Variety (Sep 1928)

VARIETY FOREIGN FILM NEWS Wednesday, September 19, 1928 British Film Field By Frank Tilley London, Sept. 7. Although registriition became .compulsory under the Films Aot from Jan; 1 last, Jt \vpuia bo highly misleading to take, the figures oC the American pictures registered from that date as a means of corri- puting the rociuirements of Amori-' can units for their quota fuUill- meht. Quota proportions are only called for on the ■ films i-egistered from April 1, in the result several'of the American units pushed in as much stuff as they could before that date. Independent product handled by . British distributors also shows the same trend. From Jan, 1. to Aug. 31 there were registered, outside the eight American corporations work- ing directly, here, 9.0 American fea-- ture films, Biit .CO of these came in after April 1, iso that to balance on .quota they need six British-made pictures, having side-stepped threc by registering before AH Fools' Day, Here is how the eight American ■ corporations doing their own dis- tribution stand oii the first six months of the quota and on. the year to Aug. 31 on registration: Counting ,• ' Total for . Registering Quota 15 16 18 12 & 2 haV(? pullod . back one. of the several ILIms. wliieli haa bcnn annuuncod to open A. ' iO. Abrahams' itegal tliratro at IViarble Arrh. ''Verdun," the l-'rcncii war film, is ancither that is out for the .Regal, getting its 0rpmi6re at the. .(Jaumpnt-British hou^e opposite, tlie Marble Arch ravilion, instead. . It is still not .sure, V'hen the. Regal will open,' though it was scheduled for this week. As it looks, it will hot be ready for a couple of months. ^loantinlo the M-G-M house bri Leic'ostor R(iuare, started on long after the..Regal, lis all set tO' open next' month. . M-O-M will thus, when they open the Empire, have both that house and the TivoU till the end of October, as the Strand house does not pass over to P.C.T.. till then, and is keeping in "The Trail, of .'98" . to around capacity meanwhile and till the end of the M-G-M'lease. Talkers at Low Scale For Big London House London, Sept. J 8, The New l^mpire opens around Nov, 1 at a scale 25 per cent, he- low that previiiling in other. West End cinemas. House has capacity of 3,5Q0, ^vhich is the reason of the lower prices. Theatre will depend upon straight picture policy Without iany variety or presentation features. "Opening film attraction has not yet been se- lected, but it has been decided to start with a talking picture. Universal 41 10 Paramount ....... 51 '[ 29 Metro GoUlwyn - ■ " Mayer .\ ...... 36 Fox • •. ..«. •. ..' 31 First National.. . 129 Producers Distrib- uting ......,.. 27 Warner Bros,.... ,11 United Artists... 9 Thus, on the first six months, to the close of the 27-28 film year, American . concerns working herfe need 10.7 British-made pictures, and all-American product from all . sources calls for 16.7 pf. the same to fill its quota call. This should not be takein as any indication of the future position under the quota. As things now stand, it appears all there is needed for a year's quota supply is 33.4 native-made pictures. The second six months will show a very dif- ferent situation. No longer can films be registered without carrying quota proportions, as they could for the first six nionths of the year. And 9lnCe the registration period for. Qtiota began—from April 1— there have,been registered 56 Brit- ish-made films, a number well in excess of the apparent Quota needs. This apparent need is increased by the addition of the Continental films shown during the same time, which total 74. Thus the total British films called for to fill the Quota to date are 24.1; which is again quali- fied by footage. For both feature films and shorts, the Quota has to be calculated in footage to get positive proportions; Which means an outfit like United' Artists might well have a footage total of 23,000 in two reg- istered.films and would have to take three or four British features so as to measure up for Quota fulfillment. Maxwqll's F, N.-Pathe Deal Lots of rumors around about this. On© is that Beaverbrook's Standard Film Company, holding the First Natlonal-Pathe stock, figured in the "World Wide incorporation through the:Equitable Corporation, and thus also ctirne into British International, paying in F.' N.-P stock as well as cash. Idea prompting this rumor is that Beaverbrook would not let go so valuable a commercial and polit- ical, asset as th© Pathe Gazette, the. news reel mostly in uise in this' country. ^ There is a lot against this story. The Standasd-P. C. T. bunch were never happy in the association. The connection between P; C. T.' aa a thcatre«circuit and First National as American distributors gave sales- men of other organiizations a good opening. They busily wised exhib- itors that if they did business with F. N.-P. they would find P. C. T. getting to know so much i5.bout their affairs they would know just where to come and build new theatres. Believe this, story got by to an ek- tent sufl^cient to knock the F, N. bookings quite: a bit, and the Pathe Gazette circulation . took a tumble also. Thus, it is declared, the Pathe end of the F. N,-P. outfit which was beaverbrook's Standard Film Com-, pany, represented by W. H, Evans, who waLs managing director of the alliance, found that what its 51 per cent holding meant in practice was that First National "was getting 49 per cent of the Pathe profits, all of which formerly remained with Pathe. A further suggestion is that what Maxwell paid for the Pathe 51 per cent F. N,-P holding was not so much money as a taking over of lia bilitles. Possibly about that way. Irtgi'am and Hamilton As Producing Co. London, Sept. 18. Rex Ingram, director, and Cosmo Hamilton,, autlior, haiv© organized the Ingranri-Hamilton Syndicate with nominal capital of $5,000, New firm is to start making Brit- ish pictures at Nice, . France, in three months. British. board of di- rectoi's is not yet hambcf, Ingram is now completing a pic- ture for . United Artists,. and ca.sh in on what sound boom there is while it lasts. United Theatres, another Schles- inger company, js equipping the 13 houses with its own system. More Vaude Who said vaudeville was dead? Why, they're putting it into the movies. British li'ilmcraft, making one of the Paramount Quota films, which it believed Par will give a world release under the title "Spangles," is throwing a full-size vaude bill at the London Hippo drome Sunday night,, this 9th, .Audi ence is mainly newspaper men and theatre owners. Bill has Tiller Girls; Green, Wood aind Violet (playing the Alhambra now); Jesko and Jasko, Jap dancers; Kilt, coniedy Juggler; Spalding and Van Guarde, ladder act, and Fern Andra, lead in tht-, film, who is doing a wire-walking turn in bhe of the vaude sequencies. Pictures at. Piccadilly Despite Pro Patria Comi>any hav- ing been forced to abandon pre- views of two fllmd at the Piccadilly theatre by the action of Provincial Cine. Theatres in threatening a boycott oh their circuit of both "Underground" and "Boliba;r," the long-deferred pre-vlew of the Har- ley Knoles' film, "The Rising Gen- eration," with Alice Joyce, is going in there. A fair amount of this pic ture has been made over to get it into something that could be put on the screen. So far no kick has come from P. C. T., though at the time of the ^=Pro^PatJ L'ia-row. Will Evans said his circuit wasn't going to aTlF\v~iinyone to add to the existing number of legitimate theatres being u.sed in the West End for films, But the lease of the house by Warner Bros, may have made a difference, especially as Warners have applied for mcm- bersliip of .the Exhibitors'. Associa- tion, asserting they are now quali- fied exhibitors. By putting in "The Jazz Singer" for their first Vitaphone show, they More Talker StufF Several bands and acts went to Germany this week to make talking shorts for British Photbtone on a German process called Lignose-Hor- film. Among them were Teddy Brown's Band and Julius Nuss- baum's orchcisti-a. Took with them the . Germart cameraman, Carl Frcund, who has been working for Blattner, This is a temporary ar rangement while the Blattner com pany is getting its studios at Elstree equipped for sound. Then the Phototonc stuff will be made here. Wembley is figuring, too, as sound film centre. British Talking Films, the new name for the .1. W Schlesinger - controlled Phonofilm stuff, has taken part of the Wembley Exhibition ground oveir, building and converting fast. Using the old Gar den Club (later Lucullus Restau rant) for ofllccs. They have three acres of space, and adjoin the Pugh Sheridan Wembley plant, still be Jng. worked on but equally , still no nearer being floated. The Phonofilms system is also be- ing used to make talkers, a start being made on "Sinews of War,' written by Eden Phlllpotts and Am- old Bennett. Acts and sketches are being used for the making of dn ad dit.Ional 26 shorts. Acts of the type of George. Mozart are being hooked for. these at around $250, w'ith no royalty. Looks good for the vaude future of these acts, that does. Jersey PoGtical F^ht Involves Theatre Men and Fixing Honey, "Terror" After "Singer" Warner Brothers do not intend to keep "The Jazz Singer" In very long after it opens at the Piccadil- ly. They are putting in as soon as possible, following the Al Jolson fcaturo which Edgar Wallace's "The Terror." Wallace sold the film rights of thi.s Lofore the talker boom be- g.nn and f^id not stipulate for them. So now no llnds a talking version in the West End, while his own legit play is still running here. . Fivo of the C.auniont-British-G. .xp=^-_0^4io !j s(»3=^--in--=-tovv=n-=^af.o.:=^noAV^ oquipijod with the Gnumont-con- troUed sound dovico, British Aeons- tic, fllin-cdge system. Tlie.se liou-'^es are the Palladium, Capitdlj Astoria, Marble Arch Pavilion and Aveiiuo I'avilioh. A raco is on botwpon tliein, and both I'honoiilms and I'ho- totono to get a full line of j)rodui;t made and on the market. All are working to. got ahead of Mnviotone (Fox) and vit'aphone (Warners) Personal Stuff Charleis Penley will manage the Piccadilly for Warners, J. D. Tippett an-ived this week, to stEty awhile, . Alex Aronson, M-G-M general manager in Eiii'Ope, hais resigned to run the Europeah end of the World Wide Pictures, which J, D. Wil- liams will stay in America to handle there, P, A, Enders, head of F. B, O. <British), sails Sept. 8 for New York, Denman picture houses, one of the Gaumont units, is splitting its the- atres into district groups with cir- cuit managers for each- group. Thomas Ormiston, formerly presi- dent of the Exhibitors' Association and one of the promoters of the films act, is taking care of all the Scottish halls; Edward Black han dies the Newcastle territory, and Bertram Burleigh, once a film .actor and Famous Playei^s' first juvenile when it made movies here in 1919, looks after the Midland area. Charles Hutchinson (Hurricane Hutch) got in this week. May dO a picture her© of the eight he has oh schedule. Iris Barry, Daily Mall picture critic, is staying with that daily^ having . withdrawn her resignaton. Differences of opinion on pay and workirig for Other papers caused the threatened leaving. .: Victor Davis, president of the Ex- hibitors' Association, and F, H. Cooper, vice-president, will be the appointments to the board of'trade advisory committee to replace T. H, Ormiston and W. Blake, pushed out by the anti-trust agitation. A- J. Gale, who refused' to resign, despite the storm (though th© resignation, he says, he never made was accept - ed by Sir Philip Cunliffe Lister) will still remain oh the board. An example of persistence rarely equalled, James Forsyth, at present man- aging the Shepherd's Bush Pavilion for Gaumont-British, is to. be ap- pointed circuit manager of the Capitol, Astoria and Shepherd's Bush, with headquarters at the Capitol, Other London circuits are being created out of their combined Denman and General Theatres housesi one of which will cover North arid another Northwest Lon-. don, with Horace Froude and George Mudge, respectively, as cir- cuit managers. Fox has Movietoned a' tab ver- sion of "As You Like It," done by the Welwyn Gairden City Folk Play- ers, amateurs, Wlio lately won the BelasGo cup in New York for ama- teur folk-playing. Couple of boys who. used to be on a trade paper, Herbert Thomp- son and Han*ls Kamllsch, former sub-editor and the latter an ad manager, are starting a "film news paper' for the public." Won't be .1 fan paper, they say, but a real newspaper with a circulation of 100,000. Optimism of youth. Charles Rogers, director of Ken Maynard features, is at the Savoy Been 'on a trip over Europe. Doesn't believe in tJilkers. Jack Raymond, foririefly a Pathe Britisli director, joins liritish and Dominions Company next week to direct "A Peep Behind the Scones." Tim Whelan Is directing "When -ICuigi its--W-O.r-.0-B-0Id " for__the ^^m^' company. Ilerb'.'rt'^Wilcox Ii-avos' in two weeks with prints'of "The Wom.'in In.White" (own dirortion) and . "Triumph of the Scarlet rim perncr' (Hayes Uuntcj-) to give i)ra- vlews in the; States, Norman KeiTy left for hohio and a part opposite Gloria Swanson first of .lliis month.' l^xpcots to cotn;- back and play in E. A. Dupont's "Tarribourine." , Stage VS. Screen .A contr.ist was noted, in the. dialog rushes at one of tho studios in which appeared a yetoran of stnge and screen and. a young new screen player with no knowledge of Stage work. When the . stuff was put on with the dialog the older inan was vei-y much, the center of attention. When, the silent, version was shown the youngea* man very nearly stoic the show. The latter, too, was not slow to realize the big ad- . vantage his senior had over him in the spoken sequences arid bent all his efforts to re- moving the disparity. It is said at the studio the young- ster has made material prog- ress iri taking a leaf out of the stage player's book. Olympic Film News Feud Takes in Many Nations London, Sept.:18, ' British Exhibitors' Association has acquiesced to. tho appeal of tKe Dutch.Exhlbitors' Syndicate and will not rent or show pictures of. the Olympic games. This is In protest against the monopoly granted the Luc© Company of Italy. . Countries which ^yill not show the Olympic pictures now In<;lude Eng- land,. Germany, . Sweden, Holland and Switzerland. AH claim that newsreel companies should be ad- mitted to the Olympic games on equal terms with sports writers. "Ben-Hur's" Paris Record Paris, Sept. 18, After a year and a half In Paris "Ben-Hur" finally closed , at the Madeleine theatre. It's the all-time record for a film in Paris, Egypt Film Rule Washington, Sept, 18. Ahy picture company, either- American or European; shooting scenes in Egypt must develop and print these for submission to the censors before th© negatives may b© taken out of the country, says a report to the Department of Com- inevce. Jersey City, Sept, 18. In the rno.st sensational, political harges affecting theatres.ever made In this section, the Case Investigait- Ing Committee of the New Jersey Senate piiHed from a witness -"Ji© confesslor^ that he had collected from Hoboken theatres for the Dem- ocratic campaign fund. Samuel Tammon, the witness, lo- cated at 617 Washington street, Ho- boken; by investlgfitors, took : the stand in "Trenton yesterday. He waS manager of the V. S. Theatre, Ho- boken, from 1921 to i92G. Tammen said he did the collecting from March, 1926, to the beginning of 1927, ■ More than 50 managers from Jer- ey City arid Hobokeri had been siib-- poehaed for the grilling. They were, forctfd to transport all of their books and records to Trenton and submit to questioning, Thl^ phase of the Case Commit- tee's probing Is to try to pin upon Mayor Hague of Jersey City respon- sibility for the alleged collecting. Case, senator from Somerset county; is Hague's bitterest political enemy. Tammen named seven Hoboken heatres that paid $50 a month Into I fund to be used for protection. One reason for the protection.was to eichlbit Sunday, Thei:e was an ordi- na.nce a'galrist this. Another wa.s to permit children under 16 to enter theatres, . Among the theatres named that p^ald these assessmerits, the witnesa stated, were the Manor, Palace, Bishop, Eureka,: Liberty, City and Rizolia,: - J. C. Didn't Pay Tammen swore that the U, S. Theatre, of which he was manager, was taxed $lOO a month for this fund. Other collections depended upon th© seating capacity, he tes- tified. Fred Cuneo, manager of the Stan- ley; Jack Kealo, ■ manager of thd State; Manager Brennon of the Or- pheum and Manager Noonan of tho Central, ail Jersey City houses, ap- peared before the cohimittee. None, of their books revealed any evidence of having paid gi-aft. Tammen said all of the rnoney he received from the theatre men was. in cash. It is likely he will be re- called in the quiz. ~ The probers charge that hundreds of thousands of dollars, have been contributed to th© political bosses. Most of the theatre men were in- dignant at having been brought Into the mixup, plainly a political move; French Scales Tilted Paris, Sept, 18, A syndicate of prominent French exhibitors met recently and voted to Increase pictui-e theatre admission in October, Their own mounting overhead is the ascribed reason. Abraham's Film Co. London, Sept, 18. A new film producing company is about to start production, A. E. Abrahams, London's largest theatre owner. Is president of the company First "picture wTO' b© T'ui iarrROT^ In "Levlnsky" followed by "Yourig Wood ley" with Robert Irvine. L. A. to N. Y. Peter Mole, Jpe Rock, Fred Fleck, E. H. Allan Tom Moore Chic Sales E. A. Grinslade. Louis B, Mayer Joe Riipf Ed Bi'ophy Joe Cohn Pete Smith Ralph Biock Joan De Limur Al Lcwin John Gilbert H. E, lOddiiigton N. Y. to L. A. Daphne T'olI.Ti-d. Colvin ISrown Hcrbprt llronon Sam Taylor Jiifk (?ain Duane Mowatt Henry Busse Well.s Root Fi'ank Alurl'ay English-German Exhibs May Become Producers London, Sept. 18. Following recent conferences be- tween English and German exhibi- tors, sentiment has been created favorable to the formation of an exhibitor-sponsored producing com- pany. Exhibs over here are not pleased with quality of pictures since quota and also dl.slike prevailing high rentals. 2958 Foreign Houses Washington, Sept. 18. Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the Netherlands and Jugoslavia re- ported a total of 2,958 picture houses. Of which 1,082 operated dally and 1,876 irTegularly, according to slatistlcs from -George Canty for-r warded to^ the Departrhent of Com- merce. Estimated seating capacity totaled 955,530, of which 423,020 seats were In daily use and 532,610 in irregu- lar use. Of those operating daily, Canty segregates as fallows: Austria, 423 theatres; Czechoslo- vakia, 424; Hungary, 75; the Neth- erlands, 71; Portugal, 26; Jugo- slavia, 63. These figures are as July 1, 1928. SKIRBOLL WITH WOELD WIDE World Wide Film Corporation, iorjuxed^ i>iL=Jiivd5e^^„wn E.. W. Hammons to handle forpign pirtin-e!< here nationally through l-kUicaliohal excluini^cs, has en- gauod Joseph Skii-boU as salc^ man- ager. Other plans were delayed by Wil- liams' recent trip t,o California and by Hammons' absence front the city.