BATTLE ROYAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 17944, 1 May 1928, Page 9

BATTLE ROYAL.

AMERICAN FILMS IN FRANCE.

EFFECT OF RECENT DECREE.

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received April 30, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, April 29. The Paris correspondent of the “Daily News” says that the closing of twenty-two American film houses in France, causing 8000 unemployed, is the American film industry’s to M. Herriot’s restriction on foreign films. The newspapers indignantly condemn the effort to force France’s hand. Mr Will Hays, the film director, has gone to America, disappointed with his failure to persuade M.. Herriot to modify' the decree. The “Daily News” declares that tho French restrictions provide that one French film must be sold in America for every four Americans sold in France. The paper expresses the opinion that the film industry and cinema patrons throughout the world will watch the Franco-American battle royal, which now apparently is inevitable.

It is understood that Mr Hays abandoned his original proposal to discover why Britain and Germany, besides France, are seeking to curb and dominate American films.