Associated Producers was an American film production and distribution company of the silent era.
Inspired by the foundation of United Artists, the company brought together a group of leading film directors who hoped running their own company would given them greater financial and artistic control over their work. Those involved with the outfit included Allan Dwan, Marshall Neilan, Maurice Tourneur, Thomas H. Ince, Mack Sennett and George Loane Tucker [1]
Established in late 1919, the company chose not to release their films through United Artists as widely expected but to handle their own distribution. It was also announced that any other directors wishing to join the company would be welcomed. Future director Howard Hawks became involved raising finances for several pictures for the company. [2]
The company announced plans to have at least thirty releases in its first year. [3] Before long, however, this proved to be too ambitious a target. Many of the directors were still under contract to produce films for other studios before they could start work for Associated Producers. One of the most financially successful of the company's releases was Maurice Tourneur's The Last of the Mohicans . [4] Otherwise the company was struggling financially, and according to Variety was losing $5,000 a day by summer 1921. [5]
Eventually the company abandoned its idea of independent releasing, and signed a deal for its films to be handled by First National Pictures. Soon afterwards production was stopped completely. [6]
Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.
The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.
Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company that operated from 1916 to 1924 when it was merged with two other production companies to form the major studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was founded on November 19, 1916, by Samuel Goldfish, an executive at Lasky's Feature Play Company, and Broadway producer brothers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using an amalgamation of both last names to name the company.
Maurice Félix Thomas, known as Maurice Tourneur, was a French film director and screenwriter.
Olga Petrova was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright.
Frank William George Lloyd was a British-born American film director, actor, scriptwriter, and producer. He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its president from 1934 to 1935.
The Motion Picture Directors Association (MPDA) was an American non-profit fraternal organization formed by 26 film directors on June 18, 1915, in Los Angeles, California. The organization selected a headquarters to be built there in 1921.
Marshall Ambrose "Mickey" Neilan was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, whose work in films began in the early silent era.
Triangle Film Corporation was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in July 1915 in Culver City, California and terminated 7 years later in 1922.
John Emerson was an American stage actor, playwright, producer, and director of silent films. Emerson was married to Anita Loos from June 15, 1919, until his death, and prior to that the couple had worked together as a writing team for motion pictures. They would continue to be credited jointly, even as Loos pursued independent projects.
Arthur Henry Rosson was an English film director. From 1917 to 1948, Rosson directed 61 feature films. He also worked on many major films as a second unit director until 1960, particularly for Cecil B. DeMille.
The Ways of Fate is a 1913 American silent short romance film produced by the American Film Manufacturing Company. The film's directorial and producer roles have been both attributed to Allan Dwan, but other sources point to Wallace Reid as director. The film's fictional plot is centered on Jim Conway, who grew up wanting to avenge his father's death and headed West to seek his father's killer. Lost in the mountains, he is saved by a young woman and the two fall in love. After a few weeks with her, Conway reveals the reason he came west and the young woman's father overhears it. The old man confesses to killing Conway's father, over a game of cards, and bares his chest. Conway refuses to take revenge, because love had diminished such feelings. The film was released on April 19, 1913 and it had a widespread national release. It is not known whether the film currently survives, but it is presumed lost.
Wilfred Buckland was an American art director. Buckland worked as an art director with Cecil B. DeMille and Jesse Lasky, and later with Alan Dwan, from 1914 to 1927. He was Hollywood's first "art director" and is credited with a number of advancements in filmmaking, including the advances in lighting techniques, the development of architectural sets, and the use of miniature sets. In 1924, he was named one of the ten individuals who had contributed the most to the advancement of the motion picture industry since the time of its inception. A 1980 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London advanced the argument that "everything we know as 'Hollywood' traces to Wilfred Buckland." Buckland was among the first inductees in the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame.
Frozen Justice is a 1929 American pre-Code drama film directed by Allan Dwan. The picture starred Lenore Ulric in her first sound film and is based on the 1920 novel, Norden For Lov og Ret, by Ejnar Mikkelsen. A shorter, silent version of the film was also released. The film was set in Nome, Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898 and 1899.
Lucien Andriot ASC (1892–1979) was a prolific French-American cinematographer. He shot more than 200 films and television programs over the course of his career.
Edmund Grainger (1906–1981) was an American film producer. He produced more than sixty films during his career, and also occasionally worked as an assistant director. During the 1930s he was employed by Universal Pictures. He worked for RKO during Howard Hughes' ownership of the studio.
Cheating Cheaters is a 1919 silent film comedy directed by Allan Dwan and starring Jack Holt and Clara Kimball Young. Young's production company produced. It was released by Select Pictures Corporation.
Selznick Pictures was an American film production company active between 1916 and 1923 during the silent era.
Associated Exhibitors was an American film distribution company active during the silent era. The company did not produce its own pictures but released productions by independent producers, handling a mixture of low-budget and more prestigious films during the 1920s. Established in 1920, it had a close association with Pathe Exchange, another medium-sized American company.
The W. W. Hodkinson Corporation was a film distribution corporation active during the silent era. It was established and run by the pioneer William Wadsworth Hodkinson who had previously been instrumental in the foundation of Paramount Pictures. After being forced out from Paramount in 1916, Hodkinson briefly worked with Triangle Film before setting up his own independent distribution outfit in November 1917, purchasing Triangle's distribution network of film exchanges for $600,000. It distributed more than a hundred films from 1918 until 1924, sometimes through Pathe Exchange.