Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1946)

MCM TO DUB FOR Uruguay Likes Dubbing After Initial Protest LATIN AMERICA Says Decision Is Based on High Grosses During Test of Technique Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, long on the "yes" side of Does Dubbing Pay? this week came out with the flat statement that "all-Spanish versions of MGM pictures are responsible for an unprecedented rise in the volume of business that Loew's International Corporation has done in Latin America during the past 17 months." Gleefully elaborating on the subject, the company asserted: "In at least two situations, the rise has been as much as 300 per cent over revenue produced by MGM pictures with English track and Spanish subtitles that were shown during a 17-month period immediately preceding." Decision Reached at Meeting Decision by the company to discard all titled versions in Latin America and distribute only Spanish-dubbed pictures was formalized last week following an all-day conference of the company's Latin American managers at the Hotel Astor, New York. Following the meeting, Arthur M. Loew, president, said: "What was an experiment is now a fact. Our all-Spanish policy has been field-tested for nearly a year and a half. The public, the ultimate judge, has endorsed it at the only place where it counts — the box office. We will continue the policy intact." During the meeting, each of the Latin American managers submitted figures to back up the individual reports of increased receipts and while it was conceded that theatre business in Latin America generally was up, the rise was not sufficient to explain, says the company, "the resounding box office success of MGM pictures." Weekly Grosses Cited Listed below are some of the comparative weekly grosses that led to the decision to abandon subtitles; Santiago, Chile, 127,616 pesos during the 17 months of dubbing as against 90,772 pesos for the 17 months of titling; Bogota, Colombia, 4,894 pesos against 3,224; Havana, 5,752 pesos against 4,404; Mexico City, 39,705 pesos against 32,899; Lima, Peru, 11,730 soles against 9,158; Montevideo, Uruguay, 5,072 pesos against 3,826; Caracas, Venezuela, 13,630 bolivares against 9,323; and Buenos Aires, called the toughest market to break, 20,079 pesos against 20,334. There have been and still are many differences of opinion over dubbing, some of the companies being more reluctant than others to concede dubbing is of value. The private opinion of Raoul de Leon, a freelance director of dubbed versions, is that all the companies eventually will release practically all pictures in dubbed versions. "Dubbing is almost perfect today," Mr. de Leon reports, and one of the major achievements of dubbing is that a middle-ground language has been found which is acceptable to most Latin Americans. Mr. de Leon, now at work in New York, said that pictures originally were dubbed in Castilian Spanish for the Latin American audience, but this, he said, did not prove popular. Seek Voices to Match Stars' Directors of dubbed versions are now concentrating more on finding voices to match those of the American stars. Also, Mr. de Leon reports, there is more latitude for expression in present methods of dubbing, which do not call for literal translations of American scripts. With the success of dubbing proved in Latin America, Mr. de Leon believes that more pictures will be dubbed for the European markets. MGM has in the talking stage a plan for releasing abroad "narrative versions" of features. These features would record the voice of a narrator explaining the action and the story. The sound volume on the original track would be lowered to enable the narrator to speak above the dialogue. Weitman Honored at Jewish Appeal Lunch Robert M. Weitman, managing director of the New York and Brooklyn Paramount theatres, was to have been honored Thursday by the musicians' division of the United Jewish Appeal's 1946 fund drive at a luncheon at the Hotel Park Central, New York. He was to have been presented with a certificate of honor for his aid to UJA activities for many years. William Feinberg, of the American Federation of Musicians, Local No. 802, is chairman of the division Billy Rose, theatrical producer and chairman of the amusement division of the drive, was to have been one of the principal speakers. RCA Producing New Speaker For Drive-ln Theatres A weatherproof in-car speaker, terminal box, and speaker receptacle unit for drivein theatres, designed for permanent location on the parking ramps, is now in production and ready for distribution, it was announced by the RCA Engineering Products Department in Camden, N. J., this week. Designed to withstand all kinds of weather, the new speakers are mounted in brackets, one at either end of the terminal box to be installed between two ramps, within easy reach of patrons from their car windows. by PAUL BODO hi Montevideo After getting off to a very poor start, Spanish-dubbed pictures are rapidly being accepted in Uruguay. Last season, a few days after the premiere of the first picture dubbed in Spanish, MGM's "Gaslight," hundreds of buildings on Montevideo's main streets were covered with inscriptions reading "Doblaje, No! No dubbing!" Notwithstanding all this, "Gaslight," and successive dubbed pictures, played thrice daily before capacity audiences in Cine Metro and broke records. In direct opposition to this boom, there was outspoken condemnation of dubbing in general. Criticism ranged from the dissent of intellectuals who termed it an artistic fake, down to a milder technical reserve towards its shortcoming. Poll Held on Issue To find out the exact position of public opinion, Mmido Urugnayo, the leading Uruguayan weekly, held a poll under the supervision of your correspondent which showed that almost 89 per cent of those who answered the poll pronounced dubbing undesirable. There was still no explanation of the conflict between box office grosses and public opinion. Most of those who said they were against dubbing said they could follow the original language. Others were disturbed by the fact that dialogue directors had not managed to achieve uniformity of accents. Contrary to general belief in the U. S., Spanish is not uniformly spoken in all Latin American countries. In the same picture and in the same scene, the leading man spoke a genuine European Spanish, the villain spoke with a Mexican accent, and the leading lady with another accent. Then, a few months later, another poll was taken. Dubbed pictures were playing the suburban theatres about that time. Hostile propaganda in the papers and over the radio had dimmed. While the second poll confirmed the results of the first, the number of those opposing dubbing had decreased. Note Recent Improvement Lately dubbing has experienced positive improvements. The latest MGM picture presented here, "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes," was dubbed so successfully that the severest critics of dubbing recognized the quality of craftsmanship. As the latest reports on downtown theatres filter in showing dubbed pictures grossing above anything else (equaled, perhaps, only by some of the better Argentine productions) some of the local managers of American companies are seriously considering a swift comeback for dubbing. 36 MOTION PICTURE HERALD. JUNE 15, 1946