Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1946)

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' 1 1 ! ■ , r i of the market as it confronts the man who sells the product to the retailer, most especially to know what's selling and what isn't, which is mighty convenient information for a producer to have when he's deciding what kind of a picture to make next and how to budget it so there will be a reasonable certainty of profit all along the line. Producer Bernhard, president of the B. & B. Pictures Corporation, a producing partnership in which Bernard Brandt, son of Exhibitor Harry, splits the risks and rewards, went from Pennsylvania State University into the Warner exchange .system, starting on the bottom rung, and learned about show business from exhibitors whose shipments didn't arrive on time — one 'of the fastest ways — before moving over into the Warner theatre department and taking the lessons straight from the customers' lips. After what seemed enough of that at the time, he joined Universal studio as a writer, later doing some producing, and then took 30 months off to pilot a fighter in the RAF, switching to the U. S. Air Corps when we got into the fight. Home again, he set up the present production company, and his first picture, "Decoy," is in Monogram release, with another for that distributor scheduled to start next month. Beyond that, he hasn't decided. Real Knowledge Can Be Acquired from Showmen . His conversation leaves no room for doubt about the kind of knowledge a producer can acquire from talking with exhibitors and distributors. He says, among other things, "Probably it would break Hollywood's heart to find out that having won an Academy Award or something doesn't add a dime to an actor's actual value at the box office, but exhibitors know it doesn't. It would give some producers a bad day to find out, too, that remaking a picture that was a hit years ago is not only by no means a sure fire meth' od of turning out a money-maker, but actually is about the riskiest investment. "Exhibitors know things like these, from bitter experience, and they pull no punches in telling anybody who'll listen. All a producer's got to do find out the score is to get out of here once in a while, to an exhibitor convention or even to an exchange center, and ask questions." PREVIEW OF TRADE SHOW "THE VERDICT": a scene from the Warner Brothers drama of that name, starring Sidney Qreenstreet, George Co/ouris and Peter Lorre, all of whom are shown above. The picture will be shown to the trade November 4. Eagle-Lion Signs Added Talent Continuing its expansion program, EagleLion Films, Inc., has signed two producers, a novelist and an actor to long term contracts, it was announced Monday in Hollywood by Bryan Foy, vice-president in charge of production. Leonard Picker, former executive producer at Columbia, has joined Eagle-Lion in a producer capacity, and his first assignment will be announced shortly. Mr. Picker, for several years, was resident counsellor for Columbia Pictures in New York and executive assistant to B. B. Kahane, vice-president of Columbia. He became executive producer on the Columbia lot in 1944. Isadore Goldsmith, European producer, has been signed by Eagle-Lion to produce Vera Caspary's unpublished novel, "Out of the Blue," and Miss Caspary has joined the company to adapt her novel to the screen. Richard Basehart, Broadway stage actor, who won a Critics Award for his performance in "The Hasty Heart," has also been signed by Eagle-Lion. His initial assignment will be one of the leading roles in the studio's forthcoming Technicolor production, "Kenny," based on Louis Bromfield's novel of the same name. Hellinger Buys Novel Mark Hellinger has announced the purchase of the Forrest Rosaire novel, "East of Midnight" for a John Garfield film which he will produce for Universal-International release. COMPLETED COLUMBIA Law of the Canyon Hunter Is a Fugitive MONOGRAM It Happened on Fifth Avenue PRC Corpse Came Calling RKO RADIO Banjo Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer REPUBLIC Web of Danger UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL I'll Be Yours STARTED MGM Undercover Maisie RKO RADIO Build My Gallows High Thunder Mountain 20TH CENTURY -FOX My Mother Wore Tights UNITED ARTISTS Personal Column (Stromberg) SHOOTING COLUMBIA Millie's Daughter Lady from Shanghai Twin Sombreros Framed Guilt of Janet Ames ENTERPRISE Other Love Arch of Triumph MGM Personal Touch Green Dolphin Street To Kiss and to Keep It Happened in Brooklyn Unfinished Dance Romance of Rosy Ridge PARAMOUNT Variety Girl Big Haircut Desert Town (Walh» Unconquered (DeMille) PRC Red Stallion RKO RADIO Time to Kill ( Hakim-Litvak ) Tarzan and the Huntress (Lesser) 20TH CENTURYFOX Boomerang UNITED ARTISTS Red River (Montgomery) New Orleans (Levey) Vendetta (California) Carnegie Hall (Federal) Who Killed Doc Robin? (Roach) UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL Egg and I WARNERS My Wild Irish Rose Woman in White Deep Valley Night Unto Night Love and Learn Possessed Nllllll:lllilll IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIII1 IIIIIIUIIIIIIIW Illlllllllllliillllllllillllli I!llll>lllllll!l!lllllll!l!il!lllll!lllllllllllll!!lllll!llllll!llllllllll|ll||lll||l|llll!|i MOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 2,. 1946 33