HOLLYWOOD IS ALARMED!

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 312, 24 March 1928, Page 14

HOLLYWOOD IS ALARMED!

“NOT WITHOUT REASON GROWING REACTION “Two things have alarmed film community of Holly wo „j "* not without reason." V °° d| Iris Barry, the “Dailv m. „ outspoken critic, who is Hollywood, sums up the in this way. One is the growing reaction a*,, the domination of the screens S ’ U °® world by Hollywood product, fh' ** pression of a distaste for an ern! n " diet of Hollywood-made ij!-, l ®'' come principally from effectively from England, whU Oor course, is the most valuable c: market outside the United Inspired Articles The stupider element in Holler pooh-hoohs this. Obviously articles appear from time to ir pift s the local Press, angri™ Europe for turning against bish. some 01 which, manufactured solely f or es a never even shown in American J®* mas. In these articles karow i. 01 *' to beware of kicking ut T cc i S J t ; anything Hollywood it. For. they threaten. Hon^ : might retaliate by sending c ' Europe all the famous acto« k h Umre!° rS R ° W " orkin S in the "at, Such a childish point of view «. be merely funny were it not indiSm of the narrow-mindedness of a of the film community. Holly wood Pt:: viously felt a need of EuropSt t Ernst Lubitsch. Reginald Ronald Colman. Ernest Torrence, Victor McLaglan. Clive Brook, Holmes Herbert, Herbert Brenon, Paul Leni, Conrad Veid* and Emil Jannings, since it is prepared to make it so worth their while to come to Hollywood! To talk of retaliation by exiling all these people is rubbish: Europe asks nothing better! Incidentally there is hardly om ©? these men, besides more than a few of the Americans, who does not plato go to Europe to make pictnr e < at the earliest possible opportune Adolphe Menjou, lor instance, has such an idea in mind; and he is tv from being alone. The lirst thin? every other director, story writescenarist, and actor asks a vhitor from England is: ‘What are the opportunities over there? Is it true thek is a revival? Do you think I conic get a contract?” This situation arises out of the second alarm Hollywood has undergone. The financiers who back film production have begun to take stock. Already it is obmmon knowledge thi; Wall Street has decided—not before it was time—that the business of making pictures is being conducted k a lunatic manner, and a warning fcs.s been issued, a peremptory comma- - for reform. To take an example of Hollywood* folly: Quite recently a certain film put into production. After £45,000 h: been spent on it, it was scrapped zs hopeless; a new director and a re* leading man were engaged and a new scenario was prepared. The film ms remade at a cost of £25,200, the mr. for which it could have been m&de at the first. Good films, do not. or need not ordinarily cost the sums expended <a them in Hollywood. Good films «? often made there, by all the comps: ies, for as little as £18,000: many c.’ them cost far less; more than a fe* which mop up tremendous profits k Europe are made in 10 or 15 days fori few thousand pounds. And there figures include the tremendous, genera!/ excessive, overhead costs of production. Waste Of Money The waste of money, on the ofbc I hand, in many cases is almost inedible. Stars are kept on contract fe monttis, idle; it is the same vi. directors, scenarists. Big scenes a* constructed but never used. AX more: the exorbitant salaries of tb* men whose function it is to gni' film production are added, besides tit sheer waste, to production cor/ These film magnates, drawing the ®- aries of Easte.rn princes, are the ver men who permit the extravagancy the waste, and the ruinous folly wnL are drawing the wrath of the fin*' ciers on Hollywood. They are ~ culprits. The first remedy the magea--thought of was not to make better futures more economically, but to cdown the salaries of the actors, will do little harm if they decide wto keep film actors on tracts, not to increase their saw*-; further. Good actors will always work and emoluments. The rest well be spared; and if we in inland are wise, the ones who squeezed out will not be invited _ indiscriminately. Only the _ people from Hollywood should ” here.