Third Dimension

The 3-D revolution continued, with some sporadic flare-shooting on the side. P: Warner Bros., which stopped production and cut salaries a month ago, announced "44 top-bracket pictures," to be released by September 1954. Since 20 of these have already been completed, actual production will be down about one-third. Warners is preparing a new 3-D system: "widescreen WarnerScope," described as a new process under development for "many years . . . With expansive use of 3-D photography . . . Warner Color and WarnerPhonic Sound ... we have just begun to tap the enormous resources . . ." P: M-G-M is cutting its output nearly in half--34 films in the next 18 months. All will have stereophonic sound, and two will be in Cinemascope, 20th Century-Fox's 3-D system, which M-G-M tentatively considered adapting for its main output. Otherwise, M-G-M will concentrate on its own wide-screen technique (unnamed in either one or two capital letters).

P: In Austria, the board of film reviewers in Graz banned, to children under 16, Metroscopix, a prewar, Hollywood-made 3-D shocker. The picture, a short containing horror sequences, the board ruled, would cause "emotional and nervous shock to young people, and thereby constitutionally endanger their health." M-G-M will take the case to the Austrian constitutional court, argue that the censors' job is to protect youth against immorality, not to protect their nerves.

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