The seven deadly sins of Hollywood (1957)

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF HOLLYWOOD place of employment; they may be working anywhere in the world. So there is no need to live within commuting distance of Hollywood. Inevitably the business must become even more decentralised. I believe that the major companies will eventually function merely as distributors. United Artists has already shown that this policy can be extremely successful. This company has no studio and no list of contract artists — and therefore the minimum of overheads. What it does is to finance carefully selected independent productions, but the business of making the films it leaves entirely to the producers concerned. Having backed the horse, it does not tell the jockey how to run the race. It becomes apparent that being the boss of a big studio is a job of diminishing importance. Regarded in this light, it is not so puzzling that Darryl F. Zanuck should have resigned his post as head of productions at 20th Century-Fox. I first met Zanuck in Hollywood the day after his resignation had been announced. I had been invited to lunch with him in the executive dining-room at the Fox studios. I had expected it to be a private affair, but when I got there I discovered a dozen producers ranged around the one enormous table (which was overlooked and overshadowed by a huge TV set). Buddy Adler (Zanuck's successor), Charles Brackett, Sam Engel, Nunnally Johnson, James Mason were some of those who were there. Zanuck had not yet arrived and everybody started to eat. During the course of the meal other producers came in — and started to eat, too. I had got to the dessert when Zanuck came in. He was the last to arrive. I had planned to ask him about the reasons for his 184