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Eagle-Lion Films

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Eagle-Lion Films
IndustryFilm studio
FoundedDecember 1945
Defunct1950
SuccessorEagle-Lion Classics
Key people
J. Arthur Rank
Arthur B. Krim

Eagle-Lion Films was the name of two distinct, though related, companies. In 1944, UK film magnate J. Arthur Rank created an American distribution company with the name to handle his British films. The following year, under a reciprocal distribution arrangement with Rank, the U.S. company Pathé Industries, which already owned the small Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) studio, established an Eagle-Lion Films production subsidiary, while Rank's American business dropped the name. PRC, with its existing distribution exchanges, handled releases in the U.S. When PRC shut down in 1948, its distribution exchanges were assumed by Eagle-Lion Films. In 1950, Pathé merged Eagle-Lion with an independent reissues distributor, Film Classics, to create Eagle-Lion Classics. The latter was acquired by and merged into United Artists a year later. Rank also released films in the United Kingdom through Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited.

Discover more about Eagle-Lion Films related topics

J. Arthur Rank

J. Arthur Rank

Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank was a British industrialist who was head and founder of the Rank Organisation.

Pathé Exchange

Pathé Exchange

Pathé Exchange, commonly known as Pathé, was an American film production and distribution company, largely of Hollywood's silent era. Known for its groundbreaking newsreel and wide array of shorts, it grew out of the American division of the major French studio Pathé Frères, which began distributing films in the United States in 1904. Ten years later, it produced the enormously successful The Perils of Pauline, a twenty-episode serial that came to define the genre. The American operation was incorporated as Pathé Exchange toward the end of 1914 and spun off as an independent entity in 1921; the Merrill Lynch investment firm acquired a controlling stake. The following year, it released Robert J. Flaherty's groundbreaking documentary Nanook of the North. Other notable feature releases included the controversial drama Sex (1920) and director/producer Cecil B. DeMille's smash-hit biblical epic The King of Kings (1927). During much of the 1920s, Pathé distributed the shorts of comedy pioneers Hal Roach and Mack Sennett and innovative animator Paul Terry. For Roach and then his own production company, acclaimed comedian Harold Lloyd starred in many feature and short releases from Pathé and the closely linked Associated Exhibitors.

Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoestring film producers based their operations. However, PRC was more substantial than the usual independent company that made only a few low-budget movies and then disappeared. PRC was an actual Hollywood studio – albeit the smallest – with its own production facilities and distribution network, and it even accepted imports from the UK. PRC lasted from 1939 to 1947, churning out low-budget B movies for the lower half of a double bill or the upper half of a neighborhood theater showing second-run films. The studio was originally located at 1440 N. Gower St. from 1936 to 1943. PRC then occupied the former Grand National Pictures physical plant at 7324 Santa Monica Blvd., from 1943 to 1946. This address is now an apartment complex.

United Artists

United Artists

United Artists Corporation (UA), doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, was an American production and distribution company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studio was premised on allowing actors to control their own interests, rather than being dependent upon commercial studios. UA was repeatedly bought, sold, and restructured over the ensuing century. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) acquired the studio in 1981 for a reported $350 million.

History

Pathé Industries' Eagle-Lion Films subsidiary was founded in December 1945. From 1946 to 1949, Eagle-Lion was led by Arthur B. Krim; in addition to releasing films by Rank and reissues of David O. Selznick films, it produced its own B-movies. Bryan Foy the former head of the B-picture unit at Warner Bros., was in charge of production.[1] Some of the producers working at Eagle-Lion included Aubrey Schenck, Jack Schwarz and briefly, Walter Wanger and George Pal. Directors included Anthony Mann. Cinematographer John Alton also worked on its productions.

The initial arrangement was that Rank and Eagle-Lion would each produce five films a year. Costs were initially kept to less than $500,000 per film. Their first year of films were financed with $8 million in loans from the Bank of America which Young personally guaranteed.[2]

The company recorded a loss of $2.2 million in 1947. Krim later attributed this to them paying too much money for stars who were scarcely good enough to prevent insufficient box-office returns.[3] This encouraged Eagle-Lion to change its mode of production, using more independent producers as a source for new films. Bryan Foy resigned as head of production to become an independent producer for the company and Arthur Krim became studio chief. Eagle-Lion would help finance the films and offer facilities, although producers would find their own money too. Along with Foy, other independent producers who worked for Eagle-Lion included Edward Small, Walter Wanger and George Pal. They began making lower-budgeted films, enjoying particular success with film noir.

Eagle-Lion had acquired the film studio of Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), which had acquired the building from the no-longer extant Grand National Pictures. PRC was dissolved in August 1947 and its product was shifted to Eagle-Lion.

By 1947–48, the studio had completed 14 productions. By the spring of 1949, ten were in release, five of which earned a substantial profit – T-Men, Raw Deal, Canon City, He Walked By Night and The Noose Hangs High. Two others broke even and two others showed losses. If the company had completely financed these films it would have made $1.2 million but as it was it made $200,000.[4] However, because of its unsuccessful first year, the company still owed money and closed its studio in November 1948.

Eagle-Lion released a series of British films, most of which were unsuccessful at the American box office. There were some exceptions, such as The Red Shoes which earned rentals of $5 million[5][6] as well as being their only release which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The company suffered increasing financial difficulties throughout 1949. Krim resigned in May and the company ceased production at the end of the year. Eagle-Lion merged with Film Classics in 1950 to become Eagle-Lion Classics.

Assistant director Reggie Callow felt that the studio would have survived longer had they kept producing low-budget films rather than attempting to compete with the major studios by making higher-budgeted films.[7]

In 1951, Krim was offered the leadership of United Artists. In April of that year, UA took over distribution of Eagle-Lion's current releases; Eagle-Lion terminated the releasing pact with Rank and ceased distributing movies. Their studios were sold.[8] In 1954, the film lot was purchased by the Ziv Company for production of its syndicated television programs.[9] It has long since been demolished.

Discover more about History related topics

Arthur B. Krim

Arthur B. Krim

Arthur B. Krim was an American entertainment lawyer, the former finance chairman for the U.S. Democratic Party, an adviser to President Lyndon Johnson and the former chairman of Eagle-Lion Films (1946–1949), United Artists (1951–1978), and Orion Pictures (1978–1992). His more than four decades as a movie studio head is one of the longest in Hollywood history.

David O. Selznick

David O. Selznick

David O. Selznick, born as David Selznick was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced Gone with the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Bryan Foy

Bryan Foy

Bryan Foy was an American film producer and director. He produced more than 200 films between 1924 and 1963. He also directed 41 films between 1923 and 1934. He headed the B picture unit at Warner Bros. where he was known as "the keeper of the B's".

Aubrey Schenck

Aubrey Schenck

Aubrey Schenck was an American film producer from the 1940s through the 1970s.

Walter Wanger

Walter Wanger

Walter Wanger was an American film producer active from the 1910s, his career concluding with the turbulent production of Cleopatra, his last film, in 1963. He began at Paramount Pictures in the 1920s and eventually worked at virtually every major studio as either a contract producer or an independent. He also served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1939 to October 1941 and from December 1941 to 1945. Strongly influenced by European films, Wanger developed a reputation as an intellectual and a socially conscious movie executive who produced provocative message movies and glittering romantic melodramas. He achieved notoriety when, in 1951, he shot and wounded the agent of his wife, Joan Bennett, because he suspected they were having an affair. He was convicted of the crime and served a four-month sentence, then returned to making movies.

George Pal

George Pal

George Pal was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe.

Anthony Mann

Anthony Mann

Anthony Mann was an American film director and stage actor.

John Alton

John Alton

John Alton, born Johann Jacob Altmann, in Sopron, Kingdom of Hungary, was an American cinematographer of Hungarian-German origin. Alton photographed some of the most famous films noir of the classic period and won an Academy Award for the cinematography of An American in Paris (1951), becoming the first Hungarian-born person to do so in the cinematography category.

Bank of America

Bank of America

The Bank of America Corporation is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, with investment banking and auxiliary headquarters in Manhattan. The bank was founded in San Francisco, California. It is the second-largest banking institution in the United States, after JPMorgan Chase, and the second-largest bank in the world by market capitalization. Bank of America is one of the Big Four banking institutions of the United States. It serves approximately 10.73% of all American bank deposits, in direct competition with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. Its primary financial services revolve around commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking.

Edward Small

Edward Small

Edward Small was a film producer from the late 1920s through 1970, who was enormously prolific over a 50-year career. He is best known for the movies The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), The Corsican Brothers (1941), Brewster's Millions (1945), Raw Deal (1948), Black Magic (1949), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Solomon and Sheba (1959).

Film studio

Film studio

A film studio is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production company. Most firms in the entertainment industry have never owned their own studios, but have rented space from other companies.

Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoestring film producers based their operations. However, PRC was more substantial than the usual independent company that made only a few low-budget movies and then disappeared. PRC was an actual Hollywood studio – albeit the smallest – with its own production facilities and distribution network, and it even accepted imports from the UK. PRC lasted from 1939 to 1947, churning out low-budget B movies for the lower half of a double bill or the upper half of a neighborhood theater showing second-run films. The studio was originally located at 1440 N. Gower St. from 1936 to 1943. PRC then occupied the former Grand National Pictures physical plant at 7324 Santa Monica Blvd., from 1943 to 1946. This address is now an apartment complex.

Filmography

Main article: List of Eagle-Lion Films

Source: "Eagle-Lion Films", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 12th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle-Lion_Films.

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Further Reading

B movie

Universal Pictures

United Artists

Gaumont Film Company

Independent film

The Cannon Group, Inc.

Pathé

Producers Releasing Corporation

Walter Wanger

B movies (Hollywood Golden Age)

Pathé Exchange

It's a Joke, Son!

Eagle Squadron (film)

Chesterfield Pictures
Notes
  1. ^ p.87 Mirisch, Walter I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History Univ of Wisconsin Press, 27 February 2008
  2. ^ p. 21 Balio, Tino United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry University of Wisconsin Press, 1987
  3. ^ Balio p 24
  4. ^ Balio p 31
  5. ^ "All Time Domestic Champs". Variety. 6 January 1960. p. 34.
  6. ^ Balio p 34
  7. ^ p.63 Callow, Ridgeway & Behlmer, Rudy Shoot the Rehearsal!: Behind the Scenes With Assistant Director Reggie Callow Scarecrow Press, 1 June 2010
  8. ^ Balio p. 37
  9. ^ "Profiles of First-Place Winners". Billboard. 12 February 1955. p. 10. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
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