Movies in The Sunday Times
Howard Hughes was stirring the pot again with his movie "The Outlaw," which had been suppressed previously. On page one of The Sunday Times arts and leisure section of April 14, Fred Stanley, who also reported on the Hollywood Mobilization Committee in his April 14 Sunday Times page one column, wrote that day about the wave of criticism being leveled against the motion picture industry for "alleged bad taste in the subject-matter and advertising of some recently released films." The advent of what would come to be known as film noir had a lot of cultural conservatives up in arms, but the number one target was Howard Hughes movie "The Outlaw," now reemerging in showings in Los Angeles.
Stanley also reported that the film version of Broadway's longest-running hit, "Life With Father," had begun shooting. Playwrights Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse were in Hollywood for the production as "editorial supervisors" and complaining of the early start to the working day (9 AM) and the hours spent sitting around waiting for something to happen. They would be in town for about three months as the film shot, waiting to be called by director Michael Curtiz for advice on dialogue and other matters. They assured Times readers that they had not "gone Hollywood" and viewed "exposure to the sun and exercise with alarm." When they got back to New York,"Life With Mother" might be ready for the boards. They expected to return to Hollywood in early 1947 when their newest Broadway hit,"State of the Union," was scheduled to start shooting.
Times film critic Bosley Crowther wrote a page one opinion piece about the recent formation of an industry group representing movie theaters not owned by the Hollywood studios. He recognized that this sort of industry insider news was usually of little interest to the average moviegoer who preferred reading what movie was playing where and the latest gossip about the Hollywood stars. But Crowther felt that this development had significance to the movie-going public. In 1946 the studios owned the major theater chains as well as most of the first-run downtown theaters, but legal challenges to this system were working their way through the courts. As a result, Bosley predicted, the independent theater owners and smaller chains would become increasingly important. Crowther took special note of the group's stated goal of formulating policies on collections for charities, the exhibition of "information" pictures and community relations. On the surface these goals appeared admirable, since, as Crowther wrote, movie theaters had become a social focal point in many communities. His concern was that it appeared that this group was looking, somewhat understandably, to limit charity drives but, more disturbingly, to limit the showing of films that were not entertainment driven as well. He noted that the theater owners already had resisted the exhibition of documentaries during the war.
The Times screen editor Thomas M. Pryor interviewed film producer Alexander Korda who was in town finalizing arrangements to launch his new international producing and distributing companies. Among the properties he owned was Daphne du Maurier's current bestseller, The Kings General, but he didn't expect to put that or any of his other properties into production before the following spring. Korda, while asserting that he was not anti-Hollywood, told Pryor he was grieved to see the major studios relying on audience research rather than on the strength of stories in deciding what pictures to make. He saw the value of audience research for marketing a film but thought it absurd to use it to predetermine an audience's interest in subject matter. In his opinion, studios were becoming too cautious. Risk taking was the essence of the business (Korda was known more through his career for his risk taking than for his success). He was encouraged by the increasing number of Hollywood talents who were breaking away from the studios to produce pictures on their own.
Composer Marc Blitzstein wrote a paean to the short film "Hymn of the Nations" in the form of a letter to the screen editor. He wrote that he saw and heard the Arturo Toscanini film in 1944 at a private showing in London for the British Film Unit and its allied counterparts. The film opened in NY at the Little Carnegie the following Saturday, accompanying the French-language feature "A Portrait of a Woman." In 1944 Blitzstein was serving as music director of the radio station ABSIE (American Broadcasting Station in Europe), still a hush-hush operation. ABSIE was a tool of the psychological warfare department. In the days leading up to D-Day, besides disseminating news and propaganda to occupied Europe, it sought to create the impression in the mind of the enemy that an extensive underground network was in place behind German lines waiting for instruction. Between alerts to this largely imaginary underground, the station broadcast music. One of the first pieces that Blitzstein chose was Verdi's "Hymn of the Nations," from the film's soundtrack. In his adaptation of the score, Toscanini had interpolated "God Save the Queen," the "Internationale" and "The Star-Spangled Banner." The performance featured the voices of Jan Peerce and the Westminster Choir. Blitzstein said it was a revelation as to what a musical film could be. Blitzstein was one of a coterie of gay, Jewish political activists in the music world (e.g. Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins) drawn at least briefly to the Stalinist vision, although Blitzstein later said he abandoned the Communist party because he felt it was inhospitable to gays. So did the others.
Film ads were not as numerous or as big in The Sunday Times as they were in the Sunday News or Mirror. In particular, the ads for the major theater chains were smaller. However the ads for Manhattan's independent theaters, most of which were showing revivals or foreign films, were more numerous. MGM was already running ads for "The Postman Always Rings Twice" which was set to follow the "Follies" at the Capitol. The Translux newsreel theaters at 49th & Broadway and 60th and Madison advertised their screenings of Truman's Army Day speech urging unification of the armed forces and a special feature "Roosevelt Man of Destiny" on the anniversary of his death. Newsreel theaters had become popular in the late 1930s as the world moved toward war but the audience interest in newsreel theaters would wither in the post-war years.