Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1945)

RANK PLANS MAJOR BRITISH MUSICAL In Color, Will Be Based on Life Story of Cochran, Noted British Showman by PETER BURNUP in London Plans for the first large scale Rank Technicolor "musical" seem well on the way to fulfilment. The likelihood is that the picture will go on the floor at Denham as soon as Thorold Dickinson finishes with the colour cameras on his "Men of Two Worlds" film about Augiast next. The whole project has been kept in an atmosphere of secrecy. None, indeed, save the immediate hierarchy yet has knowledge thereof. The form of the film has not been settled precisely. It is to be a sort of life story of 72-year-old Charles Blake Cochran, sometimes known as England's Ziegfeld, but quite certainly this land's greatest showman of all time. Has Had Varied Career Mr. Cochran acted under Alexander C. Comstock's management at Niblo's Gardens, New York City, in 1892. He has worked in circuses, burlesque shows, curio exhibitions; acted as personal representative to the late Richard Mansfield; promoted box-fights, wrestling, zoos; presented Ibsen on the stage, produced everything else from "The Miracle" to "Damaged Goods" and a dozen sparkling, raffish, near-naughty revues. And" now the aged showman lies gravely ill in a London nursing home. He who has managed and promoted half the great artists of his time is unable to take charge of the Charles Blake Cochran production which promises to be the greatest of them all. Filippo del Giudice it was, many months since, who first proposed to Mr. Cochran that the film should be made. Discussions then were vague. Mr. Del Giudice was busy at the time initiating similar talks with a whole flock of the distinguished, including Winston Churchill, for the screen rights to the Prime Minister's life of his great ancestor, the first Duke of Marlborough. Mr. Cochran's friends declare that he was offered £10,000 (about $40,000) for the story. Whatever the facts were, the tangled discussions have been reported to the ultimate arbiter, J. Arthur Rank, who, so it is now said on the inside, has arrived at a suitable accommodation in the matter. Want It Done on Large Scale There remains now only to fix the script form. Mr. Rank wants the thing done on an immense scale, but he doesn't wish it to develop into a sort of plagiarism of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" or "The Great Ziegfeld." There are, moreover, considerations of the touchiness or otherwise of living persons, or the relatives of those lately deceased, who might be portrayed in the picture. Dififerent circumstances obtain in this country from those operating in America in that regard. There's a marked coyness when it comes to depicting actual persons on our screens; as witness the situation lately arising in MGM's "Mrs. Parkington." In the original version, Cecil Kellaway is understood to have provided a conspicuously recognisable portrait of the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward 24 VII. That simply wouldn't do for Britain's cinemas. Hugo Haas, in the British edition, plays — instead of the real Prince — an amiable Ruritanian monarch with no discernible authenticity. But doubtless Mr. Rank and his considerable cohort of diplomatic and social advisers will presently iron out all those little bothers. For the film chief is keenly set on having the picture made. Weigh South African Production Meanwhile, the departure of John Davis for South Africa — Odeon's chief plans to be away for at least three months — ^brings right into the sphere of practical politics the question of largescale production of South African films. That project was first mooted by this department when we pointed out the immense potentialities of such a theme, not only as a matter of picture making as such, but as an Empirebinding medium. But there are other venturers in the same field. Sir Alexander Korda's principal production aide, Ian Murray Dalrymple, has close connections with South Africa; his father was one of the Colony's most famed administrators. Mr. Dalrymple, in his chief's absence planning the future MGM-British programme, has been investigating African possibilities; wants Sir Alexander to make in Africa itself an epic open-air subject in which all the great figures of the era from Kruger to Smuts would appear. A new African gold rush may safely be forecast as a sequel to John Davis's travels. V Cineguild — Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Ronald Neame — have started work on the latest Noel Coward affair, "Brief Encounter". This has nothing to do with any cursory once-over Mr. Coward may have given to Brooklyn, N. Y. It's a happy-go-lucky English story with a North country background. A unit has been sent up to the wayside Cumberland village of Carnforth to obtain background shots. Celia Johnson and Stanley Holloway — they both earned medals for their work in Mr. Coward's "This Happy Breed" — are in the party. Would Make "Great Expectations" Add to Dickens' Scenario Department. The Cineguild triumvirate want to make "Great Expectations" when their present production is through. Gabriel Pascal's long-distance Marathon effort— "Caesar and Cleopatra" — is definitely in its last stages at Denham. But that's not to say we'll see the completed article yet awhile. For. Mr. Pascal has received Government permission to take a team out to Egypt; just to get Cleopatra's authentic golden sands into his Technicolor film. Mr. Pascal talks now of making Bernard Shaw's "Man and Superman". But this one won't be financed by Mr. Rank, it is understood. Someone else will foot the production bill, with Mr. Rank coming in only as distributor through his General Film Distributors organization. Mr. Pascal maintains he has assurances that room will be found for his production in the currently requisitioned Sound City studios. Other persons maintain that he exhibits characteristic optimism therein, for, despite the considerable efforts Board of Trade officials continually make for studio de-requisitioning. there's little sign of Sound City being avail i able for many months to come; although Whitehall has confirmed that the' studios in question stand high in the release priority list. V Optimism is a euphemistic understatement | in connection particularly with Worton Hall, purchased on a 50-50 basis, for post-war use, by British Lion's Sam Smith and John Corfield, who was once Lady Yule's associate in British National. Mr. Corfield has contracted also with Mr. Rank's G.F.D. to make a series of films at \ Worton Hall, where, declares Mr. Corfield: "I hope to start work in May of this year." Realistic observers murmur at that, for it is ! well known that re-equipment of the studios, even when de-requisitioning is a physical fact, ' will take many months. Anyhow, Mr. Corfield has his plans all ready. Screen rights to the novel "Bedelia," i by the author of "Laura," Vera Gaspary, have been acquired. Miss Gaspary has been invited here to collaborate in the screenplay, i Isidore Goldsmith — Vienna-born maker of i "Hatter's Castle" and "The Stars Look Down" — has been named producer. More Studios in EnglandAvailahle j London Bureau \ Two more studio stages are now available for j derequisitioning, but British Government film units f insist on retaining accommodations such as cutting j; rooms. A meeting to seek a remedy has been arranged between executives of the J. Arthur Rank f organization and the Ministry of Information. | One of the studio stages, used as a wartime food . store and now derequisitioned, has been found dam r aged but the Ministry of Works is authorizing a special priority for reconditioning. The wartime occupants of another studio are reluctant to surrender it, claiming that one stage housing heavy machinery cannot be evacuated and that films cannot be made because of the noise from , this machinery. However, sound tests conducted in collaboration with Western Electric have demonstrated that this noise does not interfere with sound tracks, so it is likely that Sir Alexander Korda may occupy the studio as soon as equipment is available. The Board of Trade is ! understood to be willing to grant Sir Alexander an ' import license for American machinery. " A general census of re-equipment requirements [■ is still incomplete, but a meeting of the British [ Film Producers Association and the equipment f makers is expected to be held within a few weeks, t Theatres, however, must await low priorities for J reconditioning, and it is unlikely that any com [ prehensive plan along this line will be possible for j three or four years. The Government insists that the repair of bomb-damaged homes and the buildings of new ones come first. j Skouras To Go to England In March with Silverstones ' Spyros Skouras, president of Twentieth CenturyFox, is to leave for England about mid-March, accompanied by Murray Silverstone, vice-president j li in charge of foreign distribution, and Arthur Sil J verstone, home office foreign representative sta f tioned in London but currently in the U. S. Mr. ' Skouras returned to New York from a visit to i Hollywood this week. While in England he will study the company's British production plans and Twentieth CenturyFox distribution in England. !|i The company recently completed a deal with Mar J eel Hellman for joint production of "Wanted for jl Murder." J Weiss Leaves Warner Post | Henry Weiss has left the booking department of the Warner theatre circuit in Philadelphia to re i turn to his law practice. He is succeeded by Rose 1 Schneider. | i MOTION PICTURE HERALD. FEBRUARY 17, I945l|