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Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company, run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy, which operated from 1945 until roughly 1971 (after which it was absorbed into EMI Films). Low-budget and second features, often produced at Merton Park Studios, formed much of its output. It was the UK distributor of many films produced by American International Pictures (AIP), who distributed AA's films in the United States. It is remembered for producing the first 12 ''Carry On'' films (all of which were produced at Pinewood Studios) and B-movie series such as ''The Scales of Justice'', ''Scotland Yard'' and the ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries''. It also produced the Michael Powell film ''Peeping Tom'' (1960) and such films as John Schlesinger's '' A Kind of Loving'' (1962), ''Billy Liar'' (1963) or Ken Loach's ''Poor Cow'' (1967). The company's distribution arrangement with American International Pictures led to the last two films in Roger Corman's series of films based on th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nat Cohen
Nat Cohen (23 December 1905 – 10 February 1988)William D. Rubinstein, et al (eds.''The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p.171 was a British film producer and executive. For over four decades he was one of the most significant figures in the British film industry, particularly in his capacity as head of Anglo-Amalgamated and EMI Films; he helped finance the first ''Carry On (franchise), Carry On'' movies and early work of filmmakers such as Ken Loach, John Schlesinger, Alan Parker and David Puttnam. In the early 1970s while head of EMI Films he was called the most powerful man in the British film industry. He's been called "an unsung giant of British film who never got his due from the establishment in part because of (possibly unconscious) anti-Semitism... the ability to be a successful studio head is very rare and most only last a few years. Cohen did it successfully at various companies for over two decades." Early life Cohen was the only s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lumiere Pictures And Television
Canal+ Image International (formerly known as EMI Films, Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, Lumiere Pictures and Television, and UGC DA) was a British-French film, television, animation studio and distributor. A former subsidiary of the EMI conglomerate, the corporate name was not used throughout the entire period of EMI's involvement in the film industry, from 1969 to 1986, but the company's brief connection with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Anglo-EMI, the division under Nat Cohen, and the later company as part of the Thorn EMI conglomerate (following the merger with Thorn) are outlined here. The library passed through the hands of several companies over the following years and is now owned by StudioCanal, a former sister company to Universal Music Group and parent company Canal+ Group's acquisition of European cinema operator UGC who acquired the library's then-owner, the United Kingdom-based Lumiere Pictures and Television in 1996, via Cannon Films. EMI Films also owned Elstree St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peeping Tom (1960 Film)
''Peeping Tom'' is a 1960 British psychological horror-thriller film directed by Michael Powell, written by Leo Marks, and starring Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey and Maxine Audley. The film revolves around a serial killer who murders women while using a portable film camera to record their dying expressions of terror, putting his footage together into a snuff film used for his own self-pleasure. Its title derives from the expression "Peeping Tom", which describes a voyeur. The film's controversial subject matter and its extremely harsh reception by critics had a severely negative impact on Powell's career as a director in the United Kingdom. However, it attracted a cult following, and in later years, it has been re-evaluated and is now widely considered a masterpiece, and a progenitor of the contemporary slasher film. The British Film Institute named it the 78th greatest British film of all time, and in 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EMI Films
Canal+ Image International (formerly known as EMI Films, Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, Lumiere Pictures and Television, and UGC DA) was a British-French film, television, animation studio and distributor. A former subsidiary of the EMI conglomerate, the corporate name was not used throughout the entire period of EMI's involvement in the film industry, from 1969 to 1986, but the company's brief connection with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Anglo-EMI, the division under Nat Cohen, and the later company as part of the Thorn EMI conglomerate (following the merger with Thorn) are outlined here. The library passed through the hands of several companies over the following years and is now owned by StudioCanal, a former sister company to Universal Music Group and parent company Canal+ Group's acquisition of European cinema operator UGC who acquired the library's then-owner, the United Kingdom-based Lumiere Pictures and Television in 1996, via Cannon Films. EMI Films also owned Elstre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American International Pictures
American International Pictures, LLC (AIP or American International Productions) is an American film production company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing films from 1955 until 1980, a year after its acquisition by Filmways in 1979. It was formed on April 2, 1954, as American Releasing Corporation (ARC) by former Realart Pictures Inc. sales manager James H. Nicholson and entertainment lawyer Samuel Z. Arkoff and their first release was the 1953 UK documentary film '' Operation Malaya''. It was dedicated to releasing low-budget films packaged as double features, primarily of interest to the teenagers of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The company eventually became a part of Orion Pictures, which in turn, became a division of Amazon MGM Studios. On October 7, 2020, four decades after the original closure, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer revived AIP as a label ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tomb Of Ligeia
''The Tomb of Ligeia'' is a 1964 American-British horror film directed by Roger Corman. Starring Vincent Price and Elizabeth Shepherd, it tells of a man haunted by the spirit of his dead wife and her effect on his second marriage. The screenplay by Robert Towne was based upon the short story " Ligeia" by American author Edgar Allan Poe and was the last in his series of films loosely based on the works of Poe. ''Tomb of Ligeia'' was filmed at Castle Acre Priory and other locations with a mostly British cast. Plot A funeral takes place at the side of Castle Acre Priory. The casket has a window allowing the face of a beautiful young woman to be seen. A black cat jumps on the coffin and seems to steal the soul of the woman. The widower, Verden Fell is both mournful about and feels threatened by the death of his wife, Ligeia. He had sensed her soul's reluctance to die and was concerned about her near-blasphemous statements about God (she was an atheist). Alone and troubled by an e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edgar Wallace Mysteries
The ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries'' is a British second-feature film series mainly produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated. There were 48 films in the series, which were released between 1960 and 1965. The series was screened as ''The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre'' on television in the United States. Synopsis Producers Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy acquired the film rights to all of Edgar Wallace's books and stories in 1960. The original intent was that 30 of the films would be produced by Independent Artists at Beaconsfield Studios while a further 20 would be made by the Film Producers Guild at Merton Park Studios. In the event, Independent Artists' only contribution to the series would be '' The Malpas Mystery'' (1960) while more than double the intended 20 were made at Merton Park. The resulting adaptations were loose, with very few using Wallace's original titles. Like the concurrent Rialto Film series then being produced in Germany (see German krimis) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stuart Levy (producer)
Stuart Levy (30 November 1907 – 3 June 1966) was a British film producer best known for his long association with Nat Cohen with whom he founded and ran Anglo-Amalgamated, making such productions as the Edgar Wallace Mysteries. He was born in Hendon, London and died in London. He has been described as a significant but "obscure" figure. He owned the horse Anglo (named after Anglo-Amalgamated), which won the Grand National in March 1966. Levy died of a heart attack at home. He left behind £335,152. His wife died in 1954. They had one child, a daughter called Sally, who died in July 1962 when she fell from the window of the apartment she lived in with her father. Her death was recorded as an accident. Levy was from Liverpool and knew Brian Epstein's parents. He tried to persuade Nat Cohen to invest in a film starring The Beatles but Cohen refused. References External links *Anglo Amalgamatedat BFI Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Liar (film)
''Billy Liar'' is a 1963 British CinemaScope comedy-drama film based on the 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse. Directed by John Schlesinger, it stars Tom Courtenay (who had understudied Albert Finney in the West End theatre adaptation of the novel) as Billy and Julie Christie as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne plays Mrs. Fisher and Wilfred Pickles plays Mr. Fisher. Rodney Bewes, Finlay Currie and Leonard Rossiter also feature. The Cinemascope photography is by Denys Coop and Richard Rodney Bennett supplied the score. The film belongs to the British New Wave, inspired by both the earlier kitchen sink realism movement and the French New Wave. Characteristic of the style is a documentary/'' cinéma vérité'' feel and the use of real locations (in this case, many in the city of Bradford in Yorkshire). Plot Billy Fisher lives in Yorkshire with his parents and grandmother. Billy wishes to get away from his stifling job and family life. To escape the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
StudioCanal
StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film & television production and distribution company which is a subsidiary of Canal+ S.A.. , the company has 13 production companies in Europe and the United States, and holds around 9,000 titles in its extensive film library in which they ensure the preservation and restoration them for home video releases & digital platforms worldwide. History On 1 January 1987, Canal+ Productions was founded as a cinema film co-production subsidiary of the cable channel which had been established in November 1984, Canal+. The subscription channel was co-founded by André Rousselet and Pierre Lescure. This was to reduce Canal+'s dependence on the American major studios by building its own library that the pay-TV channel could use on their own channels and internationally. By December 1990, Canal+ Production ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carry On (franchise)
''Carry On'' is a British comedy franchise comprising 31 films, four Christmas specials, a television series and stage shows produced between 1958 and 1992. Produced by Peter Rogers, the ''Carry On'' films were directed by Gerald Thomas and starred a regular ensemble that included Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott, Bernard Bresslaw, Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas, and Jim Dale. The humour of ''Carry On'' was in the British comic tradition of music hall and bawdy seaside postcards. The success of the films led to several spin-offs, including four Christmas television specials (1969–1973), a 1975 television series of 13 episodes, a West End stage show and two provincial summer shows. The ''Carry On'' series contains the largest number of films of any British film franchise, and is the second longest running, albeit with a 14-year gap (1978–1992) between the 30th and 31st entrie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
