Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1946)

10 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, December 7, 1946 NATIONAL NEWSREEL 13 Companies Face New Year With 229-Feature Inventory 'Backlog' Sufiicient For 1947 First Run Needs at Present Rates oi Release Thirteen distributing companies entered the final month of the year with a product reserve of 229 features (exclusive of western series films) either completed or in actual production, according to Showmen's Trade Review product data. Added to this number are a total of 24 features which were dated for release after the first of the current month. This "backlog" is nearly sufficient to supply the needs for all of 1947 at the rate of consumption which has prevailed this year. The 229 total includes 18 features produced in England and now definitely set for distribution by American companies in this market. With such a heavy inventory of feature product held by thirteen distribution companies the reserve on hand for the beginning of a new year hits a mark which indicates that while studio strikes may have boosted the costs of production to astronomic heights, the stoppages so far have not threatened supplies. According to trade observers, the backlog also makes it apparent that unless some radical change comes suddenly to alter the situation it will be a long while before strikes could cause a pinch from actual shortage of product. Thus far any change from the present high rate of holdover runs — which slow up the flow of availabilities — is not in sight on the basis of returns from key run situations. The 229 features in the backlog are listed by titles in the following breakdown by distribution companies : Columbia: (22) "Blind Spot," "Blondie's Big Moment," "JBlondie's Holiday," "Cigarette Girl," "Down to Earth," "Dead Reckoning," "Framed," "The Guilt of Janet Ames," "Johnny O'clock," "The Jolson Story," "King of the Wild Horses," "The Lady from Shanghai," "Last of the Redman," "Lone Wolf in Mexico," "Millie's Daughter," "Mr. District Attorney," "The Return of Monte Cristo," "The Swordsman," "The Thirteenth Hour," "Twin Sombreros," "Assigned to Treasury," "Three Were Thoroughbreds." Eagle-Lion: (7) "Amy Comes Across," "Bedelia," "Born to Speed," "Devil on Wheels," "I See a Dark Stranger," "It's a Joke, Son," "The Adventuress." MGM: (29) "A Love Story," "A Woman of My Own," "The Arnelo Affair," "The Beginning or the End,'' "The Birds and the Bees," "Cynthia's Secret," "Fiesta," "Green Dolphin Widen Singles Front The beachhead for single features was widened in the Chicago area this week as the Essaness circuit tried "The Killers" in their "C" houses as a single bill. "The Green Years," as well as "Night and Day," will also play these bookings as singles. Essaness has been testing the draw of singles against duals for some time and to date the single policy has been reported successful in the circuit's Oak Park theatres, its west side suburbs and the Devon Theatre. Street," "High Barbaree," "It Happened in Brooklyn," "Lady in the Lake," "Little Mister Jim," "Love Laughs at Andy Hardy," "Merton of the Movies," "The Mighty McGurk," "My Brother Talks to Horses," "The Rich Full Life," "The Romance of Rosy Ridge," "Sea of Grass," "The Secret Heart," "The ShowOfT," "Summer Holiday," "Tenth Avenue Angel," "This Time for Keeps," "Till the Clouds Roll By," "To Kiss and to Keep," "Undercover Maisie," "The Unfinished Dance," "The Yearling." Mnogram: (5) "Black Gold," "The Fall Guy," "The Guilty," "High Conquest," "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" (Allied Artists Release) , Paramount: (29) "Adenture Island," "The Big Haircut," "Big Town," "Blaze of Noon," "Calcutta," "California," "Cross My Heart," "Danger Street," "Dear Ruth," "Desert Fury," "Easy Come, Easy Go," "The Emperor Waltz," "Fear in the Night," "Golden Earrings," "I Cover the Big Town," "The Imperfect Lady," "Jungle Flight," "Ladies Man," "My Favorite Brunette," "The Perfect Marriage," "The Perils of Pauline," "Saigon," "Seven Were Saved," "Suddenly It's Spring." "The Trouble with Women," "The Unconquered," "Variety Girl," "Welcome Stranger," "Where There's Life." PRC: (4) "The Corpse Came Calling," "Philo Vance's Gamble," "Red Stallion," "The Return of Rin Tin Tin." RKO: (29) "A Likely Story," "The Amazing Mr. Hammer," "The Bachelor and the Bobby-.Soxer," "Banjo," "Beat the Band," "Code of the West," "Deadlier Than the Male," "The Devil Thumbs a Ride," "Dick Tracy vs. the Claw," "Falcon's Adventure," "The Farmer's Daughter," "Flight," "Honeymoon," "How Dear to My Heart," "It's a Wonderful Life," "The Locket," "The Long Night," "Magic Town," "Out of the Past," "San Quentin," "The Best Years of Our Lives," "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," "Seven Keys to Baldpate," "Sinbad the Sailor," "Tarzan and the Huntress," "They Won't iBelieve Me," "Thunder Mountain," "Trail Street," "Woman on the Beach." Republic: (14) "Apache Rose," "The Bells of San Angelo," "Gallant Man," "The Ghost Goes Wild," "Hit Parade of 1947," "The Last Frontier Uprising," "The Magnificent Rogue," "Spoilers of the North," "That's My Gal," "Web of Danger," "Will Tomorrow Ever Come," "Winter Wonderland," "Wyoming," "The Yankee Fakir." Screen Guild: (5) "Bells of San Fernando," "Buffalo Bill Rides Again," "God's Country," "Queen of the Amazons," "Renegade Girl." Twentieth-Fox: (17) "The Big Heart," "Boomerang," "Backlash," "The Brasher Doubloon," "Bob, Son of iBattle," "Captain from Castile," "Carnival in Costa Rica," "Forever .A-mbcr," "Homestretch," "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now," "Jewels of Brandenburg," "The Late George Apley," "Moss Rose," "Mother Wore Tights," "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim," "13 Rue Madeleine," "Wake Up and I )rcam." United Artists: (28) "A Miracle Can Hap|)en," ".'Xdvcnturcs of Don Coyote," "Camegie Hall," "Christmas Eve," "Copacabana," "Curly," "The Dangerous Venture," "Dishonored Lady," "Duel in the Sun," "The Fabulous Dorseys," "Fabulous Joe," "Fanny by Gaslight," "Here Comes Trouble," "Heaven Only Knows," "The Little Prince" (full length cartoon), "The .Vlacombcr Affair," "Monsier Verdoux," "New Orleans," "Personal Column," "The Pretenders," ' i'hc Red House," "Red River," "The Stray {Co)itimtcd on Pacje 13) ^Hopalong Cassidy' Aims At 12,000. Theatres By what they term a new approach to westerns, which combines economic, low-budget production with story and production value, the revived "Hopalong Cassidy" series is being slanted for a booking potential of 12,000 theatres. Producer Lewis J. Rachmil and Actor William Boyd, partners in the new enterprise which distributes through United Artists, declared in New York last week. Both Boyd and Rachmil said that the success of their formula can best be judged from the fact that the first of the current "Hopalong Cassidy" six, "Devil's Playground" is playing Warner's Philadelphia Capitol on percentage, and added that other percentage deals are in the making. The producers claimed that westerns for the most part had fallen into disrepute because they seemed to be produced either for children or grownups with the mental approach of children. Their series, they said, will combine tightly-knit stories with characterization and competent acting. To date, through production efficiency, the costs have been kept down to $123,000 a feature. UA Inventory Placed At $250,000,000 Value United Artists executives this week were headed for Hollywood to inspect what is said to be the largest inventory of product ever held on that company's books, an inventory embracing some 29 pictures valued at $250,000,000. Heading the group which will spend 10 days on the coast are Distribution Vice-President Gradwell L. Sears, General Sales Manager J. J. Unger, Foreign Manager Walter M. Gould, accompanied by Sales Manager Edward M. Schnitzer, Maury Orr, their district managers and Publicity Manager Tom Waller, Exploitation A'lanager Mori Krushen, Advertising Manager Howard Lesieur, and Advertising and Publicity Director Paul N. Lazarus, Jr. McKee's 20 Building Contracts AIcKee Theatres, which builds houses for established exhibitors who wish to expand their iioldings, this week announced that it had contracts from 20 exhibitors for construction on a lease-buy agreement. They are located mainly around New York and will seat up to 1,000. Sees Prize Winners Delegates to the United Nations Wednesday night had the opportunity of seeing the foreign-produced Cannes festival prize-winning films in New York at a special showing in the auditorium of the Museum of Modern Art. The screening, which was arranged by Glen AUvine and the Motion Picture Association, presented the Swedish documentary short "Shadows on the Snow" : tlie Polish educational film, "Salt Mines in Poland"; the Czechoslovakian animated cartoon "Brigands and Animals," the Russian scientific short, "Life of the Bees," and the Grand International Prize winning French film, "The Battle of the Rails," which dealt with railroad sabotage during the war.