Cinema: Sh! The Publican

For the unusual glut of expensive motion pictures thrust forth by Hollywood in recent weeks,* cinemaudiences probably have the California tax collector to thank. For all film, raw or exposed, on Hollywood shelves when the assessors make their annual visits on March's first Monday, the studios are taxed. The way to beat the tax is to empty the shelves. When the assessors made their rounds this week, most cupboards were bare. But at luckless Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer the vast amount of film necessary for Norma Shearer's Marie Antoinette was still in stock, the picture only...

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