Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1939)

June S, 19S9 6TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE Page 51 MCM Has a Versatile Schedule AT MGAl's 15th anniversary sales con\cntion in Chicago, last March, a record studio budget was appropriated to produce only big scale pictures during 1939-40. Emphasis was directed at M-G-M's open covenant sales policy, at the imposing roster of established box office stars under contract, at the long list of important play and story properties from which the new schedule will be drawn, at the talented directors, feature players and writers whose services will be available to the studio. The largest advertisi n g appropriation i n M-G-M's annals was announced. Over $2,500,000 will be spent and every sizeable city in the United States, regardless of whether the theatres are affiliated or independent, will be benefited. Newspapers will receive greater emphasis than the last year, when over a million dollars was spent in that medium. Since then, new top-ranking stars have been signed, additional valuable story properties acquired — all with an eye toward the most widely versatile schedule ever planned by the Culver City organization : 44 to 52 pictures embracing every type of production, from comedy through drama, biography, musical, sports, spectacle and adventure. The program's tremendous scope is indicated by those of the 1939-40 films already under way. Nearing completion is "The Wizard of Oz," in Technicolor, from a celebrated book, headlined by Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger and Jack Haley. Mayer Work has started on "It Can't Happen Here," the highly provocative novel by Sinclair Lewis which was on best seller lists for many months, with Lewis Stone as Doremus Jessup. An example of the musicals is "Babes in Arms," based on the Broadway smash success by Rodgers and Hart, and brought to the screen with an array of talent including Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Betty Jaynes, June Preisser and Douglas McPhail. Clare Boothe's satiric comedy, "The Women," which ran two years on Broadway and was uniformly successful in a countrywide tour, is being translated to the screen with an all-feminine cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell. Location work has started on "Northwest Passage," co-starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Taylor in Kenneth Roberts' story, another M-G-M property that enthused the nation's book critics and reading public. This, then, is the record of work in progress— and it is the imposing standard to which the balance of the program is being shaped to adhere. There will be further "Hardy Family" and "Dr. Kildare" pictures, continuing the high calibre by which these two series have established themselves. Their success has prompted announcement of another series, "American Newlyweds," dealing with the adventures of a tj'pical young married American couple. Another "Thin Man" film is on the schedule, with William Powell and Myrna Loy again portraying Dashiell Hammett's popular characters, the Nick Charleses. British production will continue, with Robert Montgomery to star in two pictures, "The Earl of Chicago" and "Busman's Holiday." The entire roster of stories from which the program will be drawn is much too numerous to be set down here in its entirety. At random, among musicals, there are "Banjo Eyes," in which Eddie Cantor will make his M-G-M debut; "Broadway Melody of 1940," teaming for the first time Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell; "Ziegfeld Follies"; "Balalaika," with Nelson Eddy and Ilona Massey ; "Smilin' Thru," with Jeannette MacDonald; "Lover Come Back to Me," co-starring Eddy with Miss MacDonald. Among the biographical productions will be "Madame Curie," with Greta Garbo portraying the discoverer of radium, and "The Life Story of Thomas Edison," with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney playing Edison as man and boy, respectively. "Quo Vadis," the famous Sienkiewicz work, is planned on the same scale as "Ben-Hur." The Marx Brothers will appear in "A Day at the Circus" and "Go West" ; Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in "The Great Canadian," a story of the American hockey circuit ; Edward G. Robinson in "Blackmail" ; Robert Donat in "Ruined City," based on the novel "Kindling" ; Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart in "Shop Around the Corner," a Lubitsch production ; Wallace Beery in "Thunder Afloat" ; Hedy Lamarr, with Robert Taylor and Miliza Korjus in "Guns and Fiddles." Eighteen experienced producers will supervise these and other productions through their physical phases to the finished, polished photoplay entertainment. At Culver City, gigantic strides forward have been made in the technical field. Improvements in sound, color, photography and make-up are being constantly put into use to benefit the exhibitor and the country's 88,000,000 weekly paying customers. IRVING CUMMINGS DIRECTOR NOW SHOOTING "FALLING STAR'S" A Cavalcade of Hollywood UNDER CONTRACT TO 20TH CENTURY-FOX CURRENT RELEASE "THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL"