Cabin in the Cotton (Warner Bros.) (1932)

Here's the Cue for Your Merchandising nade nN a EEC EATRACNLEE TRACER ETRE eT Properly handled, “CABIN IN THE COTTON” should be as big a box office sensation as “Tol’able David,” ‘Weary River,” ‘‘Patent Leather Kid’ and other Barthelmess hits. Because of the wide variety of sales angles and the many avenues of appeal it is important that you read the following unvarnished analysis before proceeding with your cam IMPORTANT! paign on the picture.—The Editor. 1—BARTHELMESS . .. always a big drawing card, this star staged an amazing box-office rally in. ‘Alias The Doctor’ be worth a heavy plug in this, his follow-up hit. . centration on the star. one of the leading the song, best-sellers of the year. “Cabin In The Cotton,” has nothing in common with the picture, the similarity of titles is bound to exert a tremendous influence with the buying public. 3—-ROMANCE ... . straight romantic pictures have always enjoyed uni versal popularity. and action. 4—NORTH AND SOUTH. There are two separate campaigns in this M?rchandising Plan, one of which can only be used in the North. Avoid,all mention of the “slavery problem,” ‘white trash” or ‘poor whites against the planters”’ angles if you are located below the Mason-Dixon line. There is no reason why Northern-exhibitors cannot adapt the Dixie campaign to their own need for your box office. oe el If your theatre seems “ si _ where aydtawens are stro if it appeals to them. * = 2—THE BOOK AND THE SONG... Harry Harrison Kroll’s novel has been = 6—EPIC... ecnac of the scope a ‘te picture, “he huge cas , the pine of the title and the great problem it takes for its theme, you are certainly within bounds in presenting “Cabin In The Cotton” as an epic in a class with “Birth Of A Nation.”’ Here again you must exercise your own judgment . . . is the romantic slant or the “big’’ angle better 7—CAST ... in addition to Barthelmess you should certainly play up his two leading women, both of whom have considerable followings. large ads list other members of the cast such as Henry B. Walthall, David Landau, Hardie Albright, Dorothy Peterson and Berton Churchill. NI THE STORY Marvin Blake, son of a poor land renter, is striving for an education. On the death of his father, he is taken into the home of planter Norwood, there to pursue his studies, work in Norwood’s store, keep books and be nice to his daughter, Madge, home from a northern school. Drawing him to his own kind is Betty Wright, pretty, entirely sympathetic to his ideas on education and deeply in love with him. Repelling him from the land-renters is the fact that none of them strive to get out of the rut of shiftlessness and ignorance which makes them slaves to their planter masters. On the other hand, he is drawn to the planters because of planter Norwood, who is kind to him, lets him live in his house, eat at his table, and dance with his daughter, who is half in love with him. They realize Marvin’s attraction toward his own people and strive to hold him. The shooting of a planter by a land-renter, sends Norwood and. his kind off in pursuit of the killer. Marvin, who has followed them, witnesses the hanging of one of his own kind. As revenge, the land-renters burn Norwood’s house and destroy his books, which show the amounts of his accounts against them at his store— accounts severe enough to keep them Pae Two in practical slavery to him for the rest of their lives. They have also stolen crops of cotton from him, sold them down the river, and want Marvin to lead them in large seale stealing and selling of cotton crops. Marvin knows this is wrong, but he also knows that Norwood has cheated the land-renters as much or more than they have cheated him. He has made a duplicate set of the books and learns from them that it is Norwood’s slave-driving and cheating methods which have killed his father. He realizes that only through the casting off of this planter yoke can the landrenters ever amount to anything. In a masterly speech before the planters and land-renters, he states his case, showing the wrong both sides have done but revealing the planters’ offenses as the worst. He wins over the planters, draws up a new and equable contract between planters and their land-renters, and makes Norwood and the planters sign it with a threat to testify against them in court if they don’t. Marvin agrees to meet Betty on Sunday—but as he leaves the meeting house, his eyes catch those of Madge, the planter’s daughter—and he cannot decide which of these two girls he loves. and should certainly “Cabin In The Cotton” is undoubtedly the best Barthelmess film since “Dawn Patrol.” However, let your past experience with him gauge the amount of con It should be a strong selling point in your campaign together with the fact that the screen adaptation was written by Paul Green, Pulitizer Prize winner. Although ripe” for that type of movie, sell the picture exactly that way, entirely forgetting the melodramaties MM MMU Length 7200 Feet Running Time 79 Minutes Table of Contents Current Publicity Exploitation Feature Stories Lobby Frames Program Cuts Review Shorts REVIEWED BY THE TRADE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:— “CABIN IN COTTON” EXCELLENT. BARTHELMESS, DAVIS AND STORY SHINE. Get Barthelmess into patched overalls, surround him with simple country folk and give him a story of people close to the soil, and you'll inevitably have a good picture. This one adds further substantiation to that rule. It’s the kind of stuff he has always done best, but the material goes a little farther than that. It’s an honest-to-goodness story, gripping and grim, and had it come out of Russia with Ukranian peasants instead of American, the arty critics would turn handsprings. The story has Barthelmess as a boy of poor white trash of the South, than whom there is nothing trashier nor poorer, and, by the way, tieds southern types are picked with such fidelity and played with such sincerity that you can almost smell the perspiration in the cabin in the cotton. Only once in a blue moon does Barthelmess get a better fitting story, and the adaptation and dialogue step right into the quality from the start. The photography is splendid and captures the southern atmosphere beautifully. There isn’t a flaw in the work of the supporting cast, which is too long to mention individually, but Bette Davis certainly deserves a tumble for a sensational performance. All in all, this is one of the best of the Barthelmess pictures and undoubtedly will do business anywhere. Exhibitors can plug it to any extent with the assurance that customers will be pleased. MOTION PICTURE HERALD:— So different from the present day picture trend ... that it may click beyond anticipations. There is plenty of RRO SEE in it. There’s drama... there’s romance ... there is novelty in story and location to prove of more than ordinary interest to the average audience. Miss Davis flashes through the picture in a manner that should send your patrons out of the theatre talking about her. VARIETY :— Picture will satisfy every type of audience. Ace story, clever dialog and intelligent direction lifts picture considerably above average. 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