More Care with Scripts would Cut Down Production Costs, Faults, says Dave Loew (1937) 🇺🇸
When some Hollywood producers make a good picture, that’s news. But, when a newcomer to production, in his initial effort, takes a fading comedian, whose talents have been misused, and skyrockets him back into public favor with a real laugh hit — that, to borrow a Hollywood favorite, is colossal!
Presented by David J. Hanna
When David L. Loew decided to leave his post as vice-president of Loew’s Inc., the firm his father had founded, to enter production, no great amount of interest was evidenced by the movie city. Perhaps young Loew knew the theatre and distribution branches of the industry, but production — well. It was, then, with something of a jolt that the boys here received word that he had taken Joe E. Brown, whose popularity had been gradually smothered by a succession of poor pictures, and breathed new life into his talents with a cleverly contrived film. With the preview of “When’s Your Birthday,” they found themselves where and why Mr. Loew had been hiding his talent all these years.
The really significant point in this first success is that it smacked in no degree of “beginner’s luck.” Displayed by Loew was a keen appreciation of the cause of his star’s previous failures and an intelligent approach to the problem of rectifying the errors that had been made by Warner Bros. in their handling of Brown. It was the policy of Warners to present the mouthy comic with frail scripts that placed the complete burden of entertainment on his “mugging.” Loew obviously realized that no comedian can be successful without good material, so he demanded a script that supported Brown with clever lines and situations. The result in When’s Your Birthday is a film that bids strongly for the laughter of audiences in deluxe and class houses, as well as for the usual Brown fans. In brief, it has more story substance, clever dialogue and a better supporting cast.
Your correspondent had seen the first Loew film just a few days before our visit to interview him and we were naturally interested in learning how he avoided the production pitfalls of Brown’s previous pictures. We popped the question and received this intelligent reply:
“It is my theory,” said Loew, “that a script should be tightly set before the cameras begin to grind. For instance, the Joe E. Brown scripts are being worked on three months in advance of scheduled production. By all means, I say give the writers plenty of time; three months, six months, even longer, if necessary. It is in the writing that most hits are made or unmade and rushing does not pay. This idea of changing gags and situations while a film is in production usually results in the story becoming submerged in a complex and disconnected series of situations, and only tends to increase costs.”
To anyone knowing of the production methods employed by lots of our “quickie” producers, major as well as independent, who do not hesitate to start shooting a film with a half-completed script, the wisdom of newcomer Loew’s policy is apparent. His theory is based on the practical plan of having everything “down on paper” before he proceeds. How simple, then, to alter a situation, eliminate or change a gag, or revise a scene. Every really capable person in production insists upon operating that way. It makes for better films.
David L.’s father was the well remembered Marcus Loew. He won his spurs not by dropping into a soft junior partner’ chair in his father’s business, but by exhibiting a willingness to learn from the bottom, the very bottom, up. He accepted, as his first job, the exalted post of office boy to Nicholas Schenck. Even he would not deny that it was partly “drag” that enabled him to progress with fair rapidity to head the real estate department. In 1920, he was elected vice president and a director of Loew’s Inc., posts he held until his resignation in 1935, when the production bug bit him.
As the son of one of the industry’s outstanding pioneers, it is natural that David L. should have absorbed a sense of showmanship. His ability to apply it to film making is a virtue which must be credited solely to him, however.
For the present, he will concentrate on two additional Joe F. Brown films. The second, “All is Confusion,” is now in production, while the third of the series, to be titled “Flirting with Danger,” is being scripted with typical Loew thoroughness.
He does not, however, intend to confine his activities to producing Brown comedies. It is his intention to sign at least two more stars for whom stories will be carefully selected and produced to get the best out of them. In no hurry, Loew is willing to wait until he finds the type of personalities he desires.
In our meetings with many and various film men, we can immediately spot the “stuffed shirts” by their indiscriminate and general praise of everything Hollywood does. Mr. Loew promptly served notice that he was alien to that fraternity of “yes-men” by his answer to our query as to his opinion of the general production trend.
“Too much concentration on too few of their pictures is one of the great faults of most studios,” was his forthright reply. “Rather than raise the standard of their entire programs, they choose to concentrate on twenty-five percent, overloading them with their stars and throwing their ace directors into a small portion of their output.
“One unwise feature of these all-star productions is the necessity for script changes to give each ranking player a star part. Thus, the stories of many of these pictures lose much of their dramatic effectiveness, they become distorted.
“Most of the producers who bemoan loudly the lack of new faces, the scarcity of potential starring material, could find sufficient players of box-office calibre on their own contract lists,” he continued. “By giving these players an opportunity to show their wares in substantial parts for which they are suited and which now go to ‘names,’ the studios would discover many promising actors and actresses, from whom stellar box-office stars could be developed.”
David L. Loew was born into and in an atmosphere of showmanship. Our brief conversation with him was enough to convince us that that background will stand him in good stead in his new work. He knows what exhibitors need and what the public wants. There is every reason to believe that he will go far in film production. Please record that prediction!
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Collection: Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, March 1937