After completing graduate studies at Yale, while still living on the East Coast, he began working for Good News Productions in
Pennsylvania as a producer, director, editor, and writer. There he learned from
Irvin Yeaworth. With Good News, Doughten produced feature films, a children's gospel hour, and a
Salvation Army recruiting film. Good News Productions partnered with
Jack H. Harris and Valley Forge Films to make the 1958 sci-fi classic
The Blob. Doughten worked as associate producer on the film. In 1958, he returned to teaching
English and drama, as well as supervising and directing student productions at
South Pasadena High School. His former students report that he was exacting in demanding their best efforts, but they were proud of the results and the quality of the productions he directed.
Launch of Heartland Productions In 1964, he resigned from teaching in
California. Having become disillusioned with Hollywood, Doughten returned to
Des Moines, initially planning to produce a film called
Heartland about an Iowa farm family. He started his first production company,
Heartland Productions, in 1965. He formed Heartland to make quality, low-budget films saying, "there are two ways of making movies these days, either expensive blockbusters or low-budget pictures. Since we obviously could not make
Ben-Hur, the low-budgeters seemed the answer." Heartland concentrated on good stories rather than star-quality actors. His first movie with Heartland,
The Hostage (1966), was the first feature-length movie made entirely in Iowa. Doughten employed about 100 Iowans as either extras or in technical slots. The film premiered in Des Moines October 26, 1966. The film was distributed by
Crown International Pictures. Next, Doughten directed
Fever Heat in 1968. He was also a producer and made the film under the Heartland label. A story about the excitement of stock car racing,
Fever Heat is about a big-time driver who gets into small-town dirt track racing. The film was shot in
Dexter, Iowa, using the Stuart Speedway. The production company converted a former boat factory in Dexter into a soundstage used for interior scenes in the film. Doughten had planned to film the entire picture in three weeks, but heavy rain right before filming started turned the dirt speedway to mud. He changed the film schedule to shoot interior scenes until races could resume on the dirt track. Forty Iowans from Des Moines were extras and also three local race drivers were in the movie.
Fever Heat was distributed by
Paramount Pictures. Although Doughten eventually produced eight feature films through Heartland, the first two films lost money, forcing Doughten to take out a
Small Business Administration (SBA) loan. The terms of the loan prohibited him from making movies, so the company shifted to acquiring and managing theaters.
A Thief in the Night Seeing the decline in
B movies, Doughten decided to shift his focus toward the Christian market, in part with the goal of using film for evangelistic purposes. In 1972, Doughten launched Mark IV Productions in partnership with co-founder
Donald W. Thompson. Thompson claimed 4 million conversions to Christianity.
Tim LaHaye and
Jerry B. Jenkins cite
A Thief in the Night as being the primary influence for their million-selling
Left Behind series of books and films. Doughten's films have been frequently shown in churches and on
Christian television stations. ==Later years==