Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 October 1937 — Page 38
PAGE 14
David Selz
nick Proves Zanuck Studies News for Ideas
Fine’ Pictures Pay
Producer Sets Box-Office Records Breaking Precedents with Classics
To attribute anv but practical motives to a motion picture producer in these eruptive times—no matter how lofty
his eritical standards—is the
height of naivete. Prestige is
|
all very fine, but it doesn’t butter any payrolls or change | bright red figures into stolid black, and black, as any supervisor knows, is becoming to all types of ledgers.
Thus, when Hollywood sanctimoniously prates of “fine” pictures it really refers to product which, in
spite of unusual theme or treatment, | refers |
rates at the box office. It to that seven-day wonder, the successful wedding of mammon and the IL #refers, inevitably and into David O. Selznick Six vears ago, when Selznick’s name was first coupled with so-
vig
variably
a ——————————————————————————————— ————
[ture can affect the fact that the |
| picture making is a gamble. {then, what isn't?
By Darryl Zanuck
Viee President in Charge of Production for Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.
The producer of motion pictures, like every other man engaged in large-scale enterprise, should have above all. the faculty of foretelling public taste. There is this difference. though, between a maker of pictures and men in other lines—the picture maker can tell immediately whether or not his forecast has been correct,
In other words, a producer virtual- |
ly stands or falls by every production that comes out of his studio,
for box office returns tell the world !
at once whether he has touched the public mind with a swecess or missed it with a failure. From this it will be seen motion
Certain qualities
tof mind, which I feel every producer
| primary and guiding purpose of all |
film production is to provide entertainment for the greatest possible number of persons. All of us in the industry realize that the basis of good entertainment is a good story and that no array of box office names can overcome weakness in the plot or in the treatment of the
should have, should tend to reduce
as a developer of fresh talent is another cogent factor in his success. In 1932 the young producer saw in
| Katharine Hepburn something more
than a lanky young Vassar girl with a haunting voice, and by casting her opposite John Barrymore in “Bill of
But, |
the element of risk. The first of these is a vigorous interest in the news, not only the news on paper. right down to the Lost and Found notices Coming events cast a long shadow across a newspaper. and if a producer looks carefully ana uses his imagination he can see what will be stirring everyones mind a few months hence. This isn't merely a guess in the dark
Must Have Human Touch
The second important attribute a producer must have is the “human touch.” Behind the headlines and deep in the small items buried on | Page 10 alike, the producer must be able to see stories, motives or char- | acters that will have universal appeal. That universality the Amer- | ican producer must strive for, since | American pictures are shown all over the world. For example, it takes no genius to know that in the autumn Americans will be interested in football, and therefore to make a picture like “Life Begins in College.” On the other hand, it does take the human
touch to make the same picture in-|
the | front pages, but evervthing in the!
| them
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
tells the story of a struggle so typical throughout the world, of man's aspirations and frustrations as expressed in the growth of a mighty city. Story More Imporiant
Not that it should be assumed from any of the foregoing that producer should confine himself to the contemporaneous and obvious Great stories are great no matter what historical period they treat, jand certain human relations—the most important—offer eternal problems From all this, it's probably clear that I. for one, think that the story |in a movie is more important than | the star or stars. But actors are important; | all, you can't tell the story without And this brings up the third quality a producer must possess or | eultivate; an enthusiasm for public entertainment. He must listen the radio as much he can, he must see all the entertainers he can and he must create an alert stan to look for talent all the time
Cites Technical Problems
as
What is the future of motion pic-
| are being solved.
after |
to |
RENEE ATR
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 13, 1937
There are technical difficulties still to be overcome, but one by one they Still the limitations of the sereen are many. First of all, producers are merely very human people, groping for truth and beauty in a medium that is still new. In the second place. standards change: what is artistic to one generation will seem stale and flat to the next. Individual producers, in their time, have known | failure. The art itself endures and we profit from our own mistakes. | Now and then, we achieve something | to be proud of—only we haven't the | time to be proud. This much I can | say: Movies are better than they {ever have been, and they will keep ( right on getting better. When you stop to consider that during the last year there has been an average weekly attendance at [ motion pictures of half the popula= | tion of America and the British do- | minions, and that this year looks even more prosperous, you will understand how much a producer has to work for and what a responsibil ity is his.
TERM FOR BENNY
Mutiny
Khyber Pass
of
labor
Zoltan
Korda
Indians Refuse
500 Native
the moment, and “In Old Chicago” think, we must all be indefinite. |
Actors In
A new and unprecedented form trouble occurred filming of “Mutiny in the Mountains,” the Technicolor film which is directing historic Khyber Pass. The incident, | defying the best brains of a hastily | | called arbitration board, occurred |
in the
in the
| at the height of a big battle scene natives,
Five were
hundred engaged
and
instructed
Indians,
|
to |
—
MARXES MOVE
Fimes Specinl | NEW YORK, Oct. 5.-—~The | Marx Brothers, whose previous | movie antics have been cone fined to the M-G-M lot, have signed to make three pictures for RKO-Radio Their first Alm under the new banner will be "Room Service” the John Murrav-Allen Borety smash hit now on Broadwa: This will mark the first time since their stardom that the Marxes have appeared in anve thing other than a vehicle written especially for them and with their collaboration
| & movie death had no special sym=
| bolic force. A retake was made, and the natives this time died with the
necessary fervor required for the se« quence, “Mutiny in the Mountains,” which is being made for Alexander Korda, is taken from the story by A, E. Mason, Sabu, the Indian lad who created something of a hit in | his first pictare, Robert Flaherty's “Elephant Boy.” is the star. As a running mate he has Desmond Testhe
called class pictures, such as “Bill of Divorcement,” “Animal Kingdom’ and “Westward Passage.’ profesobservers predicted that he oa broke making films that lacked the sensational element. They were wrong of course The 33-vear-old executive A further—he took Dickens down helf. blew the dust of prejudice off that worthy, and broke box office records with “David Copperfield Tale of Two Cities.’ His motives, he himself will admit © not altimistic He is a business-man-—not an educator. As Selznick puts 1t No amount of ballvhoo about the artistic function of the motion pic-
Divorcement,” he gave her an opportunity for stardom which she realized to the tull. Previously he had chosen Kay Francis for her first important role in “Street of Chance’—and in 1934 he brought Fred Astaire from New York to make “Dancing Lady.’ thereby launching the career of a unique screen personality, ‘Gone With the Wind.” for which no cast selections have as vet been announced, will Mnmdoubtedly uncover new names, and in “Nothing Sacred.” costarring Fredric Mareh and Carole Lombard. Selznick drafted the light heavyweight boxer, Maxie Rosenbloom, who had never faced the cameras before
wears ter, young English lad who die” under the fire of an attack-| slaved the boy king in “Nine Days ing Gordon regiment. But as the | a Queen.” and was later blown to scene progressed, it was noticed that | hypothetical bits in Hiteheock's very few of the dead Indians were | “The Woman Alone.” The adults prostrate. who play in support include, up in Korda stopped the eamerags and | this point, Vivian Leigh, Raymond inquired of an interpreter why in. | Massey, Valerie Hobson and Roger structions weren't being followed. It | Licesey was explained that the natives| The unit which was feared that being “killed” would difficult technicolor automatically end their jobs and | mountainous scene of the picture work, Leon Weaver, of the famous | that they wouldn't be called for work was headed by Gregory Boothby Weaver Bros, and Elvira,” is dis«| again | They based their early headquarters trict sales manager in Arkansas for| The verbal assurance of the di- | in Peshawar, to make their first a trailer manufacturer. Frank | rector was insufficient, and the na-| technicolor shots of the forbidden Weaver and Elvira own and oper- | tives consented to die only when | area north of the Khyber Pass, ate a 30-acre resort on Lake Taney« | they were given a hastily drawn | which is about 100 miles from Rus come in the Missouri Ozarks. up contract with the assurance that | sian territory.
seript.” Selznick believes that a good picture story must be up to date, but that does not mean it must be based on vesterday's headlines. Certain books and plavs of other times— other centuries, even—will alwavs retain theiv appeal. and it is those stories which will continue to furnish his sources. Why Selznick-produced pictures appeal to the more adult cinemagoer as well as to the heterogeneous masses known to the trade as “‘turnstile elickers” iz explained by the unremitting, almost slavish devotion to detail which is characteristic of this film maker. Selznick’s services to the industry |
telligible in India, China or Hungary. For this reason, I consider myself fortunate to have served an apprenticeship as a writer, Writers-—-all of them deal. or try to, with the universalities of human experience with which motion pictures must deal, And universality Basis of every art.
tures? A producer can but consider a few fundamentals. It seems likely that stories, men to produce them and actors to play them will be needed for a long time to come in the movies. The possibilities of television are areat., of course. and last year's impossibility 1s this years commonplace But it well to remember that man is a gregarious animal He likes company on his journev through life and what better reason can he have for gathering with his fellows than to hear and a good story well told? As tion
Paramount has completed negotiations with Jack Benny which bind the star comedian to the studio for | a straight four-year term contract | and specifies a minimum of eight pictures to be made during that time,
sional
would
went sen |
making tha shots of the
from the surely, is the Certainly it i= of the cinema. That's why a comed) like Bddie Cantor's “Ali Baha Goes to Town" is based on facets of the New Deal which have caught popular Imagination everywhere, while Shanghai Deadline’ deals with adventure and romance in the spot most prominent in the public eve at
OTHER INTERESTS
A: a sideline to hiz professional
and
nel
see
to the artistic advance of mopictures, there once again, I
ai —— ——— a——
its at your
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