Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

36 MOTION PICTU RE HERALD July 10, 1943 Plan New $1,000,000 Mexico City Studio Syndicate Headed by RCA Engineer, Randall; Will Be City's 11th Studio by LUIS BECERRA CELIS in Mexico City The studio situation here, the hub of the Mexican industry, which has been vastly improved during the past few months, is in for more improvement with the start of work by a syndicate which Howard Randall, RCA engineer, heads, on such facilities at Churubusco, near here. This enterprise, it is reported, will represent an ultimate investment of about $1,000,000. The studio is to be the most modern in Mexico and is expected to be in service by the end of this year. Harry Wright, the wealthy American who became the pioneer in 1909 of Mexico's iron and steel industry, a plant which he is still running here, is said to have a considerable cash interest in this venture. The Randall studio will bring to 11 the number of studios here. Mr. Randall has been active in the sound phase of the business in Mexico for some time. Complaint is heard among producers about soaring costs of production, not so much personnel, but material, particularly raw film and the expense of making sets. Raw film, it is said, has increased in price some 300 per cent since the war started and other costs have soared proportionally. But even at that, the producers admit, costs of producing quite an elaborate picture here are much below those of Hollywood. Mexico is soon to have a version in Spanish of "The Man in the Iron Mask," after all, as production of it, which had to be suspended because Carlos Villarias, the Spanish actor who was playing an important part, was obliged to quit Mexico as his six-month permit to remain here had expired. Mr. Villarias had to stay in El Paso, Texas, for several weeks until he could get his permit renewed and then fly back here. V A departure in production is being tried here by Julio Bracho, acclaimed Mexico's best director for 1941 and 1942, with the making of a film of a type that the French w ere particularly good at before the war. This picture, now in production, is "Distinto Amanecer" ("Different Dawn"). Mr. Bracho announces that it is to be a story of Mexico City exactly as it is. Its sequences are being taken in the streets, places where people gather, on buses and trams. Mr. Bracho contends that the Mexican public are tired of ranch and cowboy pictures. Former Mexican Official Plans Production Bernardo Jimenez, a former local civic government official, is to start as a film producer on or about July 1st with a novelty — the story of the conscripts, the 18-yearolds who have just been inducted into the armed services. Jose Benavides, director of the picture, has been sent to Hollywood to buy stock shots of current war sequences for the film. V Raul Basurto, the local building contractor and realtor who is responsible for most of this city's best subdivisions, has arranged to build two theatres in Morelos State, which adjoins this city. One of the theatres will be in Cuernavaca, the state capital, while Cuautla, a popular resort, will be the site of the other. Each theatre is to cost about $250,000 and the plans call for work on them to start August 1st. Dolores del Rio Will Make Another Film in Mexico In announcing that she definitely will make a second picture in Mexico, Dolores del Rio said that the film is to be made entirely at Xochimilco, the traditional resort near here which is a floating garden in existence when the conquering Spaniards arrived in 1520. Miss Del Rio is to be the only professional player in the picture. She will be supported by the full blooded native Xochimilco Indians. V Joseph Ervolieff, the Russian-French producer, has associated himself with CIMESA, prominent producing company here, for his third version of Jules Verne's "Michael Strogoff, or the Czar's Courier". This version is to be in Spanish. It may have a version in English. Mr. Ervolieff made his first version of this story in Paris and the second in Hollywood. He is seeking a director and he wants Arturo de Cordoba to play the lead. V The Ministry of Public Education has undertaken to arbitrate the claim of two important producers, Gen. Juan F. Azcarate, lately Mexican Minister to Germany who is now associated with the Rodriguez Brothers, and Antonio Mayer and Marcos E. Raya, the latter a former mayor of this city, to the title, "Mexicanos al Grito de Guerra" ("Mexicans Answer the War Cry") for the war pictures they are to make. Both companies insist that they have the right to this title. The Ministry is acting as umpire because it has just released eight war propaganda shorts under the same title. Claims Ownership of Film Rights to Book Claim for half the gross proceeds of the third film version of "Santa" ("Saintess"), the Classic Mexican novel written some 50 years ago by the late Federico Gamboa, has been filed with the local district attorney's office by Eusebio Gomez de la Puente, 74-year-old Spaniard who avers that he bought all screen and stage rights to the book from its author. The new film "Santa", directed by Norman Foster, who is reported to have received the new high of $8,000 in Mexico for the assignment, is acclaimed by the critics to be the best of the three. It is doing capacity business at the Cine Palacio, a leading local first run theatre. The producer, Central Cinematografica, S.A., told the prosecutor that it is the sole owner of all screen rights to the novel because it bought them from Don Federico's estate and presented documents to prove its contention. "Santa" is an historic Mexican picture. Its first film version was made in 1918 under very unfavorable conditions, in a vacant lot in the downtown area here where the Cine Olimpia, a leading first run theatre, now stands. Its star, Elena Sanchez Valenzuela, is now an obscure clerk for the Ministry of Public Education. But this version was a sensation in Mexico, as it was exhibited for 100 consecutive days at a local theatre. The second version also was made under unfavorable conditions and did only fairly well at the box office. It was produced and directed here by Antonio Moreno in 1930. He had a hard time making this, Mexico's first talking picture, because of the lack of adequate equipment. 20th-Fox Stock Deal Approved Twentieth Century-Fox stockholders this week at a special meeting at the home office authorized the company to exercise its option to purchase the remaining 58 per cent stock interest held in National Theatres Corporation by Chase National Bank. The holdings represent $13,000,000. The Twentieth-Fox Corporation holds 42 per cent of the stock. In order to consummate the transaction whereby National Theatres will become a wholly-owned Twentieth-Fox subsidiary, the creation of a new prior preferred cumulative $4.50 stock issue was approved by stockholders, calling for 100,000 shares. Involuntary liquidation value of the stock will be $100 and voluntary liquidation value $102. The Twentieth-Fox option on Chase holdings in the theatre circuit expires November 30th. Film Classics Withdraws Two Hitchcock Films Film Classics has announced that two Alfred Hitchcock films, "The Lady Vanishes" and "The Girl Was Young" temporarily have been removed from their distribution roster. The company, which recently acquired GaumontBritish and Hitchcock films, said that the two films will be made available to theatres as a combined bill at some future date. New prints and special accessories are now in preparation. If arrangements can be completed, the company plans a premiere of the films at a New York midtown theatre. FWC Studies War Problems More than 70 Fox West Coast officials and theatre managers discussed industry problems in wartime at a meeting of the circuit in San Francisco recently. Among those attending were Irving Epstein and George Topper, National Theatres executives and George Bowser, southern California division manager of FWC. Honor Peppiatt in Washington Charles E. Peppiatt, recently appointed branch manager of Twentieth Century-Fox's Washington exchange, was honored at a cocktail party on Thursday at the Variety Club headquarters in that city. A. W. Smith, Jr., 20th-Fox sales executive, was in charge of arrangements.