Motion Picture Daily (Apr-Jun 1951)

Tuesday, May 8, 1951 Motion Picture Daily 5 Reviews "Home Town Story" (Metro-Gotdwyn-Maycr) <* U OME TOWN STORY" is a drama about a crusading editor who sets * out to combat the evil of big business but soon learns of its many virtues. There is a certain grass-roots sincerity to the film and its lessons are informative. But as screen entertainment it is weakened by a lack of originality in narrative development. Jeffrey Lynn heads the cast as a defeated state senator who returns to his home town to assume the editorship of the local paper. In his editorials he keeps up a running battle with "big business," stressing the theme that "the profit system is getting out of hand." Arthur Pierson's screenplay has worked into the story a romance between Lynn and Marjorie Reynolds, a schoolteacher. One day an accident strikes and Lynn's perspective undergoes a complete transformation. His little sister, Melinda Plowman, gets trapped in a mine shaft following a landslide. Soon the giant wheels of big business start rolling to the rescue. Somewhere between the bulldozer that digs into the debris to the plane that carries the child to the distant hospital where she is saved, Lynn sees the error of his judgment. The picture ends happily as Lynn pounds out a story about the profit system. Others in the cast include Alan Hale, Jr., a reporter, and Donald Crisp, a business tycoon. Pierson also produced and directed. Running time, 61 minutes. General audience classification. Release date, May 18. Mandel Herbstman "Sant e Fe" (Columbia) AN outdoor action drama, "Santa Fe" uses as background the dissension between Northerners and Southerners in the aftermath of the Civil War. Randolph Scott and Janis Carter share the lead in this Scott-Brown production which is good in production values, including Technicolor, but is conventional in plot framework. The story opens with Scott and his three brothers finding that they are still disliked in some Northern sections for having worn the grey of the Confederates during the war. Scott is bent upon forgetting the bitter past, joins up as a railroad worker and advances rapidly. While he devotes himself to the construction of the Sante Fe, his brothers are opposed to Northern enterprise. They join up with a hoodlum gambler, Roy Roberts, and together they prey on the construction crews. Irving Pichel, who has a small part in the film, also directed, keeping the bullets and fists flying. One by one the three brothers pay the wages of crime. In a showdown on a moving train Scott and Roberts have their final battle with the villain going to his doom. At last the railroad is completed and Scott and Miss Carter go off together for a happy future. The screenplay, fashioned by Kenneth Garnet, has several other aspects, among them the killing of a Union soldier by the brothers, and aroused Indians on the rampage. Harry Joe Brown produced. Running time, 89 minutes. General audience classification. April release. M. H. NPA Changes (Continued from page 1) original M-4 Control Order than site clearing or demolition. Until now, some actual building on the new project was required. The other change is more confusing. This permits installation of "personal property, fixtures or equipment where the total cost incurred for installation in any consecutive 12-month period does not exceed $2,000. This $2,000 of installations costs is over and above the $5,000 of permissive construction per year, and in most cases will be helpful, but the catch is that it also is an absolute limit on the amount of installation of personal property and fixtures. For example, before Friday if an exhibitor had wanted to do a major alteration job costing $5,000 and also to spend about $1,500 installing some new fixtures, he would have had to cut back somewhere so the total for both was under $5,000. Under the new order, he could do both. But supix>se an exhibitor wanted to spend $2,500 installing new equipment. Under the old order, he could have taken that out of the $5,000. Under the new order, he can spend only $2,000 on installation costs — he can not take the additional $500 out of the $5,000. The $5,000 is now reserved exclusively for the cost of real property — as distinct from installation costs — and for actual major construction. Still a further complicating factor is what constitutes "fixtures and equipment." NPA's film office recently made public a list of what items of theatre equipment were personal property and what items were real property. The need for this list is the fact that the original cost of personal property — again, as distinct from installation costs — is not counted against the exhibitor, while the original cost of real property comes out of the $5,000 limitation. Under the new order, this situation is unchanged, but now the installation costs of some items of real property will come out of the $5,000 figure while the installation cost of other items comes out of the $2,000, along with the installation cost of personal property items. The difference is whether the real property item seems to be primarily "construction" or primarily a "fixture." For example, drive-in fencing or a theatre marquee, classed as real property, comes under the heading of construction, and their installation costs would come out of the $5,000 construction limit. Box-type air conditioners, however, are classed as "fixtures," and their ^installation costs come out of the $2,000. NPA officials said they were not yet ready to say which real property items were "fixtures" and which were not, but that they hoped to have a special interpretation ready by the end of the week. Here is the situation in capsule : Original cost of real property, whether "construction" items or "fixtures,'' comes out of the $5,000. Installation, cost of real property classed as "construction" items comes out of the $5,000. Installation cost of real property classed as "fixtures" comes out of the $2,000. Original cost of personal property is not counted anywhere. Installation cost of personal property comes out of the $2,000. Schwalberg Dinner (Continued from page 1) monial committee and vice-president of Paramount Film Distributing Corp. More than 1,500 invitations to the dinner have been sent, with every leading exhibitor in the U.S. and Canada, as well as representatives of the trade press included. Paramount' s Adolph Zukor, Barney Balaban and Y. Frank Freeman have indicated their desire to be present. Those who already have accepted bids include : Joseph Seider, Wilbur Snaper, Walter Reede, Jr., Martin J. Mullin, Samuel Goldstein, Ed Lachman, Russell Downing, Mitchell Wolfson, Harry Brandt, William Goldman, Frank Walker, J. J. O'Leary, George Zeppos, E. C. Prinson, William Bein, Jack Rose, J. C. Hunter, John Fitzgibbons. Safron District Manager Jerome Safron is United Artists' Eastern district manager, in charge of Boston, where Harry Segal is branch manager ; New Haven, where Joseph Callahan is manager ; Philadelphia, John Turner, manager ; Washngton, E. W. Sweigart, manager, and Pittsburgh, where M. Trautenberg is manager. Through a typographical error, Safron was mentioned yesterday in these columns as a branch manager. UPT TV Report (Continued from page 1) the price would be" for the two stations or "whether CBS actually has a deal with ABC." However, Goldenson replied in answer to a question whether UPT is interested in acquiring "any" television stations, that the company is interested "in developing in any way consistent with the good of the business." In his recent annual report to stockholders, Goldenson revealed that UPT has $10,000,000 available for investment in television or other business expansion. Last week, UPT announced that it had placed orders for large screen television equipment in 22 additional theatres. It has such equipment now in three of its theatres. UPT owns one TV station, WBK-TV, Chicago. Under Federal Communications Commission regulations, CBS would be required to dispose of ABC's New York and Los Angeles TV stations if it concluded a purchase of ABC. A network is not permitted ownership of more than a single station in our citv and CBS now owns WCBS-TV, New York, and_KTSL-TV, Los Angeles. In addition, a network is restricted to a total of five TV stations. CBS would be able to retain ABC's WENR-TV, Chicago; WXYZ-TV, Detroit, and KGO-TV, San Francisco. Paramount (Continued from page 1) be released by Paramount from July through December. In addition, it highlighted product beyond that time completed or currently in production. Pointing up box-office confidence, these 15 constitute Paramount's "answer to exhibitor demands for quality and quantity product as a solution to current industry problems." "This approach will be extended to include national and consumer advertising as well as trade paper inserts," Pickman concluded, "and will be in addition to regular trade advertisements for each individual picture." The monthly announcements of product will be "kicked off" on May 15 with an ad that will highlight Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" and the Pine-Thomas Technicolor film, "Passage West," both July releases. The August releases will be announced on June 1, the September releases on July 1, the October releases on August 1, the November releases on September 1 and the December releases on October 1. Each ad, however, will contain a listing of the entire six months product, Pickman said. Bisdale to Assist Paramounfs Morgan Joseph A. Bisdale, supervisor of newsreel print operations, has been promoted to assistant to Oscar A. Morgan, Paramount's general sales manager of short subjects and Paramount News. He replaces Stanley Chase who resigned to go into business in Washington. Industry Group At Chakeres Tribute Cincinnati, May 7. — Leaders of the industry and civic officials gathered here for the testimonial dinner given tonight to Phil Chakeres, Springfield, Ohio circuit operator at the Hotel Netherlands Plaza. Chakeres, who was named "Exhibitor of the Year" by Look Magazine, was honored by Variety Club Tent No. 3 as a pioneer showman. Among those invited were governors Frank J. Lausche of Ohio and Lawrence Wetherby of Kentucky and Mayor Alfred Cash of Cincinnati. Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox ; and the following industry delegation from New York : Al Lichtman of 20th Century-Fox ; Robert Mochrie, RKO Radio; Alfred E. Daff, Charles J. Feldman, Maurice A. Bergman, Charles Simonelli and Al Horwits of Universal; Jules Lapidus of Warner Brothers, and others. Robert Q. Lewis, CBS radio-TV star, was master-of-ceremonies. The acquisitions of those three TV stations are reported to be the sole reason for CBS's interest in making what is estimated to be a $28,000,000 deal for ABC. CBS also would be required to dispose of the ABC radio network. It has been reported that CBS hopes to get back $18,000,000 to $20,000,000 of the purchase price for the ABC radio and TV properties it would have to dispose of. Observers said, this would indicate that the New York and Los Angeles TV stations might be expected to bring $5,000,000. All phases of the deal, including any participation by UPT, would have to have the approval of the FCC.