Evening star., 1944-09-11
Movie Cost Row Intensifies

Inat Is throwing $lUO,OOO,OUO out
the window annually.
At the start of the war, some ef-
fort was made, under Government
compulsion, to prevent the waste of
hlm raw stock and money tossed
unnecessarily into extravagant SETS
For a while, the plan showed signs
Of succeeding. Directors were or
dered to rehearse players thoroughly
before starting the camera rolling
In some studios arbitrary rules
were set up as to the number Of
takes a director might shoot.
The economy move was short
lived, however, due to the COM
plants Of temperamental directors,
who insisted they could not make
pictures without getting a wide
choice Of takes to choose from.
Gradually the bars were dropped.
Today shooting goes on apparently
with just as free a hand as before
the war.
Other startling disclosures con-
cerning a fierce behind d-the-Scenes
war between producers and exhib-
itors throughout the Nation are due
for an airing very soon. The bat
tie. progressing silently for the last
six months or more, is actually de-
stroying the entertainment value of
many features now being exhibited
Complaints are beginning to flow
in from fandom, and producers may
be forced to resort to legal measures
If the exhibitors latest reprisal tao
tics are tn he Spoo chad
Worries over at Goth Century Fox
at this moment center about the
prospect Of that studio losing its two
greatest box Office lovelies, Alice
Fave and Betty Cradle.
Miss Fayes desire to stop making
moving pictures because of her de-
votion to home and babies already
has been transmitted to the studio
and has been accepted. However,
the retirement hints of Miss Cradle
are practically new. They seem sin
cere, too.
At the moment, Miss Cradle is
making Diamond Horseshoe" but
she declares it's more of a test than
anything else-to determine whether
film work will interfere with the
amount of time she desires to spend
with Harry James and the baby.
II I find I can make a picture
and still have time for Harry and
the baby, then I'll go right on with
my career she said. Otherwise, /
won't hesitate a moment, because
they come first in my life" -
As for most other kids throughout
the Nation, school bells rang last
week for the Hollywood movie mop
pets. Most of them, working un-
steadily before the cameras. are at
tending public school, but there are
two dozen or more, under regular
contract to the studios, who hunt up
the little red schoolhouse on the
movie lot each morning.
Directors and unit managers will
acquire new wrinkles and new gray
hairs for this term. As previously,
the boys and girls under 18 must
have three hours Of school, an hour
for lunch and an hour for recreation
before 4 pm. And they're on a five
day week.
One thing the l.. A. city system
does is look out for those kids in
the movies. They don't fool and the
most demanding directors know bet
ter than to argue with tutor.
~ 4*
Mary Bovard, Columbia starlet-
one of the "delinks in Delinquent
Daughters"-is probably the only
person who ever rode across the con-
tinent on dixie cup. Mary recently
boarded a Los Angeles bound train
at Chicago and found she d lost her
ticket. Everybody got sympathetic,
even the conductor. The latter sub
stituted the paper cup. the only
paper handy, and Mary had it
punched and initiated by conductors
over the 2,000-mile route.
X 4 X
Hollywood grundys are busy offer
ing combination bets that the re-
cent knife-and-bottle fight that al
most lost an actor his nose will wind
up with double divorce.
CEeleased BY the North American
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