Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1945)

ON THE MARCH by RED KANN HOLLYWOOD IT would be guess work to compute how many statements about new faces have been handed out to those who want to publish them in the last few years. But a guess would be good if it blanketed every studio in Hollywood. Because this industry has a habit of bestirring itself chiefly when circumstances compel action, it so happens the push for new personalities is more determined and more sustained today than has been the case prior to this point on any calendar of recent vintage. Any way the matter is viewed, of course, there is inevitable collision with the war. Despite the difficulties — and they are many these days — Hollywood manages to continue on its way, raising or lowering its total output in consonance with whatever absorption level the market reveals. Today, as is commonly known, extended runs cut sharply into requirements. Tomorrow, meaning in days of peace when consumer goods are no longer frozen, the situation will be something else again. Inroads into acting formations have left their mark, thereby confronting all studios with holes in the ranks for which replacements have been, and continue to be, sought. This is a condition which has been met in stride. But there is one other, at least. The tax situation is as vexatious a problem as any, and more troublesome than most, confronting producers. It shows up in an assortment of forms. One is the well-entrenched player, in the very big chips, who is actually tired or professes to be too tired to work but who frequently falls back on "those taxes" as his excuse not to do so. Studio argument that a player has to keep himself circulating before his adulating public if he wants to maintain his standing is not as persuasive as it may have been once. Where years of uninterrupted performance have made a player financially independent, the usual rebuttal is something or other about, "Why work? I can't keep the money anyway. I'd rather loaf. Or wait until the right vehicle comes along." This is one reason why stars go "crazy" over particular parts. Part of the same reason is why studios make some of the attractions they make. Wanting the established player or feeling he is required or maneuvering to keep him away from a competitive producer, they bend the knee. In goes a million or more and out comes something less. The yardstick is not all-embracing; no yardstick is ever that infallible in this industry, at any rate. But it applies in enough Hollywood case histories to suggest it represents a state of affairs. That what-to-do-about-it is the knotty aftermath facing the men who are responsible for the product. On one side, they know it's required stuff to dot their major attractions with important names. On another are the intricacies involved in achieving that kind of dotting. On a third is the need to find new faces to replace the old before the old pile on too many years. As a group, the newcomers are duck soup for the studios. Ambitious youngsters are willing. They are eager to go places. They take the parts assigned them. They show up on time in the morning, seldom bring temperament out of its hiding place, deport themselves admirably. Nevertheless, this kids nobody permanently. Production veterans, some of them disciples of futility, declare it's fine while it lasts, but they also know how giddy a whirligig success can be. Therefore, they expect the docile and the meek to stay that way until the wine gets heady. After that, they realize they have to begin all over again. Road Blocks LEGION would be the name for the conditions finding their way into what is disarmingly described as the normal course of production. Here are a few choice stories to illustrate : 1. — At $900,000, a picture on one of the major lots was over budget. The front office, calculating time for a stand had arrived, aimed a battery of pointed remarks at the director. He rejoined he was interested in making a fine picture, regardless of cost, and, besides, the producer was in that cozy 90 per cent bracket anyway ; therefore, why be crass and talk about mere money ? In for $900,000 and with several weeks to go, the producer decided he was hooked. He was, and prettily. 2. — Not so long ago, publication of the financial statement of a certain company showed it was doing very well for the usual reasons : abnormal market, long runs, plenty of cash in everyone's jeans. When the studio heard about the net, after taxes, the ensuing scene was charged with electricity and excitement. Some beefed about their $50,000-$100,000 negative brackets, and couldn't they have future budgets tilted? Some making them anywhere from $250,000 to $450,000 angled for the bigger ones ranging up to about $1,000,000. Justifiably or otherwise, some wanted their deals rewritten, their terms improved. It took about 30 days to quiet that plant and those plaints. The president of the company is the authority for the story. He ought to know. 3. — Everyone, at the usual great expense, gets the usual 9 A. M. call when the unnamed star of this episode works. That is, all but the star whose stipend per picture is $150,000 under an additional pro rata weekly arrangement if the shooting goes over schedule. But the star never shows up before 11 A. M. and quits not later than six. So far as is known, no one has been able to figure with all-out accuracy what his routine adds to the final expense of producing any attraction this performer makes. It might be observed X is never out of a job, either. 4. — Pandering to whimsicality approached, if it did not reach, a new level under these circumstances ; The central personality is a player who is pretty much the darling of her studio. One of her recent films was assigned a rising young director — she approved the selection, it ought to go without saying — and was turned out in 45 days at a comfortable price. It was fast, but it proved to be too fast simply since earlier pictures with this individual had never been polished off in less than 60 days. Because the studio was fearful the star might nurse the idea her new director was a cheater, the director was ordered to pile on two additional weeks. It was a couple of weeks of shadow-boxing, but it skyrocketed the cost by six figures and the situation, as the producer saw it, was saved. Ah, Hollywood ! Rules Canadian Courts Cannot j Control Films Toronto Bureau A court decision establishing a precedent in Canada for the Canadian film industry was handed i down Tuesday by the Court of Kings Bench, Mon1 treal, the highest court in the province of Quebec, j The court upheld United Amusement Corporation) in a judgment against Kent Theatres, Ltd., de' creeing that legal courts have no jurisdiction over the rental or exhibition of motion pictures which, under the Federal War Measures Act are controlled by the administrator of services of the Canadian Wartime Prices and Trade Practices Board. The court maintained the position of United Amusement Corp. after long litigation involving the right of United's Snovvden theatre to have priority on certain Warner features over the Kent theatre which is a unit of the Garson and Lane circuit, reportedly recently acquired by Odeon Theatres of Canada. In a hearing last November, United Amusement raised the question, on its appeal from a judgment of a lower court, and the new decision establishes a principle which is considered important with respect to jurisdiction on all film contracts in Canada during the wartime life of the Federal order-in-council giving effect to Government administration of motion picture business. An injunction secured by Kent Theatres to restrain United and Warner Bros, from exercising a release priority at the Snowden also was thrown out by the high court. Further legal action is believed unlikely because of the precedent set_ by the Quebec court in this latest decision. In addition, the film contract involved is understood to have expired in the interim. Famous Players Canadian has a large financial interest in United Amusement which is a group of 30 theatres operated as an affiliate of the principal circuit. Exhibitor Called Him Names; Checker Sues, Wins $10,000 Because Fulton Cook and wife, owners of the Bungalo, St. Maries, Idaho, allegedly called a Ross Federal Service checker "a stool pigeon, a peeping Tom, and a Jekyll and Hyde," a Federal court jury at Coeur D'Alene, that state, has awarded the checker $10,000. The checker is Ralph V. Browder, also the local postmaster. He originally sued for $25,000. Mr Browder also won, through the same court, a judgment of $500 against A. M. and Mrs. Quane, publishers of the local newspaper, GazetteRecord, which printed the story of the incident. Henderson Succeeds Towell As 20th-Fox Treasurer Donald A. Henderson last week was elected treasurer and a director of Twentieth CenturyFox Film Corporation to fill the. vacancy caused by the death of Sydney Towell, who died December 9. Mr. Henderson, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a member of the Buying Department of the Halsey Stuart Company, New York, from 1925 to 1936. In that year he joined the Industrial Department of Lehman Bros., New York. Mr. Henderson has been active in the financial affairs of 20th-Fox since 1926. Pathe Industries Acquires Pictorial Films, Inc. Pathe Industries, Inc., announced its acquisition of Pictorial Films, Inc., one of the leading national distributors of 16mm product, in New York Tuesday. Milton J. Sulzberg and Harold Baumstone, continue as president and vice-president, respectivelj', of Pictorial under the new organization setup. At a special meeting of the board of directors of Pictorial held Monday, J. Stimson Young, president, and Karl Herzog, treasurer, of Pathe Industries, were elected chairman and treasurer, respectively, of Pictorial. 20 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JANUARY 6, 1945