Variety (Oct 1947)

18 ncrinns Vr<Tn«4l-y, October. 29, 1947 *C Rating On 'Amber' Continued from pace 5 , ardize lor the profits, no matter how high they promise to be, of a single picture. Cardinal Spellman's 2d Nix Effect of a "condemned" classifica- tion is usually to hypo biz in those cities where an exhib chooses to flaunt Catholic pressure. In this case, however, 20th faces not only the "C" rating, but' specific word from Cardinal SpeUman of New York. He declared in a letter to pastors in his archdiocese, read at all masses Sunday (26): "I advise that Catholics may not see this pro- duction with a safe conscience." . ■ Only once before had the Cardinal singled out a film for such condem- nation. In November, 1941, he de- nounced Metro's Greta Garbo starrer, "The Two-Faced Woman." David O. Selznick, confronted early this year with the same prob- lem that now faces Fox, took a much more conciliatory attitude. As a matter of fact, with an investment in production and advertising on "Duel in the Sun" of upwards of $7,000,000, he was completely con- trite. He came to New York and went into lengthy huddles with L. of D. execs, making all the changes they requested. "Duel," as a result, got a passable rating. On the other hand, Spyros Skouras, 20th's prexy, issued a statement de- claring: "I must "disagree very firmly with and protest a* unfair and harsh the position taken by the Legion Of Decency that 'Forever Amber' is a .'glorification of immorality and licentiousness' .' . . I believe it (the Legion) has erred in taking an ex- treme stand in this instance and that the final verdifct must come from the public." Skouras' Stance Skouras' firmness undoubtedly fol- lowed huddles With, or representa- tions to Legion execs. Apparently, latter feel that no quantity; of cuts could bring the film into the pale,, because of the inherent nature of the yarn. That's indicated in the word- ing of the reason given for the "C" rating: "This film in the nature of the story it tells and the manner in which the behavior of the central character is presented constitutes, a glorification of . immorality and licentiousness." ; Pic has a seal from Joe Breed's Production Code-Administration and has been okayed by .the censor' boards in six of the seven states that maintain such' bodies. They are New York, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Ac- tion is awaited in Kansas. Local censors have let-it go in Memphis, Chicago and. Milwaukee. License ■was withheld by the police theatrl cal censor in Providence, where • "Amber" was scheduled to unveil last Thursday (23). A secondary effect of the Legion's kayo, of course, is to make doubly alert and cautious the. censoring or- ganizations of those areas which have not' already giye,ii approval, * Hub Future Uncertain *.'. \- : •■, • Bosion, Oct. 28.. ■ Considerable speculation on the future of the film "Forever Amber" . 'here as result of special request by the Boston city censor for a pre- view this week. Fact it has been condemned by the Catholic National \ Legion of Decency, and attacked by Cardinal Spellman, .points to plenty , of -trouble in this largely. Catholic center. . . In novel form "Forever Amber" figured in a sensational Mass. Su- preme Court case last May. It was cleared of obscenity charge by J.udge Frank J. Donahue, who ruled the bestseller was a "soporific rather than an aphrodisiac." Ruling paved the way for a revision of Massachu- setts procedure in book censorship, resulting in books themselves being prosecuted, not the booksellers. Formerly booksellers, afraid to tangle with the bluenoses, got to- gether and banned bonks tacitly of their own accord. Resulting slogan "banned in Boston" really meant the books had not been officially banned at all, merely prevented from reach- ing the bookstalls by the sellers themselves. ing big business throughout terri- tory. Newspaper reviewers here, are finding it inoffensive, ; : .... V . Roily Hill,. onetime Minneapolis mayoralty candidate on wide-open town platform and now p-esidetrt of a motion picture research.. > st * ciety In Hollywood, is here trying to get Archbishop Murray of this Catholic diocese to condemn "Am- ber", and to back up his plan to set up a registry system for fllmdom divorces. Hill would ban s$«es whP' take marriage vows .''top Jightly" and would campaign to halt casting of George Raft as a priest in a forthcoming picture. ,.'.. ludplft. Squawk Indianapolis, Oct. 2fc "Forever Amber" opened to standees here " Thursday (23) de- spite effort by Legion of Decency- to have city authorities prevent showing in Indianapolis. Msgr. Hen- ry, F. Dugan, executive secretary of' Legion in Indianapolis archdi- ocese, wrote letter to Mayor Denny asking that action be taken. Denny referred matter to corporation counsel, who replied city has no statute enabling him to~ intervene. Mser, Dugan also wrote to Dem- ocratic and Republican mayoralty candidates, in November elections asking them what steps they would take should the situation arise in the future.. :, .- Balaban Sees ; Continued from page 1 aSS in grosses Rank's 4 Un-Am.' Parlay Trade press reps at the screen- ing Monday (27) in New York of J. Arthur Rank's new "So Well Remembered" (RKO), wondered if the British pro- ducer had somehow anticipated the results of Congressional un- American Activities Committee hearings on alleged Communist influence in Hollywood. It looked almost as if Rank had .decided to make a publicity parlay of persons named in the vprobe. ;."n''v' \ :'There was audible comment among the reviewers as the pic- ture's screen credits, listed Adrian' JScott as producer, Ed- ward'-Djbytryk, director; John : Paxtpn,' scenarist, and Hanns Eisler, composer. All are among those recently mentioned by the . Thomas committee. Northwest Protests Minneapolis, Oct. 28. Protestant ministerial groups? in Fargo, N. D., and Winona and Rochester, Minn., have protested to the Minnesota Amus. Co. against showing of "Forever Amber." Com- pany replied it would be impractical to call off engagements already un- der way. City officials also have refused to interfere. Picture is do- ly, the loss of even 10% spells a 40% in net. 'A recent, analysis showed us, : Balaban explained, "that whereas the average negative cost of Para- mount films was $486,000 six years ago, they're now at an all time high of $2,200,000. In all fairness, I want to qualify that statement by conced ing that we then made some B's and we don't any more. Without the B's, six years ago, our overage wouldn't have exceeded $700,000.' Referring to the climb in costs in '48 and the impossibility of immedi- ately improving the profit potential of films, Balaban emphasized re- peatedly industry practices which made mandatory a two-year stretch between scripting and casting "teeoff on a film and its complete amortiza- tion. He noted the period required preliminary to shooting; the time stretch for lensing; the three months or so for cutting, editing and setting up the pre-selling campaign; and the 18 months allotted to distribution Hence, films released next year were budgeted two years prior and long before ■ the British, crisis spurred economy efforts. "Even now,' Balaban declared, "there are too,many who aren't: put- ting their houses in order. There are many content, in face of the sit ustion, to coast along. And if there's one certainty, it's that those neg- lecting to economize are going to feel it They'll find themselves ex- hausting, their- cash reserves and their bank credits, to boot. In-this industry, you must act promptly to meet . exigencies or else the con se quences are certain.' Because scripts and casting were complet* on productions slated - for early shooting, there's been a neces- sary 90-day hiatus.between the Brit ish crisis and Paramount's revamp- ing of budget expenses at the studio according to Balaban. "Yes, we can cut down the shooting time a bit and save a little here and there, but the main costs have been fixed so far in advance that the company hasn't been able to do too much with them." Fixing his sights on the conten- tion current in some trade circles, that Hollywood should have pre- viously and can still make pix at a cost which would net them a fair profit in the domestic market alone, Par's prexy said: "If there's one point where that argument becomes a bit thin, it's in the fact it ignores the tremendous pyramiding of costs which took place in recent years. We' must work at the base of these costs but reduc- tions will be necessarily slow. Be- cause of the two-year lapse between planning and amortization, we can't count on having an immediate stock of films for the domestic market alone. "There's a tremendous leverage in this business. Everything is fine when the companies are amortizing their product on a rising market. But we're playing with different chips now. The market is declining, but the costs remain high.' §Probe Tactics Continued from page 4 as ture—and the industry's in making a case against the committee—that record was thrown at them every time they showed signs of stalling. Tactics originally appeared to be to keep the probers focused on a few pictures and a small group of writers, who could be. disclaimed, and thus keep the rest of the in- dustry unsullied. It quickly became evident that that wasn't working and all Hollywood was being smeared. Industry's Aboat-Face As a result, there's been a shift to attacking the, committee itself, fol- lowing McNutt's lead. Johnston, in a statement to;the press Sunday (26), which was reprinted in full-page newspaper ads by the MPA Mon- day, and in his testimony that day smacked the tactics of the Thomas group. A peculiar aspect of the industry's attitude, so far as newspaper cor- respondents ' and spectators in the hearing room were concerned, was the apparent coldness between the official MPA side and the so-called "19 unfriendly witnesses," as well the contingent of players and execs who came to Washington from Hollywood Monday. The strained re- lationship wa^/perfectly understand- able, of course, in light of the back- ground. The 19 included "suspected Commies" and the others were con- sidered friends of theirs, so the in- dustry was disassociating itself from them, although both groups opposed the committee. Comparison between McNutt and Wendell Willkie, who served so bril- liantly as counsel in the 1941 probe, is as inevitable as the comparison of strategy. Actually, no fair con- trasting of McNutt and Willkie is possible,- since McNutt is rigidly re- stricted by the committee to sideline activity, with no "opportunity to put on a show. The only chance he gets to say anything publicly is when re- porters crowd around him after the hearings. In those sessions, if they can be used as any criteria, he shows little of the drive and -vigor and deep feeling for ; civil liberties that made Willkie the dominating figure at the- pre-Pearl Harbor sessions. B'way and H'wood -—- Continued from pace 4 • Montgomery, Murphy And Reagan's Fine Impressions* Washington, Oct. 28. It took a trio of actors last week to" lend some balance to the testi- mony piling up in the Hollywood Commie probe. With the impression mounting that half a dozen people in the film colony and the Un-Ameri- n Activities Committee were all that stood between the industry and its absorption by Moscow,- Robert Montgomery, George Murphy and Ronald Reagan presented a thor- oughly balanced view for the first time. Making a deep impression upon the committee with their sincerity, they brought the message that Holly- wood is mostly a place where a lot of real Americans work and live and that there are a few Reds among them but that these are kept pretty much «nder control. It actually inay have been a turning,point of the hearings, for even the committee got a new impression of -what went on in the celluloid colony. Still the House Committee was not thoroughly sold. It said to Murphy, It is fortunate for the American film industry that a group of you fellows are out there who had the courage of your convictions and stood up and fought for what is right." "Don't forget," retorted Murphy, we have the backing of the large majority, of our members." Reagan also expressed his "great pride in the film industry." All in all, the trio expressed, for : the first time during the sessions, a real faith in the industry and plaqe in which they worked. . 1 Rodgers Discusses Continued from page there's seldom been an idea of any kind." Earlier Saturday, Albert -.. Maltz, Ring Lardner, Jr., Richard' Collins, Larry Parks, Kenny, radio producer Robert Lewis Shayon, Paul Robeson, Kingdon and commentator J. Ray- mond Walsh led a counter-attack against the probe, pointing out its al- leged attempt to quash free thought regiment the arts and impose "fas- cist" forms on American life. Lard- ner declared that "we're already sub- ject'to censorship, which is partially responsible for the insipid arti- ficiality of so many of our pictures." He added that "when J. Parnell Thomas is given the right of script approval, any resemblance to Ameri- can life or democratic notions will be strictly an oversight." pulling power in several test engage- ments, requests for bookings rolled in so fast that Metro was forced to ask Techni for 50 more prints. To get these, Rodgers said it was neces- sary to settle for 78 prints less on 'Yearling." Company then need ed an additional 100 prints on "GWTW" and so was forced to compromise again by deferring, release of a new Techni picture for five months. Commenting on biz in general, Rodgers said it depends on each picture and the section in which It plays. He noted that "Yearling," despite its poor record in key city first runs, was cleaning up in the smaller situations and ' eventually might rank second only to "GWTW" as Metro's all-time top grosser. He also gave a nod to exhibs, declaring their expressed desire to hop back on the showmanship bandwagon with both feet is an ^encouraging" sign. Rodgers reiterated previous de- nials of a wholesale cut in Metro's domestic sales staff. Conceding he'd laid off about 25 salesmen through- out the country, the M-G exec de- clared this was strictly an endeavor to streamline^ the domestic opera- tion and had nothing to do with gen- eral*' worldwide market conditions. He pointed out that Metro , now has about T.OOO accounts that pay the company only $50. or less on each picture and about 3,000 of these pay $25 or less. "It would be economi- cal- suicide," he said, "to send a salesman out to sell one picture at a time to each such exhibitor." Rodgers definitely ruled out the possibility of selling via mail order, however. Even if field' salesmen don't do too much soliciting of biz, he declared, it's still necessary for them to huddle periodically with exhibs on mutual exhibition-distribution problems. Before a salesman goes out on the road now, though, he waits until there are enough films available to make his trip worth- while. Nabes Hit Continued from pace 5 Defer B-K Answers Chicago, Oct. 28. Balaban & Katz, pic house chain here, and the major distributors have until Nov. 6 to answer charges of nabe house, DeLuxe, that B&K and majors had conspired to set minimum prices and establish pre- ferred booking practices. Time ex- tension was granted in federal dis- trict court last week. Nabe, besides seeking damages, is asking for an injunction against "un- fair" practices. Weber Denies s Continued from pace 3 ; Wore Tights," while strong in most key city first runs,.also outstripped the keys when it got to the smaller towns, and there are instances of several other pictures that have .acted in the same way. In addi- tion, it's noted that very few pic- tures are running as long in the keys as they used to, whereas b« in subsequent run houses and the small towns is on the increase. Bypass Higher Prices? Majors are reluctant to hazard a guess on why this situation has come about. It's been suggested that the public, in shopping for enter- tainment, might have become averse to paying the high admission prices usually charged by the big first run houses. In answer to this, however, its noted that several films have played at upped prices in all situ- ations and have done just as much biz in small towns as in the keys. A more reasonable view may be that there's been a swing by the public back to nabe houses, such aa happened .once before in th; indus- try. What's causing the swing, how- ever, isn't known. If the situation continues, mean- while, .the majors believe they'll have to revise their marketing and, advertising plans to cope yrith it. If small town theatres that have been buying films on a flat rental deal are making more money now, it's to be expected that the majors will de- mand either a boost in the rental or a Switch to percentage terms. As far as advertising is concerned, the national magazine and radio cam- paigns that are now slanted to take full advantage of key city first run openings, may have to be revised to take the subsequent runs and smaller towns into account was not in fact sold through me or the William Morris Agency, is ap- pearing in the January issue of Air Trails magazine and in a condensed version in Reader's Digest for that month." Weber's affidavit was buttressed by a similar document from Helen Strauss, head of the N. Y. Morris office literary dept. Miss Strauss described her association with Chal- mers and his manager, Frank Nichols. She declared that Good- lin's material consisted of general- ized statements which had no re- lationship with supersonic flight. Collier's magazine subsequently turned down the material. Weird Samples Continued from .page 4 ^ long talk in the presence of Tyrone Power. The next day, Crabbe, w#h Power and Cooper, left for New York to set Henry Wallace. When Crabbe came back home, someone called him on the phone and ad- vised him to stop his activities be- cause it might cause 'unpleasant' re- sults, but Crabbe was not afraid. "From New York, he left by plane for Washington, intending to see Truman and to show the results of his discovery. But Truman did not receive him. Then Crabbe, in ac- cordance with Wallace, Elliot Roose- velt, Eleanor Roosevelt, LaGuardia and Stetinius, decided to publish the documents. "On June 3, on Broadway, on the corner of Seventh avenue, Crabbe was riddled with bullets from a machine gun from a closed car. This tragic death of Crabbe provoked terrific unrest in Hollywood. At the funeral of Crabbe, 150,000 were pres- ent, and the coffin was carried by comrades Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power, George Brent -and Al St. John. "Cooper and Power, before they were imprisoned, stated their im- prisonment would not kill the ideals for which they fought Cooper said, 'I go to prison, but I will came back from prison and Bilbo, Hearst, Baruch and Rockefeller will not be for long masters of this country . . .' Alan Ladd, on this occasion, said: 'Very soon you will hear the real truth about the persons who are putting me in prison.'" In reply to Chairman Thomas' question as to whether Crabbe were actually dead, Cooper declared: 'He's a very healthy specimen." March of Time Continued from paga 11 Movietone lot available to It on a daily rental basis. Plans for MOT'S own productions, which will be distributed by 20th, hinge on how much of the Holly- wood co-production it gets. Idea is to schedule its own production be- tween the other assignments to keep personnel occupied on a year-round basis. Occasion of the de Rochemont an- nouncement was a dinner for the 87 members of the production staff to celebrate the most prolific month in the organization's history. It turned out 8<£ reels in 22 working days. These comprised two editions of the MOT, plus a two reeler for Standard Oil of Indiana and two-and-one-half reeler for Cleveland-Electric Illum- inating Co.