Variety (May 1952)

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FICTtJlMBS Although Mh eivott, in the jungly "Bomba" positively must not be «*«ed on as "Tnjraum” or ttiy. of his relatives, Monogram. International EL warns its dlstributprs ihrough ita current house organ: "A rather Unfortunate incident with one of ouriforeign di»tribMtors.wh<? released ?‘Bomba’ subject starring Johnny Sheffield under the title of ’Bomba, inn of Tama,’ compel* us to issue a notice at this time’that, under nn circumstances* may the word ‘Tamn’ be used in any of the titles our various ‘Bomba’ Alms/; . • ’ # “Apart from the purely ethical issues t>£ misrepresentation to exhib- itors and public alike/’ the bulletin states, "it should he emphasized that the use of the word Tawin' has not and cannot be authorized by We have been informed that offenders in this connection are liable to legal action by the Burroughs-Tarzan estate, and by the producers and distributors of the Tarzan motion pictures/' Curious ^aspect of-Edward Small's, new, distribution contract with United Artists is that he has Samuel Briskin and Sol Lesser associated with him in production of one of the IS films, called for under the UA pact. The single pic in Which all three will have an interest, and which J^ill go through UA under the Small banner, will be ‘‘Kansas City 117," It goes before the cameras on June 2, with John Payne and Coleen Gray in the leads. . * - , The originally-projected arrangement was a Ibng-term,' raultiple-pic teaming of Small, Lesser and Briskin; that is, they’d form a joint pro- duction unit and would release through UA. Negotiations,'progressed considerably on the initial film, "Kansas City," and for that reason all three film-makers Will be connected with it. However, the whole ar- rangement fell apart* after this one film was covered in the talks. Cash prizes, usually awarded to film salesmen during annual sales drives, has run into 1 Government red tape, with approval of the Wage Stabilization Board necessary before the coin can be distributed. As a consequence film company lawyers and accountants are being consulted. Especially careful Attention is being given to the wording of the sales literature that is sent to staffers in the various field offices. Since the WSB considers the prizes as wage bonuses, special per- mission from the Board is Required. French Import, loan’ Deal -3 Continued from page 7 — . can industry more dollars, than-at present, but all have other restric- tions attached to them. All of them reportedly in one way or an- other also contemplate some form of promotion of French pix in the U. S., a la the Italian deal. A second plan provides for lim- itation to 100 imports, no "loans," with remittances of $1,200,000 yearly permitted, plus free conver- tibility of the current* fiscal year’s accruals. *; Still another alternative would permit unrestricted imports, but provides a domestic production subsidy of 10% of earnings of the first 70 pix .(this is mentioned as 80 pix in some reports) and 15% of all remaining imports. In ad- dition companies could take out 12 V2% of current year’s accruals J now blocked, said to amount to about $4,000,000.- * France last year permitted the American companies <to clean* up all balances to June 30. Current earnings after "that Went' into a “capital account." Companies could sell francs in this account under certain conditions at the free mar- ket rate, but that*was cut off in January. See Yanks Looking Askance Objections to the Italiaih deal— that it would*provide an objection- able pattern for other countries— having proved true, it is antici- pated that Yank film men are go- ing to look doubly askance at the proposed French . arrangement. Principal objection to the Rome pact came from SIMPP on the basis that it was a bad policy to call the “loan" for promotion any- thing other than the tax which SIMPP claimed it actually was. In the case of both France and Italy, the "loan” is theoretically return- a ble, but no one really expects ever to get the coin back. Italo pact makes 50% of net earnings remittable at the legal rate, freezes 25% (subject to trade or commodity deals) and puts the framing 25% in a loan fund. Of the latter, 12V^% goes directly to aomestic producers to help finance their films and the other 12Vfc% goes to Italian Film Export, which has been set up to aid Italian pix m the U. S. There is no restriction i e number of Hollywood films that may be sent into Italy. The 12V£% to IFE is expected oy that outfit (to which 83 Italian Producers belong) to provide al- most $3,000,000 during the two- year period of the Italo-U. S. pact, vniy a relatively small part is go- og into actual publicity and pro- motion in America. The remainder h*i * ng use( * as a * oan ^ un< * to yeip U, s. distribs pay advances ® r . Product to Italian producers nd to dub and subtitle pix. Deal OK on Dollar-Ccnts f Ane deal is viewed favorably K« 0I ?u a dollars-and-cents standpoint «y the Yank distribs. Basically, it *J!r° un !; s to allowing them.to remit c of their earnings at a 12Vfc% scount. That's a very good rate, nce remitting them either through trade or commodity deals or via the black or gray market would entail a considerably greater discount than 12V£%, So the “coin going to IFE theoretically is cost- ing the Americans little or noth- ing. All four of the four alternate French proposals are said to be complex, with 12 or 14 clauses each. They were worked out by the American team repping MPAA, SIMPP and the U. S. Embassy in Paris, with a special committee ap- pointed by the French government and made up of film, financiers and execs. Johnston, who headed up the U. S. group, was aided by John G. McCarthy, director of the MPAA’s international division, and by Alfred Crown, sales chief for .Samuel Gold.wyn, repping SIMPP. McCarthy and Crown remained in Europe,, while Johnston returned to New York Saturday (17). He went directly to Washington and will return' to New York today for the MPAA session. Foreign Freeze - Continued from page 5 .. B „ ■ ed both production budget and dis- tribution economies. The head start thus obtained on the domestic b.o. slough-off is seen now as hav- ing contributed to building up a fiscal reserve that is giving the in- dustry strength in meeting pres- ent and future crises. Blessing-in-disguise which the J bleak days of four and five years ago have proved to be has occurred purely coincidentally as far as the film biz is concerned. The fact that much of the money iced abroad has now come home is the work of Joe Stalin as much as anyone. The Communist threat has sent U. S. government dollars into many cor- ners of the world with the result that foreign countries have had the wherewithal to square away better their import-export balances. Not to be lost sight of, however, in addition the contributions of Uncles Joe and Sam, is the ex- treme ingenuity that foreign de- partments of. the majors and of the Mption Picture Assn, of Amer- ica have displayed in extracting coin and in not letting it get so frozen that it could never be thawed. Overseas earnings of tf.. S. pix in domestic currencies have con- tinued to grow since the War. Con- version of these earnings into dol-' lars failed to perk ;on any large- scale until 1951, when overseas monies received by U* S. distribs were second highest in’ history. AS domestic grosses have fallen con- tinuously during the same period, percentage of overall income rep- resented by foreign coin has grown and the likelihood is that it will continue to do so. Thus the dark overseas cloud may be lined with silver for years to come. Hartford Times Seminar Adds Reagan as Speaker Hartford, May 20. Ronald Reagan, president of the Screen Actors Guild, has been added to . the Speakers program of the second Hartford Times picture industry symposium here June 4. Eric A. Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Assn, of’ America, will be the keynote speaker, Main objective of the symposium will be a discussion of the common ailments of the industry and their relation to .the newspaper field. To this end many publishers, manag- ing editors and motion picture editors from Connecticut and West- ern Massachusetts, as well as film industry execs fre/m both coasts, have been invited to aHtondt GPE-Scophony x—rrrhr- CO«Unued IfOm pftge 4 w^-rrr ^ * ed development of Scophony sets. "In our opinion," * Hines wrote, "many of the reports which are be- ing made public as^to the rapid de- velopment of comr&ercial television are being made fbr promotional purposes and sound-better than the facts would warrant.” Paglin also offered evidence to show that GPE held back Bell & Howell Co., motion picture equip- ment-makers, from manufacturing Scophony receivers. A letter from Levey to Hines under date of June 7, 1945, stated: "Almost a year has elapsed without any progress re- ported by you, while, at the same time, you refuse to permit Bell & Howell to proceed—notwithstand- ing that it would be in the'best in- terests of this corporation (Sco- phony) to allow Bell & Howell to proceed along the lines of their written proposal, i.e., to spend $200,000 in refinement and tooling up for the Supersonic home set, which should produce substantial cated they would also develop a supplemental model — combining the Scophony Supersonic TV pro- jector with an 8m or 16m film pro- jector, which they dp believe should prove a popular model for home, schools, churches -and the like."- — Levey also brought out that General Electric was interested in the Scophony Supersonic fiome receiver. In December, 1944, he reminded Hines, he reported to the Scophony board that GE "feels “Moreover, Bell & Howell indi- that the Scophony Supersonic re- ceiver may well provide, after re- finements, a cheaper and better way of projecting a large TV pic: ture for the home than the cathode ray projection set which is still in a development stage and has many snags, including dangerous high voltages, and even if our set eventually proves more expensive, GE believes it will have a' very substantial market.” In the same letter to Hines, Levey added: "You will recall that Paul- Raibourn said the radio industry ‘feared’ the Scophony Supersonic home set." royalties to Scophony. Skiatron Pictures Continued from page 4 mass-produce the projector to re- tail at $199.50 to receive VHF or UHF and, with minor adjustments, color telecasts. He said Skiatron intends to manufacture sets itself and to license others to produce them. He said the company hopes to hold demonstrations in New York for the trade and public in the fall and to have sets on the market in the winter. Levey predicted that the Super- sonic projector will ultimately dis- place the present cathode ray tube receiver because of size of picture it provides and clarity of image, which can be viewed from any angle. Large-size, direct-view tubes, he said, are costly, take up much space, and require high voltages. But the trend, he pointed out, is to a larger ; picture, y . • Instead of picture tube, he ex- plained, the Supersonic projector relies on a small ultrasonic cell the diameter of half dollar, and .About long. This cell ; •fcbhtains 4- liwd and Senses . Which ■ 'trinsmit tbfe Image th#.$r<k. gram source. Levey said that since its licenses were freed- from Par And GPE by the consent decree of 1949, Skiat- ron has been preparing to manu- facture the Supersonic projector for home and theatre TV. Further developments involving produc- tion plans, he said, should be an nounced soon. City (wasting uphill .11 Continued from gage 4 30% fee plus a bonus for the front money after recoupment. In the new deal the distribution rights are secondary in that Dowling has bought an actual stake jin the nega- tives add thus will share any profits derived throughout the world. Dowling has a .secondary’ advan- tage in,his interest in the pix since in that way he can assure their, playine Cl-owngd houses if desir- able, company owns the- Astor, Victoria and Bijou on Broadway. The Lopert c^poration, in-which Cl in a major Stockholder, op- erates art houses in other cities; so Cl may profit also through the pix going, to them. Korda, incidentally, mjay have an extra advantage in the deal,* inas- much as he is a shareholder in Lo- pert Films. He got the stock as part of the ararngement by which Lopert put up the $1,080,000 for the original 13 pix. United Artists is also likely to reap an unexpected profit out of the whole thing, as Lopert Films will probably not distribute the three new-pix, but turn them over to UA, as it did with “Cry,” “Out- cast” and “Hoffmann.” As with them, Lopert is likely to handle only roadshowing pr a few early dates. Lopert profits through -a small override on the UA distribu- tion fee. ‘Latiiko’ Okay .— Continued from page 5 rested the theatre manager and two projectionists on May 9, re- ceived. the restraining order at 3 p.m. The film was on the the- atre's screen at 3:30 p.m. Theatre had to obtain another, print of the film since Assistant Corporation Counsel George Astley requested that the police bp permitted to hold the original print until he received instructions whether or not to ap- peal the case. Judge Freund, who viewed "Latuko” in court yesterday morn- ing, asserted that although the men in the film are naked, they are not shown in any attitude ofr function to which exception might justifi- ably be taken. “In my opinion," he said, "only a narrow or unhealthy mind could find any depravity in the film." He termed the nudity an "inconsequential factor in an ab- sorbing and instructive , docu- mentary film." Meanwhile, the theatre manager, John Hart, and the projectionists, George Stone and Paul Kearny, out on $1,000 bail each, are sched- uled to appear in Magistrate’s Court tomorrow (Wed.) on Charges of "showing an indecent and ob- scene film." Attorney Hood indi- cated that he would waive a hear- ing. for the trio, which, in effect. Sends the case to the grand jury. In the light of Judge Freund’s de- cision, it’s figured that no indict- ment is likely. "Latuko," made by Edgar M. Queeny, chairman of the board of Monsanto Chemical Co., depicts the life and customs of the Latuko tribe in Equatorial Africa. It has been shown in 200 communities in the far west and midwest, as well as at the Museum. It was recently banned in New York State. Arbitration - ■ =. Continued from page 5 Herman M. Levy, general counsel for the Theatre Owners of Amer- ica. The group gave four solid days to formulation of the specifics in the proposed system, such as the extent of monetary awards which may be given by arbiter panels ana clarification oh how runs, clearances and bidding com- plaints will be handled. Their recommendations were turned over yesterday to a drafting com- mittee whose job is to put the de- tailed arbitration plan into legal phraseology. They hope to have' this ready by June 10 7 .fir well ifi advance' of the all-trade cpnclAYO- l j on June .16. - ' l<evy stressed that there was an absence of any discord during the four days of meetings among :his group, Which included counsel for the various film companies. Allied States failed to have a single rep at any of the sessions, which may or may not be»meaningful. 13 ‘Illicit Love No Grounds for Pic Albany, May 20. Whether the French film, "La Ronde/’ will be shown in New York State rests’with the Appellate Division of the N, Y. Supreme Court, which reserved decision last week on a petition to compel the State Board of Regents to grant a license for the picture. Board has refused to permit exhibition of the feature on the ground that it is "immoral" and would "tend to cor- rupt morals." .. , Petition was submitted by Com- mercial, Pictures Corp.,..which is distributing "La Ronde’’ in the U. S. In arguments..before the court last Wednesday (14), the firm’s attorney, Mrs. Florence Pep- low Shieritag, charged that the Regents’ action hi banning the film was "arbitrary/* Although conced- ing the picture deals, with "Illicit love," she declared this Was not sufficient- cause- for denial q£ a license. f "We have' had subjects dealing with illicit love/’ Mrs. Shientag pointed out, since the Greek trage- dies and Shakespearean plays. "La Ronde,” she- added, is "satirical, witty and of great artistic in- tegrity." Moreover, no complaint has been made to any exhibitor in nine ether states where the pic- ture has already been screened. Court, incidentally, witnessed a private screening of "La Ronde" also-on Wednesday at the request of Commercial Pictures. Produced by Sacha Gordine, the film is based i upon ar play by Arthur Schnitzler. It stars Anton Walbrcjok, Daniele Darrleux, Simone Simon and Daniel Gelin. WHIOTIB Studio Visits —^ Continued from nago 7 -■ ■ * exhibitors earlier this month in Culver City, "The majority, if not all, of the visitors returned to their bailiwicks steamed up about the upcoming product and pledged they’d follow through with greater effort in promoting the pix. The M-G junket clearly copped an abundance of attention within the fcade. Other film outfits are 'now studying the costs and values received with the view of possibly adapting' the idea for their own USCi . Conference ■ of production top- pers and key theatremen across the counfry will be held in L. A. next fall under the aegis of the Council of Motion Picture Organizations. COMPO held its first such seminar last year and all participants agreed that the exchange of knowl- edge anent public tastes In film entertainment, and otherwise up- beating the b.o., proved beneficial. Mpls. Exhibs Cheered” Minneapolis, May 20. . Metro’s "See and Believe" con- clave has inspired two of its Min- neapolis exhibitor guests to spread a spirit of optimism regarding ex- hibition’s future prospects and to rally the area’s theatreowners and managers to the utmost showman- ship efforts. Back from the conclave, Harry B. French, Minnesota Amus. Co. (United Paramount Theatres) pres- ident, and Bennie Berger, North Central Allied head, lost no time in acquainting managers and. fellow exhibitors with the "marvelous" product coming up from Metro Which, if other 7 companies "even partially duplicate/’ as expected, "is Sure to revive the boxoffice." Both French and Berger say that the product Metro put on display for conclave guests and the words of .cheer from the company ex- fectitives have given them renewed confidence regarding the ability of pix to combat TV’s inroads. Whitman fox' More Coast Hops Metro’s hosting of the studio conclave for exhibs proved its value in terms of industry-wide confidence in the future and other companies would do .well to copy from the idea, Robert Weitman, United Paramount Theatres v.p., said in a letter to UPT field per- sonnel. Copies of the letter were sent [to various distribution execs.