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

Early life

Jack Schwarz was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, 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 was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoest ...

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

Baby Face Morgan ''Baby Face Morgan'' is a 1942 American comedy of errors crime film directed by Arthur Dreifuss. It stars Mary Carlisle and Richard Cromwell. The film was a notable "B" effort for PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation). Jack Schwarz was producer ...

'' with

Richard Cromwell Richard Cromwell (4 October 162612 July 1712) was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. On his father's death ...

(1942), '' The Payoff'' with

Lee Tracy William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is known foremost for his portrayals between the late 1920s and 1940s of fast-talking, wisecracking news reporters, press agents, lawye ...

(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 Nighting ...

(1944), ''

Tiger Fangs ''Tiger Fangs'' is a 1943 American adventure/thriller film directed by Sam Newfield and starring Frank Buck and June Duprez. It was distributed Producers Releasing Corporation. The film's sets were designed by the art director Paul Palmentola. ...

'' 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 and ...

fantasy '' The Enchanted Forest'' with

Harry Davenport Harry Davenport may refer to: * Harry Davenport (actor) (1866–1949), American film and stage actor * Harry Davenport (footballer) (1900–1984), Australian footballer * Harry J. Davenport (1902–1977), Democratic Party member of the U.S. House ...

(1945). He later entered into releasing arrangements with fellow exhibitor-turned-producer Robert L. Lippert, publicity man-turned-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 Y ...

, and PRC's successor

Eagle-Lion Films Eagle-Lion Films was a British-American film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to distribute British productions in the United States. In 1947, it acquired Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures, a small American production company, ...

. In 1949 he produced four

Red Ryder Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

westerns with

Jim Bannon James Shorttel Bannon (April 9, 1911 – July 28, 1984) was an American actor and radio announcer known for his work on the '' I Love a Mystery'' and ''Red Ryder'' series during the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Born in 1911 in Kansas City, Mis ...

, noteworthy at the time for being filmed in Cinecolor. Jack Schwarz's most widely distributed film is probably ''

Gold Raiders ''Gold Raiders'' is a 1951 comedy Western film starring George O'Brien and The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Shemp Howard). The picture was O'Brien's last starring role and the only feature film released during Shemp Howard's 1947� ...

'', released by

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

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. Six Stooges appeared ...

Plagiarism suit

In 1945, Schwarz filed a plagiarism action against

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

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 ''Girls' Town'' is a 1942 American drama film directed by Victor Halperin and starring Edith Fellows, June Storey and Alice White.Fetrow p.176 The winner of a Midwest beauty contest receives a screen test in Hollywood and takes her sister along, ...

'' (1942) * '' The Payoff'' (1942) * '' The Enchanted Forest'' (1945) * ''

Ride, Ryder, Ride! ''Ride, Ryder, Ride!'' is a 1949 American Cinecolor Western film directed by Lewis D. Collins and starring Jim Bannon, Don Reynolds and Emmett Lynn. It is based on the ''Red Ryder'' series by Fred Harman, one of four films made by Eagle-Lion ...

'' (1949) * ''

Cattle Queen ''Cattle Queen'' is a 1951 American Western film directed by Robert Emmett Tansey and starring Maria Hart, Drake Smith and William Fawcett.Pitts p.57 It was shot at the Iverson Ranch. Sets were designed by the art director Vin Taylor. It was ...

'' (1951) * ''

'' (1951)

References

External links

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