Seven Arts Productions

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Seven Arts Productions
Industry Film
Genre Entertainment
Founded1957;67 years ago (1957)
Founder Eliot Hyman
Ray Stark
Norman Katz
Defunct1967;57 years ago (1967)
Fate Merged with Warner Bros. to form Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
SuccessorsCompany
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Library:
Warner Bros. (excluding co-productions)
Key people
Eliot Hyman
Ray Stark
Norman Katz
Parent Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1967–1969)
Second logo (1961-1964) Seven Arts Second logo.jpg
Second logo (1961–1964)
Third logo (1964-1967) Seven Arts Third Logo.jpg
Third logo (1964–1967)

Seven Arts Productions was a production company which made films for release by other studios. It was founded in 1957 by Eliot Hyman, Ray Stark, and Norman Katz. [1]

Contents

Formation

The company was formed in 1957. It came out of the company, Associated Artists Productions (AAP), run by Stark and Eliot Hyman, which would buy old movies and resell them to television. Stark and Hyman wanted to move into production but AAP's main stockholder, Louis Chesler, did not, leading to the formation of Seven Arts. Chesler was a Toronto industrialist.

Stark said the company's goal was to remake old Warner Bros films or present previously filmed stories as stage plays. Hyman was a private partner but also remained as president of AAP. Hyman's son Kenneth was liaison between Seven Arts and AAP. [2] Chesler remained involved in Seven Arts as chairman. David Stillman was president.

Initial Productions: United Artists

Seven Arts' first film was The Gun Runners , released by United Artists. A review by Variety said Seven Arts "by reputation has become one of Hollywood’s major independents before canning a single picture." [3] Its second official film was Ten Seconds to Hell a co production with Hammer Films shot in Germanany and Seven Arts played a crucial (though often uncredited) role in co-financing Hammer's early horror movies such as Curse of Frankenstein and The Horror of Dracula . [4] Seven Arts also had early success with an early production on Broadway, The World of Suzie Wong which it helped finance. [5]

In September 1958 Seven Arts signed a five year deal with Jacques Bergerac. [6] In December 1958, the company signed a three picture deal with John Huston to make Freud, Montezuma and Lysistrata. [7] However the first film Huston made for Seven Arts was The Misfits (1961) for United Artists.

In September 1960 Seven Arts announced it would invest $17,500,000 in thirteen to fifteen films budgeted at $30 million. These included The Mistfits , West Side Story , Two for the Seesaw , and By Love Possessed for UA. It also had an interest in films such as The Nun's Story , Strangers When We Meet , The Day of the Gun and Anatomy of a Murder , owing to original ownership of the film rights, and had participated in the making of eighteen movies from Hammer Films in England. Future Seven Arts films in development at this stage included The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone , The Sergeant , The Powder Keg, The Watch that Ends the Night with Tyrone Guthrie and The Long Walk with Laurence Harvey. For Broadway, it was going to produce a musical version of Gone With the Wind and an American version of the TV series Romancero. The company also invested in land in the Bahamas. [8]

Seven Arts clashed with United Artists over a series of matters which led to the end of the relationship between the companies. It was agreed that three properties originally owned by Seven Arts would instead be produced by the Mirsch Corporation - West Side Story, By Love Possessed and Two for the Seesaw. The first of these in particular was a huge hit. [9] In February 1961 Ken Hyman moved to London to head up Seven Arts operations in Europe. [10]

Seven Arts reported a loss of $1,090,212 in 1960 but a profit of $1.1 million in 1961. [9] In June 1961 the company issued its first annual report. This announced, among other things, formation of the Seven Arts-Bryanston Film company (see below), a $5 million investment in real estate in the Bahamas, and an acquisition of the Famous Artists Agency. The company had talent deals with people such as Fred Coe, John Patrick, John Huston, Mel Ferrer, and Isobel Lennart. [11]

Expansion

In July 1962 Seven Arts announced it would make twenty films for MGM over the next few years which it called "the largest single pact ever negotiated with a major distributor by an independent producing company." It also had a four-picture deal with 20th Century Fox, a three-picture deal with Warners and a two-picture deal with Columbia, along with the arrangement with the Mirsch Company to make films for United Artists. [9]

The MGM deal included Lolita , The Main Attraction , Tamahine , The Night of the Iguana , A Global Affair , Sunday in New York , Of Human Bondage , The Careful Man directed by Joshua Logan, A Candle for St Jude by Rumer Godden, This Property is Condemned , Film of Memory (from a French play), The Wild Affair , Meet Me in Monte Carlo (a musical with Alain Delon and Nancy Kwan), Not That Kind of Girl, and The New Adventures of Robin Crusoe. The deal with 20th included Gigot , The Other Side of the Mountain by John Patrick, The Disenchanted , and The Hunt for Kimathi . The Warners arrangement included The Count of Monte Cristo , Panic Button , and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? . Columbia's films was The Enchantress with Robert Mitchum, and Assault on a Queen produced by Mel Ferrer, the film subsequently moved to Warner and retitled as Rampage. Furthermore, Seven Arts announced they would invest in the following movies: The Anatolian Smile from Elia Kazan, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne from John Huston, an untitled Vittorio de Sica movie, Robert Rossen's The Hostage from the play by Brendan Behan, Dr Strangelove , Richard Brooks' The Streetwalker, Sammy Going South , The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and adaptations of Reflections in a Golden Eye and Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad . Seven Arts was also developing Broadway properties including a musical version of Casablanca with producer David Merrick. [9]

Not all the above films were made (or they were made eventually by other parties). However several were and they included some huge hits such as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? In May 1963 the Los Angels Times claimed Seven Arts "remains a deep, dark mystery" in Hollywood. Some of its actors under contract included Nancy Kwan, Sue Lyon, Keir Dullea, Victor Buono, Alain Delon and Sandy Dennis. [12]

In October 1963 Seven Arts announced it would release three art house films, Gentleman's Companion , Les Mystifies and Sammy Going South . It was also developing No Strings , Reflections in a Golden Eye, Settled Out of Court, A Candle for St Jude, This Property is Condemned and Conspiracy of Silence. [13]

Seven Arts also distributed feature films and TV programs for television. Warner Bros. licensed the TV rights to its post-1949 library to Seven Arts in 1960. Seven Arts made similar deals with 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures. [1] Seven Arts also acquired theatrical reissue rights to some Fox films as well. [1]

Lou Chesler's involvement in the company had not been without controversy. [14] In April 1964 Chesler left the company (he was chairman and board member) to focus on his interests in the Bahamas. As part of this Seven Arts sold its interest in the Grand Bahamas Holding Company. [15] Hyman may have wanted to eject Chesler due to the latter's links with organised crime figures such as Meyer Lansky. [16]

Bryanston

Seven Arts signed a deal to co produce films with the British company, Bryanston. Two official co-productions resulted, Sammy Going South and The Small World of Sammy Lee , both of which were box office disasters. A Bryanston film that Seven Arts released in the US, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , was also a box office disappointment. Seven Arts and Bryanston discussed making Tom Jones together but decided not to due to the rising cost; this movie was picked up by United Artists and became a critical and box-office phenomenon. [17]

Merger with Warner Bros.

In November 1966, Seven Arts Productions acquired the controlling interest in Warner Bros. Pictures from Jack L. Warner for $32 million. [18] The companies were merged as Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was rebranded as Warner Bros. Inc. after Kinney National Company bought the company in 1969. [19]

In his last year as head of production, Stark said he "hated ten" of the eleven films he made, the exception being Arrividerci Baby. He claimed his favourite films at Seven Arts were The World of Suzie Wong, The Night of the Iguana and Reflections in a Golden Eye "all of which I made away from Hyman" although he called Hyman "the smartest TV man in the business - and a financial wizard". Star said for most of his time at Seven Arts "what I have really been is a deal maker. When you turn out a lot of film I guess there's a certain security." Stark wanted to focus on producing. [20]

Other uses

Neither the later Seven Arts Pictures nor the defunct releasing company "Seven Arts", an early 1990s joint venture between Carolco Pictures and New Line Cinema (the latter which subsequently merged into Warner Bros.), is related to the original Seven Arts Productions.

Select filmography

For United Artists

For Paramount Pictures

Warner Bros

20th Century Fox

Woodfall

MGM

Hammer Films

(Most of these were released in the US through Fox)

Bryanston

Associated British

Allied Artists

Warner Bros

Gold Star

Other

Theatre credits

Unfilmed projects

Unmade stage productions

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Hoyt, Eric (3 July 2014). Hollywood Vault: Film Libraries Before Home Video. Univ of California Press. ISBN   9780520282636.
  2. ↑ "Stark exits APP, forms own firm". Variety. 5 March 1958. p. 19.
  3. ↑ "The Gun Runners". Variety. 17 September 1958. p. 7.
  4. ↑ Vincent L. Barnett (2014) Hammering out a Deal: The Contractual and Commercial Contexts of The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958), Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34:2, 231-252, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2013.847650
  5. ↑ "'Seesaw' profit is now $229,285". Variety. 1 October 1958. p. 63.
  6. ↑ "Briefs from the lots". Variety. 3 September 1958. p. 14.
  7. ↑ "John Huston's next spot: Afghanistan". Variety. 15 October 1958. p. 19.
  8. ↑ "Seven Arts $30,000,000 Stake in Px". Variety. 14 September 1960. p. 1, 15.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "7 Arts developing muscle". Variety. 18 July 1962. p. 5, 15.
  10. ↑ "Ken Hyman to London". Variety. 22 February 1961. p. 4.
  11. ↑ "Diversification carried far afield". Variety. 7 June 1961. p. 7.
  12. ↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (19 May 1963). "The Mystery Film Outfit". The Los Angeles Times. p. 1, 29 Calendar.
  13. ↑ "Rule at 7 Arts is Bursting Action". Variety. 16 October 1963. p. 7.
  14. ↑ "It's Chesler still at 7 Arts". Variety. 7 August 1963. p. 5.
  15. ↑ "It's Lou Chesler of Bahamas Now, Not Seven Arts". Variety. 22 April 1964. p. 7.
  16. ↑ Vincent L. Barnett (2022) Syndicate at Bray: Hammer, Seven Arts, and The Big Fat Money Machine, Media History, 28:4, 560-575, DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1926225
  17. ↑ Petrie, Duncan James (2017). "Bryanston Films : An Experiment in Cooperative Independent Production and Distribution" (PDF). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: 7. ISSN   1465-3451. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2018.
  18. ↑ Warner Sperling, Cass (Director) (2008). The Brothers Warner (DVD film documentary). Warner Sisters, Inc. Archived from the original on 17 February 2016.
  19. ↑ "Seven Arts Purchases Shares in Warner Bros". The New York Times. 26 November 1966. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  20. ↑ Scheuer, Philip J. (27 August 1967). "Ray Stark Hollywood's Deft Deal Maker". The Los Angeles Times. p. 10.
  21. ↑ "7 Arts Invests $22,000 in Rhino". Variety. 28 December 1960. p. 47.
  22. ↑ "Mickey Rooney may do Gent's Gent Overseas". Variety. 4 June 1958. p. 7.
  23. ↑ "Briefs from the lots". Variety. 23 December 1958. p. 21.
  24. ↑ "Briefs from the Lots". Variety. 24 September 1958. p. 15.
  25. ↑ "Gallico book as play". Variety. 22 April 1959. p. 2.
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