National Reports

...It permits substantial exploitation ("Now...

...But this demarcation seems unlikely, since the executives are continuing to yield to all types of pressure...

...Louis: William Wyant Jr...

...But the gimmick-fever remained and is still operative...

...In other words, if Communism were to become popular the bars would come down...

...Successful pictures of the past are also being remade...

...Consequently, workers in all fields of movie-making, who lost their jobs when the studios ground almost to a halt some years ago, are working again...

...Producers and theater-owners have invested too much to let the public tire of it...

...Revived Hollywood Stars Wide Screen, TV, Remakes and Narrow Vision By Frank Mankiewicz Hollywood Hollywood presents a different face from the gloomy days of 1948-50...

...on Our New Large Screen ") and the sheer breadth of the screen offers considerable possibilities, even though it seems suitable, so far as close-ups are concerned, only for something long and thin...

...The trend, however, is not markedly away from super-Biblical epics, film equivalents of historical novels, and so-called "prestige" Westerns, in which name actors go through the rituals previously reserved only for lesser cowboy performers...

...Trains hurtled toward the audience, rattlesnakes struck savagely at the kids necking in the balcony, and actors even spat at the loge-holders...

...The result has been a sprouting of free enterprise such as Hollywood has not seen since the early days of the 1920s boom...

...In any event, the studios are inclined now to do a more careful job...

...Good pictures continue to come out in the same small percentage as before, and it is a safe guess that, if none of them had been made at all, the extent of Hollywood's recovery would have been just the same...

...The picture is already made, and money has to be spent only for exploitation...

...a memory, too, is the series of statements which claimed that all movies would henceforth be made in 3-D...

...or a movie studio...

...That time is now at hand...

...In those dark days, the sages could be heard saying: "All Hollywood needs to get back on its feet is some good pictures...

...1. Television: Only Samuel Goldwyn realized, back when it was assumed that television and moviemaking were as separate and distinct as, say, moonshining and making book, that the time would come when Hollywood people and equipment would be making most television shows...

...What causes that extra spring in the step of so many once-marginal writers, directors, technicians and actors...

...One shadow remains, and that is more talked about than real...

...The result has been concentration on a few "big" pictures, which have been found to gross more than several "quickies...

...Anyone whose name is offered to the leading companies as a former member of a front organization...

...Much has been said about a Black Pall of Fear which has descended over the industry, but it is vastly overrated and vastly misunderstood...

...Instead of working on several pictures simultaneously, they are spending larger sums than usual on single, well-spaced productions...

...Why are the salesmen of Jaguars, cardigan jackets and suede shoes willing to extend credit...

...What is responsible for the return of employment to a large segment of this once-terrified industry...

...Repeat this over hundreds of shows and you have some idea of the necessary magnitude of producing cheap but adequate motion pictures for use on television...

...This concept of martyrdom is unknown to our culture, and it has found only limited adherence in Hollywood...

...But there is a more serious problem concerning the blacklist...

...Those who defied the various committees, or who claimed the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination, are, by common consent of the movie-makers, denied employment until they cooperate...

...Richmond: Lawrence King...

...In an industry so dependent upon public opinion for the successful sale of its product, one could scarcely expect any other attitude...

...M-G-M will make more on its re-release of Gone With the Wind this year than on most of its regular productions...

...Since a new generation is coming to the movies, there is a great untapped pool of customers to whom the reissues will greatly appeal...

...In this respect, the major studios have doubtless gone too far in truckling to the superpatriots who often call the shots...

...This was absurd then and it still is...

...It was great fun, but one day, shortly after the first 50 million had been banked, the public decided it had had enough...

...One final word on the gimmicks...

...Moreover, Hollywood's burgeoning television-film industry is just in time to give opportunities to youngsters, mainly World War II veterans, who came to Hollywood to try out their moviemaking and saw the industry collapse...

...Unlike movie theaters, first-run television shows cannot run one film for several weeks...

...If the place of the late Rin-Tin-Tin can be filled by a courageous, photogenic trained snake, the new process will have found its perfect performer...

...This separation of exhibition from production has had another good effect on the employment picture...

...But this is too expensive a process all the way round for mass use today...

...Due to the nature of television, salaries are not as high as they were, but they are steadier and that is often a greater comfort...

...as listed, for example, in documents like Red Channels...

...often deliberately...

...It has to do with the political climate...

...This is a galling requirement to many whose only "sin" was joining a front at a time when it did not appear to be such, and whose avowed aims still appear legitimate...

...Beginning with 3-D and continuing through a myriad of new processes, producers took turns announcing that all their future pictures would be produced in a new medium...

...When studios feel they have a good picture that will draw crowds, there is still a strong tendency to ignore the special processes, film it in black-and-white on a square screen, and let the talent pull it through...

...This is no way to run a railroad...

...This helps blot up the remaining pools of unemployment...

...It is a safe guess that something like Cinemascope will continue to be used for a large number of movies...

...is done and the audience is virtually assured...

...The costs here are lower, because most of the basic work (scripts, etc...

...Walt Disney is reissuing Pinocchio, and so it goes...

...So 3-D is a pleasant memory, left to students of the American audience...

...In general, four factors are at work...

...After a spate of revelations, mainly true, about Communist influence in the Hollywood community (not, it must be emphasized, in the actual production of films), many of those who "joined" the party or the most active CP fronts are now out of political circulation...

...No longer compelled by the force of their own corporate structure to furnish two movies at all times to every theater under their control, they can reduce the output...

...Then, with weekly attendance cut to half what it was in the 1945-46 boom days, with television storming the entertainment ramparts and with legislative committees and amateur subversion-hunters waiting anxiously in the wings, the industry's prophets were ready to throw in the towel...

...The great virtue of this kind of merchandising is the low overhead...

...For a few dizzy months, all it took to pack the theaters was a supply of special glasses and enough loose equipment on hand to throw at the audience...

...Once the show is over, be it a half-hour mystery thriller or a full-hour Freudian drama, school is out and another must be prepared for next week...

...On their own, exhibitors sometimes find themselves without anything to show, so they are forming their own production companies...

...2. The gimmicks: Two years ago, when it was discovered that more people would pay more money to have things thrown at them from the screen than they would previously pay for high-priced drama, the businessmen of Hollywood announced a new era...

...This may eventually lead to a better product esthetically...

...San Francisco: Frank Mankiewicz...

...New entrepreneurs have sprung up, new studios have been formed, and shoestring operations have become prosperous enough to pay their employes before release and even to hire an extra publicity agent...

...And the protestations of martyrdom are a little hard to take, since they generally involve a claim not only that one should be permitted to hold "unpopular" ideas (i.e., Communism), but also that one who holds these unpopular ideas should be guaranteed popularity...

...While it is true that a few picket lines might be thrown around theaters showing films in which ex-fronters have a part, a little courage in this respect could clear the air and create a line of demarcation, badly needed in Hollywood, between Communists and liberals, between fellow-travelers and those who were duped...

...it is the cast, and the illusion of participation is complete...

...is required to make a satisfactory explanation to his employer in order to continue working...

...3. Remakes and reissues: This has not contributed to Hollywood prosperity as much as the above, but it has had considerable effect...

...Despite these flaws, the big-screen era will be here for some time...

...And Cinerama, the super-process shown only in a few cities, gives evidence by its huge grosses of being something in reserve when the mere bigness of the screen begins to pall...

...What seems more menacing in this connection is that the overriding concept is "public relations...

...4. Fewer pictures: With the "divorce" a few years back of production and distribution companies, the big studios, which fought the separation, now find themselves in the driver's seat...

...All in all, the foregoing offers hope for recently beleaguered Hollywood...

...At the moment, virtually all the resources of Warner Brothers are being devoted to a new production of A Star Is Born, another hit of the '30s...

...In Cinerama the audience is not given the illusion of watching real actors, as in 3-D...