Shellshock

In 1914 movies were not an important U. S. export, and the U. S. cinema industry was as isolationist as the rest of the nation. World War II found both the U. S. and its cinema industry in a different frame of mind. Though U. S. cinemagnates have gesticulated for months about the necessity for putting their $2,000,000,000 investment on a war basis, the effect of war on shellshocked Hollywood last week was an incalculable crossfire of fears, dangers, hopes.

Production made the most immediate news. Studios jittered over the return of stars from War zones, publicity releases painted a terrifying picture of others being mustered to foreign colors. Only important stars still stranded in Europe last week were Robert Montgomery and Maureen O'Sullivan, who had reported for work at M. G. M.'s English studio at Denham. And only one Hollywood star actually took passage for Europe: Tyrone Power's French wife Annabella, who flew by transatlantic Clipper to bring her family back from Paris.

After an announcement by excitable Samuel Goldwyn that he had abandoned Raffles so that Actor David Niven could rejoin the Highland Light Infantry, work on Raffles was hastily resumed when the British Consulate in Los Angeles thought that Actor Niven would not be needed for at least 30 days. Only other Britishers on the active reserve list (liable to immediate call) were John Loder, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and the Earl of Warwick, whose Hollywood name is Michael Brooke. Only volunteer to turn up at the Consulate was Actor Alan Mowbray, 43, who was put to work listing other British subjects in the movie colony.

Sales. The immediate blackout of theatres in France and England when War was declared automatically eliminated 40% of Hollywood's box-office income. Though some English theatres in outlying areas were already being reopened under emergency regulations and more were expected to follow, still in doubt were: 1) how current Hollywood pictures must be affected by Allied censorship, and 2) how war would affect the transmission of box-office receipts, some of which had not come from England last week.

First effect of this uncertainty on Hollywood, which has already written off the German and Italian box offices, once 10% of its foreign gross, was a scaling down of costs on current productions. Director Wesley Ruggles, rather than shave his $2,000,000 budget for Arizona, shelved the picture. Other producers planned to whittle future budgets over $600,000 down to fit domestic box-office expectations. Since the greater part of production cost is in salaries and overhead, decreased budgets in the long run would inevitably mean tightening the belt in Hollywood's corporate scale of living.

But while War immediately reduced

Hollywood's markets, it also, in the immediate future, reduced Hollywood's competition. British, French and German studios shut down, and their backlog of product could not last more than three months. Out of the running, they would leave U. S. pictures a free hand in the rich world market. Russia makes 95% of the pictures shown in its theatres, but all other countries are steady cinema customers of the U. S. India makes only 50% of its pictures, Japan only 35%, Italy, Yugoslavia, Mexico, Sweden and the South American countries all less than 10%. Playing this probability for perhaps more than it was worth, the Hollywood Reporter last week exulted: "U. S. Fix Stand To Capture 99% of World Market!"

Propaganda was a questionmark, with Hollywood evenly divided between plans to capitalize on War headlines, and plans to make traditional escapist pictures. Samuel Goldwyn announced Blackout Over Europe; Warner Brothers, who fired the first shot this year with Confessions of a Nazi Spy, announced a string of comedies. Charles Chaplin continued with The Dictator, and Paramount bought the timely Battalion of Death. Though War Department plans for drafting industry naturally include the cinema, only hint last week from Washington was a request to advance the release date on two patriotic pictures: M. G. M.'s Thunder Afloat (about the Navy) and 20th Century-Fox's 20,000 Men (about the college pilot training program begun by the Civil Aeronautics Authority this year).

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