Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-08-07
Churchill
Continued From First Page }

cident occurring on the day Devils
Island was abolished by the French
government as a penal institution.
Although literate world is well aware
of the fact that the colony was OFF,
cially operated by France, the studio
is DESTROYS of disgusting this fact. No
one has protested, but Hollywood has
found that you can never tell what
foreign governments will do. The name
story in any way. and the uniforms
of the colonial troops were designed
to be inaccurate. The climax, which
follows the obvious action which such
locale would suggest, does with the
day of Boris Karloff's proposed ex-
ecution. But just as his head has
been showed in the guillotine the min
lister of justice rides up while an
escort thrusts bayonet into the ma
chine and prevents the knife from
falling. The minister announces that
Devils Island is no more, and Karloff
is allowed to return to France to be-
gin life anew with his wife and daugh-
ter.
ONE of Walt Dsney's favorite ut
terances is that he makes no
money on his pictures. This is sub
stantially true. for his short subjects
earn only a small profit on his in
vestment, and it was not until Snow
White" that he really got into the
money; that of course will make him
a fortune. His substantial revenue
has come from the royalties paid for
the use of his tiny characters on COM
mercial products. His films being the
means for his making money through
other activities, he will shortly an
nounce a new plant to be built on
hundred-acre site on the outskirts Of
Hollywood. Because of Disney's in
ability to find large number of COM
petent Workmen he Is proceeding with
his new venture with caution. The
plans are novel for Hollywood. He
will build a comparatively small studio
adequate to hold his present staff, and
as rapidly as skilled craftsmen can be
found new buildings will be built and
his program expanded. He is equipped
at the moment to make but one
feature every Is months. and he hopes
that when he moves next year that he
will be able to turn out picture OF
the stature of Snow White" annually.
This schedule will be stepped up as
rapidly as possible until two or even
,iot,, ho made aaFh
season in addition to the short sub
jects.
THE first evidence that the Govern
= ment's antitrust suit will have
an effect upon Hollywood has come
with the announcement that Myron
Selznick, one of the youthful pioneer
producers and who has been one OF
the most successful agents in recent
years, will embark upon series OF
pictures made on proflt-sharing
basis with the personalities he repre-
sents. Stars, writers and directors will
be welded into independent units
which will make pictures with re-
Enumeration depending upon the sue
cess of the individual ventures.
Such a plan has long been the
dream of the screens Workmen. They
have seen enormous salaries go to
executives and huge profits accrue
from their work, and while it can
hardly be said that they have suffered
financially under the arrangement, 1t
has irked them to see others make so
much. Under the Selznick plan, the
personalities will get but little if their
pictures fail, while there will be no
limit to the return for those that find
favor at the box Office.
The system has been attempted be-
fore but generally with disastrous re-
suits. Failure was attributed to two
causes. In some cases the stars had
entirely too much to say about story
and production, demanding that the
pictures be modelled to satisfy their
vanity. While the public likes to
humor its dream children, little in
terest is shown in such displays. Other
endeavors failed because of the du-
plicity of the producers handling the
picture They would run up excess
sive charges against production and
frequently kept a double set of books
which showed how much the film lost
every time it was shown. In the early
talkie era an old-time silent star at
tempted comeback and agreed to
bear one-half the cost of her film.
When the bills were paid she found
she had contributed $1l5,000, sup
posedly so per cent of the budget.
Actually the picture cost $4,000.