Boxoffice-March.10.1951

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THE MUCH-DISCUSSED "group scheme"
of production came into being recently
and James Lawrie, managing director of the
National Film Finance Corp., gave details
to a press conference of the scheme's operation
when it is started.
About 30 of our leading producers and
directors have signified that they will take
part in the scheme and they are divided between
those which normally operate from
Pinewood and those whose films have been
made under the wing of Associated British at
EUstree. Each team will form a production
company quite distinct from any other and
will undertake to produce films for the two
companies formed by NFFC. One financial
company will take charge of all moneys invested
in productions at Pinewood and another
will work from Elstree. These companies
will have as their board in the one case a
delegate from NPTC and Earl St. John, and
In the other an NFFC man and Robert Clark.
Both companies will have as chairman Sir
Michael Balcon who continues as the advisor
to the NFFC.
The production company will choose Its own
subjects and approach the financial company
for money and this latter firm will handle all
the necessary financial details including the
bank discounting, insurance and guarantee of
completion. The job of the producer will be
to produce and he will have no money worries
at all. His company will be paid a flat rate
of 5,000 pounds a year which will be received
monthly and during the course of his agreement
with the NFFC the producer will not be
allowed to work outside the scheme. He will
also be required to give three months notice
if he wishes to withdraw. In each case the
distributor will put up 70 per cent of the
budget with the NFFC finding the rest and
producers will receive a share in the profits
as well as their flat salary. Profits will be
divided in the same ratio between NFFC and
the distributor after allowing for abortive
story costs and other losses that may occur.
Apart from the operations at Pinewood and
Elstree a new company will be formed known
as Group Three, Ltd. This will operate from
Southall studio and will be used to encourage
new talent among producers and directors.
John Grierson and John Baxter will be in
charge of this company and the finished
films will be distributed through Associated
British Film Distributors, Ltd., which has no
connection with the Associated British Picture
Corp., controllers of Elstree studios and
participants in the larger scheme outlined
above. ABFD is a smaller distribution house
which handles mainly reissues and cofeatures
and is tied up to Ealing Studios.
According to Lord Reith, NFFC's chairman,
the corporation will have about 1,200,000
pounds to spend during 1951 on the operations
given here. He stresses that there will
still be a certain amount of money available
for producers outside of the group scheme
who have a distribution contract, but in spite
of this there is still considerable criticism in
the industry which maintains that a government
corporation under a socialist government
Is financing the big film production
groups at the expense of the small.
By JOHN SULLIVAN
"MR. DRAKE'S DUCK" was made largely
on location with finishing work at Nettlefold
studio, Walton on Thames. It is an Angel
production distributed by Eros and produced
by Daniel Angel with Val Guest directing.
The stars are Douglas Fairbanks and Yolande
Donlan and there is a fine supporting cast
of British character actors.
"Mr. Drake's Duck" is a crazy comedy almost
in the Preston Sturges tradition. It
shows us an American who has inherited a
farm in England taking his daffy young
American bride there for their honeymoon.
The bride goes to a farm auction and buys,
by mistake, a pen of young ducks. To the
consternation of the honeymoon couple one
of these ducks lays an egg which turns out to
be of pure uranium and international complications
ensue when the British army occupies
the farm in an attempt to isolate the
particular duck.
On this slender idea Val Guest, who wrote
the script as well as directed, has hung a very
funny comedy that seems certain to do as
big a business as last year's comedy winner,
"The Happiest Days of Your Life." Like that
picture, the present one will be released on
the Associated British Cinemas circuit and
will enjoy one of the best release dates around
the Whitsun holiday.
Angel and Fairbanks have been in the
U.S.A. negotiating an American release for
the film and, properly handled, it should do
a good trade in the specialized cinema there.
« * *
"BLACKMAILED," a new independent production
distributed by J. Arthur Rank, was
tradeshown recently. It was produced at
Pinewood by Harold Huth and directed by
Marc Allegret. It stars Mai Zetterling, Dirk
Bogarde, Fay Compton and Robert Fleming.
This is one of those pictures where a good,
workmanlike structure has been placed on a
poor foundation. In Britain, in 1951, few people
have enough money left to be blackmailed
and the central situation of the blackmailer
and his victims has an old-fashioned air about
it, although an effort has been made to bring
it up to date by making his customers middle-class
people and the sums demanded
comparatively small. The film sets out to
show the misery that ensues when a good
woman murders a blackmailer, almost by accident,
and is persuaded against her better
judgment that she should not confess to the
crime. Ultimately, she goes to the police, but
not before several people have suffered and
one more man has died.
In contrast to its
mediocre plot the acting
talent is on a high level. Bogarde is excellent
as a young army deserter and the same applies
to Michael Gough as a self-pitying invalid.
The film is most notable for the introduction
of young Joan Rice, whose wide-eyed
innocent look and considerable talent make
her a possibility for stardom.
« * •
THE FINANCIAL EDITOR of the Kine
Weekly, in a report published recently, calculates
that the total value of film and cinema
industry shares has risen by nearly 18 million
dollars since this time last year when most
of them were at a low ebb. He attributes this
to a feeling among financiers that the industry
has put its house in order and that
sounder value is now being offered to the
public which is in turn reflected in higher
boxoffice takings.
This may be so, but it is more likely that
the increased take is due to the effect of the
current rearmament drive on the workman's
pay envelope. With increased wages and
more overtime it is natural that some of the
extra money should be spent on entertainment
and with money not quite -so tight patrons
might be less inclined to shop keenly
for their films. Whatever the reason all the
cinema shares have risen by quite considerable
amounts, Associated British Pictures
Corp. for example going up from $1.25 to
nearly two dollars and Odeon from 80 cents
to $1.70. Investors can look for even better
gains than this when the arms program gets
into top gear.
* « *
PRODUCED TWO YEARS AGO and held
up until now owing to an agreement with the
author of the play, the Gainsborough picture
"Travelors Joy" was screened recently and
will be released in March. Sydney Box
originally bought the story when he was
still at Shepherds Bush studios and agreed
that the film should not be released until six
months after the end of the run of the stage
play on which it was based. At that time it
looked like a safe bet since the play, although
a good one, was not expected to run more
than another year at the outside. To everybody's
surprise it ran for considerably more
than that and the film has been on the
shelf for nearly 18 months.
Antony Darnborough produced "Travelors
Joy" and Ralph Thomas directed with Google
Withers and John McCallum starring. It is
a comedy which deals with the tribulations
of British business men marooned in Sweden
without sufficient currency to see them home
or even to pay their hotel bills. Since the
regulations controlling currency to Scandinavian
countries came off some months ago it
might be expected that the piece would appear
dated, but this is far from the case. On
the contrary it is a pleasant, fast-moving
comedy with brilliant acting from everyone
from the principals down to the smallest of
bit
players.
"Travelors Joy" will come as a welcome
event to British exhibitors who are crying for
comedy. At first sight it would not appear to
be a propMDsition for American theatres, but
after the enthusiastic reception of "The Happiest
Days of Your Life" in New York, which
your correspondent did not see as a success
in the U.S., it might be better to leave the
question for the American reviewer to decide.
Detroit Monroe Dark;
Cut-Price Policy Fails
From Mideast Edition
DETROIT—The curtain has been rung
down for the last time at the Monroe, 250-
seat downtown house and one of the halfdozen
oldest theatres in Detroit, by Edward
Jacobson, who has operated it for the last
couple of years. The property will be converted
to a store.
The dramatic last-minute cut-price policy
inaugurated by Jacobson, who slashed adml.ssions
from 35 cents to a dime in an effort
to hold returns at a profitable level, failed
despite the generous use of handbills In the
downtown area.
94 BOXOFFICE March 10, 1951