return of the Frontiersman" ( Warner Brothers) Hollywood, May 15 TECHNICOLOR, credited many a time and justly so with making a Western look better than it is, meets more than its match in this fist and gun exercise produced by Saul Elkins and directed by Richard Bare, with Gordon MacRae, Jack Holt, Julie London and Rory Calhoun in the top roles. A paying audience at Warner's Hollywood Theatre on the evening it was previewed gave up trying to take it seriously after the first 15 or 20 minutes, began tittering at that point and wound up laughing outright at the overdrawn heroics and serial-type melodramatics in which the film abounds. Maybe its niche is the Saturday matinee run in the houses where action, of which there is much more than enough, is all that matters. The setting is Laramie, Wyoming, in the shooting 70's or thereabouts, and the story, credited to Edna Anhalt, has MacRae as the son of Holt, the steely-eyed sheriff, Calhoun as the local newspaper editor, and Julie London as the tenderfoot niece of the community doctor. MacRae serves 10 days in jail for engaging in a gun fight with a rugged fellow townsman who is shortly thereafter found dead under circumstances that suggest MacRae killed him, which the audience knows he didn't but doesn't know who did. MacRae takes to the wide open, figuring he'll have to find out who committed the murder before he can clear himself, and astoundingly escapes capture by posses which ride out to get him for the killing and for a bank robbery of which he is also innocent. Before MacRae accomplishes this, an enormous amount of shooting, fighting, riding, and a modicum of purely mechanical romance, is photographed. Running time, 78 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, not set. William R. Weaver 'State Penitentiary' (Columbia) PRODUCER Sam Katzman and director Lew Landers utilize a documentary technique to give a routine story of prison life an atmosphere of honesty which does not always jibe with the contrived plot. It is the story of a man unjustly convicted in court, unfairly treated in prison, vindicated at last by his wife, Karin Booth. She plays at romance with the real culprit, Onslow Stevens, uncovers the villainy and recovers the stolen $400,000. Warner Baxter plays the poor fellow imprisoned, and with maturity, restraint and conviction gives to the story its reality and appeal. A former aircraft manufacturer jailed for embezzlement, he learns the authorized procedure of prison life, and also learns from his fellow convicts the unauthorized procedures. With an off-stage narrator much of the time, the picture often becomes lost in moralization and exposition of prison routine. When it returns to plot, however, dialogue is natural ; scenes are actually inside prison walls ; only its climax is contrived and cheap. All in all, the exhibitor may regard this as not a thriller but a fairly good program crime drama. In supporting roles are Robert Shayne, Richard Benedict, Brett King, John Bleifer, Leo T. Cleary, Rick Vallin, Rusty Wescoatt, William Fawcett and John Hart. Henry J. Green, Robert Libott and Frank Burt wrote the screenplay, from a story by Henry E. Helseth. Camera work, which is excellent, was directed by Ira H. Morgan. Running time, 66 minutes. General audience classification. June release. "Women from Headquarters (Republic) CTRICTLY minor league is this melodramatic offering about a young ^ woman who joins the police force and practically single-handedly eliminates the criminal element in the big city. Virginia Huston, Robert Rockwell and Barbara Fuller have the key roles, supported by Norman Budd, Frances Charles, K. Elmo Lowe, Otto Waldis, Grandon Rhodes, and others. Written by Gene Lewis, "Women from Headquarters" presents Miss Huston as the bane of the underworld, first cleaning up "skid-row honky-tonks" and then going after bigger game. Her roommate is Miss Fuller who marries a narcotics peddler. The latter is apprehended and leads Miss Huston to the boss of the racket. Stephen Auer was associate producer and George Blair directed. Running time, 60 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, May 1. Gene Arneel "Cow Town (Columbia Pictures) ONCE more Gene Autry rides and sings to delight his fans, this time in defense of the cattle owners' right to fence in their cattle with barbed wire. Armand Schaefer, the producer, and John English, the director, have built a presentable film which should give Autry's followers their money's worth. Gerald Geraghty wrote the screenplay. Photographed in sepia, "Cow Town" moves along at a leisurely pace, quickened from time to time by some good action and slowed occasionally by Gene's singing at critical moments. Autry is a rancher, one of the first to introduce barbed wire. His objective is not only to stop rustling but to help the cattlemen control breeding. Opposing him is a gang trying to provoke range warfare and bring in sheep once the ranchers have destroyed each other. One of the ranchers is a girl whose ranch is facing foreclosure for taxes. Autry finds his fences torn up and the cow punchers, now fearful that they will lose their jobs, are also against him. He sets out to find the culprit behind all the trouble. This he does effectively. Gail Davis as the girl is properly fiery. The photography is good. Running time, 70 minutes. General audience classification. May release. Ticket Tax Repeal Urged by Mayors A resolution petitioning I Congress to repeal the 20 per cent Federal admission tax so I that municipalities might be j free to use this source of income should they care to, was I adopted unanimously here at the closing session of the j United States Conference of Mayors at the Waldorf-Astoria. g V Compo Fight on Ta: (Continued from, page 1) Committee and will instead draw plans to concentrate on the Sen;1! Tax bills in the House are usuq handled under a closed rule, whl means that no changes can be m,| in the bill reported by the Ways Means Committee — it can only voted up or down. Myers will lej here for New York tomorrow afl noon. Compo Chartered (Continued from page 1) Justice Ernest E. L. Hammer of ■ State Supreme Court. Formal registration of the dc ment which recognizes COMPO corporate entity has thus been effe| in less than one week after the ( cago meeting at which immediate corporation was voted. The incorporation certificate signed by the following COMPO fleers : Ned E. Depinet, Gael Sulil| Harry Brandt, Abel Green, Brecher and Francis S. Harmon. ECA Film Guarant (Con from page 1) 000. Each of the major distribu seems likely to get guaranties for, films, with the smaller companies ting contracts for three or four f| each, depending on how many imjj permits the German government fij ly decides to grant. Under ECA's present schedule, recommendations of the advisory c mittee as to what films should guaranteed will go on administr; Paul Hoffman's desk this week, soon as he okays the recommendati contracts will go out to the film c panies. Given New FWC Post San Francisco1, May 15.— Hi Kolmar, formerly advertising-publi: director for Fox West Coast Thea in the East Bay area, has been g. the same post in San Francisco. BANKING FOR T MOTION PICTU INDUST iMR&TRUSl! BAN COMPAN NEW YORK MEMBER FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORA'