Lippert Pictures was an American

film production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

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 vari ...

company controlled by Robert L. Lippert.

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 and ...

. 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 Y ...

to create

Screen Guild Productions Lippert Pictures was an American film production and distribution company controlled by Robert L. Lippert. History Robert L. Lippert (1909-1976) was a successful exhibitor, owning a chain of movie theaters in California and Oregon. He was frustrat ...

. 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 Constance Frances Marie Ockelman (November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973), known professionally as Veronica Lake, was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd ...

Zachary Scott Zachary Scott (February 21, 1914 – October 3, 1965)Obituary '' Variety'', October 6, 1965. was an American actor who was known for his roles as villains and "mystery men". Early life Scott was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Sallie L ...

Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...

George Reeves George Reeves (born George Keefer Brewer; January 5, 1914 – June 16, 1959) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying Superman in the television series '' Adventures of Superman'' (1952–1958). His death at age 45 from a g ...

Ralph Byrd Ralph Byrd (April 22, 1909 – August 18, 1952) was an American actor. He was most famous for playing the comic strip character Dick Tracy on screen, in serials, films and television. Early life and career The son of George and Edna ...

, Adele Jergens,

Jean Parker Jean Parker (born Lois May Green; August 11, 1915 – November 30, 2005) was an American film and stage actress. A native of Montana, indigent during the Great Depression, she was adopted by a family in Pasadena, California at age ten. She in ...

, Stuart Erwin,

Don "Red" Barry Donald Barry de Acosta (January 11, 1912 – July 17, 1980), also known as Red Barry and Milton Poimboeuf, was an American film and television actor. He was nicknamed "Red" after appearing as the first Red Ryder in the highly successful 19 ...

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 Walter J. Vernon (May 27, 1905 – March 7, 1970) was an American comic and character actor and dancer. Early life Vernon was born in New York City in 1905. He was in show business from the age of three, appearing in vaudeville and stock thea ...

Anne Gwynne Anne Gwynne (born Marguerite Gwynne Trice; December 10, 1918 – March 31, 2003) was an American actress who was known as one of the first scream queens because of her numerous appearances in horror films. Gwynne was also one of the most popula ...

Jean Porter Bennie Jean Porter (December 8, 1922 – January 13, 2018) was an American film and television actress. She was notable for her roles in '' The Youngest Profession'' (1943), '' Bathing Beauty'' (1944), '' Abbott and Costello in Hollywood'' (194 ...

, 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 Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget B movie, genre movies with controversial themes, often ...

; the western ''

I Shot Jesse James ''I Shot Jesse James'' is a 1949 American Western film directed by Samuel Fuller about the murder of Jesse James by Robert Ford and Robert Ford's life afterwards. The story is built around a fictional rivalry between Ford and his eventual kill ...

'', the historical tale ''

The Baron of Arizona ''The Baron of Arizona'' is a 1950 American Western film directed by Samuel Fuller and starring Vincent Price and Ellen Drew. The film concerns a master forger's attempted use of false documents to lay claim to the territory of Arizona late in ...

'', and the military drama ''

The Steel Helmet ''The Steel Helmet'' is a 1951 American war film directed, written, and produced by Samuel Fuller during the Korean War. The cast stars Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards, and Richard Loo. It was the first American film abo ...

'' won special praise. Producers Boris Morros and

William LeBaron William LeBaron (February 16, 1883February 9, 1958) was an American film producer. LeBaron's film credits included ''Cimarron (1931 film), Cimarron'', which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Outstanding Production at the ...

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 be ...

'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 Double act, comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–19 ...

. 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 Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve clas ...

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 Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release a substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, the ...

. In 1956 Lippert signed a deal with

20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

to produce films under the name Regal Pictures, often

westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

or horror pictures, for it to distribute.Robert L. Lippert, Biography, AllMovie
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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