Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

July 2 5, 19 3 6 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 61 FIGHT FILM REPORTED BIGGER THAN THE BOUT MPTOA Seeking Quick Action on Trade Practices The Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America will make a final effort in August to obtain distributor action on the organization's 10-point trade practice program, it was learned in New York this week. Unwilling to see the self-regulation program killed by distributor inertia, plans are now being arranged for further conferences with sales managers of national distribution companies and indications are that if favorable action on the program does not result the M.P.T.O.A. may go directly to the company heads in a final move to obtain the adoption of all or a major part of its 10point program. In line with these developments, Ed Kuykendall, M. P. T. O. A. president, is expected in Manhattan August 10, following the convention of the Southeastern Theatre Owners at Jacksonville, Fla., August 2-4, which he will attend. The failure of individual companies to take the initiative in granting outright any of the major concessions sought by the organization is held by spokesmen for the exhibitors to be the principal reason for the lack of action on the program. They believe that if a single company took the lead in definitely committing itself on each phase of the program others would be quick to follow. The lack of distributor action up to this point, however, is not regarded as being fatal to the exhibitors' program despite the fact that the new season deals are being closed under contracts which incorporate none of the concessions sought by the M. P. T.O.A. Spokesmen for the organization point out that the cancellation and score charge concessions which have been asked can be either written into the contracts at a later date or appended by them by riders. Distributor approval of the local conciliation boards through which the M.P.T.O.A. hopes the balance of its program could be affected can be given independently of the contract, it is pointed out. Government Asks Data on Business Lengthy questionnaires have been sent to all major distributors and circuits by the Department of Justice, seeking detailed information regarding various properties held by the theatre interests and product deals made by the film companies, it was learned this week. The questionnaires are signed by Assistant Attorney General Dickinson but there is no "must" order attached to them, the Government stating in an accompanying letter that it would appreciate the answers to the questions without giving its purpose in asking them. Among some of the questions asked are the relation between the distributor and its circuit or other circuits, film deals made and being made, the exact location of theatres, seating capacity, interested partners and definition of run. Exhibitors Who Booked Picture Before Louis-Schmeling Bout Reap Richest Harvest of All The Max Schmeling-Joe Louis fight picture ranks with exhibitors as something a trifle more colossal than the Yankee Stadium event itself, according to Sherwin Kane in an article in last Monday's issue of the Motion Picture Daily. Most gleeful of the exhibitors, the story points out, are those who bought the picture prior to the fight when it was a long chance that the fight itself, much less the pictures, would be worth seeing. The film, he continues turned June and part of July into January for every house which played it and even for those which were so unfortunate as not to have booked it before the results were known. One New York exhibitor, for instance, could have had the picture for his neighborhood circuit at $1,600 if he had signed on the day of the fight. He couldn't see the price, so he paid $3,600 instead, the following morning. The experience was duplicated all over the city. Outdraws Features Circuit bookers credit the picture with being a greater draw than any film released during the first two weeks following the fight. It came to wilting box-offices everywhere it played with a message of cheer emphatic enough to change the color of operating statements of even large circuits for the first six months of the current year. The cost of the film to a first-run neighborhood house which had booked it in advance averaged about $500 for a one-week run, with about twice that figure being asked after the bout. All deals were set for a flat rental with the owners of the picture participating in gross receipts over a certain figure only in a few Broadway houses. The average grosses for the week in such houses were up $1,500 to $3,500 while the picture played. It had second week hold-overs in numerous metropolitan and up-state houses. Rights Bought for $25,000 Jack Dietz bought the film rights from Mike Jacobs, fight promoter, for an estimated $25,000. Four regular cameras and one slow motion camera were used. In addition, there were the expenses of technicians, electricians, prints and distribution. It is estimated that 800 prints may have been made in the three laboratories which were utilized, at a cost of about $40 a print, or $32,000 for that item alone. The total overhead may have run about $90,000. The average fight picture returns to its owner a gross of $150,000 to $200,000. This one is expected to double the higher figure, due to the fact that so many exhibitors "laid off" until after the fight, by which time the rentals had been doubled. Schmeling himself bought the exclusive rights to the picture for Germany at a reported $60,000 in American dollars. The fact that the fight was a sensational upset with international interest attached was not the only explanation of its unusual drawing record. Cameramen and technicians collaborated to make it an exciting and dramatic 31 minutes of screen fare. Only one mishap occurred to detract from its maximum pictorial possibilities. The slow motion camera, which had caught Louis being knocked down in the fourth round, jammed while the twelfth round was under way, causing the picture its loss of slow motion shots of the knockout which followed shortly thereafter. Alan Crosland, Noted Director, Dies on Coast Alan Crosland, 41, noted motion picture director, died last Thursday night in Hollywood of injuries he received in an automobile accident on July 10. Mr. Crosland had been connected with the motion picture industry since 1912 when he left the reportorial staff of the New York Evening World to become associated with the old Edison Company. Born in New York City, August 10, 1894, Mr. Crosland, himself an actor for three years, directed most of the Hollywood stars of the past and present generation and had many a notable success to his credit. Following his association with the Edison Company he worked for Selznick, Cosmopolitan, United Artists and Warner Brothers. At the time of his death Mr. Crosland was directing "The Case of the Caretaker's Cat" for Warner Brothers. Among the pictures he directed were "General Crack," "Scarlet Lady," "Beloved Rogue," "Viennese Night," "Midnight Alibi," "Massacre," "Jazz Singer," "On With the Show," "Glorious Betsy," "The Great Impersonation," "The White Cockatoo" and "King Solomon of Broadway." Mr. Crosland suffered his fatal injuries when his automobile apparently struck an obstacle near an excavation on Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood, and overturned. The director was alone in his car when the accident happened. Funeral services were held Wednesday morning at Pierce Brothers Mortuary. Burial followed in Hollywood Cemetery. Philippine Producers To Export Feature "Hagase Tu Voluntad" ("Obey That Impulse"), produced with an all-Filipino cast and by a native director, will be distributed in South and Central America and in Spain, according to a report from Trade Commissioner J. B. Richards in Manila. Tagalog films have been exhibited in Hawaii but this is the first time that a feature picture has been exported from the Philippines for world distribution, according to the report.