M.G.M. To England

Hollywood has always deeply cherished the profitable British film market. Recently, it was profoundly shocked to discover that its passion was in danger of becoming one-sided. Well-heeled Britons like Cinemagnate Joseph Arthur Rank (TIME, Dec. 20) have appeared ready & willing to break Hollywood's near monopoly of their home market. Last week, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was not napping; it was spending plenty of cash to expand in Britain.

Through its recently formed British subsidiary, M.G.M. London Films, M.G.M. 1) announced payment of well over $1,000,000 for its first English studio, 108 acres at famed Elstree; 2) began filming the first of a series of million-dollar pictures in Britain. It plans to spend $140,000,000 on them in the next ten years.

M.G.M. London Films is run by a team. One member is its chairman and managing director, Hungarian-born Sir Alexander Korda. The other is his deputy, Manhattan-born Ben Goetz. Cigar-smoking, affable, Goetz studied law, gave it up in 1912 for a job with Crystal Film Co. in The Bronx. He was soon studio manager, and director, had a hand in starting Pearl White, later made famous by the palpitating Perils of Pauline. Goetz was one of the founders of Erbograph Co., which merged with Consolidated Film Industries, Inc., in 1924, was executive vice president when he joined M.G.M. in 1935. He went to England to organize M.G.M.'s British film production.

For years the British quota system has forced U.S. movie makers to produce a certain percentage of pictures in England. Goetz cracked the practice of grinding out cheap "quota quickies" (which often lost money), proved that it was cheaper to make pictures good enough for the U.S. market. This worked so well that a year ago last March M.G.M. merged with Korda's London Films, Ltd., mapped out a program of big-budget pictures. Eventually, M.G.M. London under Korda and Goetz will turn out 16 of them yearly --a figure without precedent in England. Last week Ben Goetz was in Manhattan recruiting actors, writers, etc. for their big job. He was working on a scheme for an international talent commuting system, between Hollywood and Elstree.

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