PARAMOUNT'S PLANS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22343, 5 March 1938, Page 10

PARAMOUNT'S PLANS

0 VISIT OF DIRECTOR TO CHRISTCHURCH "Wells Fargo," a spectacular film dealing with the American pioneering period, recently produced by the Paramount organisation, was privately screened yesterday to an audience of guests of the Paramount Corporation. The screening was arranged to enable exhibitors and others to meet Mr Harry Hunter, managing director of Paramount in Australia and New Zealand, who is on a tour of the Dominion. '. Later the guests were entertained at luncheon at Beath's. when Mr Hunter, who was introduced by Mr 5. Craig, New Zealand manager for Paramount, said that he had been much impressed by the theatres in New Zealand. Exhibitors, however, should always keep abreast of the times and see that they, were equipped to show the new films in the most advantageous conditions. Mr Hunter said that his corporation had decided to spend 35,000,000 dollars new films for 1938, of which 22,000,000 dollars would be devoted to 22 films. He described some of the main productions coming to New Zealand shortly. , . . "Wells Fargo" is the story of how fast transport across the American continent developed. Wells and Fargo formed an express company that seized the very earliest opportunities, seized them almost before they were opportunities, to extend its service in the transport of mail and packets westward. Business enterprise was combined with nation building, for the services of Wells, Fargo were of importance in the development of the new settlements, particularly in California. Its inspirer was Wells and its executor a young man "who is Played by Joel McCrea. They contend with derision from businessmen, robbery by bandits, competition from unscrupulous rivals, hostile Indians, and seizure of their gold freights by Confederates during the Civil War. .Their overcoming of these difficulties in the building up of transcontinental mail services fills the picture with action. The personal life of Wells's young employee is, however, an essential part of the plot.