Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1936)

December 19, 1936 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 49 EXHIBITORS AND DISTRIBUTORS WILL FIGHT PROPOSALS IN MOYNE REPORT Government Control Suggestion Causes Alarm; Fifty Per Cent Quota Is Called an Impossibility by BRUCE ALLAN in London Opposition to the chief proposals in the Report of the ("Moyne") Statutory Committee on the Films Act is hardening. It became definite immediately members of the industry had had time to digest that document. In regard to the three main suggestions of the committee : An official Film Commission to administer a new Films Act and generally to supervise the industry; The establishment of an annually Variable Quota of British films, based on the previous year's output and planned to rise to 50 per cent in ten years; Institution of an official Quality Test for British films submitted to registration, there was significant evidence that exhibitors and distributors were likely to come together in a joint campaign of protest. Envisaged as a possible outcome of the controversy precipitated by the report is the establishment in England of a joint trade body functioning somewhat on the lines of the MPPDA, but including exhibitors as well as distributors and reflecting their common attitude of opposition to the new legislation now suggested. The first public references to the problems raised by the report were made at the luncheon tendered to Will H. Hays by the Cinematograph Exhibitors Association before his return to America, and this occasion was also significant by the public expression of the desire of the Kinematograph Renters Society to cooperate with the CEA. Urges Infra-Industry Solution T. H. Fligelstone, president of the CEA, quoted from the report a paragraph suggesting that the trade had been unable to achieve selfgovernment and said: "I wonder whether we require a State commission or Cinema Control Board? I have always advocated that we should solve our problems within the trade. . . . The CEA has always sought the cooperation and assistance of other sections of the trade, but that cooperation and assistance have not always been forthcoming." He significantly added, referring to the fact that the CEA was left unsupported by distributors in its fight against the original Films Act : "It is to be hoped the same misjudgment will not be made now as was made in 1926." Pointed references to the appositeness of the visit of Mr. Hays were made by Mr. Fligelstone, who remarked that, whenever we had to face a crisis in England, the cry went up : "We need a Will Hays." "If you can give the British industry a lead in the direction of self-government," he said, addressing Mr. Hays, "your visit will go down in history as one of the greatest events in the industry." Mr. Hays did not respond directly to this invitation, refusing to discuss "potentially controversial matters" and confining his speech to the necessity of a spirit of cooperation in REINHAKDT PRAISES AMERICAN THEATRE Max Reinhardt, producer and director of stage and screen plays, in New York this week to supervise "The Eternal Road" rehearsals, observed that "America is fast becoming the sole refuge for the free spirits of humanity" and said that he has detected in Eugene O'Neil's winning of the Nobel Prize "the proof that Europe is revising its attitude and views toward the American stage." maintaining a high level in films, but J. C. Graham of Paramount, proposing tne health of the guests, said, as spokesman of the distributors : "If we have before us any great problem, as seems to be the case, the KRS is ready and willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with the CEA to discuss things for the common good." Self-Government Asked Further references were made to the possibility of the establishment of efficient selfgovernment of the British industry at the dinner tendered Mr. Hays by the Film Group of the Federation of British Industries the following evening. This function at the Mayfair hotel was attended by the principals of most of the leading companies of the industry, and John Maxwell proposed the toast of the guest of honor, whom he described as "a visitor from Olympian heights." Saying that Mr. Hays had arrived at the important moment of the end of the first act of the British production drama, to which the Moyne Report had provided a dramatic curtain, but that he did not propose to discuss the report, or ask Mr. Hays to discuss it, Mr. Maxwell added: "The formation of the MPPDA was an inspiration and to put Mr. Hays at the head of it was a masterstroke. Mr. Hays has controlled great forces and achieved great things. England might well broaden her views on that point." Mr. Maxwell had also some significant things to say about Anglo-American cooperation, which he described as "inevitable and eminently desirable." "The stage seems set for the next act," he added, "and Will Hays will have a star part." In his response, Mr. Hays created laughter by referring to "that unmentionable, from my standpoint, document the Moyne Report" only as the cue for a humorous but significant story of a darky who, paying in his savings at a bank, was immediately told that the institution was suspending payment and remarked : "Waal, I've had banks break before, but that the first time a bank bust in my face." It is an open secret in Wardour Street that, while Mr. Hays preserved an extreme reticence in his public utterances, he was in conference with representatives of American distributors in regard to the special problems raised by the Moyne Report, and great importance is attached to his presence at the present juncture, in view of the open invitation of distributor cooperation made by Mr. Fligelstone. To the considerable section of the British trade which believes the Films Act to be partly Political Support Promised for Action Against Proposed Legislation, Held Unlikely This Year in Any Case the result of American indifference 10 years ago, particular importance is attached to the fact that the leader of the American industry has, on this occasion, learned the facts at first hand. Note Exhibitors' Protests In distribution circles the pronounced hostility on the part of exhibitors to the Moyne suggestions is an encouraging and to some extent a surprising factor. Two proposed changes in the existing law are directly in accord with the suggestions made to the committee by the CEA. These are the "stepping" of the quota in favor of the exhibitor and the institution of a quality clause. The actual distributor-exhibitor quota ratio suggested in the report is 20:15, whereas the CEA asked 20:10, but it is not this discrepancy which has caused the exhibitors' body to regard the report as dangerous. Undoubtedly, the threat of Government control has had the greatest effect on opinion, and the introduction of the principle of variability in the quota, with a 50 per cent maximum envisaged, has intensified the alarm. It is probable that when the CEA-KRS contact has proceeded to the point of the discussion of details, distributors will present exhibitors with a number of cogent commercial reasons why the quality clause may also work to their detriment. That exhibitors did not want quality to be decided by Government officials was taken for granted. See Loss of "B" Films Chief of the business objections to the quality provision is that, if American distributors are forced to make British films on a greatly increased scale of cost, it will not pay them to import their "B" films ; the British coverage will cost too much. Unfortunately, whatever the theorists of British production may say, the American "B" film is very often a better picture, from the point of view of audience value, than a British "A" film, and its absence from distributors' schedule would mean a very definite shortage of program material. After an emergency sitting of the General Purposes Committee of the CEA there was an adjournment with the general expectation that closer contact would be established with the KRS. General opinion regarding the Moyne Report is undoubtedly increasingly taking the form that the main proposals are unprecedented and that they will so be regarded in Parliament when, or rather if, the Government introduces a new Films Act based on the report. Law This Session Doubted Two facts appear to be established. The first is that the Rt. Hon. Walter Runciman, president of the Board of Trade, consulted the cabinet before he decided to publish the report, owing to its extreme character and the controversy it would be bound to create. The second is that there is no prospect of legislation being introduced during the present overcrowded session. A third factor which may be taken for granted is that, without any appeal from the trade, there would be determined opposition to a "Moyne" bill from a very large number of M. P.s, of all parties, if it embodied the princi(Continued on following pape)