Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1952)

Monday, January 21, 1952 Motion Picture Daily 7 Review "Latuko" (Producers Representatives — Edzvard M. Qneeny) Hollywood, Jan. 20. I'^HIS documentary in color was filmed in the course of an African expedition sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, for the purposes of that organization, and was not designed for theatrical exhibition but is now being offered to exhibitors. It is not a proper picture for exhibition to a general audience, whatever may be its usefulness in the formal field of natural history study, for the reason that the male members of the African tribe dealt with wear no loin cloths or other apparel of any kind and are shown completely naked throughout the 56 minutes of the film. Due to this uncorrectible violation of the Motion Picture Production Code, the picture was rejected by the Lode Administration when submitted in October of 1951 and is offered now without the Code seal of approval. Apart from the sheer and complete revealment of the figures of the male natives, including genitals, the picture differs from other jungle-life pictures mainly in the gory detailing of such customs as the test-of-manhood ceremony, in which an adolescent youth is required to draw a stream of blood from a live cow's punctured neck artery into a large gourd and drink it down, while another which requires the gouging out of each child's two lower front teeth with a knife while his elders hold him fast. Other sequences, showing a hunt, a rain-making festivity, various tribal dances and procedures, are on a par with similar ones in other African-exploration films. The picture was made by Edgard M. Queeny, chairman of the board of the Monsanto Chemical Co., St. Louis, who is also a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, and his representatives say his profits from its theatrical exhibition will be turned over to the Museum. Running time, 56 minutes. Adult classification. January release. William R. Weaver NPA Approves {Continued from page 1) turned down — better than 73 per cent, compared with 58 per cent for theatres alone. NPA officials have predicted that building controls will get tighter as the year goes on and that there'll be practically no new starts of theatres or other types of commercial construction for the rest of the year. Of the 10 projects approved today, NPA said two were exempt from its construction controls, seven were okay because the builders already had the materials on hand and would not need government help and that one merited a government allotment of materials. This latter case was a $35,000 theatre for Wesley Bolen, Quinter, Kans. The two projects ruled exempt were a $10,500 drive-in proposed by M. F. Weaver of Ruckersville, Va., and a $47,000 theatre to be built by August Aubert, Jr., Cornell, Washington. The seven projects which already had materials lined up were these: a $38,000 drive-in to be built by the Fifth Avenue Bay Shore Drive-InTheatre, Inc., Brentwood-Islip, Long Island, N. Y. ; a $15,000 drive-in to be built by Page Theatres, Inc., Luray, Va. ; a $29,750 theatre for Floyd Theatres, Haines City, Fla. ; a $26,900 drive-in for Muscoda Theatre, Richland Center, Wise. (The NPA reversed an earlier denial in this case) ; a proposal by Paul D. Neal, Higginsville, Mo., to relocate a theatre at an undisclosed cost ; a $55,000 drive-in for Bullington-Lee and McMahon Theatre Co., Wichita Falls, Tex.; and a $62,000 theatre for J. Howard Hodge, Midland, Tex. Largest of the 14 projects denied was a proposed $240,000 theatre of the Minnesota Amusement Co. at Minot, N. p. Others were : a $38,515 remodeling job for a theatre owned by Vincent Avellino, Runnemede, N. J. ; a $22,000 drive-in, Ryan Brothers, Painted Post, N. Y. ; a $45,000 drivein. Crystal Park, Cumberland, Md. ; a $15,000 drive-in. Page Theatre, Inc., Luray, Va. ; a $43,500 theatre and barber shop, Ellis Clark, Pennington Gap, Va. ; a $45,128 theatre, Birmingham Theatre Operating Co., Birmingham, Ala.; a $12,700 drive-in, W. E. Hammer, Tampa, Fla. ; a $15,000 drive-in, Oscar C. Johnson, Carter Lake, la.; a $25,000 drive-in, J. V. Carter, Jr., Comanche, Tex. ; a drivein, cost not given, Roland Duus, Coleman, Tex. ; a $16,845 stores and theatre project, McMahon and Ford, Sacramento, Calif.; a $28,500 theatre, A. Bautista, Gonzales, Calif. ; and a $16,500 drive-in for Brevard Theatres, in Eau Fallie, Fla. Further Cuts {Continued from page 1) the last quarter of last year, and 1,862,000 pounds in the preceding quarter. The aluminum allotment, which was as high as 3,750,000 pounds in the fourth quarter of 1951 and 3,200,000 pounds in the current quarter, will be down to 2,710,000 pounds in the second quarter, NPA said. UA Gets Gottlieb Film "The Fighter," Alex Gottlieb's production of the Jack London story, starring Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb and Vanessa Brown, has been acquired by United Artists for release this year, UA president Arthur B. Krim states. Schine Offered {Continued from page 1) of all of certain theatres by June 30 of this year, the deadline now would be June 24, 1953. Twenty-five theatres remain to be divested and the new plan sets up a timetable under which one-third of these would be sold by next June 24, another one-third by Dec. 24, and the final one-third by June 24, 1953. Apart from providing new divestiture deadlines, the proposed amendment seals a number of "loop-holes" which the government contended existed in the original decree with respect to playing policies of a number of the theatres, it is understood. It is further understood that the changes effected in this connection include the identification as second-run of some theatres which heretofore operated as first-runs. Under the original Schine decree approximately a dozen of some 37 theatres had to be divested between June 30, 1949, and June 30, 1950. The circuit succeeded in more than meeting that requirement. However, during" the following year, June, 1950, to June, 1951, Schine failed to dispose of the seven stipulated, with the result that a series of deadline postponements ensued. The final deadline was last Dec. 17, since which time the divestiture problem has hung in abeyance pending a new agreement between Schine and government attorneys on the new plan. No Property Loss {Continued from page 1) benefited likewise from 1938 experience, with no theatres sustaining damage beyond minor breakage due to the pressure of water mains. Theatres continued to operate nightly as trade factor, although attendance reached a probable all time low. Merritt, Kennedy Own 5 Atlanta, Jan. 20. — Frank Merritt and R. M. Kennedy, who now own the five downtown theatres in Birmingham, Ala., have formed a new company, Acme Theatre Corp. The five houses are the Strand, Empire, Melba, Lyric and Royal. No Partmar Voice {Continued from page 1) terest" to authorize its intervention. "In view of the importance of the subject matter and the great public interest involved," he said, the Commission should exercise "great liberality" in allowing the intervention of parties which had "prior actual experience with the parties requesting Commission approval for the proposed merger." t-aramcunt-Du Mont Hearing At the same time, over the weekend, the fourth day of the Commission's hearing on the Paramount-DuMont phase of the merger question limped along before FCC hearing examiner Leo Resnick. Four employees for Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc., described the DuMont network's programming. Much of the testimony centered on the "block-booking" of feature films, with DuMont network manager Chris Witting describing the high cost of purchasing feature films for use on television stations. Other DuMont Company witnesses were chief engineer Thomas T. Goldsmith who finished his testimony today ; James Caddigan, network director of programming and production ; and Walter Compton, general manager of WTTG, DuMont's Washington station. The current phase of the hearing is expected to begin again Monday with Paul Raibourn, vice-president of Paramount Pictures, and treasurer of the DuMont company testifying on Tuesday. Big U-I Ad Campaign Scheduled for 'Bend' The most extensive national advertising campaign of any Universal-International picture since "The Egg and I" will be given "Bend of the River," Technicolor production starring James Stewart, according to David A. Lipton, vice-president in charge of advertising-publicity. A large contingent of U-I executives, stars and press correspondents will leave Hollywood tomorrow by plane to attend the world premiere of "Bend of the River" in Portland, Ore., Wednesday. | MPAA Charts {Continued from page 1) in the research program. This program has been in the shadow since Robert W. Chambers left MPAA some two years ago. It is significant that the decision of the company and MPAA toppers coincides with the arrival at MPAA of Griffith Johnson, who has been a leading government economist. He reports in at MPAA for the first time tomorrow to be economic adviser to Johnston and to head the research staff. Johnson's main job initially will be to build up the strength of the research program. Foreign Problems Discussed The Miami meetings also discussed a wide range of foreign problems and also domestic box-office problems, but there were no conclusions on these points other than the one of emphasizing research, according to MPAA officials. Johnston told the company presidents, it was learned, that his projected South American trip has been indefinitely postponed. He may still make the trip, Johnston said, but "the date isn't in sight." Johnston, it is reported, felt that the Miami meetings were a continuation of the series he and his aides have been having with company officials in NewYork, getting company suggestions for improving MPAA service to them. Met at Schenck Home Johnston and his aides met with all the company officials at one session Wednesday afternoon at the Miami home of Nicholas Schenck, Loew's president, and then met later Wednesday and on Thursday with individual company officials. Attending the sessions, in addition to Schenck, were : Barney Balaban, Paramount Pictures president; Spyros P. Skouras, 20th Century-Fox president; Ned E. Depinet, RKO Pictures president; John J. O'Connor, Universal vicepresident; Jack Cohn, Columbia vicepresident ; Theodore Black, Republic vice-president; and Sam Schneider, vice-president of Warner Brothers. Accompanying Johnston were MPAA vice-president Joyce O'Hara and counsel Sidney Schreiber. 133 Showmen {Continued from page 1 ) Shea, three ; Randforce, three ; Century, six; Fabian, 10; Prudential, four; Brandt, seven; Walter Reade, 10; Raymond, four; Cinema Circuit, two ; Snaper, one ; Interboro, 10 ; Independent Theatre Service of N. J., one; J. J. Theatres, 10; Famous Players Canadian, two ; St. Cloud Amusement, one. .A.lso present will be managing director David Katz of the Roxv Theatre here and Isabelle Austin, publicity director of the theatre, in addition to Morris Mechanic, owner and operator of the New Theatre, Baltimore. WANTED, motion pictures to be edited into short subjects for nontheatrical use. Good comedies, adventure, wild animal, science fiction or dramatic stories in feature or short subject length. 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