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THE HOLLYWOOD SCENE
Heisler Sees Television Giving Impetus to New Film-Making Progress
by WILLIAM R. WEAVER
Hollywood Editor
It's pretty hard to get anybody in authority around here to forcast the effect of television on the motion picture in anything like definitive language, but not Stuart Heisler. That could be because this director's intimate exposure to the travails of the filmic art dates back to the time when he and others actively engaged in turning out the product were gravely confronted with the then staggering prospect of moving up from the standard two-reel length to the five-reel dimension. Having taken that and all the subsequent fundamental changes in stride, Mr. Heisler looks television straight in the eye and finds it good.
The veteran director does not minimize the impact of television on the motion picture. On the contrary, he expects it to impose more changes than most students of the subject have ventured to anticipate. He says there can be no reasonable doubt that technologists will bring home reception of telecast material to a high level of excellence in a very short time, and that it's going to take some important doing on the part of producers and exhibitors to draw people away from their receivers and into theatres.
Need for Greater Effort Seen a Good Effect
He says this is the good result of the development, since it's been far too long since producers or exhibitors have made any essential progress in the production and presentation of screen entertainment. He says they can make such progress if they have to, as past challenges have demon
strated, and he says the time is close at hand when they will have to.
What the producer will have to do, says the man who recently finished directing "Tulsa" for Walter Wanger and is preparing to direct '"Tokyo Joe" as a Humphrey Bogart special for Columbia, is say goodbye at long last to the still cherished illusion that pictures must be designed for the 14year-old intelligence. He says more mature subject matter, preferably performed by less mature players, can win back the screen's straying customers and create a new audience composed of people who've never been attracted to the frayed stories told over and over again under what's been regarded as a "safe" policy.
Exhibitor May Have to Revert to Stage Shows
What the exhibitor may have to do, he believes, is say goodbye to "B" pictures and double bills, and possibly revert to the use of stage shows. Saying goodbye to "B" product may be practically mandatory, he says, if, as present trends suggest, the televisors provide a natural and more profitable market for the producers who grind out that type of film. And the restoration of stage shows, if the few instances in which this already has been done supply fair indication, may be a mighty satisfactory thing from both the public and the box office points of view. He points out that television cannot present talent in person, but the theatre can.
Whether or not events take precisely the course he anticipates, the coming of television will be a boon to the art-industry to which he has devoted his life, Mr. Heisler
believes. It will keep the producer on his toes for quite a spell. That's not where he's been lately, he concludes.
Production Level at 31; Employment Rises
The completion of nine pictures and the start of eight brought the production level to 31 at the close of a week which witnessed the release of the California Bureau of Labor Statistics report on studio employment in October. It showed a rise from September's 74.3 to 77.1, these figures relating percentage-wise to the 1940 level, which the CBLS observes as 100 in its reportings.
Columbia started three pictures. "Secret of St. Ives" was put before cameras by Rudolph Flothow, with Phil Rosen directing Richard Ney and Vanessa Brown. Ted Richman rolled "Night in Havana," directed by Jean Yarbrough, with Desi Arnez and Mary Hatcher. Gene Autry mounted his horse and rode into "Rim of the Canyon," produced by Armand Schaefer and directed by John English, with Nan Leslie opposite the star.
U-I's Jules Schermer went to work on "Illegal Entry," presenting Howard Duff, Marta Toren and Geogre Brent, directed by Frederick de Cordova.
Republic's William Elliott faced the camera in "Hellfire," a Trucolor job, produced by William O'Sullivan and directed by R. G. Springsteen, with Marie Windsor and Forrest Tucker in the cast.
Monogram got off a Jimmy WakelyCannon Ball Taylor Western produced by Louis Gray directed by Lambert Hillyer.
George Green started "Omoo" directed by Leon Leonard with Pedro de Cordoba and Trevor Bardette heading the cast, fer Screen Guild. Max Alexander launched "Amazon Quest," directed by S. K. Seeley, with Tom Neal and Carole Mathews, for Film Classics.
Acquires Foreign Films
U. S. distribution rights for a group of foreign films have been acquired by Times Film Corporation, it has been announced.
STARTED
COLUMBIA
Secret of St. Ives Night in Havana Rim of the Canyon (Autry)
FILM CLASSICS
Amazon Quest (Agay)
MONOGRAM
Gun Law Justice
REPUBLIC
Hellfire
SCREEN GUILD
Omoo
UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL
Illegal Entry
COMPLETED
COLUMBIA
Greed
M-G-M
The Secret Garden
MONOGRAM
Riverboat Rhythm
PARAMOUNT
Bitter Victory
REPUBLIC
The Hideout
RKO RADIO
Sam Wynne
UNITED ARTISTS
Champion ( Screen Plays)
UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL
Ma and Pa Kettle Arctic Manhunt
SHOOTING
COLUMBIA
All the King's Men Jolson Sings Again
EAGLE LION
Shamrock Hill (EquityVinson)
M-G-M
In the Good Old
Summertime The Stratton Story Neptune's Daughter The Great Sinner
PARAMOUNT
Easy Does It Samson and Delilah Top o' the Morning Manhandled (PineThomas)
RKO RADIO
Roseanna McCoy
(Goldwyn) It's Only Money
20TH CENTURY -FOX
You're My Everything
Mr. Belvedere Goes to College
Hard Bargain Slattery's Hurricane
UNITED ARTISTS
The Crooked Way
(Bogeaus) The Great Dan Patch
(Frank) Africa Screams
(Nassour)
UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL
The Lady Gambles WARNER BROTHERS
Task Force Happy Times
MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER 18, 1948
31