Hitchcock Week: “Rear Window”

Sunday Funday: “40 Pounds of Trouble”

Cult Saturdays: Midnight Madness

Fredo’s Weakness

Modern Times: The Highest Grossing Actor

The Hollywood Star with the highest grossing films at the U.S. box office is Samuel L. Jackson. His films have collectively grossed over $5 Billion.

Forbidden Planet: Space Mutiny!

After the success of Star Wars, anyone and everyone with a space themed script was rushing to get their film made. Unfortunately, even the greatest script can be marred by a poor budget. Unfortunately for the makers of Space Mutiny, they had neither the budget nor a good script. That didn’t stop them, however. Taking advantage of favorable tax credits granted by South Africa, Space Mutiny tried to make something bigger out of virtually nothing.

Every expense was spared!

The “futuristic” spaceship was obviously just a rusty old factory; the sleek “enforcers” were just gussied up golf carts. The special effects were stock footage from Battlestar Galactica, which made them the highlight of the film despite not being the proper aspect ratio for a movie.

Accounts payable rules!

Hilariously, the spaceship’s bridge looked more like an 1980’s dental office than a futuristic operation. While the actors try to make us believe that this is all just an amazing spaceship, it is mostly beyond the acting skills of this cast.

Mama, don’t preach!

The biggest continuity error in the film concerns a woman who is murdered in one scene, yet still appears as a background character in later scenes. Nice to see that death can’t stop you in the future!

Even death won’t stand in the way of getting the job done!

A Star is Born: Bette Davis

Bette Davis always seems like a larger than life figure when her legendary career is recounted these days, but in the beginning of her career she was just like many aspiring starlets. The first studio who expressed an interest in her talent was Universal Pictures. Her first experience with them, however, would not be a positive one.

When Bette Davis arrives with her mother in Hollywood, she was surprised that no studio representative was there to greet her. She later discovered that a representative had been sent, but that he had told studio chief Carl Laemmle that he hadn’t seen anyone who looked like a star at the train station. Ouch. Bette Davis would get picked up by Universal Pictures, but would do little of importance there. She wouldn’t gain traction in Hollywood until she moved to Twentieth Century Fox.

Hooray For Hollywood! MGM’s Dream Factory

In Hollywood’s golden era, nobody had a bigger or more elaborate backlot than MGM. It was Louis B. Mayer’s pride and joy. Virtually any locale could be replicated within MGM’s gates. The studio was like a city unto itself, where thousands of employees worked day and night to keep the MGM machine humming. 

MGM’s formula for success was to produce as many films as possible, using the studio’s vast resources. MGM had its own police force, wardrobe department, prop warehouse, lake and other amenities. In order to keep costs down, Louis B. Mayer had to keep his staff and actors as busy as possible, so there was always something being filmed on the lot.

The studio lot was the envy of Hollywood and other studios often jockeyed to reserve time to film on its premises. While MGM Productions got first dibs on using the studio’s facilities, the company would rent out available sound stages or backlot buildings to earn extra cash and keep its employees busy.

Sadly, the backlot would fall victim to corporate greed. As the studio that depended most on the studio system to keep things running smoothly, MGM was the least prepared to deal with the fallout from the destruction of the studio system and television. In 1969, corporate raider Kirk Kerkorian bought the studio and pretty much sold off anything not nailed down. This included much of the studio’s vast Culver City acreage. Urban sprawl would spring up on land that once hosted the productions of numerous film classics. What was left of the studio grounds was eventually sold off and is now owned by Sony Pictures.

Sunday Funday: Some Like It Hot

Verne Troyer: 1969 - 2018

Cult Saturdays: Curse of the Screaming Dead, featuring Blind Kiyomi

Featuring our favorite movie character:

Famous Movie Palaces

Modern Times: The Dawn of the Modern Blockbuster

Forbidden Planet! It Came From Outer Space!

When the atomic age gave audiences a thirst for science fiction films, the major studios mostly tried to stay out of what they considered to be a lower genre. Most of the science fiction productions from that era came from Poverty Row. Universal Pictures, despite its sprawling studio backlot and semi-major status, was more than willing to cash in on this gimmicky genre. In 1953 it dipped its toe into the sci-fi lagoon with It Came From Outer Space, a film that boasted a higher pedigree than these films normally had; its treatment was written by Ray Bradbury.

Unlike similar films where the monsters or aliens were designed with whatever the filmmakers could find around them (The Creeping Terror was just an obvious carpet) Universal put its resources behind the film. Professional designers came up with two different monsters that the studio executives could choose from. The first design was rejected, but it was used in a later Universal film- This Island Earth.

Sorry, Charlie- you’ll have to wait for your spotlight.

The second design was approved and became one of Hollywood’s legendary monsters. While neither design was particularly realistic, they were still miles ahead of the monsters produced by Poverty Row.

The film was highly profitable and inspired Universal to make more of these types of movies. While these films would be popular and mostly profitable, they wouldn’t escape the genre ghetto until the late 1970’s after George Lucas shocked Hollywood and the world with Star Wars.

A Star is Born! Discovered in a Tourist Trap

Way back when Forrest Gump was still relevant, a chain of tourist trap restaurants inspired by the schmaltzy film sprang up out of nowhere. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, which bizarrely still exists today, serves mediocre seafood at tourist areas around the world. 

It was the late 1990’s and a young, struggling actor was living out of his van working days at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company far away from Hollywood in Maui. Lucky for him, the daughter of a Hollywood legend, in town to direct a film was dining at the tourist trap. It was an unlikely place to get ‘discovered’. In fact, it sounded like something out of a cheesy Hallmark Channel film, but it was true.

The daughter of the legend was Rae Dawn Chong. The struggling actor was Chris Pratt. It sounded like something out of the Golden age of Hollywood, but it took place in the 1990’s. It would take the better part of a decade, but eventually Chris Pratt would become one of the biggest stars in the world.

Hooray for Hollywood! Cafe Trocadero

The Cafe Trocadero was a Hollywood hot spot during Hollywood’s golden era. The French themed restaurant and night club quite possibly didn’t become popular with the acting colony legitimately; it was owned by William Wilkerson, who also owned The Hollywood Reporter. It was well-known around Hollywood that if one wanted to be featured in Wilkerson’s industry paper, a dinner at the Trocadero would be a good way to do it.

At this Hollywood hot spot, formal dress was a must. During its heyday, the high class club located on the Sunset Strip was one of the most famous nightclubs in the world. A who’s who of Hollywood royalty regularly attended the club, including Joan Crawford, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire and many others.

Wilkerson sold the business in 1938 and it went into quick decline. With the exception of hosting the premiere party for Gone With the Wind, the club would never regain the success of its glory days. Wilkerson’s ties to crime syndicates- he was an original investor in Las Vegas’ Flamingo Hotel with Bugsy Siegel- led many to believe that the club had been propped up by laundered money under his ownership. Most likely it was the combination of Hollywood’s fickleness and the elimination of the club’s ties with The Hollywood Reporter that did the club in. Wilkerson’s successful launch of Ciro’s years later would suggest that his ownership of THR was the biggest factor in Club Trocadero’s success.

Funday Sundays: Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Cult Saturdays: Skidoo

Saving Graces: United Artists

When United Artists first formed in 1919 by DW Griffiths, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin it was a noble attempt by Hollywood’s biggest talents to control their own destinies. Rather than relying on the industry’s big titans for their livelihoods, these stars were going to be self sufficient. From the beginning, however, United Artists seemed doomed by a lack of operating capital and the talent’s inability to produce the previously agreed upon pictures. The company nobly carried on, however, despite its limitations.

By the 1960’s, United Artists was firmly hanging on. Its lack of operating capital made it a leaner operation than its competitors, a benefit in the television era that was ravaging Hollywood. The studio had even acquired part of Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes catalog that had been carelessly sold off by Jack Warner. The conglomerization fad that was resulting in Hollywood studios getting snapped up seemingly weekly put United Artists in the sights of Transamerica, an insurance company famous for its pyramid shaped skyscraper in San Francisco.

The relatively small United Artists operation was a good fit for Transamerica, which was mostly known for being an insurance company. Transamerica was expecting its newly purchased studio to produce modestly budgeted base hits rather than lavishly produced home runs. This policy served the studio well; when it did get home runs, they were massively profitable, like Rocky, which was produced for next to nothing yet became a huge hit. The studio even produced the successful James Bond franchise. It would be the company’s deviation from its conservative formula that would be its undoing, however.

The studio made a huge bet on Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, a sprawling, incomprehensible mess whose production spiraled out of control. Michael Cimino’s career was ruined and United Artists fell out of favor with Transamerica. The studio was sold off to the zombie remains of MGM.

Saving Graces: Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures, long a titan of Hollywood, was in dire straits as the 1950’s began. Its longtime collaborators had fled the company, with only Cecil B. DeMille still actively making pictures for the studio. The company had been forced to divest itself of its profitable theater chain and its initial investments in television had not paid off. Even worse, the company sold off its back catalog at a fire sale price. Things seemed very grim by the 1960’s.

What would be Paramount’s saving grace? Conglomerization in general and Gulf+Western in particular. The big fad among businesses at the time was to assemble smaller companies under one large corporate umbrella. Diversifying their businesses would theoretically make them less susceptible to any downturn in any one industry. Gulf+Western, therefore, was in the market for a Hollywood studio along with various other businesses. Paramount was squarely in its sights as a studio that would gain it an entrance into Hollywood that it could buy for a relative pittance.

The combination would prove to be an unlikely success. Paramount entered a renaissance of sorts under Gulf+Western, defying Hollywood’s preconceptions about what types of pictures would be produced by an impersonal conglomerate. Gulf+Western heavily invested in the studio, which led to a juggernaut that produced such acclaimed pictures as The Godfather and Chinatown. The studio even invested in television, producing such hits as Happy Days, Taxi and Mork & Mindy. Things would go so well that in this instance the conquered company would become the conquerer. Gulf+Western would sell of its non-media properties and reorganize itself as Paramount Communications.

Saving Graces: Walt Disney Productions

In the late 1960’s, Walt Disney Productions was the subject of takeover rumors. With the turmoil brought about by television and the death of its visionary founder, many people thought it was a foregone conclusion that the company would be taken over by a conglomerate, who could then take advantage of the company’s valuable trademarks and copyrights.

After Walt Disney’s death, however, his brother was resolute that the company would continue as an independent entity. How was this possible despite all of the upheaval in Hollywood? It was due to the risks taken by Walt Disney himself in the 1950’s. Mr. Disney was the first studio head who saw the emergence of television and embraced it rather than ignore it. Instead of merely selling off the studio’s back catalog, Mr. Disney licensed it and retained ownership.

The biggest saving grace, however, was the biggest risk of them all- DISNEYLAND. Originally, very few people thought that the park would be successful. Many in Hollywood believed that the park would ruin him and take down his studio. In actuality, it was arguably the reason that Walt Disney Productions leapfrogged to become the multi-billion dollar behemoth it is today.

DISNEYLAND finally provided the stability that the company needed in a world where it was becoming more difficult to live “picture to picture” as the company had done for many years. DISNEYLAND would provide the funds to purchase the land in Florida that would become Walt Disney World. When Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom had disappointing attendance, it was DISNEYLAND that kept the lights on. When EPCOT Center almost bankrupted the company, DISNEYLAND’s profits kept it afloat. What was originally called “Disney’s Folly” became Disney’s profitable secret weapon.

Saving Graces: Warner Brothers

Warner Bros. Pictures could have been the biggest studio in Hollywood. While MGM had a more efficient assembly line process for making pictures, Warner Bros. was always the more well rounded studio. It was the only studio with an animation department that could rival Disney and it was often at the forefront of new technology. Its biggest stumbling blocks were its founders- the Warner Brothers themselves. The four brothers were often at odds with each other and in their later years were seemingly out of touch with what was going on in their own studio. 

When television came on the scene, the living Warner Brothers stubbornly refused to have anything to do with it, entering the business relatively late. Even worse, the studio started selling off its Crown Jewels- its back catalog- to stay afloat. Its Looney Tunes cartoons were a huge hit on television but because the company had sold them off, the lucrative profits went elsewhere.

Unlike Universal Pictures, which benefited from its founder’s decision to build a massive studio lot, Warner Bros. suffered from its founders’ decision to sell off anything not nailed down. Its saving grace would come from an outside company that owned and operated parking lots- Kinney National, which sought to diversify its holdings. Kinney would combine Warner Bros. with its other media holdings like DC Comics. This would re-energize the company, which would successfully buy back its back catalog of films as well as those of MGM. Kinney would divest itself of its non-media holdings and become Warner Communications.

Saving Graces: Universal Pictures

Hollywood went through tough times in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The rise of television upended Hollywood’s established traditions and forced it to adapt and eventually embrace television. It was tough going, however, but luckily for most studios, their founders had made decisions that helped them survive and grow. This week, we’ll be looking at the (arguably) saving graces that allowed each classic studio to survive.

Universal Pictures was considered the weakest of the larger studios. Its founder Carl Laemmle always had dreams that were bigger than the studio’s bank account. When he bought the sprawling ranch north of Hollywood that became “Universal City”, he could barely afford it. The other Hollywood moguls made fun of him behind his back, referring to the studio as “Laemmle’s Folly” and The Chicken Ranch, after its previous tenants. That Laemmle’s shaky finances required him to still operate part of the property as a chicken ranch no doubt added to Hollywood’s scorn. As a matter of fact, early guests to the studio lot could gain access by buying a dozen eggs. (They would pick them up on the way out.)

The decision to buy that large parcel of land, however, would prove to be Universal’s saving grace. In the 1950’s, long after Mr. Laemmle had passed away, his studio was in trouble. It had never really gained steady footing; its famed horror films were seen as lesser productions. Once television came on the scene, Universal Pictures was in deep trouble. At first, the company was loathe to enter the world of television, though the money that could be made by renting out its famed backlot to television networks would prove to be extremely tempting. It would be too far gone, however, and it would end up selling its storied backlot and studio to MCA, who would then lease out parts of it back to Universal while leasing the rest out to the burgeoning television industry. Sensing an opportunity, however, MCA would snap up the entire company within a few years. Universal would be reunited with its backlot and embrace television as part of MCA.

In the 1960’s, Universal would see a huge opportunity to further extend its empire. DISNEYLAND had opened thirty miles south, bringing millions of tourists who were looking for other things to do. It would open up its backlot for the first time in over forty years, transporting guests on glamour trams and charging much more than just a dozen eggs for admission. The tour would further stabilize the studio’s finances. It would finally become the major studio that its founder had dreamed about.

So, while Carl Laemmle would never gain the success he dreamed about in his lifetime, his visionary decision to risk it all on a parcel of land that wasn’t even located in Hollywood would save his company years after his passing. It is doubtful that Universal Pictures would have survived the television era had it not had its own large backlot. The studio tour grew into a full fledged theme park that its current parent company admits is one of its fastest growing sources of revenue today.

Not Playing: April Fools Day!