Few New Plots In 1929 Talkies

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1028, 19 July 1930, Page 25

Few New Plots In 1929 Talkies

SURVEY OF HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTIONS COMEDY DRAMAS LEAD Remarkable facts emerge from a detailed survey of American film production during 1929. Out of 293 pictures made by ten leading companies, the survey shows, only 114 were based on original stories. For the rest 10G were adapted from stage plays, 43 from novels and 30 from magazine stories, writes an English commentator. If there were any doubt of the importance of the theatre to the cinema industry these figures dispel it. A classification of the various types of pictures made clear that there were 35 musical comedies made, these heading the lists of the various categories. The next largest number of pictures of any single type made is 29, the “society drama” total. After this, in order, come: Society comedy dramas .. .. 26 Sophisticated city life dramas 24 Outdoor and Western dramas 24 Mystery dramas 21 Sex dramas 19 Farcical comedies 17 City life comedy dramas .... 16 “Crook” dramas 15 5,000 MSS. READ Only seven historical dramas were made, and only two horse-racing films. There were eight operettas and five war stories. It is estimated that before the 293 plots for these pictures were finally selected more than 5,000 manuscripts were read, while some 50,000 were submitted to producers, but were never read at all. Only two authors had five stories accepted. They were George Abbott and Wallace Smith. Several had four stories filmed, among them being Guy Bolton, noted musical comedy author, and Fannie Hurst.

The largest number of films produced by any one company was 54, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were the studios responsible. First National came second with 42, and Fox third with 40. Paramount had 39 features during the year. Warner Brothers, 34, and Universal, 33. Dramas of various kinds totalled 1G1; musical films of different types numbered only 4S. There were ID straight comedies.