Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, November 5, 1949 11 THE GOOD NEW DAYS During the past few years there were so many annual promises of "the biggest lineup in our history" and so comparatively few deliveries of really successful product that exhibitors and industry observers began to cast a jaundiced eye at the overly-enthusiastic statements and announcements. True, there were some worthwhile films, but the bad outnumbered the good. Back in the '20s and '30s these seasonal statements and announcements in the trade press electrified the industry. Exhibitors, cognizant of past performances, exploited and ballyhooed their new season lineups with all the showmanship at their command. For the most part, those were lush years in the motion picture industry, artistically and commercially, We won't go into detail about what happened in the meantime. Suffice it to say that a combination of "economy waves," mediocre product and indifferent public relations, not to mention the steadily growings opposition of other amusements, put Hollywood definitely on the skids. But it's different this year. The quality of product already completed proves beyond a doubt that Hollywood is returning to the old-fashioned job of making good pictures. For the past few weeks we have been privileged to see some of these new pictures, and they have been of such superior quality that we could liken them only to the product of the good old days. As a matter of fact, it is as if the good old days were with us again. Believe us when we tell you that Columbia's "Jolson Sings Again"; MGM's "Battleground" and "Intruder in the Dust"; Paramount's "Samson and Delilah" and "The Heiress"; and 20th-Fox's "Pinky" and "The Prince of Foxes," to name only a few, need take no back seat to the Hollywood output of any year. They are truly outstanding productions. To see "Battleground," for instance, is to hark back to the days of "The Big Parade," and old-timers will recall "The Ten Commandments" when they see "Samson and Delilah," undoubtedly Cecil B. DeMille's greatest picture since that other Biblical epic of 1923. Based on the high quality of the pictures we've already seen, the product vet to come promises a banner year. Intuitively, we'd nick these films as likely to be among the very best: Columbia's "All the King's Men," "The Petty Girl" and "No Sad Songs"; MGM's "East Side, West Side," "Malaya" and "On the Town"; Paramount's "The File on Thelma Jordon," "Dear Wife" and "Sunset Boulevard"; RKO's "Carriage Entrance," "The White Tower" and "Stromboli"; 20th-Fox's "The Black Rose," "Three Came Home," "The Broken Arrow" and "Wabash Avenue"; Universal-International's "Bagdad," "Free for All" and "Woman in Hiding"; United Artists' "Champagne for Caesar" and "The Big Wheel"; and Warners' "Always Leave Them Laughing," "Chain Lightning," "The Inspector General" and "Young Man With a Horn." Perhaps not all of these will score a high rating, but we feel sure most of them will. And if we've omitted a big one or two, the omission is accidental. Yes, the films we've already seen, and those to come, indicate that this ca7i be the industry's biggest season in many, many years. But if exhibitors are to be stirred into action, this new enthusiasm and confidence will have to be communicated to them through the channel with which they are most familiar — the trade press. Perhaps Hollywood is clicking, if one is to judge by the current film output. But let's make this sweet music overpower the dissonant noises of economic fears, petty bickerings and lack of industry showmanship. Gl amor Treatment while the good old movies take many a slap from the enemy, films and theatres where they're shown receive many a grand boost from their friends. As an example of the latter, consider that eye-taking back cover Coca-Cola adv. in the Saturday Evening Post this (Nov. 5 issue) week. "At the movies entertainment and refreshment go hand in hand," says the caption to a "dream street" scene of glittering theatre marquees with the familiar Coke name and symbols framed in the glamor of movie atmosphere. It's a boost for Coke, to be sure, but also another instance of how a company whose product has won acceptance, and proved its merit at the theatres where films are shown, recognizes the appeal of films and pays tribute to them in pridefully proclaiming an association with The Movies. —CHICK LEWIS SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW. Title and Trade Mark Registered U. S. Patent Office. Published everv Friday bv Showmen's Trade Review Inc 1501 Rrn;,dw,v New York 18, N. Y. Telephone, LOngracre 3-0121. Charles E. 'Chick' Lewis. Editor and Publisher; Tom Kennedy, Executive Editor: Ralph Cokain Manaeine Editnr • Merlin C. Lewis, Film Advertising Manager; Harold Rendall. Equipment Advertising Manager. West Coast Office, 6777 Hollvwood Boulevard HollvTv-^d '8 CaliforniaTelephone HOUywood 2055; Ann Lewis, Manager. London Representative, Jock MacGregor, 16 Leinster Mews, London W.2; Telephone AMbassador 3601 ' \r^h^ dit Bureau of Circulation. Address all correspondence to the New York office. 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