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Tuesday, January S, 1932 PICT«RE$ VARiETY 9 Film Clitics' Box Score AS OF DECEMBER 26 K«y to abbr«vlatipn>: PC (Piotures eaught), R (right), W (wrong), O (no opinion expreiMd), PCT (percentage). NEW YORK (This Score Based on 172 Pictures) CHICAGO DORIS ARDEN* (Times) ..w.... 129 CLARK RODENBACH (News) ,.106 GENEVIEVE HARRIS (Post) 118 ROB REELt (American) 119 MAE TINEEt (Tribune)... 128 CAROL FRINK (Herald-Ezamlner)..... 124 94 70 74 72 77 67 36 30 87 39 42 28 6 7 8 9 29 .729. .660 .627 .605 .602 .640 ^Ellen Keene, tHazel Flynn. ^Frances Kumer. (This Score Based on 140 Pictures) AGl PAGE FILM Top Percentage for N. Y. Is .760, for Chi .729— Julia Shawell Makes Beat Advance, Leaping from 4th to 2d on N. Y. End— No Chicago Changes Par's Eastern Story Board Group Broken Up by Transfers and Notices End of Paramount story board, as tar as the east Is concerned, was brought about when a long list of notices was handed out, effective In two weeks. Inside had expected the'blow off for some. \lme, particu- larly in view of the recent coast tormatlon of another Par story ^oard.. D. A. Doran and Russell Holman remain In Par's story! dept. Some tnembers of the same staff, pre- viously in other P-P depts., are re- turning to their old stands. A. M. Botsford, Par story head of the east, is presently In Hollywood. Pruning of the outgoing crew Is Uttrlbuted tn Inside circles to Par's tiew economy program. ; IsUit Auster, headquartered at the it. L studio, is among those leaving. Others named are B. A^ Wohr, Jay Goumey and Blanche Collier. Miss Collier is said to have been a story reaction getter, while' Wohl is tredlted with the idea of reshaping bld-tlme classical plots. Ben Kams- ler, another given notice, was a legit scout Frank Vreeland, who came from Par's publicity department, is ex- pected to return there. A1 Hirsch likewise reported returning to 'Pub- llx Opinion,' house oi^n. An inside comment offered was that another reason possibly effect- Ins the disbandonment was the con- tinual turning down of ■ practically bvery story proffered for considera- tion in the east New Durante Contract From $1J50 to $3,000 Metro has issued a new contract to Jimmy (Schnozzle) Durante, tearing up the old ticket which called for a six month's renewal and issuing a year's contract with options. New ticket starts at |1,760 and calls for options at $2,600 and |3,000. QniOan's Fmale Hollywood, Jan. 4. Diminishing of the Radlo-Pathe payroll is still going on, the latest to feel the axe being Eddit Qull- lan. Actor leaves the studio after finishing the current 'Girl Crazy.' QuiUan is one of the Rooster crowd to come over to Radio. Every week the number of former Pathe employees on the Radio lot gets Ipas. Weeks in Devil's' Hollywood, Jan. 4. Barbara Weeks, borrowed by Fox front Sam Goldwyn, goes into her eu 1" a row for Pox, She wilt do an ingenue In 'Devil's f-ottery,' Mix Toms Ont Two U Westerns and Article Daring Convalesence Holls^ood, Jan. 4. During his period of convalesc- ence, following the operation for appendicitis, Tom Mix has emulated Irving Cobb and Wiii Rogers and has written a story about his big opening. Story will be published in pamphlet form and distributed to his friends. In addition to his original. Mix has written two Western stories for himself which' may be made by Universal. So far Mix has Okayed four Of the stories submitted by U for his approval. The cowboy star claims his hos- pitalization has given him a veil that he has wanted to take for the past three years. He looks better now than he did when he returned here following the closing of the Selis-Floto circus last fall. At that time Mix was suffering from both an injured knee and wrist which had been bothering him for several months. During his con- finement, both injured . members have cleared up. His doctors claim that while Mix win be able to get out of his home within the next week It will be at least six weeks before he can jide a horse. Martan-Smith Act Hollywood, Jan. 4. Nlta Martan from pictures is go- ing- vaude. Murray Smith, erstwhile orch. leader, will be at the ivories. Miss Martan auctioned off every- thing in her Lake Hollywood drive home prior to going east en tour. LOWER RATINGS Second quarter survey of the film critics' standing for the current season finds the leadership pi^ae- tically unchanged, with William Boehnel of the 'World-Telegram' again topping the New York, coterie, and Doris. Arden of the Chicago 'Times' in the van for her division. Chioage ratings stand unchanged throughout Relatively the percentage of 'rights' for all contenders in the list is slightly down for tjie period Nov. 1 to Dec. 26, as compared with rat- ings for the previous term of sur- vey, May 30-Nov. 1, but changes in position have been unimportant One possibly significant featuce of the new classification Is that two feminine reviewers In the New Tork field have given way to a non-star appraiser. Julia Shawell ('Graphic') moves up from No. 4 to No. 2, dis- placlhg Bland Johaneson ('Mirror') former No. 2, and heading Irene Thlrer ('News'), previously No. 8, Two last named slip back one place to third and fourth, respectively. Miss Johaneson does not actually use a star system in appraising pro duct but her style calls for a defln Ite one-word opinion, which amounts to about the same thing in effect Miss Thlrer has somewhat com- plicated her former system by In troduclng new shades of Implied values, using fraction^ In her star Index.' 'Variety' has weighed these fractional values by disregarding the split stars. Thus a 2 ^-star verdict is regarded as a two-star (or 'fair') opinion. Lower Percentages ' Tendency toward lower percent- ages is common to both the Chicago and the New Tork groups and ap- plies especially to the higher brack- ets. Tailendere in some cases l>et- tered their previous ratios of 'rights.' Another tendency that stands out conspicuously is that there was a distinct failing off in 'no opinion' reviews for the newer output . In the east Mordaunt Hall ('Times') had only eight 'no opin- ions,' a slight Improvement over his previous pace of 19. Julia Shawell, who made the most positive leap. Is charged with only two indecisions as against 11 for the previous count. Throughout the recent survey it seems to the compiler that the re- viewers did less straddling in their views, and it seems probable that this new disposition to express posi- tive opinions accounts for a better showing by the non-star writers, as against users of the star system, which has concededly given the star users a considerable edge on con- tenders of the non-star technique regarding 'Variety's' rating. Reasons Ad\^ced Why Wm. Fox Fdl Not Return to Pktiires in Way Bow Prefers Prifacy Hollywood, Jan. 4, Clara Bow-Rex Bell honeymoon trip to the South Seas around Jan. 20, discreetly ca;mouflaged as a 'short pleasure trip,' indicates that Miss Bow's Sam Rork-Columbla picture deal is cold. As are probably any chances for a comeback, with Miss Bow not only tepid about it but permitting her- self to grow comfortably chubby. Columbia is reported trying to negotiate with Mrs. Bell direct and thus get her to work for less than the amount called for In her con- tract with Rorlc for Colufnbla re- lease, . Beck Didn't Know Curiously rambling over the. RKO offices In the Palace and Bond buildings, Martin Beck, the former Orpheum pres. ran into a new looking department, "What's this?' asked Beck. 'Exploitation,' was the reply. 'What's exploitation?, said Beck. :■ .'Exploitation," was the an- swer. 'I made millions In the show business,' mentioned Beck, 'and ran theatres for 30 years but I never heard of exploitation.* . No reply. Ducks Hays IMonored* Ban By Book Title 'Letty Lynton* to be made by Metro with Joan Crawford starred and Clarence Brown directing is vUrtually the stage play, 'Dishonored Liady,' which Metro previously wanted to buy but was halted by a Hays office ban. Both the play. In which Katherlne Cornell was sta.rred on Broadway, and the. book, 'Ijetty Lynton,' are based on a murder case of a few years ago in Scotland In which a woman poisoned her sweetheart Warmth of, the lines and sltua tlons brought the 'must-not' .from Hays, when virtually every major studio was In the market for the play. Metro execs figured that in- asmuch as the murder case got stage treatment somewhere a book must have been written along the same lines and set agents at work to And U| such a novel existed.' It was found in 1,ynton,' written by an English woman, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, who treated the dis- honored lady in the case with con- siderably more sympathy than she was donated in the banned play. Metro's ducking of the Hays' ban parallels the case of 'Rain,' which couldn't be made In conjunction with the play but was okay as 'Sadie Thompson' from the story, on which the play was based. Certain active members of the Hays organization are positive WU« Ham Fox will never return to the Industry on a scale reaching any- where near his last capacity. If re- . turning at all. Sitting at the Hays round table with Fox since Hays entered the industry, they offer the following* analysis: . William. Fox Is a one-nkan show.-, man. pigging Into this they point out that Fox would be virtually the sole showman atAllrectors' meetings of the Fox organ Izl&tlon; that ho would soon tire of trying to edu- cate bankers In and to his ways;, and, that It is doubtful whether het could convince all 'of the board ait any one- time of his Ideas. , Times have , changed. On this score . they point out that when Fox sold out the Industry was Just, reaching over the height of its suc- cess;' that those were the days when a bond would tie up a theatre; that no one worried about bills and - no one outside, so far as pictures were concerned, worried about them either. The Banking Load Changing the present Fox direc- torate would not make any differ-. ence: Under this line they point that if William Fox were abl0 t<^ move out all of the Chase Interests- it would simply mean that he would have to move In another set of bankers. Agreement with the bankers;' Herein is seen that the Chase In- terests could easily lift, the ban pro« hlbltlng Fox from returning to. pic- tures from five years dating the original agreement But Fox tak« Ing orders or having his orders reg-. ulated and edited, would not be the original William Fox. NEGRI NOT PLACED Verbal Agreement With Old Pathe ^Depends on New Film? Hollywood, Jan. 4, Future of Pola' Negri In Holly- wood Is .dependent on reception of 'A Woman Commands,' her Pathe picture, which Charles' R. Rogers took with him to New Tork. Actress' option with Pathe was up Dec, 19. She has but a verbal agreement with what's left of Pathe to make more pictures. At Radio, studio is reported looking for tier second story but hasn't decided on It Four weeks of work for NBC, which Miss Negri was to do follow- ing completion of 'A Woman Com- mands,' v^as'interrupted by her ap- pendicitis operation. She is expected to All the engagement, calllDg for four broadcasts, later. Amos-Andy Warm? Hollywood, Jan, 4, Radio is warm once again on an other Amos 'n' Andy feature, it's said. Studio is Interested in . the new. colored musical, 'Lucky Day,' at the Mayan, backed by Rodney Pantages, Radio has 6een almost at the point of renewing the NBC block- nan, fin.,,. Bert-Bemice Wheeler in Property Setdement Hollywood, Jan. 4. Property settlement being drawn up between Bert and Bemice (Speer) Wheeler conflrms the sundry tiffs and splits the couple has had In the past month. |n« compatablUty. Married four years, couple have a daughter, Patricia. They have given up their Malibu beach house and taken separate apartments. Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, his partner, are leaving April IS on an Oriental tour, their pictures going' very big In the Far East with ftiS Idea given them by Joe Fisher, the Singapore showman, who was here last fSli on the final lap of a world tour. Fisher arranged the tour. ' INDEX Band and Orch, Routes,. 60 Bills. ....«••• 41. Byrlesque i. • 63 Chatter 45-47 Editorial 49 Exploitations 18 Film House Reviews.... 39 Foreign Film News..II Foreign Show News..... 65 Inside—Legit « 66 Inside—Music 61 Inside—Pictures ....... 86 Inside—Radio ....»..••• 49 Legitimate 60-66 Legit Reviews... 62 Letter List............. 68 Literati 67 Music 60-61 New Acts 88 News from the Dallies.. 44 Nlte Clubs 61 Obituary u 63 Outdoors 63 Pictures .i....... 2-34 Picture Reviews l6 Radio 69 Radio Reports. 68 Sports ..i ,»ffti 42 Talking Shorts.......... 19 Times Square........... .42-43 Vaudeville .............. 86^3~7 Vaude Hotise Reviews... 88 Woin.en'jB .Page, 4a