Film Thieves Cost Britain Thousands

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 3

Film Thieves Cost Britain Thousands

Organise! thefts of valuable films cost the British film industry thousands of pounds a year. Two films, one worth £IOO,OOO and the other £50,000, were stolen only a few weeks ago from the safes of Associated Film Producers, Ltd., in Manchester. It is believed that, as in past cases, these two pictures have been smuggled out of the country for exhibition abroad.

“That is tlieir usual fate”, an official of the Kinematograpli Renters' Society told a reporter. “Tremendous difficulties confront us when wc try to trace them.

4 ‘lt is practically impossible to check up on them in the ordinary way, an! we can only rely on the information sent to us by exhibitors abroad.”

The actual value of the stolen film itself is slight. Copies can be made for about £3O to £4O, and can be issued to cinemas in the ordinary way.

But the thieves also make copies and show them under changed titles in Europe.

Rental fees are thus evaded, and every time the picture is shown the producers and distributors lose hundreds of pounds. Some years ago the police carried out an extensive round-up of receivers and, in co-operation with the French and German authorities, checked the traffic.

“‘But it still goes on,” the reporter was told, 4 ‘and apart from viligance at the docks, at the storage centres and elsewhere, it is very difficult to stop the racket entirely.”