Established in 1919 by Hollywood's top talent United Artists has had an illustrious history, from Hollywood minor to industry leader to a second-tier media company in the shadow of MGM. This edited collection brings together leading film historians to examine key aspects of United Artists' centennial history from its origins to the sometimes chaotic developments of the last four decades. The focus is on several key executives – ranging from Joseph Schenck to Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise – and on many of the people making films for United Artists, including Gloria Swanson, David O. Selznick, Kirk Douglas, the Mirisch brothers and Woody Allen. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, individual case studies explore the mutually supportive but also in places highly contentious relationships between United Artists and its producers, the difficult balance between artistic and commercial objectives, and the resulting hits and misses (among them The General, the Pink Panther franchise, Heaven’s Gate, Cruising, and Hot Tub Time Machine). The second volume in the Routledge Hollywood Centenary series, United Artists is a fascinating and comprehensive study of the firm’s history and legacy, perfect for students and researchers of cinema and film history, media industries, and Hollywood.
Author(s): Peter Krämer, Gary Needham, Yannis Tzioumakis, Tino Balio
Series: The Routledge Hollywood Centenary Series
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 323
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of contributors
Series editors’ preface
The Routledge Hollywood Centenary advisory board
Introduction: United Artists in film history
Bibliography
PART 1: Introduction to Part 1
1. ‘One of the United Artists’: Buster Keaton, Joseph Schenck and United Artists
Independence
United Artists and Buster Keaton Productions
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
2. Declarations of independence: Gloria Swanson at United Artists,
1925–1933
Gloria Swanson before United Artists
Joseph P.
Kennedy
Swanson’s final films for United Artists
Conclusion
Note
Bibliography
3. Going independent in 1930s Hollywood: Freelance star and independent producer collaborations at United Artists
‘Stars are re-born’: Fredric March and Janet Gaynor
Sacred deal-making: Carole Lombard
No prisoner of UA: Ronald Colman
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
4. The tramp, the dictator and the knight: United Artists and the roadshowing of prestige pictures in the 1930s and 1940s
City Lights (1931)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Henry V (1944)
Roadshowing after Henry V
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
5. ‘Look, ma, I’m a corporation!’: United Artists and Kirk Douglas’ Bryna Productions, 1955–1959
Bryna Productions
The Indian Fighter (1955)
Bryna’s B pictures
Selling Bryna’s A pictures
Conclusion
Bibliography
6. The magnificent seven Mirisch companies: Competitive strategy and corporate authorship
Entry
Maturity
Decline
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
7. An artist under the influence: United Artists and Woody Allen
The company and the artist
The ‘early, funny ones’ (Bananas through Love and Death)
Portrait of an artist in flux (Annie Hall through Stardust Memories)
End of an era
Notes
Bibliography
8. No shot in the dark: Developing the Pink Panther franchise
Birth of the Pink Panther
Return of the Pink Panther
Conclusion
Bibliography
PART 2: Introduction to Part 2
9. United Artists, fourth quarter 1980: The rhetoric of Hollywood failure and success
Pipeline and locomotion
Moving to fourth quarter, 1980
The first Hollywood narrative: The cautionary tale
The
second Hollywood narrative: Enfotainment and transparency
Heaven’s Gate as (negative) primer for Hollywood commerce
Notes
Bibliography
10. ‘Cruising is a picture we sincerely wish we did not have to show’: United Artists, ratings, blind bidding and the controversy of William Friedkin’s Cruising (1980)
The ‘village murder script’: Cruising before United Artists
Agony dressed in leather: Protesting Cruising
‘There aren’t enough X’s in the alphabet’: Cruising’s controversial rating
United Artists vs the theatre chains: Blind bidding controversies
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
11. From Heaven’s Gate to Rocky IV: Reconfiguring auteurism in United Artists’ transition to MGM/UA in the 1980s
Heaven’s Gate: A
moral and exhilarating experience
‘You can assassinate movies as you can assassinate people’
‘If Ican change, and you can change, everybody can change!’
‘You can’t change anythin’’: The road to Rocky IV
Conclusion
Note
Bibliography
12. The next step: Orion Pictures as the new United Artists, 1978–1985
Departing United Artists
Establishing Orion
Orion Pictures, 1978–1981: The limits of Orion Ventures, Inc.
The new United Artists, 1982–1985
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
13. United Artists Films: Re-entering the specialty market, 1999–2005
Phase 1: Before Ray (June 1999–September 2001)
Phase 2: Ray’s UA (September 2001–January 2004)
Phase 3: After Ray (January 2004–April 2005)
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
14. From star-producer to executive: Tom Cruise and/at United Artists, 2006–2012
United Artists hires Tom Cruise
Recasting Tom Cruise as both star and producer: Lions for Lambs,
Valkyrie, Fame, and Hot Tub Time Machine
United Artists after Cruise
Notes
Bibliography
General index
Index of titles
