Lippert Pictures was an American film production and

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

company controlled by

Robert L. Lippert Robert Lenard Lippert (March 31, 1909 – November 16, 1976) was an American film producer and cinema chain owner. He was president and chief operating officer of Lippert Theatres, Affiliated Theatres and Transcontinental Theatres, all based in ...

History

Robert L. Lippert (1909-1976) was a successful exhibitor, owning a chain of movie theaters in California and Oregon. He was frustrated that the Hollywood studios concentrated on making big, expensive pictures that commanded premium rental fees. He felt there was a market for smaller, cheaper feature films intended for neighborhood theaters in smaller situations. He called his new production company Action Pictures, and his first film, ''Wildfire (The Story of a Horse)'' (1945) was an outdoor adventure filmed in then-novel

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 ...

. Reception was encouraging enough for the ambitious Lippert to expand his operations. In 1946 he joined forces with independent producer

Edward Finney Edward Francis Finney (1903–1983) was an American film producer and director.Pitts p.174 He is best known as the man who introduced cowboy singer Tex Ritter to the moviegoing public. Biography Finney was educated at the City College of New ...

to create Screen Guild Productions. Lippert's timing was excellent. By 1946 most of the Hollywood studios had abandoned low-budget productions and were making fewer films, leaving scores of actors and technicians underemployed. Lippert came to their rescue, offering them jobs at comparatively low salaries. Thus many of Lippert's features boasted familiar, famous-name casts: Veronica Lake, Zachary Scott, Buster Keaton, George Reeves, Ralph Byrd, Adele Jergens, Jean Parker, Stuart Erwin, Don "Red" Barry,

Robert Alda Robert Alda (born Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo; February 26, 1914 – May 3, 1986) was an Italian-American theatrical and film actor, a singer, and a dancer. He was the father of actors Alan and Antony Alda. Alda was featured in a ...

, Wally Vernon, Anne Gwynne, Jean Porter, and many others. In February 1949 Lippert reorganized Screen Guild and renamed it Lippert Pictures. The studio received surprisingly good notices for a series of dramatic features written by Samuel Fuller; the western '' I Shot Jesse James'', the historical tale '' The Baron of Arizona'', and the military drama '' The Steel Helmet'' won special praise. Producers Boris Morros and William LeBaron teamed to produce a new version of

Victor Herbert Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is bes ...

's ''Babes in Toyland'', planning to release it through Screen Guild. Along with the screen rights, they inherited the 1934 movie version starring

Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo ...

. The remake was never filmed, so Lippert took over the Laurel and Hardy version (retitling it ''March of the Wooden Soldiers'') and reissued it in 1950. In the early 1950s, Lippert struck an American distribution deal for Exclusive Films of Britain. The success of this company, subsequently renamed Hammer Films, boosted Lippert's fortunes until the British outfit left him to begin signing deals with American major studios. In 1956 Lippert signed a deal with 20th Century-Fox to produce films under the name Regal Pictures, often westerns or horror pictures, for it to distribute.Robert L. Lippert, Biography, AllMovie
/ref>

Filmography

References

{{Reflist

Bibliography

* Davis, Blair. ''The Battle for the Bs: 1950s Hollywood and the Rebirth of Low-Budget Cinema''. Rutgers University Press, 2012. * MacGillivray, Scott. ''Laurel and Hardy: From the Forties Forward''. iUniverse, 2009. * McGee, Mark Thomas. ''Talk's Cheap, Action's Expensive - the Films of Robert L. Lippert''. BearManor Media, 2014. American film studios Film production companies of the United States Lippert Pictures films

History

Filmography

See also

References

Bibliography