Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

PASCAL FILM GETS OVER SOME HURDLES Caesar and Cleopatra" Is Weathering Rumor Blow With Rank's Assistance by PETER BURNUP in London The news that Louis R. Loeffler, editor in the Twentieth Century-Fox organization, is coming here to take care of the Shaw-Pascal "Caesar and Cleopatra"; that the completed picture will be released in the United States under the personal auspices of Spyros P. Skouras, Twentieth-Fox president, puts an end to a deal of ill-natured, rancid rumor hereabouts. Maybe, tact hasn't been the most easily discerned quality in the production's background. Maybe, Gabriel Pascal has been just that little bit to blame in not curbing his noted multilingual eloquence when Denham's war-tired plant has catastrophically declined to function at some nerve-racked moment Maybe, also, Denham's "closed corporation" laborites haven't precisely covered themselves with glory (but with lashings of overtime pay, none the less), when the picture's director felt impelled, for the picture's sake, to keep the whole lot working until there was barely a half-hour drinking time left in Denham's and the adjacent pubs. Detractors Started Early The fact is that right from its inception the knockers got busy with it. Customarily wellinformed persons were free with their statements that the film would never be finished. Negligible hangers-on, discharged production managers and the like, were even freer with their information. There never has been a film with such intense tribulation, whose progress has been the occasion of such anxiety. J. Arthur Rank, from whose capacious money-chests the financial wherewithal is coming, was compelled — contrary to his custom of never interfering with his chosen producer's activity on the set — to take a hand. Mr. Rank, in person, went to the Treasury Department to ensure that Claud Rain's presence in this country, over and above his officially allotted time, would not mean that Whitehall would demand the vast sum of money which ordinarily would become due from Mr. Rains on account of income tax. Treasury Played Ball The Treasury Department — such is the Rank prestige, not to say influence — played ball. Mr. Rank, in person, later proceeded to the studio, ostensibly to talk to the workpeople about that millennium-making labor pact his people had negotiated with the trades unions ; actually to let those same workpeople know who was the governor in those precincts. Maybe, too, Denham's labor — like the British Government — now will play ball. But the pictue has now gotten over the hump. It's not all perhaps plain sailing for the crew but the sky has cleared. Five months hence will see it, so its friends believe, if not in the can at least in Technicolor's laboratories with Mr. Loeffler in sole charge. The grand finale had been scheduled for this November ; with maybe an early ceremonial showing of the picture's glories as the climax to the Rank family's Yuletide. That won't be. Present plans call for completion around March. But at least Mr. Rains is happy again. But Caesar's agonies have ordained drastic revisions in the Rank production agenda. That, so this department opines, , may not be such a bad thing. A realistic approach to the availability of studio space, to the reliability of studio equipment, was considerably overdue. Undisclosed, save to the innermost circles in the hierarchy, is the program for studio-utilization ordained on this day of reporting. The roster of films has a modest air when comparison is made with that grandiose flood of production which, six months ago, every producer in the Rank employ was so enthusiastically announcing. But, then, those present arrangements are those laid down by Mr. Rank himself. Pressburger Film Next Into Denham, very shorUy, goes the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger enterprise, "I Know Where I'm Going." So soon as Mr. Pascal is finished with the Technicolor cameras, Thorold Dickinson takes over with his "Threshold"; that project, previously reported from here, whose background already has been photographed in the Central African jungle and in which Eric Portman and Phyllis Calvert play the leads. With Michael Powell finishing, Anthony Havelock-Allan walks in with his Cineguild team on the latest and newest Noel Coward subject. That should be sometime in the spring. In August, Wesley Ruggles is scheduled for space on the joint Rank-Skouras effort, "London Town"; although it should be said in this regard that the Rank advisers, ere then, hope that Pinewood may have been surrendered from Governmental occupation, for space also has been provisionally promised to David Rose for his first mammoth Paramount-British production and to Victor Hanbury's RKO Radio outfit. Comes the turn of the Rank Studio Number Two, the Gainsborough plant at Shepherds Bush. Currently, the de Grunwald-Two Cities "Rendezvous" is the only unit working there. But very soon Shepherds Bush stages will be more than comfortably filled. It is planned that Sydney Gilliat's "Rake's Progress" shall start work before "Rendezvous" is finished. Interlocking with this picture will be Frank Launder's "Envoy Extraordinary." Before "Envoy" is completed, its production will be dovetailed with Leslie Arliss' "Wicked Lady Skelton." Must Find Room for Another And somewhere in the jig-saw, room requires to be found at the Gainsborough plant for Gainsborough's own picture, "The Magic Bow," a tale of the famed fiddler, Paganini, which Bernard Knowles will direct. Mr. Rank thus has 10 pictures programmed for completion by the winter of 1945. The list of their sponsors is not without significance. One — the Ruggles exhibit — is Rank-Skouras ; five are from Independent Producers' stable ; only two each from Gainsborough and Two Cities. Maybe that's another indication of how the Rank wind blows. CEA Accepts Film Monopoly Report Of British Council London Bureau [ Recommendations of the monopoly report cor-li mittee of the British Cinematograph ExhibitoJ-i Association have been accepted by a majority VO; of the general council. The committee had re ommended acceptance of the eight-point progra^' of the films council of the British Board of Trad ii The program included : i ', Legislation forbidding expansion of existing cij jl cuits ; that the Government during the present tigK t studio situation allocate studio space, adding th, ji the Government should build a new studio as pa|, of the national factory reconstruction progran production of medium-budgeted features should encouraged rather than highly speculative hig budget productions. Also, establishment of a finance corporation spo soring . independent production ; legislation forbi, ding conditional and restrictive booking ; legislatic compelling distributors to trade with cooperati||!, booking associations of independent exhibitor production of independent exhibitors followii Article 10 of the Consent Decree ; that the Go ernment should negotiate with Washington on t alleged inequitable American taxation on Briti films shown in the U. S., and also with a vie to the heavy exchange burden involved in t importation of American films here, with great, facilities for the exhibition of British films America. Regarding the Films Council suggestion tV'^^ a tribunal be set up to control the entire Briti' industry, the committee recommended a qualifi acceptance, stating that the tribunal should be t,, served for arbitration only, without powers | initiation but that legislation be made ensuri; enforcement of any award. Approximately 75 per cent of the general coun voted to accept the committee's recommendatioi The next step is consideration by all branches the industry, followed by further discussions of t Board of Trade, which is still waiting for t' It opinions of the British Film Producers Assoc; tion and the Kinematograph Renters Society. \. Technicolor, Ltd., Year's Net Profit $98,000 The annual report of Technicolor, Ltd., Briti subsidiary of Technicolor Motion Picture Corpoi tion, discloses that, during 1943, the company, spite of labor difficulties, sold 24,739,302 feet j release prints. Of that footage, 38 per cent vv; j made to the order of various British Governme,^ departments, 12 per cent from subjects phofi graphed in Great Britain other than for the Go ernment, the balance, 50 per cent, from subje photographed in Hollywood. Net profit of the company in the year endi November 30, 1943, amounted to £24,529 (appro: mately $98,000) as compared with the previc^ year's i49,940 (about $199,760). It is pointed out, however, that the latest yea" figures are arrived at after providing £28,000 \ taxation as against i2,666 in the previous ye| Also, that £27,000 has been written off for p liminary expenses and development expenditure ' Jf curred in prior years. ill 111 i St. Louis Theatres Hold Waste Paper Drive Fifty-nine neighborhood theatres in Greater f Louis were to hold waste paper matinees 10 Al Saturday, November 18. Admission was to a bundle of at least 10 pounds of waste pap Proceeds from the sale of the paper, collected^ part of the theatres' contribution to the Wq paper salvage drive, will go to the St. Lc, Variety Club's "Heart Fund." The club suppc the nursery maintained at the St. Louis Un. Station for the mothers and children of ser'^; men, and supplies athletic equipment for usej the program to combat juvenile delinquency. ' 01 34 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 18, I