1948-04-23 — Page 8

Pago 8

THE CHINA" MAIL, FRI DAY, APRIL, 23, 1948.

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CINEMA WORLD

I

THE TRIUMPH OF MR.

American industry believes in paying high salaries, and claims that the results qbtained are out of all proportion' to the expense Involved,

3

Perhaps no man has ever 50 fully justified this faith as Mr. Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of Anurica.

Mr. Jolinaton is paid a beggarly

dollera a 200,000

year. The agreement which he recently Mr. negotiated in London with Harold Wilson, President of the will net the Board of Trade, Americans

industry hundreds of millions of dollars, and will almost certainly, in the course of the next few years, give Hollywood a monopoly The British film industry.

Sim

many

The Victory of The

Surplus

of

JOHNSON

By Randolph Churchill

American screen. For the same Americans who wil be making nim tritain alro own nearly all the cinemas it the United States.

And at will, naturally

be to their interest to show the flims they themselves have made in England rather than those made by British producers.

Moreover, in so far as the films of genuine British producers may be permitted to earn dollars In -America, по dollar advantage whatever will accrue to the Bri- tish Treasury.

For if a fim of Mr. Rank's or

Alexander Under this extraordinary agree- | Sir

Karda's should ment the British Government carn 1,000,000 dollars in the permis the Hollywood producers United States, the Hollywood pro- to transfer their Erilish earnings ducers are immediately entitled into dollars up to an amount of to unfreeze another 1,000,000 dol- 18,000,000 dollars a year.

lors of their assets in London.

Whatever they earn beyond-- and it is likely to amount to some 60,000,000

,000 dollars per annum-ls 10 be kept in England; but these

balances may frozen

hay be used by the Hollywood producers to make films in England or to invest in other British Industries.

So for

good. films will once

for, so

011

American

"more

British screens,

be shown yet the dol-

Inr leakage will be Hmited to a comparatively modest sum.

the

It is the further provisions of agreement which constitute the amazing victory achieved by Johnston. For every dollar the earned by a British Blm in United States, Hollywood pro- ducers will be permitted to trans- fer to the United States another dollar from their frozen assets in Britain.

The Defeat of the Producer

the

Mr. Wilson has explained that the object of this clause in agreement is to encourage Amer- ican exhibitors to give a fair showing to British films.

10

Ostensibly this would seem favour the British producers. But everything turns on the central question: What is ducer?

British pro-

Is he someone like Mr. Arthur Rank or Sir Alexander Korda. who, using British capital, makes film in Britain which reflects British artistic standards and tho English way of life and the pro- ceeds of which will be a British profit?

Or is he a Hollywood maganate sing Wall Street car cal

who makes the replica of Hollywood picture in Britain, the whole pro- Al of which must ultimately ac- erue to the United States?

What now becomes of all the fine exhortations delivered by the Labour, Government to British film producers to push their wares in America so as to earn vital dollars to feed hungry Britain?

Every dollar they earn in the United States will be exactly matched by a dollar withdrawn by Hollywood from London.

All the great American motion- picture companies are now mov- ing into London as fast as nero- planes can bring them here. They are busy buying up all the stu dios and equipment they can lay their hands on

The Temptation to Sell Out

This will

ERIC

Imagine you were a British Gim producer. Film production is a risky husness, and you could costly lose a lot of money.

It you made a big proat you 'would be taxed 19s. 6d. in the

Would you not prefer to sell yeur studio at a profit of £1,000,- 000, which, being a capital gain, would be entirely safe from the rapacious hands of Sir Stafford Crippet The conclusion seems in- escapable:

You would sell out.

The Smartness of the

Business Man

How did it come about that the British Government drove so bad a bargain?

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To begin with, the President of doubtless provide the Board of Trade. Mr. Harold well-paid employment for thou- Wilson, was no match as a negot- sands of British actors, writers,ator for Mr. Eric Johnston, Mr.

directors, and technicians.

is But Johnston

a shrewd business The Dairy Farm, Ice & Cold Storage Co., Ltd. it will also force up the whole man. cost of film production in Bri-:

M. Wilson was for 12 months the cheapness of which, com- University den. In a business red to Hollywood, has long been

battle the business man had the one of its strengths,

But this It- As the Americans move in the value of the studios will soar and the genuine British producer will almost certainly succumb to the temptation to sell out o his American competitors for a faney price.

Maria Montez' Intent bath for plature purposes is accord. ing to hlatorio' dictates. Note the curious lid which is closed over the bather while raselving callers. Maria playing a French counters receives Fairbanks (Charles Stųart) while she bather in "The Exlie.”

SHADOWS BEFORE

THE EXILE (KING'8)

Iis loaded with neatly contrived Stars: Marie Montez, Paute burlesque situations. Croset and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. | GOOD NEWS (QUEEN'6)

obvious advantage. self could not account for Mr. Wilson's surrender of British in- terests.

The teal truth is that he was beaten in polities too-into orley- Jag that unless these concessions

to Hollywood The Wer die American motion-pleture induk- try would use its powerful looty in Washington defeat the far- sage through Congress

Nie Marshall Plan.

***

The Simplicity of

The Don

In the course of negotiations Mr. Wilson even allowed him- self to be deluded into the al- together grotesque belief that Mr. Eric Johnston would himself be appointed by President Truinan to be the administrator of the European Recovery Programme and that Britain would suffer i he were not appeased.

It is astonishing that Mr. Wil- son should have allowed himself to be deceived by reports" which almost certainly emanated from the_high-pressure, publicity, men of Hollywood.

Of course, it is absurd to sup- pose that the Hollywood indus- try could have defeated the Mar- shall Plan. But even if the Bri- tish Government was correct in Its fears, the fault that such pressure could be brought against it les entirely at its own door.

more

If the Hollywood producers are so powerful that they could wreck the Marshall Plan, proposed last summer, what was the point of ard Floor antagonising them by Imposing last autumn the 75 per cent The answer is that, for the

penal duty on American Alma? all purposes of the agreement,

Story: A tale of the Stuarts, Stars: June Allyson, Peter Law-Would it not have been Bims made in Britain, whether by following the revolution in Bri-ford, Patricia Marshall, Joan Mc-prudent to have postponed the in- British or American companies, tain and the exile of Charles Cracken and Ray McDonald.

troduction of this tax until after will count as British films. Thus Stuart by Cromwell. Based upon Story: Escapist but amusing. Ahe Marshall Plan WB6 solely The benefit to the genuine Bri-historical fact, it is sympathetical-musical with few pretensions ex- through Congress? tish producer is entirely illusory. ly treated, with Maria Montez cept to entertain, with

first. noteworthy performance class cast

who romp through as the Countess.

comedy, romantic complications ABROAD WITH TWO YANKS and some new songs. The story is tied together by n yhrn of a (LEE) Stars: William Bendix, Helen resourceful co-ed who gets her

cer. Dennis O'Keefe.

man with the aid of a French The truth, of course, is thatį

June Allyson turns the tax itself was a blunder. And and the Bendix

O'Keefe as two in a deft performance, and Patri- it has now been withdrawn with- feathernecks on furlough in Aus-cia Marshall plays the "perfect out saving a single dollar dur- tralia, getting themselves into mob."- As the college ladies' ing the few months that it was fantastic scrapes in the man, Peter Lawford is well cast. in operation.

The Dollar Loss.

To Britain

giving

Indeed, anyone can see that he Wory: A soldier comedy, with dictionary.

will be more handicapped than ever in obtaining access to

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THE WELL-GROOMED BRIDE

(QUEEN'S)

Star: Olivia de Havilland, Ray

Sonny Turis

which

the U.S. Navy, mostly

A Orst-class comedy begins over a dispute over

the ownership of the last bottle of champagne, and ends with the

into disputants falling

cach

other's arms. Put like that, it sounds a little banal, but here we have both Olivia de Havilland and Ray Milland at their best. It

Current Shows

KING'8 "The Secret Life

of.

Walter Mitty,” with Danns". Kaya and Virginia Mayo. -Out of the top drawer: magnificent burlesque. LEEDanger Bignal,"

with

Faye Emerson and Zachary Scott. From the novel by Phyllis Bottome.

QUEIN'S.—"The Strango Love of Martha Ivare," with Barbara Van Heflin, and

Lizabeth MAJESTIC. -- “Vacation · From

· Marrings," with Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr. Amusing marital entangle ments, well played by the Donat-Kerr combination. ALHANDRA.im

Woman's

with Jonn Crawford male and... Melvyn Douglas ins

** akilfully produced drama. A ORIENTAL"Qulat: Wedding." BUSHWith A Biaricaret Lockwood

And-Derek "arrA.

The Failure Of

The Tax

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