1940: Motion Pictures

Although the war virtually eliminated Europe and Asia as profitable markets for American screen attractions, motion picture producers, as was predicted in the early days of 1940, turned out their usual average number of productions. By concentrating on the domestic market, which, of course, includes the Dominion of Canada, most of the major companies made handsome profits — some larger than they did for the previous twelve months.

The Production of 'The Great Dictator.'

As Charles Spencer Chaplin permits several years to lapse between his presentations, any year in which he launches one of his inimitable comedies is memorable. So far as his 1940 offering is concerned, it was anticipated with greater enthusiasm than ever before, for in this new film The Great Dictator, he was for the first time articulate on the screen. In his previous picture, he was heard, but only in garbled and intentionally ludicrous sounds, which were indicative of his contempt for talking pictures and his espousal of the silent film as a true art. His mute comedies had the pecuniary advantage of being universally understood and therefore sold in all foreign language countries.

In The Great Dictator, Chaplin ridiculed and derided the totalitarian chieftains of Germany and Italy, he playing a caricature of Hitler and Jack Oakie lampooning Mussolini. The production had several intensely clever incidents, but it was weakened by the comedian at the end of the film, while still arrayed in the uniform of the dictator, making a prolonged and serious talk. In fact, this new offering could hardly match his old films, The Gold Rush or The Circus. Also it seemed to some persons that he was using the war as a ballyhoo for his production.

Although The New York Times screen critic included The Great Dictator among the Ten Best films of 1940, the New York Herald-Tribune's critic referred to it as one of the disappointing enterprises of the twelve-month.

Awards to Major Films and Players.

When the New York film critics gathered to vote upon the outstanding screen offerings of 1940, their award went to the pictorial version of John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath, but it was voted that Chaplin had given the outstanding performance of the year. On being invited to appear before the critics to be presented with the accolade, Chaplin wrote declining the honor, asserting that actors aimed to please the public and were not in competition with one another. In certain authoritative quarters, the comedian's action was approved, since, as has been said before, it is scarcely possible for a critic to do justice to performances in 400 pictures, especially as in many instances several months elapse between the reviewing of the portrayal and singling it out for an award toward the end of the year. Selecting of Chaplin's performance as the best of the year was stubbornly contested, for there were critics who favored James Stephenson's impersonation in The Letter and others who thought the award ought to be given to Thomas Mitchell for his able characterization in The Long Voyage Home.

Another significant contribution was Walt Disney's novel experiment heralded as Fantasia, a cartoon feature combined with classical and semi-classical music, the latter played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. Music critics on the whole wrote harshly about it and while it figured as one of the important productions of the year in The New York Times, the Herald-Tribune put it in the same category with Chaplin's film — disappointing.

Voting on the best female performance, however, was not disputed by the critics. The honor went to Katharine Hepburn for her work in the film version of the play, The Philadelphia Story, which arrived at the Radio City Music Hall just in time to be included in the pictures under consideration by the newspaper and magazine arbiters.

There also seems to have been complete agreement on the merits of the French production, The Baker's Wife, as the best foreign language production. It had an easier time by far than did The Grapes of Wrath, which did not receive the required two-thirds majority of the critics until the seventh ballot. The chief opposition was the pictorial translation of four one-act Eugene O'Neill plays, titled The Long Voyage Home. It happened that both these offerings were directed by John Ford, who carried off the honors for conspicuously fine direction. Further rivals of The Grapes of Wrath in this instance were The Philadelphia Story, and a second last minute film, The Night Train, which hails from England.

Another splendid picture was Pride and Prejudice, which was adapted by Aldous Huxley and Jane Murfin from Helen Jerome's dramatization of the Jane Austen novel. Robert E. Sherwood, the playwright, and other writers, were partly responsible for the eminently successful production, Rebecca, based on Daphne Du Maurier's widely-read book.

Thornton Wilder's Our Town provided a charming and touching shadow story. A robust affair called The Great McGinty revealed its worth by its box-office appeal.

Besides directing Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock, whose work aroused much enthusiasm last year through his production, The Lady Vanishes, also directed a film labeled Foreign Correspondent, which the Herald-Tribune critic named among his chosen Ten. The same writer offered as the best ten performances of the year: Chaplin in The Great Dictator, Ginger Rogers in Primrose Path, William C. Fields in The Bank Dick, Bette Davis in The Letter, James Stewart in The Shop Around the Corner, Claudette Colbert in Arise My Love, Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath, Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, Raimu in The Baker's Wife, and Thomas Mitchell in The Long Voyage Home.

The National Board of Review declared that the best picture of 1940 was The Grapes of Wrath. Chaplin's offering was second and the film of Steinbeck's book and play, Of Mice and Men, third.

Cost of Production and Box Office Appeal of Films.

Gone With the Wind, which was considered the previous year by most circles and organizations offering awards, may prove to be the best moneymaker of any film in the history of the industry, according to the oldest trade paper, Variety. The film rentals for this Technicolor production are expected to be in excess of $20,000,000. Its cost is said to have been between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000. Three other financially successful offerings were, Boom Town, the prismatic picture, North West Mounted and The Fighting Sixty-ninth.

New Selling Conditions for Films.

Variety calls attention to the fact that in 1941, producers will not only face loss of revenue resulting from the European War, but also the newly imposed selling conditions of pictures outlined in the consent decree, which is to go into effect Sept. 1. It is agreed in most quarters that the Government was much more lenient with Hollywood than had been anticipated in offering the consent decree virtually as a settlement of the anti-trust action. It means, however, that block-booking must end and that groups of five pictures, finished and trade-shown, are to be offered to the exhibitors.

Anent this consent decree, Douglas W. Churchill, Hollywood correspondent for The New York Times, writes: 'While the suit is popularly believed to be an aid to the exhibitor, there is a strong feeling in Hollywood that it is the producer who will benefit. He will milk the theater man for every possible penny when he has a good picture and he will lump the bad ones into the bargain package deals. Some executives envision conditions in which some films will be virtually boycotted in cities where exhibitors refuse to meet studio terms. This will be fought by selling the films to the customers first (arousing popular interest) and with a demand created to see a certain picture it is believed that the theaters will be compelled to play it.'

Prices Paid for Stories, Books and Plays.

Variety sets forth that Hollywood spent in 1940 more than $3,500,000 for books, and plays and magazine stories. This trade paper also gives a list of plays and books bought for films during the same year, mostly for production in 1941. Some of the top or otherwise interesting figures are — For PLAYS: Ladies in Retirement, $40,000; Bittersweet, $50,000; The Philadelphia Story (already presented), $150,000; Moon over Mulberry Street, $5,000; Too Many Girls, $100,000; Two on an Island, $50,000; Tobacco Road, $200,000 and a certain percentage of receipts; The Little Foxes, $100,000 guarantee against 25 per cent of net receipts; Night Music, $20,000; Long Voyage Home (already produced), percentage basis; Hellzapoppin, $200,000, plus 40 per cent of net receipts, the figure including services of the performers Olsen and Johnson; Jupiter Laughs, $35,000; The Male Animal, $125,000; The Woman Brown, $30,000; The Man Who Came to Dinner, $250,000, which is presumed to be the probable figure now. Agreement was originally for 35 per cent of the gross, with the authors to write the screen play, but they are now changing it to a flat sale. George Washington Slept Here, $83,500.

Certain figures in this list given for Books are: Louis Bromfield's Storm Over Louisiana, $50,000; Susan Glaspell's The Morning is Near Us, $10,000; Major George Fielding Eliot's Spy Murders, $1,000; James Hilton's And Now Goodbye, $35,000; Vanishing Virginian, by Rebecca Yancey Williams, $25,000; Jan Struthers' Mrs. Miniver, $40,000; Bolivar, by T. R. Ybarra, $12,500; Lillian Day's The Youngest Profession, $20,000; James Hilton's Random Harvest, $35,000; Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, $150,000 — probable figure; Bellamy Partridge's The Country Lawyer, $25,000; H. G. Wells' Food of the Gods, $15,000; Captain From Connecticut, by C. S. Forester, $45,000 (purchased before being written); Thelma Strabel's Reap the Wild Winds, $25,000; Constance Rourke's Sunrise in My Pocket, $35,000 — includes unproduced dramatization by Edwin Justis Mayer; Botany Bay, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, $50,000 — bought before written; Dalton Trumbo's The Remarkable Andrew, $30,000 — bought before written; Sax Rohmer's The Drums of Fu Manchu, $12,000; Irving Stone's False Witness, $20,000; A. P. Herbert's Water Gypsies, $19,500; Grace Perkins' Unbreakable Mrs. Doll, $25,000; Sanda Malla, by Maurice Collins, $15,000; Clarence Budington Kelland's Valley of the Sun, $25,000; Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, $40,000; Wild Geese Calling, by Stewart Edward White, $27,500; James Thurber's My Life and Hard Times, $10,000; Chad Hanna, by Walter D. Edmonds (already produced), $50,000; Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley, $50,000; Stephen Longstreet's Golden Touch, $20,000; Nevil Shute's Landfall, $25,000; Frank Meloney's Strange Victory, $25,000; Sinclair Lewis's Bethel Merriday, $50,000; Mr. Skeffington, by Elizabeth, $40,000; Henry Bellaman's King's Row, $35,000; Hartzell Spence's One Foot in Heaven, $20,000; Somerset Maugham's Villa on the Hill, $25,000; Bret Harte's Calamity Jane, $4,000; Mrs. Leslie Carter's, Lady with Red Hair, $12,000; Heywood Broun's The Boy Grows Older, $3,500; Cosmo Hamilton's His Majesty the King, $3,000.

In the course of his summary of the year, Jack Alicoate, editor of Film Daily, declares: 'With pictures to be sold in maximum blocks of five, and then only regionally after trade showings upon completion, it should be obvious that the key to the situation is held by Hollywood. The immediate question is, can Hollywood turn the trick? Careful analysis brings assurance that it can and will. Hollywood thus far has an admirable score. The forecast of a year ago has been substantially fulfilled. There has been no dramatic curtailment in production, no shortage of pictures, no mass retrenchment. But there has been a general emphasis on grade A entertainment. . . . The result is reflected in the improved financial position of many of the leading companies, disclosed by their earning reports and accomplished in the very face of the loss of foreign revenue. . . . Hollywood observers believe (for 1941 production) that light comedies and musical comedies, minus too costly sets and production numbers, plus melodrama, will constitute a heavy share of the new year's film menu.'

Popularity of Film Actors.

The Motion Picture Herald conducted its annual survey and discovered that in the poll of theaters throughout the country, Mickey Rooney is the most popular cinema player. He is followed in order by Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Gene Autry, Tyrone Power, James Cagney, Bing Crosby, Wallace Beery, Bette Davis, Judy Garland. It is interesting to note that Gene Autry has hitherto been included on a list of performers in Western picture stories. Now he is fourth on the main list, notwithstanding that, while he is heard over the radio, few of his films get to the heart of Gotham, if perchance they reach the outskirts.

The next fifteen performers in the Herald's poll were: James Stewart, Deanna Durbin, Alice Faye, Errol Flynn, Myrna Loy, Dorothy Lamour, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, Don Ameche, Jack Benny, Ginger Rogers, Ann Sheridan and William Powell.

Hollywood did not, as in the previous year's beginning, face labor troubles. Wage increases were given in 1940 and all guilds were recognized, and writers report increases in salaries.

After having been in school retirement for more than a year, Shirley Temple, now eleven, through her mother, plans to return to the screen to play opposite Mickey Rooney in the M.G.M. Hardy picture series. According to the first reports she was to receive $100,000 a year from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio. Later, it was declared that she and her mother will be paid $3,500 a week. It has been stipulated by the Court that half of all money Shirley Temple is paid must go into savings — a trust fund for her.

Film Daily's Poll.

The No. 1 picture in the Film Daily's poll of the screen critics throughout the country was Rebecca.

This vote covers the pictures actually released from November 1939 to November 1940, and therefore does not include several pictures mentioned in other polls, notably Gone With the Wind, which, while it has been shown at special prices in a relatively few theaters, has not been released generally, although it has been contracted for.

The outstanding ten films in this national vote of critics were: Rebecca, with 391 votes; Grapes of Wrath, 367; Ninotchka, 269; Foreign Correspondent, 247; All This and Heaven Too, 230; Abe Lincoln in Illinois, 221; Boom Town, 215; North West Passage, 198; Our Town, 198; The Mortal Storm, 172.