BREAKING IN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 643, 20 April 1929, Page 25

BREAKING IN

New British Films Face Many Problems On American Market

A motion picture executive in New York has been asked why British films find so much difficulty in breaking into the American market. He did not hesitate to say that when British producers lose some of their conservativeness, American picture fans will welcome films from England. “In the first place/* he said, “there is not a single English film star known to the public of America. This is one of the greatest handicaps. American film-goers will flock to a theatre to see their favourite star, and will overlook a bad picture if the star does all that is expected of him or her.

“American producers have been smart enough to publicise their stars. They have spent millions of dollars in making stars’ names household words throughout the world. They have flooded every available publication with photos and stories concerning the stars* activities, and never cease for a moment to keep the names before the public. “Either the English producer does not care to burden himself with the expense of publicising, or he minimises the value derived. He does not grasp the fact that a star is a product that can be sold through adver-

Using, just as shoes or household necessities. “England does not lack beautiful and talented women, hut i£ the public is uot made acquainted with the fact, they might just as well cease to exist as far as commercial value is concerned. “America has no monopoly of publicity methods, and there is every reason to believe that should the English producer care to do so, he could flood American newspapers and magazines with publicity concerning his own stars and create a demand, on the part of the theatre public, to see these much-talked-of people on the screen of his own theatre. “It stands to reason that a film fan would rather see Gloria Swanson in a pictux-e than view a British film, whose players are unknown to him. Not because the American film has greater merit, but because the picture-goer has a personal interest in Gloria, who has been systematically publicised. “1 would venture to say that an American producer could take any English actress, bring her to America, and through the well-oi’ganised publicity department, make that person famous before the American public, even before she had made a picture in this country. English producers can do the same thing if they will, and until they do, they will And a pretty uphill fight for recognition.”

HUGE INTERESTS WILLIAM FOX THEATRES With a controlling interest in no fewer than 619 cinemas in America,. William Fox becomes the foremost individual theatre operator in the world. First he acquired the Roxy, the most pretentious r 1 house in the United States, and then, in rapid order, the Wesco and Midwesco circuits, embracing more th£,n 250 theatres, and late, of the Roli circuit in New England with the building of theatres in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and ‘Newark, soon to be completed; the purchase of sites in Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and the pro- j jecting of a monster skyscraper office j building and theatre, fifty-two storeys ; high, on the corner of and 1 Forty-seventh street. Fox controls an amazing string of houses. The expansion of Fox holdings spans a period of two years and is unique in the history of motion pictures. It is the direct result of the company’s policy of owning and operating its own theatres, thus securing j an infallible outlet for the studio’s j production schedule.