Jack Irving Schwarz (December 19, 1896January 6, 1987) was an American independent producer of low-budget feature films in the 1940s and 1950s.

Early life

Schwarz was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, the son of Adolph Schwarz, a traveling clothing salesman, and Dora (Goodman) Schwarz, according to the 1910 US census. He operated a small chain of movie theaters in Kentucky and Indiana in the 1930s, and decided to enter the more lucrative field of film production in 1942.

Movies

Schwarz became a staff producer for

Producers Releasing Corporation Producers Releasing Corporation (generally known as PRC) was the smallest and least prestigious of the 11 Hollywood film companies of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called " Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower St ...

(PRC), the smallest of Hollywood's studios with national distribution. He made some of the company's better films, including '' Baby Face Morgan'' with

Richard Cromwell Richard Cromwell (4 October 162612 July 1712) was an English statesman who served as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1658 to 1659. He was the son of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. Following his father ...

(1942), '' The Payoff'' with Lee Tracy (1942), '' Dixie Jamboree'' with

Frances Langford Julia Frances Newbern-Langford (April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005) was an American singer and actress who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and made film and television appearances for over two decades. She was known as the "GI Nightinga ...

(1944), ''

Tiger Fangs ''Tiger Fangs'' is a 1943 American adventure film, adventure/thriller film directed by Sam Newfield and starring Frank Buck (animal collector), Frank Buck and June Duprez. It was distributed Producers Releasing Corporation. The film's sets were de ...

'' with Frank Buck (1944), and the

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel an ...

fantasy '' The Enchanted Forest'' with Harry Davenport (1945). He later entered into releasing arrangements with fellow exhibitor-turned-producer Robert L. Lippert, publicity man-turned-producer Edward Finney, and PRC's successor Eagle-Lion Films. In 1949 he produced four Red Ryder westerns with Jim Bannon, noteworthy at the time for being filmed in

. Jack Schwarz's most widely distributed film is probably '' Gold Raiders'', released by

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

in 1951 and again in 1958. This is a budget western co-starring veteran screen actor George O'Brien and

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short-subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical, farce, and slapstick comedy. Six total ...

Plagiarism suit

In 1945, Schwarz filed a plagiarism action against

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

and its executives. He alleged that the studio had pirated a romantic movie manuscript that contained musical themes, and used the material in one of the studio's own movie productions, ''His Butler’s Sister'' (1943), which allegedly involved a similar theme. The court read the scenario, viewed the movie, and held in favor of the studio and its executives.

Personal life

In May 1944, 13-year-old Patsy Ruth Brown disappeared after leaving Schwarz's Fox Wilshire Building penthouse. Schwarz told juvenile officers that Patsy had spent the afternoon in his apartment. That evening he gave her three dollars for a taxi. According to Schwarz, Patsy left in the company of an older girl named O'Hara, whom Patsy had brought with her. Schwarz said that Patsy had begged him numerous times for a role in one of his films. Her only film appearance (uncredited) was in ''Nearly Eighteen'' (1943), not one of Jack Schwarz's productions. A taxi driver who took Patsy to Union Station told the police that Patsy said she was going to San Bernardino to visit her father, an employee of a Barstow, California rock company. However, the taxi driver's tip failed to help police trace the missing girl. Schwarz was married to redheaded actress Marie Louise Talbott, who divorced him in 1952, stating in court that he stayed out all night and came home with lipstick on his clothes.

Later life

Schwarz produced his last film in 1953. He owned the Copra Room nightclub and restaurant, 740 East Broadway, in Long Beach, California.''Long Beach Independent''(Long Beach, California), April 3, 1959, p. 37. He died in Los Angeles in 1987, shortly after his 90th birthday.

Selected filmography

* '' Girls' Town'' (1942) * '' The Payoff'' (1942) * '' The Enchanted Forest'' (1945) * '' Ride, Ryder, Ride!'' (1949) * '' Cattle Queen'' (1951) * '' Gold Raiders'' (1951) * '' Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory'' (1952) * '' Son of the Renegade'' (1953)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarz, Jack Film producers from Illinois 1896 births 1987 deaths Businesspeople from Chicago 20th-century American businesspeople