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51-484: 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

102-484: A Sunset Boulevard production facility was purchased. PRC's initial "directly produced" feature, Jive Junction , was released in December 1943. Its director, Edgar G. Ulmer , already responsible for multiple PRC releases from outside producers, would make several more films at the studio, including the now renowned film noir Detour (1945). In June 1944, Young set up a new holding company, Pathé Industries , for

153-574: A one- or two-reel comedy; and on Wednesdays and Fridays, features of three reels or more. Later in the year, Pathé stopped releasing its films through General Film Company, acquired the Eclectic Film distribution exchanges, and formally incorporated an American subsidiary: Pathé Exchange . Investors Charles Merrill and Edmund Lynch , then just starting their careers, joined the company's board of directors in early 1915. Released in April 1920,

204-602: A controlling interest in PRC in early January 1942 and purchased it outright by late February. Film Classics Film Classics was an American film distributor active between 1943 and 1951. Established by George Hirliman and Irvin Shapiro , the company initially concentrated on re-releases of earlier hits by other producers, including Hal Roach , Alexander Korda , Samuel Goldwyn , David O. Selznick , and Edward Small , but began to handle new independent productions of

255-499: A controlling stake acquired by Merrill Lynch . For many years, Pathé was closely associated with the distribution company Associated Exhibitors , which handled independent productions. Among Pathé's independent releases were the influential documentary feature Nanook of the North (1922), the first major commercial success in the genre. Its regular release schedule during this period revolved around its newsreel (now coming out twice

306-400: A generally low-budget nature, starting in 1944. George Hirliman left Film Classics in 1944 to enter the new field of television, then still in its experimental stages. Irvin Shapiro also moved on, establishing a film import-export concern. The new company president was Joseph Bernhard; under Bernhard, Film Classics began producing new, original features in 1947. In October 1947 Film Classics

357-682: A national footprint through its alliance with the Orpheum circuit. In March 1927, an agreement was reached to merge Pathé and PDC under the former's aegis, with their films given preferential entrée to the Keith-Albee and Orpheum theaters; the arrangement was designed to allow the interlocked companies to compete with the production-distribution-exhibition combines that now ruled the movie industry: Paramount– Famous–Lasky , Loews – MGM , Stanley– First National –West Coast Theatres, and Fox Film and Theatres . Keith-Albee general manager John J. Murdock

408-654: A shift of the studio's short-comedy unit to the West Coast, joining the feature productions in Culver City. Pathé struggled through 1930, putting out just a single feature each month between June and November; the July release, Holiday , managed to garner Academy Award nominations for lead actress Ann Harding and screenwriter Horace Jackson . In late 1930, Kennedy arranged for Pathé Exchange to be acquired by RKO Pictures , which had been built by Sarnoff in part on

459-617: A week), the "Pathéserials", cartoons by animator Paul Terry , and comedy shorts from Hal Roach and Mack Sennett . Trailblazing film comedians Laurel and Hardy (Roach), the Our Gang troupe (Roach), and Harry Langdon (Sennett) all first reached movie screens under the "Pathécomedy" banner. By far Pathé's biggest star of this era, comedian Harold Lloyd , made many shorts for Roach, originally released by Pathé and then, beginning in May 1921, Associated Exhibitors. Lloyd shifted to features with

510-516: The Bank of America which Robert R. Young personally guaranteed. 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. 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

561-567: 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

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612-572: The America Corporation, briefly revived the brand with a distribution subsidiary, Pathé-America . It was sold the following year to Astor Pictures and soon dissolved. Pathé Frères , founded in 1895 and by the middle of the next decade France's leading film studio, began distributing its films in the United States in 1904. By October 1906, its films commanded as much as 50 percent of the entire U.S. market. In 1908, Pathé Frères

663-854: The Pathé Industries name with that of Chesapeake Industries. Three years later, the suit against the theater chains was dismissed. After Young's death in 1958, Chesapeake was acquired by real estate developer William Zeckendorf . Redubbed the America Corporation, the firm revived the Pathé brand with a distribution subsidiary, Pathé-America , that handled independent productions from both the U.S. and Great Britain. During its brief 1961–62 existence, it released seven films under America Corporation ownership, including Sam Peckinpah 's feature directorial debut, The Deadly Companions (1961), and Roger Corman 's pathbreaking drama about racial demagoguery, The Intruder (1962). In late June 1962, Pathé-America

714-456: The Pathé and PRC assets. Late the following year, Pathé Industries arranged to collaborate with British movie magnate J. Arthur Rank on the reciprocal release of Pathé and Rank productions; Pathé set up a new production subsidiary distinct from PRC, Eagle-Lion Films , while the American distribution firm Rank had established in 1944 under that name relinquished it. The new Eagle-Lion Films

765-526: The RKO Radio Pictures banner. One of the last RKO Pathé features, What Price Hollywood? , with Bennett in the lead, came out on June 24; it was the first screen version of the story that would be filmed multiple times as A Star Is Born . In fact, due to extensive reshoots and recutting, the final feature release bearing the RKO Pathé emblem—the signature Pathé rooster standing proudly atop

816-580: The RKO deal, PFC reentered the filmmaking field in a small way, acquiring 8 percent of the recently established Grand National Films . The venture met with little success, and Grand National was dissolved in early 1940. In 1939, Pathé Film Corporation had bought a second film processing and printing facility, in Los Angeles, and established Pathé Laboratories Inc. of California as its operating subsidiary. The following year, financier Robert Young (no relation to

867-511: The RKO logo's spinning globe— Rockabye , didn't reach theaters until late November. The RKO Pathé brand was thenceforth limited to newsreels and shorts (plus one feature-length documentary in 1953). In 1947, RKO sold the Pathé newsreel operation to Warner Bros. , which rebranded it Warner Pathé News . RKO Pathé continued to put out a reduced roster of theatrical shorts, along with industrials and TV commercials, until early 1956, when its doors closed for good. Later that year, Warners shut down

918-540: The United Kingdom through Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited . 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. Some of

969-484: The actor ) acquired PFC; he officially dissolved the holding company while maintaining control of its various businesses. Pathé returned more fully to filmmaking in 1942, when Pathé Laboratories of California acquired Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), a struggling Poverty Row studio notorious for the threadbare production values of its output. While PRC relied on independent producers for its release slate, Pathé management wanted to focus on in-house production, and

1020-642: The ailing Associated Exhibitors was largely subsumed into Pathé. That same month, Merrill Lynch sold its controlling interest in the studio to fellow New York investment firm Blair & Co., headed by Elisha Walker . Walker's firm proceeded to invest in Producers Distributing Corporation (PDC), known as star director Cecil B. DeMille 's studio, and exchange Pathé stock interests with the Keith-Albee theater chain, which already owned 50 percent of PDC's holding company and had

1071-429: The announcement in August that PRC would be absorbed into Eagle-Lion. The studio's rare hits included an overachieving noir, Anthony Mann 's T-Men (1947), and a Rank import, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 's The Red Shoes (1948). In late 1949, Eagle-Lion announced that it was ending in-house production, as Krim departed. N. Peter Rathvon, former president of RKO, joined the company to handle financing for

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1122-644: The banners of Manhattan Comedies , Whoopee Comedies , Rainbow Comedies , Folly Comedies , Rodeo Comedies , Melody Comedies , Checker Comedies , Campus Comedies , and Capitol Comedies . By the beginning of 1932, feature production had been shifted almost entirely from Culver City to RKO's main Hollywood studio, and in February the company announced that as of the 1932–33 exhibition season (beginning in September 1932) all of its features would come out under

1173-426: The bones of FBO, sold off by Kennedy and dissolved early the previous year; the official merger took place on January 31, 1931. The central assets involved were Pathé Exchange's motion picture production facilities, employee contracts, and distribution exchanges; three films completed by Pathé Exchange, two already in release, were included as well. The Pathé headliners who joined the RKO roster and starred in films from

1224-400: 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

1275-530: The company had completely financed these films it would have made $ 1.2 million but as it was it made $ 200,000. 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 as well as being their only release which

1326-410: The company's remnants and dissolve it, instead stepped down from the board in April 1931. In 1935, the company was reorganized as Pathé Film Corporation (PFC), and most of the film library was sold to Columbia Pictures , which used the accompanying remake rights to produce such classics as The Awful Truth (1937) and Holiday (1938). The following year, after the completion of a hiatus imposed in

1377-473: The country. Several sequels followed, as the original, in the words of film historian Richard Lewis Ward, "became the hallmark for the genre". As of August 1914, Pathé's American release schedule, aside from its weekday newsreel, encompassed a Perils of Pauline chapter every other Monday, alternating with a "Cartoon Comedy or Comedy and Short Scenic Educational subjects in Natural Colors"; on Tuesdays,

1428-412: The debt-ridden Pathé business. One of Kennedy's first moves was to terminate the distribution deals with all of the studio's outside producers, including Mack Sennett. PDC was dissolved and its assets, including DeMille's Culver City production facility and the long-term lease on the adjacent backlot, were folded into Pathé. For the conversion to sound film production now understood as necessary across

1479-508: The drama Sex , starring Louise Glaum , was a hit across much of the country, though it caused controversy in some prudish precincts; the Pennsylvania Board of Censors required it be retitled Sex Crushed to Earth for distribution within the state. Pathé Frères cofounder Charles Pathé retired from the presidency of Pathé Exchange in September, and the following year the business was spun off from its French parent company, with

1530-491: The independent producers who would now provide all of its domestic output, such as George Pal , whose Destination Moon , released in June 1950, was a major success. That same month, Pathé merged Eagle-Lion with an independent distributor that focused on reissues, Film Classics, to create Eagle-Lion Classics. In October, the company sued the RKO and Loew's exhibition circuits for keeping its product out of New York theaters. With

1581-483: The industry, Kennedy contracted both Pathé and FBO to RCA Photophone , run by his sometime ally David Sarnoff . On September 30, 1928, Pathé debuted its first partial sound film: a shortened version of The King of Kings , DeMille's epic about the last weeks of Jesus. The movie had been critically lauded the previous year as a silent road-show attraction handled by PDC; now in general release with music and sound effects, about forty minutes shorter, and playing across

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1632-656: The joint Pathé/Associated Exhibitors release A Sailor-Made Man that December. After four more full-length pictures with Roach—and a return to exclusive Pathé distribution—he launched his own production company with Girl Shy (1924). Following two further Pathé releases, including the massive hit The Freshman (1925), Lloyd departed for the major Paramount studio. Of the six feature films in Pathé Exchange history to reap $ 1 million or more in North American rentals, five were Lloyd vehicles. In October 1926,

1683-580: The major studios by making higher-budgeted films. 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. In 1954, the film lot was purchased by the Ziv Company for production of its syndicated television programs. It has long since been demolished. Path%C3%A9 Exchange In late 1926, controlling interest in

1734-399: 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

1785-415: The nearby film hub of Fort Lee ), Pathé Frères entered the market for serials . Its initial such effort, The Perils of Pauline , starring Pearl White and codirected by company veteran Louis Gasnier , was a massive success, with popular demand so great that the original plan for thirteen episodes was extended to twenty and a record-breaking number of release prints were struck to supply exhibitors around

1836-516: The new semiautonomous RKO Pathé production unit were led by Constance Bennett , Ann Harding , Helen Twelvetrees , William Boyd , Eddie Quillan , Robert Armstrong , and James Gleason . Around the time of the takeover, Pathé's range of shorts included its twice-weekly newsreel, a weekly "audio review", three biweekly series— Grantland Rice Sportlights , Aesop 's Sound Fables , and Vagabond Adventure Series —the seasonal Knute Rockne Football Series , and an array of humorous two-reelers under

1887-426: The newsreel the same year. Pathé Exchange had survived as a small holding company for the few assets, including an East Coast film lab and a home-movie operation, that RKO had declined to acquire; the business was subsequently reorganized, first as Pathé Film Corporation and ultimately as Pathé Industries . The company reentered the movie production and distribution business for nearly a decade beginning in 1942 with

1938-554: The newsreel. Pathé Exchange Inc. continued as a small holding company for the few assets that had not been part of the RKO acquisition, including most of the studio's film library, a film processing lab in New Jersey, a 49 percent stake in DuPont 's raw film manufacturing operation, and a nontheatrical division that focused on the production of shorts for retail customers with home projectors. Kennedy, who had originally aimed to sell

1989-446: 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

2040-408: The purchase of Poverty Row studio Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) and Pathé's subsequent establishment of Eagle-Lion Films . Among the historically significant releases from this period are the film noir Detour (1945, PRC) and the science-fiction film Destination Moon (1950, Eagle-Lion). By 1951, Pathé Industries was out of the motion picture business. In 1961, its successor company,

2091-535: The recently united Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) circuit, it was a major hit at the box office. The KAO merger had been formalized in January and by May the theater chain was largely under Walker and Kennedy's control. Pathé first true feature " talkie ", Strange Cargo , opened on March 31, 1929. The following month, Kennedy had himself elected as chair of the Pathé board. A fire at Pathé's New York production facility that December killed eleven people and precipitated

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2142-601: The shooting of Westerns . In 1911, the company launched the first ever newsreel produced in the United States, the Pathé Weekly ; by early 1914, the renamed Pathé News was coming out five days a week. The year prior, alongside its General Film releases, Pathé also began distributing through the recently founded Eclectic Film Company, in which Pathé Frères was evidently a major investor. In March 1914, from its studio in Jersey City (with many climactic scenes shot in

2193-448: The studio was acquired by investment banker Elisha Walker 's Blair & Co. firm, which soon allied it with the Keith-Albee and Orpheum theater chains and in 1928 brought in financier and Hollywood maestro Joseph P. Kennedy to manage it. Under Kennedy, Pathé contracted with RCA Photophone for conversion to sound film and took over the assets of Producers Distributing Corporation , DeMille's former outlet. Finally, in January 1931,

2244-563: The studio was acquired by the much larger RKO Pictures . It continued making features as the semiautonomous division RKO Pathé into 1932, when all feature production was subsumed under the "RKO Radio Pictures" banner; the RKO Pathé unit and brand were maintained for short subjects and the trademark newsreel. The latter was purchased in 1947 from RKO by Warner Bros. , which rebranded it Warner Pathé News . RKO Pathé, which in its final decade produced industrials and TV commercials along with theatrical shorts, closed its doors in 1956; Warners ended

2295-471: The suit still pending, in March 1951, Eagle-Lion Classics reported that 1950–51 would be its first profitable year, with the prospect that in-house production would resume. The next month, however, the studio was sold to United Artists , which had come under the control of Krim and his partner Robert Benjamin , former head of Rank's U.S. operations. Pathé was once again out of the movies. In 1953, Young replaced

2346-699: Was invited to join the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC), created by a combine of production firms that aimed to lock up the American market completely. As a result, Pathé utilized MPPC's General Film Company distribution company to release its films. Pathé Frères established production facilities in New Jersey—first in East Bound Brook , then Jersey City —and leased an outdoor spread in Edendale , an L.A. suburb, for

2397-410: Was named president of Pathé two months later. Hal Roach negotiated an exit from his Pathé contract and began putting out films through MGM in September, though he also produced a dozen pictures for Pathé's 1927–28 season as part of the exit deal. Early in 1928, Walker and Murdock turned to financier Joseph P. Kennedy , head of midsized studio Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), to help reorganize

2448-511: 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

2499-430: Was officially established in April 1946; entertainment lawyer Arthur B. Krim was brought on as studio president. An ambitious program of A-level productions was promised, although it was the former head of Warners' B unit , Bryan Foy , who was hired as studio chief. The first Eagle-Lion picture, It's a Joke, Son! , reached theaters in January 1947 and the firm soon became Pathé Industries' sole Hollywood flagship, with

2550-470: Was purchased outright by Cinecolor , to promote its color process in its own feature films. Joseph Bernhard, president of Film Classics, became vice president of Cinecolor. Seven months later, Cinecolor president and founder William Crespinel stepped down, and Bernhard assumed the Cinecolor presidency on May 15, 1948. In 1950, Film Classics merged with Eagle-Lion Films ; the new firm, Eagle-Lion Classics,

2601-402: Was sold to Astor Pictures ; after one more release in December, the brand was dropped. The List of RKO Pictures films includes all of the RKO Pathé feature releases, but does not distinguish them from the films made by RKO's main production division, then branded as "Radio Pictures". For the RKO Pathé features, see The Early Sound Films of Pathé (1931–32). Pathé Laboratories Inc. acquired

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