Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

12 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, November 12, 1949 Brilliant Future for Industry Seen by Schary; May Make 40 No Soap The future prospects of the motion picture industry look bright to MGM ^Production VicePresident Dore Schary who Monday in New York found that product from all companies on the whole was better and that the industry had survived some telling blows. "I think the prospects are good," he declared, speaking of the future. "I was an optimist even last year. We've gone through this go-round without any company going down the drain as we did in the last depression. I think our competition is keener, but that our pictures are getting better." Schary said that MGM, as usual, had no fixed number of features scheduled for production in 1950, but anticipated that the companv would complete approximately 40, with about the same percentage in Technicolor as were made in 1949. He announced acquisition of "The Magnificent Yankee," biography and stage play which is to be filmed with Louis Calhern in the part of Justice Holmes. Waste Time: 20 to 25% Schary estimated that MGM had been able to trim from 20 to 25 per cent off production costs by eliminating "waste and second guessing." Most of this was achieved through carefully prepared scripts, which the MGM production chief termed "the most important factor" in economy. By analyzing the script before the cameras start to turn, MGM is "as certain as we can be that we haven't anything in the script that we won't have in the picture," Schary remarked. Other savings, he pointed out, followed through studio cooperation. "Everyone in the studio knows how to save a dollar — costuming, sets, etc.," he declared. MGM's ability to eliminate waste from scripts, he continued, lay in its large backlog of stories which gave the studio leisure to work on each story and eliminate the oversights attendant upon rush schedules. These tactics, he claimed, had enabled MGM to produce "Battleground" for under $2,000,000. Schary told the press conference that MGM had entered the field of experimental pictures with such films as "Border Incident," "It's a Big Country," "Standoff," and "The Next Voice You Will Hear," a story of what happens when God's voice is heard in today's world. He believes there is a "satiety" of pictures dealing with Negro problems and while the problem continues to exist, that there is a limit to how much any one medium can treat of it. "It is best to let the pictures now circulating do what they can," he said. Story's the Thing But he is not academically ruling out a subject for this reason, believing that the story is still reason for making a picture. "Let's look for a good story," he suggested. Nothing Nude Goes The Ontario Board of Moving Picture Censors could not see eye to eye with Producer Hans Richter when it came to allowing his "Dreams That Money Can Buy" to be shown in the province. Richter claimed it was a new screen experiment but the board took the view that nudity was not experimental and ordered the scenes out prior to showing. "If it will make a good picture, let's make it." As to international production, MGM, he announced, would start the delayed "Quo Vadis" in Italy during May, while it will produce "Ivanhoe" in England and possibly "Tahiti," the Esther Williams musical, in the Pacific. Schary came to the defense of Joe Breen, head of the Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code, saying that he had "found him in no way a bad influence on pictures." "I believe," the MGM executive continued, "Goldwyn sounded off about him. ... I think it is ridiculous. You can grab off a lot of free space by that. ... I don't know of any good provocative subject that can't be handled with taste. 'Lot of Nonsense' "There's a lot of nonsense circulating about pressure groups," he declared, coming to the defense of another attacked group. "I think that pressure groups have in some instance helped the motion picture business. I mean legitimate pressure groups." By "legitimate" Schary made it plain he did not mean groups that wrote letters of protest that he was against dogs when a dog was pictured biting a man or that he was threatening the coffee percolating industry because he showed an old-fashioned coffee pot in one picture. Theatres admitting students at reduced admissions must still collect taxes based on the full price of the ticket, the U.S. Treasury Department has ruled in response to a query made by the Theatre Owners of America. Reality, Audience Magnet — Ginsberg Realistic stories are the magnet which pull audiences to today's box-office. Paramount VicePresident Henry Ginsberg declared during a recent stop-over in New Orleans on his way to a Havana vacation from Hollywood. Audiences go to realistic pictures, he added, because they like to sit down in a theatre and "live" the film. "Nobody in the industry knew how the public would receive such a picture as 'Home of the Brave'," he pointed out, "yet the public response to the film was enthusiastic, even in many parts of the South." Ginsberg claimed that Hollywood was concentrating upon fully satisfying the American public's taste, adding: "However, our main problem is still that we can't be sure of what the public really wants." Ginsberg was accompanied by his wife. They spent one day in New Orleans before departing for Havana, Cuba. McEldowney Off to India on Rupee, Pound and Dollar Film-Making Union J. K. McEldowney left New York Saturday for Bombay where he will supervise production of "The River," second of two productions which Oriental-International Films will produce in and around Calcutta. The first, "The Keddar" is nearing completion. The McEldowney arrangement is not. only unusual in that it brings dollars, pounds and rupees into harmonious congress for a threeway production deal which technically will be a British quota picture, but it is actually bizarre in the number of different nationalities represented in the actual filming. In the first place "The River" is based on a tale by Rumer Godden. It will be produced and directed 'oy Jean Renoir, the French director who has "Grand Illusion" to his credit. The director of photography will be Claude Renoir, another Frenchman. The actual camera work will be under Ram Sem Gupta, an Indian who is now studying the mazes of Technicolor in Britain. The star will be Tom Breen, an American who is the son of Joe Breen, the man who makes the movies moral for the Johnston office. The guiding" spirit is McEldowny, an American who may have overtones of Scotch and Irish. And the whole project has the implied blessing of the United Nations, which is seeking to sponsor more international production along the lines of the McEldowny project. If observers think McEldowny's story of uniting Indian maharajahs, British and American financiers to produce a series of features in India as something of a feat, they ain't seen nothing yet. Color Camera Problem In the first place there was the problem of Technicolor cameras. The Indian Government declared, in accordance with sterling trade plans. that the cameras must be bought in Germany. Evidently this would use up some sterling commitment there. But Germany had no Technicolor cameras. McEldowney finally got that one solved and brought in his cameras. Then there was the question of film stock. As the unexposed film came into the country, custom officials wanted to have a look. Might as Well — "You might as well dump the shipment in the water," McEldowney told them, explaining what exposing film would do. That was problem number one. Numbers two came as film was shot on "The Keddar," which incidentally is about an elephant. McEldowney had arranged to fly each day's footage to Britain, get it processed and fly it back. The Indian Government, sensitive of how India might be portrayed, wanted to look at the exposed film this time, telling McEldowney in effect : "We won't let one foot of film out of the country that we haven't seen." He explained this one away finally. But then there were other problems. All camera work has to be done between monsoon seasons. For this reason "The River" will start shooting Nov. 30. The film stock has to be kept in cooled vaults to prevent the gelatin from coalescing and for this reason location shooting has to be done in areas comparatively near to the vaults. Most of "The River's" location shooting will be within 20 minutes of storage places. Further dampness causes fungus growths on the lenses, which means that they have to be stored in cabinets kept dry by electricity. For interiors studios of the Famous Cinema Laboratories at Bombay and Movietone at Calcutta are used, together with Denham in England.