- United States Pictures
United States Pictures (also known as United States Productions) was the name of the
motion picture production company belonging toMilton Sperling who wasHarry Warner 's (of theWarner Bros. studio) son-in-law.Sperling was a highly experienced
screenwriter and producer with20th Century Fox and other studios who had just returned from hisWorld War II service in theU.S. Marine Corps Photographic Unit. Warner Bros. offered Sperling an independent production company that would useWarner Bros. studio resources and financing to makemotion pictures that would be released by the studio. In the post World War II era theHollywood major studios were finding the idea of purchasing completed motion pictures from independentfilm production companies more economical than producing the films themselves. [Sperling, Cass Warner, Millner, Cork, and Warner Jr, Jack "Hollywood Be Thy Name" Prima Publishing (1994)]Beginning with
Fritz Lang 's "Cloak and Dagger (1946 film) ", followed byRaoul Walsh 's "Pursued ", Sperling's United States Pictures made a total of 14 films. The last two,Samuel Fuller 's "Merrill's Marauders (film) " (1962) andKen Annakin 's "Battle of the Bulge (film) " (1965) were filmed in thePhilippines andSpain respectively. Sperling found that the Filipino and Spanish governments and film companies thought they were dealing with a branch of theUnited States Government due to the name of the company and provided superb cooperation.Much of the United States Pictures catalog (with certain exceptions, like "Battle of the Bulge", which
Warner Bros. still owns) is now owned by Republic/Paramount Pictures.The United States Pictures marked with an (*) signifies Milton Sperling contributed to the screenplay.
* "
Cloak and Dagger (1946 film) " - directed byFritz Lang
* "Pursued " (1947) - directed byRaoul Walsh
* "My Girl Tisa " (1948) - directed byElliott Nugent
* "South of St. Louis " (1949) - directed byRay Enright
* "Three Secrets " (1950) - directed byRobert Wise
* "The Enforcer (1951 film) " - directed byBretaigne Windust &Raoul Walsh (uncredited)
* "Distant Drums (1951) - directed byRaoul Walsh
* "Retreat, Hell! " (1952)- directed byJoseph H. Lewis *
* "Blowing Wild " (1953) - directed byHugo Fregonese
* "The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (film) " (1955) - directed byOtto Preminger *
* "The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond " (1960) - directed byBudd Boetticher
* "The Bramble Bush " (1960) - directed byDaniel Petrie *
* "Merrill's Marauders (film) " (1962) - directed bySamuel Fuller *
* "Battle of the Bulge (film) " (1965) - directed byKen Annakin *References
External links
* [http://www.imdb.com/company/co0079079 United State Pictures at IMDB]
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