British Film Industry Plan

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 88, 13 April 1940, Page 6 (Supplement)

British Film Industry Plan

ByJoan Littlefield

THE Board of Trade has appointed a committee of seven men to advise it on films. They are Sir Frederick Whyte, chairman of the Films Council and director-general of the English Speaking Union; Professor Arnold Plant, an economic expert, who is Professor of Commerce at London University ; D. E. Griffiths, who will put Hollywood s point of view and that of all renters of films; Captain Richard Norton, director of the Denham and Pine wood Studios; Lieut.-Commander A-

Arthur Jarratt, wlio lias great experience in what the British cinemas want; George Elvin, who will put the point of view of studio workers; and A. Palasche, who speaks for the bankers. The fate of British film making throughout the war lies in their hands. was raise over £1,500,000 by the end'of March to finance home-made films. They were also to

Durbin gets older her screen mother gets younger, says Sheilah Graham. She had Irene Rich in JThat Certain Age," but in her next— It s a Date"—Kay Francis plavs her mother.

prepare a scheme for keeping the industry at work after the present Films Quota Act came to an end on March 31. The money for these films will be partly raised bv the bankers, covered by the British Treasury, and partly bv Hollywood firms which are now only" allowed to send to America about 50 per cent of the earnings of their pictures in British cinemas. All indications point to the fact that the big American companies will make nrst-elass films here, sending over many o» their stars and, in fact, continuinc production where they left off when war began. * <S>