Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

July 2 5, 19 3 6 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 15 NEW GERMAN FILM EDICT APPLIED TO AMERICAN PICTURE AT SOURCE Reproduction of a letter bearing the signature of German Consul Georg Gyssling, Los Angeles, received by Isobel Lillian Steele, author and star of "I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany," accompanied by a second sheet quoting German law pertaining to films "detrimental to German prestige" as reported herewith. Miss Isobel Steele, 6118 Glen Holly, Hollywood, Calif. IrutHrljPB HCmtaulat (GERMAN CONSULATE) 117 WEST NINTH STREET ROOM 81 7 IGos Angelea, (Salif. TEL. VAndike 5865 Bei Beantwortunfr bitte foteendes Aktenzeichen anzugreben: In Answering Please Refer To Film 1028. Dear Miss Stele: As you might be interested in it with regard to your participation in the making of a film allegedly dealing with certain experiences of yours in Germany, I beg to send you herewith copy of § 15 of the German decree concerning the showing of foreign films published in the "Deutscher Reichsanzeiger" of June 28th, 1932. (Dr. Georg Gyssling) GERMAN CONSUL. German Consul Cites Law to Author Star of "I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany" While Film Is In Making Nazi Germany's blunt edict pertaining to films "detrimental to German prestige" and players appearing in them is being applied directly to American product at the source by German Consul Georg Gyssling in Los Angeles. First to charge the German representative with attempted interference in production and distribution of American films is Alfred T. Mannon, producer for Malvina Pictures Corporation of "I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany," featuring the author, Isobel Lillian Steele, whose experiences in Germany in 1934 the picture purports to depict. According to Mr. Mannon, Dr. Gyssling addressed to Miss Steele and other members of his cast, during the production of the picture, a letter on the stationery of the German Consulate directing attention to the text of the Nazi edict, quoted on a sheet accompanying the letter, as follows : "The allocation of permits may be refused for films, the producers of which, in spite of warning issued by the competent German authorities, continue to distribute on the world market films, the tendency or effect of which is detrimental to German prestige. . . . "The same applies to films in which appear film workers who have previously participated in the making of films which have the tendency or effect to be detrimental to the German prestige." Cast Members Summoned Additionally, says Mr. Mannon, Dr. Gyssling summoned other members of the cast, chosen for their Teutonic nationality and many of them German citizens, to the Consulate and there personally . informed them of possible consequences of participating in the production. Some of the players, he says, quit the cast following these conversations, while others continued under promise that their names would not be used in the billing. Only the name of Miss Steele is to appear. As production of the picture continued, the producer asserts, the German Consul addressed a letter to the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association asking that body to intervene to prevent its completion. When nothing came of this, the picture was completed in March of this year and submitted to the Coast office of the organization for assignment of a Production Code certificate. New York representatives of Malvina Pictures said this week that approval has been given and a certificate is forthcoming. The New York office of the MP PDA affirmed that the picture has been submitted and "is in process of being considered." Nevertheless, the production has been scheduled for a New York opening at the Globe theatre on August 1st and to be distributed on a roadshow basis throughout the country. The Globe, formerly devoted to stage purposes, has been operated as a motion picture theatre for the past five years. Plans for a similar opening in Chicago, for which no theatre had been contracted, were complicated this week by refusal of the Chi cago censor board to issue a permit for its exhibition. The reason given for withholding permission to show the film in what the wartime Mayor (Big Bill the Builder) Thompson described as "the sixth German city" was that the picture might cause resident Germans to start a demonstration against the showing of the film. A representative of Malvina is to go to Chicago in an effort to secure passage of the production. Producer Mannon, one-time president and treasurer of Republic Studios, Inc., subsequently supervisor of production for Van Beuren corporation and, later, producer of several features for independent distribution, asserts that the story of the picture is not fiction but consists of an accurate presentation of Miss Steele's arrest, incarceration and subsequent deportation by Nazi authorities in the period between August and December, 1924. A reproduction of the letter submitted as received by Miss Steele is published herewith. Condition Grave Abroad Meanwhile, reports through the United States Department of Commerce indicate approach of a crisis in the position of distributing companies handling American motion pictures in Germany through exercise of the Nazi Government's unlimited power to accept or reject motion pictures of all kinds. The reports to the Department of Commerce from its Berlin offices say that the American motion picture interests, chief of which are the distributing subsidiaries of Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Twentieth Century-Fox, are meeting with increasing difficulties. There is reason to believe, according to the report, that some of the large first-run cinemas will be forced to close before the summer is over because of a shortage of films, that leading motion picture theatres in Berlin are showing films which are not up to their standard. Other houses are reviving films of earlier dates. The repetition of German films has not been favorably received by the public, it is said, and the theatres need foreign, particularly American, films. The principal obstacle hampering operations of American film interests in Germany has been the refusal of the Propaganda Ministry to allow importation of particular pictures, chiefly on the grounds that the cast is unsatisfactory or the story is unsuitable. The latest decree gives the censors an even wider field for exercise of prohibitions.