Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

11 Companies Will Release 150 Films Through January {Continued from preceding page) the Bell Tolls," which will be distributed at popular prices. Completed or in work : "Incendiary Blonde, "Road to Utopia," "Bring on the Girls," "Murder," He Says," "Two Years Before the Mast," "The Unseen," "Kitty," "A Medal for Benny," "Out of This World," "Salty O'Rourke," "Miss Susie Slagle," "Dufify's Tavern," "High Powered," "The Love Letters," "The Lost Weekend," "Affairs of Susan" and "The Virginians," a remake. PRC PICTURES Seventeen pictures have dates set through January. "Kid Sister" is scheduled for February 6 and the following are in work : "The Man Who Walked Alone," "Crime, Inc," and "Barber of Red Gap." RKO RADIO With one block and three specials in release, including "Casanova Brown," "Woman in the Window" and "The Princess and the Pirate," the company has announced its second block: "Farewell, My Lovely," "Girl Rush," "Nevada," "Experiment Perilous" and "Falcon in Hollywood." Completed or in work: "Belle of the Yukon," "Having Wonderful Crime," "The Brighton Strangler," "Betrayal from the East," "Wonder Man," "Island of the Dead," "It's a Pleasure," "Pan Americans," "Two O'Clock Courage," "China Sky," "Three Cabelleros," "Hotel Reserve," "Zombie on Broadway," "Tarzan and the Amazons," "Come Share My Love," "Enchanted Cottage," "West of the Pecos," "Invisible Army," "Body Snatchers" and "Along Came Jones." REPUBLIC Twelve have been scheduled to December. Prerelease dates for "Brazil" are expected to be announced shortly. Completed or in work: "Flame of Barbary Coast," "Lake Placid Serenade," "Sheriff of Las Vegas," "Big Show-Ofif," "Thoroughbreds," "Big Bonanza," "Grizzly's Millions," "The Great Flamarion," "Hitchhike to Happiness," "The Topeka Terror," "The Chicago Kid," "Vampire's Ghost," "Daring Holiday," "Song for Miss Julie," "Great Stagecoach * Robbery," "The Phantoiji Speaks," "Earl Carroll Vanities," "Jealousy," "Swingin' on a Rainbow," "Three's a Crowd" and "Johnny March." TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX With 14 features and one special, "Wilson," in release or set for distribution through January, the company also has dates through May for the following: "Billy Roses Diamond Horseshoe," "A Royal Scandal," February; "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," March; "Hangover Square," "Nob Hill," April, and "Where Do We Go from Here?" May. Completed or in work : "Bon Voyage," "Circumstantial Evidence," "Bell for Adano" and "Molly, Bless Her." UNITED ARTISTS Beginning the season with one special, the David O. Selznick production, "Since You Went Away.'j UA has set "Dark Waters" and "Three's a Family" for November ; "Guest in the House" and "Tomorrow the World," for December; "I'll Be Seeing You" and "Mr. Emmanuel," the British production for January. Completed or in work: "Story of G. I. Joe, "The Great John L," "Spellbound," "Brewster's Millions," "Delightfully Dangerous," "It's in the Bag," "Hold Autumn in Your Hand," "Blood on the Sun," "A Walk in the Sun" and "Bedside Manner." UNIVERSAL Twenty-three pictures have been set through January. „ Completed or shooting: "Patrick the Great, "House of Frankenstein," "House of Fear," "Queen of the Nile," "The Frozen Ghost," "Beyond the Pecos," "Renegades of the Rio Grande," "I'll Remember April," "Mummy's Curse," "Jungle Captive," "Frisco Sal," "Salome — Where She Danced," "Fairy Tale Murder," "Her Lucky Night," "Penthouse Rhythm," "Swing Out Sister," "Here Come the Co-eds," "It's Never Too Late," "Song of the Sarong" and "Romance, Incorporated." WARNER BROS. Nine features have been scheduled through January. "Objective Burma" is slated for February. Completed or in work: "Devotion," "Saratoga Trunk," "Conflict," "Rhapsody in Blue," "The Horn Blows at Midnight," "The Animal Kingdom," a remake; "My Reputation," "Cinderella Jones," "Roughly Speaking," "The Corn Is Green," "Men Without Destiny," "Christmas in Connecticut," "Of Human Bondage," a remake ; "God Is My CoPilot," "Pillar to Post," "Nobody Lives Forever," "San Antonio," "The Big Sleep" and "Hotel Berlin." Eastman Employees to Benefit In $3,700,000 Wage Dividends Employees of the Eastman Kodak Company next March will receive increased wage dividends in action this week by the board approving payment of $2 on the common stock for the quarter and the regular $1.50 quarterly dividend on the preferred. The dividend on the common is an increase of 75 cents over the last quarterly declaration, representing a total wage dividend for 1945 of $3,700,000, compared with $2,075,069 in 1944. _ Each employee with five complete years of service will receive a payment nearly three times as large as his average weekly pay check. The dividend of $2 on the common is payable January 2 to stock of record December 5. Payments declared this year on the stock total $5.75, compared with $5 in 1943. "Co-Pilot" to Have World Premiere in Macon Macon, Ga., home town of Colonel Robert Lee Scott, author of "God Is My Co-Pilot," will be the scene of the world premiere of the Warner Brothers picture of the same title, Harry M. Warner, president, announced this week. The book by Colonel Scott, recounting his achievements as a combat flyer in China, was one of the leading sellers of the past 10 years in the non-fiction field. The cast of the picture is headed by Dermis Morgan as Colonel Scott, with Raymond Massey in the role of General Chennault, and Dana Clark, Alan Hale, John Ridgley and Andrea King in other leading roles. The premiere is tentatively set for March 15. New York ITO Measure To Await Decree Action The Independent Theatre Owners Association of New York decided at a meeting last week to await action by the Department of Justice on the Consent Decree before making any move to press for legislation in New York to set up a film board to rule on industry practices. There are listed in the proposed bill 31 trade practices which would be outlawed in New York if enacted. "Wilson" Enters 18th Week Of Its Broadway Run Wednesday of this week, Darryl F. Zanuck's "Wilson" started the 18th week of its consecutive run on Broadway. Currently at the Victoria theatre, it originally opened at the Roxy and remained there for eight weeks. It was estimated that a million and a half people had seen the Twentieth Century-Fox film during 17 weeks. Baldwin Joins Vanguard Jack Goldstein, eastern director of publicity and exploitation for Vanguard Films, the David O. Selznick company, announced in New York Tuesday that Ted Baldwin had joined his staff. Mr. Baldwin was formerly in charge of promotion for Columbia. Allied Charges Releases Fewer^ Rentals Increase \ ! Charges that the distributors are releasing fev; films this year, representing a smaller productii expenditure, despite the fact that film prices p: by the exhibitor have increased were made by iji tional Allied States Association in the organi; tion's bulletin published in Washington last wei' During the 1943-44 season, Allied contend s "the Big Eight continued their policy of gradua|,i:j reducing releases, thereby tightening the marl for the independent exhibitors. This year tKreached a new low — 259 feature pictures — an av(! age of 32.4 per company." i; Allied's tabulation of releases is as follow; Columbia, 41; MGM, 34, Paramount, 31; RK 40 ; Twentieth Century-Fox, 27 ; United Artis? 18, Universal, 49 and Warner Bros., 19. ^ y fit itiii alii at' Compelled to Buy All "The intended and inevitable result of the pre ent policy of the major companies is to comi the exhibitors to buy all of the pictures that a available to them, at whatever prices the d;i tributors see fit to exact," Allied observed. "Co: trol of the market, is being exerted steadily increase prices on the one hand and gradually reduce costs on the other. And the ever-increasii disparity between the general price level and av€ age costs — the failure of the price level to respoi, in any degree to reductions in cost — constitut the clearest evidence of monopoly," the bullet' further charged. Allied pointed out that distributors claimed t:^ reduction in releases was due, not to any "d' liberate plan" on the part of the companie' but to the bottleneck created by extended runs aii holdovers at the first-run theatres. But, Alii insisted, the big first runs, where the product ja was concentrated, for the most part were operat by the five theatre-owning companies. A survey by the organization of 38 key citi< discloses that of the 235 first runs regularly playirj major product, 190 are affiliated with the di tributors and only 45 are independently operate Cites First Run Bottleneck "The foregoing," concluded Allied, "gives n only the responsibility but the motive for the fir run bottleneck. Since the major companies reali a double profit when their pictures are show in their own theatres, once as distributors ar again as exhibitor, the motive for concentratir movie attendance in those theatres is obvious. Ar to the extent that first run theatre admissioi are higher than subsequent run admissions, tl motive is more compelling." "Blind-checking" and over-expansion in post war theatre building were discussed in the bulleti Allied advised exhibitors to have any "skulkin, figure lurking in the shadows" near the box offic^ arrested as a "vagrant" or "suspicious character Independent theatre owners were cautioned again the danger of over-expansion in post-war theati^ construction, but new post-war theatres should I: built and operated by independents "for the good ( the industry and not by producer-distributors Allied warned. Slesin Rejoins Warner Foreign Department Beno Slesin, former supervisor for Warne Bros.' foreign offices in central and eastern Europ and in the Near East, has rejoined the compan; Joseph S. Hummell, vice-president of Warned International Corp., announced in New York Mor^ day. Mr. Slesin will work at the home offic' for the time being, but later will return to Pari; Uti Establish Wiilkie Memorial The board of directors of Freedom House ar j nounced this week that a Wendell Wiilkie Mej morial Building would be established shortly in th New York midtown area. Spyros Skoura;! Twentieth Century-Fox president, is a membei of the committee on the project. \ 14 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 25, 194'