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Equally deft is Paramount's political touch & go. The rumors started as far back as the spring of 1941 that outside forces were tampering with the script and even with the production. Paramount's denials were prompt. So were everybody else's.
Paramount must be credited, to be sure, with letting Mr. Cooper murmur the no longer sensational news that Spain was a training ground for World War II. But that is about as impressive as the hind sight volubility of an upside-down parrot. Considering the particular hour and climate of world history which the Bell dramatizes, Paramount's executives have kept an almost divine political detachment. Says Chairman of the Board Adolph Zukor: "It is a great picture, without political significance. We are not for or against anybody." Says Director Sam Wood: "It is a love story against a brutal background. It would be the same love story if they were on the other side." Says Paramount President Barney Balaban: "We don't think it will make any trouble."
It won't. For when all the political whoopdedoodle about the film is over, there remains the only fact that, when all is said & done, anybody cares about —the fact that, whatever Hollywood's Bell tolled for, Ingrid Bergman rang it.
CURRENT & CHOICE
Hi Diddle Diddle (Pola Negri, Adolphe Menjou; TIME, July 26).
Lift Your Heads (British Ministry of Information, OWI; TIME, July 12).
Spitfire (Leslie Howard, David Niven; TIME, June 28).
Coney Island (Betty Grable, George Montgomery, Cesar Romero; TIME, June 21).
Stage Door Canteen (Show-business people galore; TIME, June 14).
* Nevertheless, Paramount will road-show it, until 1945, at 75¢ and $1.10 minimum (matinee & evening), demanding 70% straight percentage and guaranteeing the exhibitor a 12½% profit. For GWTW, M.G.M. took 70%, guaranteed 10%.
* No. 1 today, according to the Swedish Gallup Institute: Greer (Mrs. Miniver} Garson; No. 2, Miss Bergman.