Publix Opinion (Apr 27, 1929)

assigned | Theatres | actly out ot B additidn | duties | his wiheatre, Mr. Strock has suryised frontuse for the & R.—Pubhouses in Paul -and | innea polis : made it a tt of his ab to develop Passistant man-} An 3 @ers Ri ere surers in @ Minnesota | houses these September, from the Min i Several. years | tion. with ; interested | t work in the @ and execu with his d and busi lent itself ness, as is ste which he and half as LOVE” SUAL fe” has a lot of | Director Wiil ‘it’s his best) ; i Mary | _ fat part. | | picture, Mary fst mother role. | riguing’ se-| in a boxThere are gymnasium, elub and } stadium. | @ Fenton pro ae " that 4250 Oopera-|} and} igh his train| siness at the! , Boston, be| the} $5 IDEA IS BEST WOW YET! Manager Bassin develops spectacular eye-catching ballyhoo. Study these photos! Read the story! ithe picture actually laughs them Glorifying ‘the American gunman and underworld character, comes to a halt when you play “Alibi,” the United-Artists attraction soon to be released. Tell this, and cash in. Instead of the usual maudlin sentiment, this attraction heaps ridicule: upon the hitherto colorful pistol-toting-gentry. In places, out of existence, by showing up bravado as only sheer cowardice. shown that after ‘Alibi’ \plays |} your town, there will be Jess sob| | sister aid-and-comfort offered to | pocl-room heroes. Get a print of this picture far | in advance of play date and have a private preview some morning | before your theatre opens, or at) midnight, and invite police of | ficials, editorial writers, police-re porters, and clergy to see it. Have a slide inserted midway in the picture, asking everybody to) to them. that it appeals | order propaganda! Manager C. Bassin of the Publix Allston Theatre in Allston, Mass., reports a new imaginative way of spot-lighting his theatre front. During Publix Celebration Week he had a 40-foot banner on his} marquee and was faced with the problem of illuminating it at night. Mounting an old lamp-house on an oscilating fan motor base, and using a 1000 Watt light, he focused a traveling spot on the banner. Not satisfied, Bassin went a step further, and arranged a revolving color| wheel, by means of a pulley contraption, driven by the fan motor. | Then, he had a spot which continually swept his marquee banner with | a cataract of color. At a cost of less than $5 Bassin added motion, | and hence, attention value to an otherwise trite device. |} Pension Fund of your city would | rire wae * | get every cop to plant a poster in ievery window in town, and make} | which will cause so much A special midnight preview of this picture, with tickets sold by the police department for the benefit of the Police Relief and every cop a press-agent for you. They'll sell out one performance, a week before the picture opens— talk about town that you'll pack every performance thereafter. Ask your district manager for permission to stage such a preview-benefit police show. Of course. you only play the benefit-show on-the basis of de-| ducting expenses first and split of | profits for this single showing} ! | only. IMAGINE THIS!! IN SOUTH BEND!! Manager M. A. Baker of the “Colfax” in South Bend, Ind.. had his ushers pass out an envelope containing the “dinner check” shown in the cut below, to every MAN who came to the theatre weck previous to “Night Club” showing. It got a lot of talk—and business. a The following review by Jerry | Hoffman in Exhibitors Herald, will | provide information for advance | publicity and posters and trailers. Until a definite standard is estab | lished for greatness in talking picjtures |} cannot avoid | Lukewarm reviewers, as well as audiences, “lealing in superlatives. in the new era Old Arizona.” interest was heated by “In | Further belief in the permanency of |} the new art was |“Broadway Melody” strengthened by and “Hearts in week in Hollywood, Grau |man’s Chinese Theatre housed 2,000 | invited persons one morning to see a | private West's | tists, showing of “Alibi,” Roland | production for United Arwhich was aGapted from the play “Nightstick.” Private, as. far as 2,000 persons are concerned. And | if one were to accept the ravings of ithose 2,000 persons when “‘Alibi” fad| }ed into “The End,” he would believe | that the ultimate in talking picture lproduction has been achieved. ) may Regardless of how far the new science progress, the opinions passed } stated without equivocation that the | fice picture. jany picture made in greatest of all had been made. This | |reviewer is inclined to be equally en| thusiastic. But cold facts cannot be | avoided. Miracles occur over night. What is magnificent today fades into insignificance tomorrow. / All of which is dogmatic for a} tradepaper report. But it is pres) limmary.-to saying that I doubt} whether miracies of such magnitude ean occur withinthe next six months or year as to‘compel “Alibi” to be any the less of a great box ofIt is doubtful whether | that time will attain the tenseness, the dramatic values in svspense and audience reaction that Roland West’s first talkie effort does. No matter from what angle one may attack it, story, east, direction; in the present day it} seems impregnable. Strong words—but a strong pic| ture. It is a crime story. Those who} saw the play “Nightstick” and liked} it, wouldn’t believe it was impossible | to improve on a story to the extent Roland West and C. Gardner Sullivan have with their adaptation of the play by John Wray, J. C. Nugent and Elaine Sterne Carrington. It is the tale of a criminal, and a type who creates all the audience sympathies for himself against the police. He’s a rat, he’s iyellow, he’s a murderer, but not until the latter portion of the production does the audience come to its senses and realize that he is the type so common in various communities daily and must be exterminated. No—don’t get this wrong.” “Alibi” doesn’t intend as OS a moral. It tells a story. audlin soft-hearted goofs who | lof | n E police \In other ineidents the tragic re-| ent of police. : Y sults of public sympathy towards | |the underworld is so graphically | _ | light. or character in “Alibi” is well jance. |} lady, Eleanor Griffith. | fact 3 i gp) | Morris. | tell or write about “‘Alibi” in any | th | way | Avoid the appearance of law-and |ing mouth-corners of Richard. ‘more than an actor—he’s an artist. | ef Irma Harrison and the | “Nightstick” % all work for prison .paroles, and some censorship people with little vision may object to “Alibi” on the grounds that it exploits crime. If they take such attitudes, they are doing the country and its citizenry irreparable harm. For “Alibi’ proves, not in a soft-soap manner, that it is the fact that Mr. Average Mar would rather believe. a criminal against a cop, which hinders the suppression of crime. By having a police sergeant's own daughter fall in love with the ehief crook. Roland West gives a clear idea of how readily the general publie will belieye a gunman’s wail “Framed” as against the indictIncidentally there’s a grand exploitation angle for United Artists to use. Picking out one outstanding high nigh impossible. Every s#ene is a high-light, every actor with one exception, gives excellence to performThe exception is the léading U, A. imported her from New York despite the that Patsy Ruth Miller was seoring, a sensation, in Los Angeles | with her performance in the legiti mate version. The other importations are praiseworthy. Asa rule, a picture of great proportions brings one outstanding personality to the sereen for future stardom, “Alibi” |exploits several as tremendous ypos sibilities. Firstly, there is Chester A juvenile on the style of Barthelmess, but without the droop He’s Then there is Pat O'Malley, originally of the screen who has been playing theatres for a year. “Alibi” is a eome-back for him ‘equal to Bessie Love's in “Broadway Melody.” There is a chap named Regis Toomey, whose smile inspired the theme song. ‘““‘There Never Was a Smile A personality. that is sure-fire and also s i clude among come-t Mae Busch, in a role not quite as big as the other principals. But she makes that role live. Irma Harrlison delivers nicely. Im fact, every one, the rest of the principals including Harry Stubbs, Purnell Pratt, De Witt Jennings, Al Hill and James Bradbury, Jr. “Alibi” also contains theatre and revue sequences. Not jammed in for no reason, but good basic premises with a bearing on the story. It sives opportunity for the cute songs beauful vocal work of Virginia Flohri and Edward Jardon. Any house not packing ’em in with this will need an alibi of rdre imagination, Produced by Roland West for Feature Productions, Inc., distributed through United Artists. Adapted and dialogued by West and C. Gardner Sullivan from. the ‘play by John Wray, J. C. Nugent and Elaine Sterne Carrington. Musie arranged by Reisenfeld, sioner by Fanchon. Feetage, «ight reels, THE CAST No. 1065. (Chick Williams), Chester Morris Buck Bachman, Owner of Bachman’s Cabaret Harry Stubbs Daisy Thomas, His Sweetheart, Mae Busch Joan Manning Toots, Cabaret Dancer, Irnia Harrison Billy Morgan, (Danny McGann), Regis Toomey PM RPO ob. 3. Ae ie che we od Al Hill Blake, Crook...James Bradbury, Jr. Soft Malone, Taxi Driver, Elmér Ballard Trask; Plainclothes Man, Kernan Cripps Pete Manning, Police Sergeant, Purnell B. Pratt Tommy Glennon, Detective Sergeant Pat O'Malley O'Brien, Policeman, De Witt Jennings George Stanislaus David, Edward Brady Singers in Theatre, Virgina Flohri & Edward Jardon DO YOU SPOT TRADEMARKS IN ADS?? A few months ago, thru PUBLIX OPINION, Mr. Sam Katz directed that every Publix theatre carry in its newspaper ad-copy, and wherever practicable elsewhere, the trade-marks ef Publix and Paramount, and the twe lines: “4 Publix Theatre—The Home of Paramount Pictures.” Mr. Katz has not as yet discovered the identities of the theatres where this has not been done, or where it has frequently been forgotten. When he does, the lecal manager will probably have good reason for quick compliance. PUBLIX OPINION suggests that new ad-cuts be made, and mats and stereotypes pulled from them. Each of these, of eceurse, would contain the matter ordered, artfully tied inte the signature, as shown in the Breoklyn-Parameount Theatre ad-cut carried in this publication a few issues ago. 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