The United Artists Story

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United Artists is alone among film stúdiós in that it was founded, not by business tycoons, but by fourof the most famous artists in motion pictures - Mary Piekford, 'America's Sweetheart', Douglas Fairbanks, thescreen's supreme swashbuckler, Charlie Chaplin, the world's favourite funny man, and master director D. W. Criffith. The company was idealistically set up in 1919 to act as a distribution agency to give independent producere freedom of expression away from the restraints of the major stúdiós. The films would not only be self-produced and and self-distributed, but self-financed as well. This prompted the celebrated quip from a rival Hollywood executive that 'the lunatics have taken eharge of the asylum'. If so, it was an inspired lunacy, for it led to the creation of such classics from the Big Fouras Little Lord Fauntleroy, The ThiefOf Bagdad, The Gold Rush and Brohen Blossoms, and subsequently gave to the cinema an abundance of great movies including the westerns Stagecoach... Tovább

Fülszöveg

United Artists is alone among film stúdiós in that it was founded, not by business tycoons, but by fourof the most famous artists in motion pictures - Mary Piekford, 'America's Sweetheart', Douglas Fairbanks, thescreen's supreme swashbuckler, Charlie Chaplin, the world's favourite funny man, and master director D. W. Criffith. The company was idealistically set up in 1919 to act as a distribution agency to give independent producere freedom of expression away from the restraints of the major stúdiós. The films would not only be self-produced and and self-distributed, but self-financed as well. This prompted the celebrated quip from a rival Hollywood executive that 'the lunatics have taken eharge of the asylum'. If so, it was an inspired lunacy, for it led to the creation of such classics from the Big Fouras Little Lord Fauntleroy, The ThiefOf Bagdad, The Gold Rush and Brohen Blossoms, and subsequently gave to the cinema an abundance of great movies including the westerns Stagecoach and High I\oon, the comedies To Be Or Not To Be, The General, Somé Like It Hot and Annié Hall, the musicals West Side Story and Fiddler On The Roof, and the dramas Twelve Angry Men, In The Heat OfThe Nighl, One Flew Over The Cuchoos Nest and Apocalypse Notv. United Artists can alsó boast the three biggest money spinning series in cinema history - the James Bond, Pink Panther and Rocky movies. Becauseof its reputation forquality, United Artists attracted film-makere such as Sámuel Goldwyn, DavidO. Selznick, WalterWanger, Howard Hughes, Hal Boach, Alexander Korda, Ernst Lubitsch, Ottó Preminger, Alfréd Hitchcock, John Ford, Billy Wilder, Martin Scoreese and Woody Allén. The 'art vereus business' battle, a comnion Hollywood scenario, is no more clearly illustrated than at United Artists, culminating in 1981 when the $40 millión flop Heavens Gate almost slammed the company shut. Ronald Bergan, film critic and authorof'Sports InThe Movies', 'A-Z Of Movie Directore' and 'Glamorous Musicals', telis the fascinating story of 'the company built by the stare' with style, erudition and wit, through its 1,581 feature films. This unique book of a unique studio, richly adorned with a feast of stills from the movies themselves, is indispensable to all lovere of the cinema. WITH OVER 1,050 ILLUSTRATIONS Vissza