WASTED MOVIE MONEY.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17224, 6 October 1927, Page 6

WASTED MOVIE MONEY.

In less than a year a pronounced change has come in the attitude of people both inside and outside the movies regarding the money that is spent on productions. From wonder and doubt about the announced high salaries of stars and featured players the spectators have come io a fresh inquiry. Is the price paid for a star's name and services the result of (he law of supply and demand? How much of the price of a ticket to the movies is money wasted by inefficient methods of making the picture'.' Last November the editor of one of the motionpicture magazines had an article in a publication devoted to political and social questions. Its general tone was that making movies was a frightfully expensive business and that nothing could be done about it. He gave figures to show that actors' salaries constitute about a fourth of the production cost. This seemed to him inevitable. The conspiracy of the elements to delay "shooting" was another inescapable expense. Competition, he said, has caused careful planning before the actual studio work is begun, and a further economy is the establishment of their own business by some of the stars.

If he were to write to-day, he would have to take into consideration the change in feeling which has caused producers to suggest salary cuts to all those who get more than 50 dol. a week; which is stirring bankers with interests in the movies to questions about their management, and which has nowhere been more strongly indicated than in an article by another film-magazine editor in the September Mercury- He is himself an inhabitant of Hollywood, and the amazing waste of which he tells is common information there. Losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars in producing a picture are so usual as to cause neither surprise nor comment, Some examples he cites are almost incredible, but they are gradually inspiring belief, as did the stories of fabulous salaries for pretty girls plucked from behind ribbon counters. It is hard to believe the story of filming a scene on a lake. Two pools reached in 30 minutes from the studio were rejected by the director, who decreed that a lake over 10 hours' ride away must be the s ;enc of his canoe episode. Sixty people and scvoral tons of equipment were transferred Io the lake, which, however, was dry. There had been no water in it for three years. After a few days of indecision, during which all salaries went on piling up, the company departed to a more accessible, spot, where .the picture was taken. Photographs of the dry lake had been taken so that the producer "would not have to rely upon the unsupported testimony of 60 people" that there was no water.

When one has heard a dozen such tales on good authority it is not surprising., to learn that Wall Street is beginning to ask questions. When the bankers who have heretofore been satisfied with their loans discover what is done with the money, they will prepare to appoint thai: 1 own men to spend it more wisely. Tt is not enough that the reel, on which thousands are wasted still returns a profit. Efficient management will double the profit, and perhaps better the picture.