Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1946)

THE aOLLYWOOD SCENE Production Activity Up With 55 Shooting; Start "Emperor Waltz^^ Hollywood Bureau Production activity in Holly\vood increased somewhat last week, as 12 films reached camera stages, and eight went to the cutting rooms. At the weekend, the number of pictures in work totaled 55, as compared with the previous week's level of 51. Paramount launched "Emperor Waltz," a Technicolor musical, laid in pre-war Vienna. It is currently shooting on location at Jasper National Park, Canada, with Charles Brackett producing and Billy Wilder directing. Heading the cast are Bing Crosby, Joan Fontaine, Oscar Karlweis, Roland Culver, Lucile Watson, Sig Ruman and Alma Macrorie. At Warners, work started on "The Secret," starring Joan Crawford and Van Heflin. It's a psychological drama concerning a girl with a dual personality. Jerry Wald produces; Curtis Bernhardt directs. Columbia Starts Two, One with BogaH Columbia trained cameras on two : "Dead Reckoning," and "Big Bend Badmen." The first is a melodrama starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott, with John Cromwell at the directorial helm, and Sidney Biddell producing. The second is a Western featuring Charles Starrett, Smiley Burnette and Helen Mowery. Colbert Clark produces ; Derwin Abrahams directs. RKO Radio's two entries of the week are "Riffraff" and "Beat the Band." The first is a story of murder, intrigue and romance, laid in the tropics, and the cast includes Pat O'Brien, Anne Jeffreys and Walter Slezak. Ben Holt is the producer, and the picture is Ted Tetzlafif's initial directorial assignment for the studio. "Beat the Band" is a musical with Frances Langford, Gene Krupa, Ralph Edwards, June Clayworth and Phillip Terry. Michel Kraike is the producer ; John Auer the director. Universal's new venture is "White Tie and Tails," which Howard Benedict is producing and Charles Barton directing. Heading the cast are Dan Duryea, Ella Raines and William Bendix. Republic launched two musical Westerns, "Sioux City Sue" and "Home in Oklahoma." The latter marks Gene Autry's return to the screen, and has a supporting cast composed of Lynne Roberts, the Cass County Boys, and Sterling Holloway. Armand Schaefer produces ; Frank McDonald directs. "Home in Oklahoma" has Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, George "Gabby" Hayes and the Sons of the Pioneers. Edward White is the producer; William Whitney the director. Monogram also trained cameras on two : a "Charlie Chan" mystery-drama, and a Western. The first, titled "Hot Money," features Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Young and Willie Best. James Burkette is producing; Terry Morse directing. The Western, which features Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton and Jennifer Holt, is titled "Trigger Finger." Charles Bigelow is the supervisor, and Lambert Hillyer is directing. Golden Gate launched "Neath Canadian Skies," which will be released through Screen Guild Productions. Russell Hayden, Inez Cooper, Cliff Nazarro and Douglas Fowley head the cast. William David is the producer ; Breezy Eason the director. SIMPP Ratifies Nelson Policies by WILLIAM R. WEAVER Hollywood Editor The Society of Independent ]\Iotion Picture Producers, meeting in Hollywood Tuesday night, gave a unanimous vote of confidence to the policies instituted by Donald M. Nelson during the year he has been president. Members indicated at the meeting that Mr. Nelson's contract would be renewed when it expires July 1. Affiliation with the Motion Picture Association collectively, or by any member, was rejected at the meeting, definitely ending pressure from some quarters for such affiliation. In an interview earlier this week, Mr. Nelson reviewed with satisfaction what had been accomplished during the year. "I'm an expansionist," he told the press at large on his arrival in Hollywood July 1, 1945, and today_ he tells this inquirer, "Expansionism is a fundamental principle of democracy, and the motion picture is the most effective implement of expansion that ever has been devised." The man who headed the War Production Board during the war, and whose book on that subject, "The Arsenal of Democracy," is fresh off Harcourt & Brace presses and on its way to the bookstalls, accepted the SIMPP presidency on a year's contract and, he says, with more confidence in the motion picture industry than knowledge of its makeup and method. "While some of the problems facing independent producers are identical with those confronting the majors, others are quite different," explains the man who told President Truman the Government's suit against the majors should be sent to trial because in no other way could it be determined fairly whether abuses assessed to the industry were real and needful of abatement or imaginary and therefore unwarrantedly damaging in their reiteration. Some Problems Different While in this instance the independents and the majors were in obvious conflict, he points out, he has championed in his talks with State Department officials and Cabinet members the same views with respect to the opening of foreign markets and the granting of loans to foreign nations that have been advanced by MPA president Eric Johnston. "Individually, an independent producer is small, in comparison with a major producer," the former executive vice-president of Sears Roebuck observes, "but collectively he is big. Individually, an independent, operating on a basis of making one picture at a time, cannot maintain all of the departments and services available to a major studio. But collectively, as for instance in the case of maintaining a library of stock shots, independents can match or even surpass the biggest studio. In our next year we will stress the building up of this type of resources." Cites Difference in Position Sharply different, too, is the position of the independent and the major with respect to labor relations. Although SIMPP president Nelson joined with MPA president Johnston in the conferences which resulted in the settlement of last year's prolonged studio strike, which had begun as an action against the majors and spread to include the independents, the basic difference between the labor requirements of the independent and the major makes it impractical for the two organizations to deal in concert on labor contracts. Broadly, union contracts made with major studios contemplate year-around employment, whereas contracts made with independent producers contemplate, with few exceptions, employment for relatively short periods at long intervals. The Nelson method for handling labor re 32 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JUNE 22, 1946