Effort To Make More People Moviegoers

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21783, 12 October 1940, Page 5

Effort To Make More People Moviegoers

In an interview recently. Walter Wanger said that with few exceptions, expensive productions return meagre profits within the United States in comparison with their cost, and, since there no longer is a foreign market to draw upon, the industry must become self-sufficient if it is to maintain its present high standards. The first step in this direction is for the industry to win back the 30,000,000 persons who lost the movie-going habit during the last 10 years, according to Mr Wanger. He realises that it will be a slow, tedious job—one which will require the whole-hearted support of theatre men. On the other hand, producers will have to concentrate on making quality entertainment which will appeal to the classes as well as to the masses. It is Mr Wanger’s belief that a large portion of discriminating movie-goers—those who turn out occasionally to see a “Gone with the Wind” or a “Rebecca”—are among the absentee 30,000,000. Mr Wanger intends to impress upon theatre men the need for closer cooperation with producers, particularly in the merchandising of pictures. “Pictures are often rushed into and out of theatres before the public has a chance to catch up with them. Theatre men don’t take the trouble to build up their attractions in advance and as a consequence both they and the producers suffer financially.”

The Victorian State Emergency Committee were shown a film on the use and misuse of a gasmask recently.

department. It lists 36 sets from smartly turned out New York apartments to picturesque small town dwellings. Again the cutter murmurs

“plenty” and then frowns at the long list of small part, bit and atmosphere players, much of whose work is destined only for the cutting room floor. It is a foregone certainty to the film editor, in this case Viola Lawrence that when “The Doctor Takes a Wife” is completed she will have about 100,000 feet of film on her hands. This is nearly 10 miles of celluloid. After weeks of judicious pruning it will be condensed to about 10,000 feet oi compact entertainment, a satisfactory length for the first preview. Before general release about 2000 more feet will have to come out. Editing is always taking away, never adding, except when new footage is inserted to make understandable a gap created by footage taken out. Adept at taking words out of a player’s mouth, Miss Lawrence once trimmed a syllable from a character man each of the 27 times it was spoken in the picture.