NEW FILM SLUMP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 5 (Supplement)

NEW FILM SLUMP.

IN ENGLISH STUDIOS. AMERICAN'S IMPRESSIONS. VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS OFFERED The situation in the British film studios is that there is practically no situation at all. All that happens is talk, talk, talk. Presumably to tide over the period of waiting until the new quota laws are fixed.

The only studios in which active work is progressing are those at Pinewood and Denham. Everything else is sleeping the sleep of the slump (writes Sheilah Graham, Hollywood commentator, after a vieit to England).

Even the English offshoots of American film companies which, earlier in the year, emitted a salvo of sensational pronouncements concerning the number and expense of forthcoming productions, are mildly pained when the subject of output is mentioned. Louis B. Mayer and his company of high-priced star 9, headed by Clark Cable, Robert Taylor and Luitse Rainer, have been expected daily for the last three months. (Since then cable news has recorded the arrival of Taylor, followed by Barbara Stanwyck). Explaining the Slump. Everyone, of course, has an explanation for the British collate. Some go so far as to blame Alexander Korda, the man who first made America sit up and take notice with his "Private Life of Henry Yin.'"

"Korda's lavish expenditures on less successful subsequent films," I was told, "impressed other producers jnto following suit."

According to Korda, whom I interviewed in London shortly after his return from the United States, "Hollywood is the most economical place in the world. Nothing there is wasted." Why did he add, "I'll work there only when I'm starving?"

Meanwhile, this former Hungarian reporter, confident that his new halfcontrolling interest in United Artists opens tile door to 98 distributing centres in the United States, is planning to spend 10,000,000 dollars on his British productions before the end of 1938—among them "Red Shoes." starring Merle Olieron, "'The Four Feathers," with Robert Donat. and "Playboy," with Patricia Kllis and Jack Hulbert.

Jack Buchanan is one of the few producers in England untroubled by the current lack of money for picture making. With 10.000,000 dollars supplied by Mr. Arthur Rank, the actor-producer has scheduled six films for production at the Pinewood studios, including a John Gielgud picture and a co-featuring vehicle for himself and Adele Astaire (Lady Charles Cavendish).

Gaumont-British has been the hardest hit of all the once prosperous London studios. Its difficulties, according to the head man, Isidore Ostrer, are due to the laxity of the quota laws. "To comply with the law," he explained, "Hollywood companies are churning out pictures for as little as 40,000 dollars and less, with which they flood the British market. The new quota laws, which are expected to be passed by the Board of Trade in September, will probably fix the distribution from the existing 20 per cent to anything up to 50 per cent, with a 65,000 dollar minimum per picture. This should raise the standard of quality considerably."

He Doesn't Like the Quota. If director-producer Basil Dean, now making "First and Last," with Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier and Leslie Banks, has his way, the quota will be abolished entirely and reciprocity substituted. "The cheap American pictures made in England are not fair to us. If we release their bad pictures here, they should do the same for us in America. If they refuse to play ball, Hollywood in time will cease to exist because it relies on Britain and her Empire for film profits. But that's not the real point at issue, which is to make good films regardless of country and sell them to the people who pay for entertainment."

Director Alfred Hitchcock struck a semi-optimistic note on the British picture situation. "We are on the upgrade," he stated, "because we can't go any lower." His explanation for the English film failure had a reminiscent ring: "The bankers interfered." The same breed of gentlemen were held responsible for the Hollywood slump of 1931-32. y Directors Frank Capra and Mark Sandrich, two of Hollywood's best, have recently returned from a trip to the English studios.

Says Sandrich: "All the highly-paid Hollywood importations I met in London told me they were up against the same snag—tradition. 'We don't do things like that, they are informed pompously in reply to all suggestions." And according to Capra: "British studios are suffering with an overdose of swimming pools, tennis courts and gentlemen. Scrap the lot and they JMghl get •omewhere."