Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

July 2 5, 19 3 6 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 23 SCHENCKS BRIDGE ATLANTIC BY GAUMONT-BRITISH DEAL London Finds "Alarming" Note In News of Gaumont Merger by BRUCE ALLAN London Bureau of Motion Picture Herald It's Wednesday in London and Wardour Street is mulling the press reports of the Gaumont British Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Twentieth Century-Fox alliance, from New York, in considerable excitement. No statement of official nature has been issued on this side, yet, but there is much of unofficial discussion. The Daily Film Renter runs scare headings suggesting serious sequels in Parliament on the big deal. An editorial asserts uneasiness in official circles. This paper is close to SB, a fact which in the circumstances is giving rise to some curiously diverse speculations as to the significance of its presentations and position. London's discussions, to be sure, are based on cable reports and versions of the statements given out in New York. It is certain that increased pressure will be brought on the Moyne Committee by British interests to strengthen the Act. Fear of American influence by the committee shown in the minutes of the evidence is significant. An important executive's view on the distributing problem is that the Gaumont selling organization must be scrapped to leave Gaumont British films free for Fox and Metro product quota cover. It is estimated that the scrapping of the Gaumont organization in the United States will mean an annual saving of $500,000 to $750,000. Abandonment of quickie production by Metro and Fox will save between $200,000 and $300,000 for each company yearly, therefore the new merger can start with an approximate annual cash saving of between a million and a million and a half dollars. It is noted that the switch of Gaumont productions to the new company would have a perceptible effect on the statistical results of the Films Acts, representing a definite reduction in the number of quota films available to exhibitors, although the loss may be more apparent than real due to the poor quality of the majority of Fox and Metro quota films. The merger may also offer a newsreel problem, Gaumont having its own highly successful reel and Fox its Movietone News, controlled by a separate company in which the Harmsworth family with important associations in the Daily Mail newspaper group are interested. On Monday J. R. Remer, M.P., will ask in the House of Commons if the president of the Board of Trade "will take steps to see that this important company does not pass into foreign control." MGM, 20+h Century-Fox and GB Reach Agreement in Principle, Speeding the Movement for Internationalizing of Industry M-G-M, 20th Century-Fox and GaumontBritish have joined corporate hands across the sea. This most spectacular manifestation of the long, tediously developing, process of internationalization of the motion picture industry, on its way since the beginnings in 1896, interrupted by the inhibitive influences of the World War, to America's great advantage, delayed again by the revolutionary invasion of sound and language, "broke in the news" with official word this week. The historic occasion was Monday, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, with the press summoned to hear, in the Joseph M. Schenck suite, Number 31, in the tower of the Sherry Netherlands, looking down where the tides of Manhattan split around the greenswards of Central Park. The official statement was the minimum that could be said of the new interlocking arrangements and cross ownerships. Somewhere in the undiscussed distance were and are considerations of British Empire controls and restrictions, quotas, television, and even more vague matters of the tomorrows. This week's outward expressions and concerns have been about this particular triangular arrangement. Parallels and sequels, presently to find expression in other alignments, similarly addressed at seats in a "world court of the cinema," are in the making. Cable dispatches from Bruce Allan of the London Bureau of Motion Picture Herald on Wednesday indicated that the tidings from New York had created a flurry of excitement and questionings in Wardour street, the center of British Empire film arfairs. There was talk of Governmental inquiry, interference, prohibitions and the like. Interestingly enough, no little of the excitement and questionings was recorded by The Daily Film Renter, trade publication usual described as "close to GB" and said to be decidedly "an Ostrer paper." In New York, however, it was observed that the negotiations were consummated here and the official announcements issued by the parties to the deal in person, including Isadore Ostrer. It was also to be observed that all parties to the negotiations, including Mr. Ostrer, might well be expected to have weighed, anticipated and planned to meet any Governmental inquiry or proposal of action. Analysis of the ultimate results of the deal in terms of ownership, graphically presented on page twenty-seven, would indicate a decided showing of a preponderating British ownership, implying for Britain at least a diagrammatic control. The story came from three men on a divan, in that suite 31. They were Nicholas M. Schenck, president of Metro-GoldwynMayer Corporation, Joseph M. Schenck, chairman of the board of 20th Century-Fox, and Isadore Ostrer, president of GaumontBritish — with Joseph M. Schenck, still with the laurels of the Fox-20th Century merger upon him, in the middle and chief spokesman. The onslaught of invited foreign correspondents and other press representatives, to a total of thirty-odd in number, were counted in and checked off against a list of publications, with an attendance of 99 per cent, or thereabouts. The checking was by exceedingly quiet male secretaries. There were no press agents, none. The affair was exceedingly official. The three chieftains were to do the talking, all of it. Through the open door of an adjacent room an uncleared table indicated that they had just completed luncheon. Mr. Ostrer was dapperly natty in the English manner with a most perky kerchief in breast pocket, but his starched and attached collar was escaping with a suggestion of weather. The Brothers Schenck were in most American business garb, and Joseph's haircomb suggested he had been emphatically shaking his head about something. Most motion picture functions, more especially those that have to do with pieces in the papers, are lubricated by attentive butlers with tray in hand. This one was dry, but interesting. It was unhollywood. Joseph Schenck standing in the middle of the deep oriental roomwide rug, with the Chinoisierie and teak tables all about, handed brief typewritten statements to the gentlemen of the press and introduced his brother, "whom you all know," and Mr. (.Continued on folloiving page)