Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1937)

52 MOTION PICTURE HERALD May 15, 1937 GERMANY TRANSFERS FILM CONTROL FROM BUSINESS TO WORKING TALENT Nazi Actors, Film Directors, Bankers and Cabinet Representative Supplant Score on Board of UFA Film Company Complete government control over Germany's motion picture industry has finally been effected for Nazi cultural and propagandistic purposes, and the managements of the large companies have been placed in the hands of the working talent. Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda and public enlightenment, is now the official Nazi overlord on all matters cinematic. The recently enacted German-Italian "cinema friendship" also is now in actual practice, as the result of a pact intended to build up an international film bloc, already composed of those two countries and Japan. These "ideological" allies aim to raise the money-making level of their film industries, against the motion picture influences and competition of Hollywood, and other non"ideological" countries. A score of members of the board of directors "resigned" last Thursday from UFA-Film, the largest German motion picture company, and at the same time Dr. Goebbels' official government news service announced a general reorganization of the industry in Germany. Six Nazi bankers, five actors and film directors and one representative of the Propaganda Ministry's film chamber constitute the new board. All are in effect Dr. Goebbels' appointees. Tobis in the future will work "in intimate cooperation" with Ufa. Tobis is the second largest German film concern, and last year produced more pictures than Ufa. Before the Adolf Hitler era of government propagandistic acquisition and control, the two companies were close competitors. The smaller film companies in Germany also will be brought immediately into this new "cooperative undertaking." In Hands of Committee Reporting from Berlin via wireless, the New York Times said this week that under the new plan the production sections of both Ufa and Tobis will be entirely in the hands of a committee made up of those board members who are themselves actors and film directors. The others will be responsible only foi solely financial questions and business details. In Ufa's case, production will be under the actors Eugen Klopfer, Paul Hartmann and Mathias Wiemann, film director Karl Ritter and Professor Karl Froelich, plus Hanns Weidemann, spokesman for the government film chamber, Dr. Emil Georg von Strauss, third vicepresident of the Reichsbank, will be largely responsible for financial affairs. The actors, Emil Jannings, Willy Forst, Veit Harlan and the film director, Hans Zerlett, already control the production side ot Tobis. Dr. Goebbels always has proclainied that films are too commercial and that what was needed was more art, said The Time! wireless. The government news service now asserts that the German film has a special mission. It says : "The German film has reached the point where it must fulfill its duty to the state, nation REICH STILL BUYS AMERICAN PRODUCT Nearly half of the motion pictures released in German theatres this year were of foreign origin, the New York Times reported Monday in a wireless from Berlin. The Censor's report for the first four months shows 50 features were released and that 28 of these were German and 22 foreign. The United States had 13, Austria 4 and France, Italy, Japan, Czechoslovakia and Hungary one each. The Reich Film Chamber spokesmen complain that it is reported abroad that Germany is trying to shut out foreign films. The four months' statistics were offered as evidence to the contrary. During April the Censor released three American pictures: "Maid of Salem", "Pigskin Parade" and "Bulldog Drummond Escapes". and culture. It must exercise international influence. It must become a spiritual world power. The German film particularly has a world mission." Hugenberg "Out" Control of the old Ufa company was in the hands of Chancellor Hitler's one-time minister of economics and political ally. Dr. Alfred Hugenberg. The final report of the former board of directors showed improved business. Nevertheless, the company again paid no dividends. General Manager Klitsch explaining that the reserves must be preserved for experimentation in color films and for the "export drive" during the coming season The government news service suggests, without being very specific, according to The Times correspondent, that the time is approaching when there will be only one German distributing organization. The report now universally heard in film circles in Berlin is that the real new owner of the Ufa and Tobis film corporations is Franz Eher Publishing Company. This company publishes the official Nazi Voelkischer Beobachter and is the National Socialist party's central publishing organization. Chancellor Hitler is reported to be a partner in the firm. Others to be Absorbed The Bavaria and Terra film companies, the two remaining semi-independent concerns, are expected to be absorbed soon by the Ufa-Tobis combine. Germany then, in effect, will have only one film-producing company, which will be operated by the National Socialist party through the Franz Eher Company, which then would become one of the world's largest publishing and film concerns, with the avowed determination "to transform what heretofore has been film industry into what can truly be called film art." Dr. Hugenberg, former Nationalist party leader, is the foremost business man to disappear from the old directorate of UFA. The Karl Froelich who assumes a directorship on the board is familiar to the American public for his "Maedchen in Uniform." While the Nazis assert that in bringing UFA Tobis Will Work "in Intimate Cooperation" with UFA and Smaller Companies Will Be Brought Into Line Immediately and Tobis under Dr. Goebbels' domination, both will remain separate organizations, emphasis was placed on the government's determination to force them to be "united in common interest." Before the move Tobis had been "Nazified," but the Propaganda Ministry had had some difficulties in forcing UFA to follow closely the strict lines of Nazi policy adherence established for it. Production Aims Some idea of the aims for production artistry under the now government-controlled industry was advanced the other day in a press statement received in New York from the German film chamber, in which "State Actor" Mathias Wieman characterized the two new main types of German films. "We have an obscure feeling that our life has taken on an entirely different form from that which we originally hoped for, and in the cinema we seek the reflection of what has been unfulfilled in our own lives, the dream picture of unfulfilled desires," Mr. Wieman said. The dream picture, or idealistic film, Mr. Wieman contrasted with the realistic film, "which strives for nothing but truth." "The times cry for their portrayal," he said, and "only through the new image of man can we make our way in the world." "The evolution of the cinema undoubtedly proceeds from the idealistic to the realistic film." Atlanta Film Council Meets The Atlanta Better Films Council met last Thursday at a dinner honoring past presidents. Guests included Mrs. Alonza P. Richardson, former president, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Melnicker of Loew's Grand, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Reed of the Capitol, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Murray of the Rialto and J. W. Setz of Scottish Rite Hospital, operator of Sunday shows in Atlanta. Has 53rd Anniversary Nick Amos, Sr., salesman for Majestic Pictures in Omaha, and Mrs. Amos, this week are receiving congratulations upon the celebration of their 53rd wedding anniversary. Mr. Amos, who was one of Omaha's first exhibitors, opened the first theatres in Lincoln, Neb., and Topeka and Wichita, Kan. He has been a salesman since 1918. Opening Hollywood OfRce Crane Housamen of Cecil, Warwick and Cecil, advertisng agency, has left New York for Hollywood, where he will open an office for the handling of special copy for three United Artists producer accounts, Selznick International, Samuel Goldwyn and Walter Wanger. Radio amateur contests are once again popular in New England motion picture theatres, Wesley Eraser, master-of-ceremonies, said this week in Boston as he pointed out that he is working seven nights a week in Greater Boston theatres.