Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1955)

6 Motion Picture Daily Monday, October 24, 1955 Depinet Senary Lauds Code s Aid Maj. Warner ( Continued to cover the serious, rather than solely the glamorous side of the community. And, he added, get people who love their work and love pictures to write about Hollywood. "Just as we have learned that our audience has matured and is maturing," Schary said, "so you can learn that literate and accurate reporting by people who know and like us can be of profit to you." Feels Code Is No Burden Schary said Hollywood producers are often asked "whether the Production Code places an unbearable burden upon us." Supplying his answer, he said: "I don't think it does. I think it has been of enormous aid, and actually has provided great relief. Many years ago the industry, undisciplined and heady with success, ran into trouble and found itself face to face with the uncomfortable realities that were presented because of the production of some indecent films. "Under attack, the heads of our industry did a wise and bold thing. They organized their own code— a production standard that has stood them in good stead. The freedom of our American institutions cannot rule out bad taste or bad talent, but the Code has functioned well in controlling the undisciplined and irrespon rom page 1 ) sible picture maker. More than that, it has not prevented us from making motion pictures of content and challenge." The M-G-M production head also expressed his distaste for some of the exaggerated publicity and advertising formulas still employed by the industry. "Some of our films," he said, "still pursue the customer who cannot be baited except by the promise of something violent or sexy. I have no way of knowing how large an audience that would be, and while some bad pictures undoubtedly have been hypoed by cheap and vulgar advertising, it is also true that some good ones have been hurt by this type of opportunistic exploitation." Defends 'Blackboard Jungle' He defended M-G-M's "Blackboard Jungle," reminding his audience that juvenile delinquency is neither new nor peculiar to the United States. He said the picture "certainly didn't increase delinquency and, centering attention on the problem, helped stir "even our severest critics into doing something about it." Schary left here for New York where he will spend a week conferring with home office executives and seeing new plays before returning to Hollywood. (Continued from page 1) licensed Walter O. Gutlohn to handle 16mm. films separately from the company, through 1945, when the company terminated that arrangement and brought the 16mm. activities back into its own exchange operations, and down to his resignation from the RKO presidency on Oct. 2, 1952. No Agreement in Concert Never in RKO history, Depinet declared, had the company's 16mm. policy been determined in concert or agreement with any other company. "We have always made our own policy," he said, "and I doubt that any other company's 16mm. policy is or has been the same as ours." Far from seeking to discourage or minimize the 16mm. field, the witness said, RKO tried long and vigorously to build up non-theatrical distribution revenue, but never succeeded in getting it to amount to as much as one per cent of the company's income. Asked whether the Motion Picture Association board, of which he was a member, had ever met to discuss formulating common policy with respect to 16mm., he said it never had. He went on to explain that this did not mean that the MPAA board had not discussed television, and described its exploration of television as a possible tool of theatres, mentioning Eidophor in this connection, and MPAA's investigation of the possibility of getting channels allocated to the film industry. No COMPO Pact, He Says Asked whether COMPO, at its Beverly Hills meeting in 1952, or any other, had discussed and agreed upon a joint policy toward 16mm., Depinet said it had not. Asked whether any exhibitors or exhibitor organizations had ever requested an expression of RKO policy with respect to 16mm., the witness said "frequently," and "I always told them what it was." He expanded on this reply, making it clear that, while RKO wished to develop 16mm. revenue from proper sources— schools, government agencies and other nontheatrical fields— "we did not want to set up unfair competition against eighteen to twenty thousand theatres which are the life-blood of our business." Later on Flatow pressed the witness to say that RKO had withheld 16mm. from properly-equipped 16mm. theatres lest they detract from the 35mm. theatre box office, but Depinet, after asserting no such 16mm. theatres exist, said, "if there had been any such theatres, and they had been ready to pay us more than 35mm. theatres, undoubtedly we woidd have sold them our product." Discusses Reissues Questioned on RKO's reissue policy, Depinet said nobody can tell accurately which pictures can be reissued successfully, and which cannot. RKO did not sell any pictures to Blank to Urge (Continued from page 1) have a tremendous amount of talent and ability to make fine pictures." The Des Moines exhibitor also said that "TOA desires that their product be slanted towards the American market to help ease the product shortage." An invitation to "take part and join" the UIEC was tendered to TOA by Italo Gemini, president of the global theatre association. Gemini, who attended the TOA convention in Los Angeles as the UIEC delegate, also extended an invitation to Allied States Association to send a delegate to the Rome conclave and to affiliate with UIEC also. Allied, however, is not sending a representative to Rome. television during his presidency, Depinet said, but had furnished a onereeler on "Gunga Din" that was televised during the New York World's Fair. On the contrary, he said, he had been approached by Jules Levy, between 1948 and 1952, with a proposition to sell him 50 ordinary features from the RKO backlog, for television, at a figure between a half million and a million dollars, lie said this deal broke down when it turned out that Levy would not accept the 50 he would have sold him, but was interested only in topmost product. Sid Kramer Also Heard Sid Kramer, who had direct charge of the RKO 16mm. department during the period covered by the Government complaint, followed Depinet on the stand. Ahem to RKO (Continued from page 1) Charles L. Glett, executive vice-president of RKO. Ahem, who resigned last week from his executive post at CBS-TV where he has been director of West Coast television operations since 1951, will report directly to Glett and will act as liaison between the back lot and Glett's office in all production matters. Ahern's joining ■ RKO is the first in a series of contemplated moves to increase the production staff of RKO in anticipation of the 1956 production schedule now being prepared. Ahem also has functioned in Europe as production manager for Alfred Hitchcock for three years and for two years for Alexander Korda. For seven years he was assistant production manager for David O. Selznick. Labor Dep't Reports (Continued from page 1) tablishments. Congress decided to do nothing about coverage, but instead voted to boost the minimum wage from 75 cents to $1. Mitchell said the new $1 minimum complicated the question of extending coverage, since firms would have to come under the law at a much higher rate than previously. There has been some sentiment for bringing new firms in with a lower rate and then gradually stepping them up to the minimum. A Senate Labor Subcommittee headed by Sen. Douglas (D., 111.) is studying the question, with an eye to hearings early next year. (Continued from page 1) indefinitely as long as our company, and other companies, adhere to the policy of producing and distributing top quality pictures." Sees 'Excellence' Most Vital "Today," the major asserted, "more than any other period in the history of this business, it is the excellence of the product that counts. In a sense, we ourselves are responsible for creating a more demanding and discriminating consumer public for our pictures. By constant research and experimentation, we have made tremendous improvements in methods of filming and projecting motion pictures. When I think back over the decades of my association with this industry, I can tell you proudly that this business can match any other great industry when it comes to progress and the forward look." Warner said he was "going out on a limb to make a few predictions," slating that "never in our 50 years of association with motion pictures have I felt as optimistic and as encouraged by what I see happening under my brother Jack's direction at our studio. Wasn't it just a few short years ago that some pessimists foresaw only dire things for this business? Well, maybe the prophets of gloom weren't around in 1926 when other pessimists said that talking pictures would upset the economic applecart. Maybe they weren't around during the Thirties when this industry, and other major American industries, defied the signs of the times and came out of that period with renewed strength." Optimistic Regarding Future "Right now," Warner stated, "I believe we are on the threshold of our greatest era. Our industry has successfully met every competitive threat thrown in our path. We have effected vast and brilliant improvements in motion picture engineering. And we have met the greatest challenge of all by bringing to our studio the kind of superlative talent that can only result in a flow of the best and most successful pictures this company has ever made." Five-Day Week (Continued from page 1) additional 25 cents per hour effective next Wednesday. The contract also provides that employer payments into the pension fund be increased by one cent hourly next Wednesday, and that producers add four cents hourly beginning on Nov. 28, with employees increasing their payments into fund by two cents at that time. The contract stipulates that any employee working 12 years for one employer be entitled to three weeks vacation annually with pay. The general terms of the contract go into effect on Wednesday, with the five-day week becoming effective on Jan. 30 of next year. The complex categorical wage scales will be detailed in subsequent editions of Motion Picture Daily.