Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

RANK PLANS WIDE HOUSE-CLEANING Production Administration Formed as Control for Propaganda Services by PETER BURNUP in London The scope and intention of that plan of Joseph Arthur Rank to coordinate the publicity units of all the many, diverse, motion picture activities have far exceeded the original design. As of December 6, Mr. Rank proposes to announce the formation of yet another company, to be known as Production Administration, Ltd., of which, like all the other companies he has promoted, he will be chairman. Function of the new concern will be to control not only all the propaganda services of his set up, but their finance and contractual obligations. On the board of the new concern will sit Barrington Gain — clearly destined to be the financial controller of all Mr. Rank's enterprises— and representatives of the three major Rank production outfits : Two Cities, Gainsborough, Independent Producers. Managing director and, as such, dictator of all the Rank advertising, production budgeting, contracts for the hire of actors, authors, studio-help, and so forth, will be F. L. Gilbert. Goes Outside Industry It is symptomatic of the Rank determination to clear up those haphazard redundancies in his organization, that he should have gone outside the motion picture industry for his new PoohBah of Planning. Mr. Gilbert is a civil servant of distinction who has held senior office in the Establishments Division of the Treasury (department which operates the staffing of all Government offices), the Milk Marketing Board and the planning section of the Ministry of Food. Clearly, it is his work in the last mentioned office which has won him his latest — and extremely lucrative' — job. There's a feeling in this land that the Food Ministry is just about the only wartime official department which has deserved public respect and thanks. It's an Herculean job, certainly, for those redundancies, the uneconomic overlapping not only in publicity departments but in every other branch of the immense setup, have become a byword to the critical. Aims at Complete Revision The master plan, as Mr. Rank will reveal when he summons his December 6 meeting, calls for a complete revolution right down to the studio-base of operations. Allocation of studio stages will be as follows : Gainsborough's plant at Shepherds Bush will be handed over to G. B. -Instructional and will be operated by Mary Field, in the production of her films for the Boys and Girls Clubs, in the making of instructional and propaganda films and such like endeavours ancillary to the main Rank undertakings. The shortly to be de-requisitioned Pinewood plant will be shared between Gainsborough and Independent Producers. Del Giudice's Two Cities' teams will function at Denham, where, unhappily for the water-tight quality of the Rank scheme, there are prior contractual obligations to Sir Alexander Korda and RKO Radio. It is the intention that certain stages at Denham will be available at certain seasons of the year to producers not within the Rank orbit. Spencer M. Reis, managing director of D. and P. Studios, Ltd., will be general studio controller. Hector Coward will be in immediate charge at Pinewood ; A. W. Watkins, at present chief sound engineer, in charge at Denham. Gainsborough's second plant at Islington and — probably — the even smaller Riverside Studios, will be held in reserve for minor Rank ventures, or for an emergency arising when a production doesn't maintain its working schedule. Novel Ideas Encouraged So much for the allocation of space. Producers will be encouraged, more even than now, to work out novel ideas ; for Mr. Rank feels that, freed of financial responsibilities, his men will work with a greater zest. Once a production notion has been approved and its approximate budget given the O.K., once the necessary floor space allocated, the producer has nothing more to do with the money-bags — or with the publicising of his endeavour. He will go to Mr. Gilbert, suggest that he retain such and such writer or so-and-so the film editor, or this or that star. If those individuals are available, Mr. Gilbert's people will negotiate their contracts. The publicity agent will take his instructions only from the Gilbert headquarters. There were heart-flutterings when Motion Picture Herald made its original revelation of the proposed advertising centralisation. There'll be more intense heart-burnings at the present disclosure. For, to date, there's been an immense and entirely inexplicable lack of control and coordination among certain of the many Rank factions. But the new move, apart altogether from its obvious intrinsic merits, had to be. After all, Mr. Rank has committed himself to the expenditure on production of no less than £5,000,000 (approximately $20,000,000) in the course of the next 12 months. Seeks Man New to Screen It's a safe assumption that Mr. Rank will go outside the industry for his advertising man, just as he did in the case of Mr. Gilbert. He feels that the man new to the business will bring a fresh mind to its problenss. That such an appointment is urgently demanded, that the new organization is vitally necessary, is shown, to quote one instance alone, in the campaign in anticipation of the opening of "Henry V." Laurence Oliver prevailed on Fillyse Del Giudice to give him an initial contract which authorized him not only to survey all publicity matter relating to the film, but actually to run its advertising campaign. Mr. Olivier's artists produced some very lovely designs which adorned subway walls, omnibus sides, newspaper columns. The layouts had beauty, but, say advertising experts, they might just as well have been publicising a stage play as a film. Mr. Olivier, moreover, tried a fall of his own with the newspapers. Declaring first of all that he wouldn't permit the critics the customary convenience of a preview, he relented and ordained that they should travel down to the studio at Denham if they desired to see his picture in advance. The critics coldly declined to play. Mr. Rank, reinforced by Peter Burnup, took a hand himself. The press view was held in the comfort of the Carlton theatre, London. Attack New York Zoning Changes j The proposed amendments to the New Yorl. ' zoning resolution, which were to become lav i Friday unless rejected by three-quarters of th< votes of the Board of Estimate, would prohibii the construction of several film theatres for which 1 plans have been filed, Robert Dowling of the | Citizens' Zoning Committee told the Board last week. Mr. Dowling, who spoke at a hearing on tht contemplated changes, which would restrict the i ground coverage of future buildings in Manhattan, ' later pointed out that plans for several motion picture theatres in midtown Manhattan would be nullified if the measure went into effect. The sites of the projected houses are Broadway, between^ i 45th and 46th Streets; on the empty lot adjacent to the Roxy theatre ; another on 53rd Street and ,i Sixth Avenue, and elsewhere. ( Contending that the zoning amendments would reduce the ground space of new buildings by 31 per cent, Mr. Dowling, whose organization also represents distribution and exhibition interests, pointed out that the owners of land now utilizing I 100 per cent of the ground would not sacrifice such a large percentage for new buildings. Similarly, Mr. Dowling said, towering buildings would have to be constructed on those vacant lots where theatres were projected, in order to get back the value of the property deprived of its full ground coverage. Such structures, he added, would net be feasible for theatres. The previous week, Leo Brecher, mid-town Manhattan motion picture theatre operator, assailed the proposed zoning changes at the Board's public hearing. Clarifies Actor Wage Problem Another guide post has been given producers on the question of salaries by the Internal Revenue Bureau, Washington, in a ruling that compensation given an actor by one company on a flat deal for a single picture will not be recognized as the basis for increasing the weekly salary he received from another company, and vice versa. The Bureau cited as an example a flat deal with "X" Corporation under which an actor receives $10,000 for a picture, on which he was expected to be and actually was employed only four weeks. The actor's last employment was for the "Y" Corporation at a salary of $1,000 a week, and | the bureau held that approval by the salary stabilization unit of the deal with "X" may not be deemed to be approval for an increase in the actor's weekly salary rate from $1,000 to $2,500. "It appears that there is no fixed relationship between the amount paid on a daily or weekly basis to an employe and the amount which he might be paid when the salary payment is for the completed job," the bureau explained. "Accordingly approval of an application for payment on the completed job will not be deemed to be an approval of a daily or weekly salary rate for an employe for the purpose thereafter under the specific assignment rule at a daily or weekly salary rate in excess of the daily or weekly salarv rate theretofore established or approved for such employee." English Acclaim "Henry V" As Bookings Set Record The premiere of Two Cities Films' "Henry the t Fifth" at the Carlton theatre, London, November 27, drew the country's most impressive wartime audience of socialites and government and military officials. The queue at the box office was 150 yards i long, and the acclamation was reported as unprecedented. Inquiries from all over the nation are I reportedly pouring into the offices of J. Arthur Rank, asking when the film can be seen, and advance bookings constitute an all-time high for a British film, according to Motion Picture Herald's London Bureau. 28 MOTION PICTURE HERALD. DECEMBER 2. 1944