Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1946)

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^^ COMPLETED COLUMBIA Crime Doctor's Manhunt (formerly "Crime Doctor's Honor") Singing on the Trail MONOGRAM Decoy (B&B Productions) PARAMOUNT Welcome Stranger RKO RADIO Sinbad the Sailor REPUBLIC Vigilantes of Boomtown Shine on, Texas Moon Plainsman and the Lady Snow Cinderella (Colmes) 20TH CENTURYFOX Flight to Paradise (Wurtzel) UNIVERSAL Black Angel Ghost Steps Out STARTED COLUMBIA It's Great to Be Young MGM Sea ■ of Grass MONOGRAM High School Hero PARAMOUNT I Cover Big Town (Pine-Thomas) REPUBLIC Heldorado Last Frontier Uprising Mysterious Mr. Valentine UNITED ARTISTS The Chase (Nero Productions) D e V i I's Playground (Hopalong Cassidy Productions) UNIVERSAL Wild Beauty SHOOTING COLUMBIA Down to Earth Gallant Journey Thrill of Brazil INDEPENDENT Curley (Hal Roach) INTERNATIONAL Bella Donna MGM Lady in the Lake High Barbaree Beginning or the End Uncle Andy Hardy Mighty McGurk Woman of My Own My Brother Who Talked to Horses MONOGRAM Ghost Busters . PARAMOUNT Where There's Life PRC Melody Roundup RKO RADIO Katie for Congress Deadlier than the Male Nocturne Honeymoon Best Years of Our Lives (Goldwyn) Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Goldwyn) It's a Wonderful Life (Liberty) REPUBLIC That Brennan Girl Angel and the Outlaw 20TH CENTURYFOX Carnival in Costa Rica My Darling Clementine Razor's Edge UNITED ARTISTS Miss Television (Comet) Dishonored Lady (Stromberg) Bel Ami (Loew Lewin) Abie's Irish Rose (Crosby) Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber (Award) No Trespassing (Lesser) UNIVERSAL Pirates of Monterey ' Michigan Kid The Killers (Hellinger) WARNERS Cry Wolf Deception Life with Father Stallion Road Cloak and Dagger Cheyenne Scrap Off 'Color Material: Broidy Hollywood Bureau Monogram's Samuel Broidy last week became the first company president to declare openly an all-out policy of scrapping film subjects susceptible to censorship. Mr. Broidy's remarks, uttered first in an offrecord phase of a press conference and subsequently given on-record status, included the blunt statement, "We will make no more 'Dillingers', and all scripts now in writing stage are being combed over to eliminate any material which might give impetus to the rising tide of censorship." Included in the Broidy category of subject material responsible for the recently accentuated attention given pictures by censor bodies in various parts of the country are psychological melodramas and triangle plots, as well as gangster pictures. He said, "No matter how they are dressed up — whether in terms of psychological study or some other way — they all boil down to sex, and they all beget trouble. All responsible executives realize now that the films have gone too far, and while I can't speak for others, I think you will see a distinct swing toward cleaner pictures when the stufif now in the backlogs or shooting is played off." Asked whether it was any particular incident or development that caused producers in general to realize that a change of policy was in order, Mr. Broidy said, "No, I don't think any one thing caused it. I think everybody was more or less aware that the line was being overstepped, but each one said to himself that if others were doing it he might as well see how far he could go, also. It just kept piling up," he said, "and finally the limit was reached." He went on, "Advertising, too, has got out of line. Ad writers are using copy and illustration which exaggerates even the material that is in the really bad pictures, and suggesting evil things in the good ones. This is almost a worse trend than that of the pictures themselves, and will have to be stopped. Monogram is going in for clean, wholesome pictures exclusively, pictures for the whole public — not just a sensation-seeking segment of it." Six Bands to Appear In New Musical A Technicolor musical with six popular bands will be the second independent production for the new unit organized by Maurice M. Cohen, president of the Hollywood Palladium, and Joseph McDonough, former head of production at RKO Radio. The picture will be made in episodic manner with each band leader starring in a story built around his own group, but interwoven with the central theme of the picture's plot. The musical will go into production following "Hollywood Palladium," Technicolor musical scheduled for immediate production. Disney Preparing Eight Features for Release Walt Disney is currently working on eight new features which will follow his current "Make Mine Music." All combine live action with cartoons. The first two for release "Song of the South," based on the Uncle Remus stories, and "How Dear to My Heart," formerly "Midnight and Jeremiah." The six other features, in various stages of production, are "Mickey and the Beanstalk," "Alice in Wonderland," "The Little People," "Bongo," "Wind in the Willow" and "Cinderella." Mr. Disney is building a new sound stage, adding to the two already working, and is employing about 1,100 people. Morris Joins PRC Stanley Morris, formerly associated with Universal, RKO, Sol Lesser and Paramount, has been named to PRC's studio publicity staff as assistant to Robert Goodfriend, publicity director. Limited Freedom Cited by Price What with company presidents talking blandly and for the most part off-record about the responsibility of the American motion picture to the world at large in the horning era of peace, a matter which most of them seem to have approached but recently and under stimulus, it remained for Byron Price, vice-president of the Motion Picture Association, to utter some on-record observations that clarified the subject last week for the ladies and gentlemen of the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association. Mr. Price observed: "Freedom of the screen is analagous to freedom of the press and radio. This is a freedom limited to all expression that is not libelous, indecent, or harmful to others. It carries the responsiity, too, of making sure that films produced for foreign showings are accurate representations of American democratic living. "Motion pictures are an effective means of spreading information — information that will not offend the sensibilities of foreign audiences with propaganda or attempts to impose American beliefs upon them, yet at the same time will aid in building a better and more friendly world." On the selection of films for export, Mr. Price said, "There are competent and wellinformed persons handling such selections, with advice from the State Department and other groups, but we believe that production and distribution matters connected with foreign films are a responsibility of the industry itself, not of a government agency." MGM Has "Bikini" Short Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will release a Carey Wilson Special Miniature, "Bikini — ; the Atom Island," a one-reel subject, June 15, several weeks before the bomb tests at Bikini. There will be 300 prints. liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ iiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JUNE I. 1946 35