English Studios Booked for Year

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 276, 11 February 1928, Page 23

English Studios Booked for Year

Films Bill's Progress ON WAY TO STATUTE BOOK r~ i I ■'PHE Films Bill, after many | I J vicissitudes, is now well I on its way to the statute book. The committee stage was I concluded in the House of I Lords after a few amendI ments had been introduced. I L (

Under this Bill, the quota system is introduced for British films, under which exhibitors must show at least 5 per cent, of British films in their programmes for the year ending September 30, 1929,, and ultimately, after ®ight years, 20 per cent. All films, British and foreign, must be registered with the Board of Trade after being trade-shown. Blind booking (the booking of films by exhibitors before they have seen them) is abolished, because no agreements can be made for the exhibition of unregistered films. Exhibitors must not book films more than 12 months before showing them, this period being ultimately reduced to six months Pressure on Studios ' The Government accepted an amendment by Lord Danesfort providing that for one year after the passing of the Act British films may be produced abroad. The present difficulty, Lord Danesfort explained, was due to the lack of sufficient studios in England for the production of super-films. At the moment, all the available studios were booked up for the next 12 months. Under the provisions of the Bill, as it now stands, a “British” film may have a producer of any nationality, and Lord Danesfort moved that this latitude should be allowed for five years only, after which the producer must be a British subject. , Viscount Peel, for the Government, was prepared to leave the matter to a free vote of the House. The Earl of Iddlesleigh, one of the youngest peers in the House (he is 26), made a brief maiden speech, in which he said that he had seen such good technique in film production in Germany that he thought British producers should have an opportunity of learning from it. Case of Charlie Chaplin Lord Ask with, who followed, was astonished to find Lord Peel, who was sitting just in front of him, turn round and gesticulate. At first apparently Lord .Askwith thought he was being asked to sit down, and became Indignant, but on catching the words “maiden speech” he paid the usual tribute to the brief remarks of his predecessor. He went on to say that the amendment would hamper *he production of British films, becaiiso British producers of superlative merit might be bought by the United States, as Charlie Chaplin had been bought. Lord Danesfort: We shall manage to exist even though Charlie Chaplin is in the United States. The amendment was negatived without a division.