Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD MARTIN QUIGLEY. Editor-hi-Chief and Publisher TERRY RAMSAYE, Editor Vol. 166, No. 13 QP March 29, 1947 FILM and BUSINESS THE tidings of new alignments and new integrations in the J. Arthur Rank organization in London in this week's news give sharp definition to his function as an agent of empire along with his building of a both horizontal and vertical motion picture organization of global dimensions. A cooperative pattern for other British industries in lines of manufacture for export is disclosed, and there is more than casual indication of the approval and support of Whitehall — meaning the government in power. The whole of British business is being made aware that "trade follows the films". That fact of motion picture influence of course became first manifest, long ago, in the part that the motion picture of Hollywood ever has had in setting fashions and creating demand for American products around the world. That service of the motion picture however has enjoyed no special recognition from American business, although there has been a considerable but not very articulate attention from the Department of State in Washington, and from commercial attaches abroad. Broadly it may be said that American business generally has no adequate realization of the contribution of the American picture. As advertisements reproduced in the news pages of this week will show, Mr. Rank is going right simply and forthrightly at the telling in Britain. ■ ■ ■ VIEW from BRITAIN SOME significant figures on the place of the American motion picture in the British economy were cited the other day by Mr. Samuel Eckman, Jr., managing director for MGM in Lqtndon, in an article in The New York Times. "Eighty-three per cent of the total earnings of American films in Great Britain . . . remains permanently in Britain. The British Treasury alone obtains annually from entertainment tax on American films more than twice the amount that the American industry receives for the films from which this revenue is derived." Discussing suggestions about "intelligent selection" of films for export, offered previously by Mr. Bosley Crowther of the Times, Mr. Eckman observed that this might be left: "(a) to the respective publics of America and Britain, who must be the final arbiters, and (b) to the respective film trades." The idea is that the proper authorities are the customers and those who serve them. ■ ■ ■ SOCIAL ISSUE NOW Mr. Eric Johnston, in addition to his concerns about international problems of the film market and an array of internal problems of great moment pertaining to the general status of this and all other industry at home, has squarely before him the question of the policy of the screen concerning persons who do, or should, wear eyeglasses. Mrs. Leila Ricard Ettinger, founder of the Optical Membership Plan, has appealed to Mr. Johnston with a complaint that a whole array of recent pictures "contain unflattering references to feminine eyeglass wearers" and that they tend "to dissuade impressionable teen-agers as well as others from wearing the glasses they need for eye comfort and personal safety". Mrs. Ettinger urges "sympathetic attention and action". Perhaps Mr. Johnston might do something about those many spokesmen of industry who read their notes through spectacles and put their specs in their pocket when they rise in the presence of the camera and microphone. But, for art's sake, it is to be remembered that that able sociologist and philosopher, Miss Dorothy Parker, is credited with declaring for the record: "Men do not make passes at girls that wear glasses." YES AND NO SPEAKING on the radio the other day, Mr. Maurice Bergman in typical whimsy remarked: "I wonder if it would be a good idea some day to pose this question: Does the public have a bad influence on motion pictures?" Some day, if he does ask, the answer will be that old one: "He who pays the fiddler calls the tune." As Mr. Bergman has observed, pictures have to be about what the customers are interested in. Down in Washington, Mr. William Benton, Assistant Secretary of State, observed of American films, in international relations, that they are plus and minus, but that "the plus side overwhelmingly outweighs the minus side". He is not for doing anything about it. COSTS AND COLOUR A SPECIFIC indication of trends and developments in production comes with the announcement of the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation of a price increase on negative and processing. The direct occasion is the most recent rise in labour rates of 11.17 per cent, retroactive to January I. The obviously reluctant announcement is accompanied by the observation that it is, however, held vital to the interests of the whole industry "to produce a superior product at suitable prices". It has long been the policy of Technicolor to seek reduction of costs in behalf of a widening use of colour on the screen. Up at Port Chester, New York, the Washington Irving «J Trust Company has opened a drive-in banking service. What with the growth of the drive-in theatre, restaurant curb service, and the Nash car with a bed in the back seat, the housing problem is on the way to solution without houses. ■ ■ ■ In our Hollywood Scene report one finds Mr. Henry Koster quoted as saying: "Cinderella is dead. The public is no longer interested in seeing the underprivileged maiden marry the millionaire because everybody knows now it doesn't happen." Wonder if Mr. Koster ever heard about Mr. Tommy Manville? — Terry Ram say e