1943–1945: Origins On February 16, 1943, Samuel Bronston announced the formation of his namesake production company, having secured the financial support of three banking institutions. Those included were
Lazard,
Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, and the Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles (SFNB). Bronston appointed Joe Nadel as production manager and
Bernard Herzbrun as art director. The studio was headquartered at the
Samuel Goldwyn Studio. Furthermore, he announced a five-year plan to release 15 feature films, each to be distributed by
United Artists (UA). The first inaugural production was the 1943 film
Jack London. By April 1943, Bronston had signed
Alfred Santell and
Ernest Pascal to direct and write the screenplay, respectively, for
Jack London. The film was intended to start production on May 28, 1943, but was postponed until July 1943 when Bronston selected
Michael O'Shea for the title role, on loan from
Hunt Stromberg.
The New York Times reported Bronston's next project was a biographical film of General
Billy Mitchell by
Isaac Don Levine, for which he acquired the screen rights for $100,000. Bronston had planned to film
The Life of Billy Mitchell in 1945, but the project did not reach fruition.
Lewis Milestone had a chance encounter with Bronston, who encouraged him to work independently for his production company. Milestone explained, "I was taking a walk one night when I met Sam Bronston and he asked me to do a film for him which United Artists would release. That suited me fine. I didn't want to go back to a major studio which would have meant having to wrestle continuously with a whole army of executives." By August 1944, Milestone signed a contract with Bronston Productions to direct independent film projects. After considering a number of best-selling novels, Milestone announced he would direct
Borrowed Night, a film adaptation of the Oscar Ray novel. The story concerned two boys and one girl who are forced into the
Wehrmacht and escape through
goldbricking. Meanwhile, Bronston also had contracted two French directors
René Clair and
Julien Duvivier, with the intention they would adapt Jack London's other novels, which included
The Valley of the Moon,
The Star Rover, and
The Little Lady of the Big House. However, by the fall of 1944, Clair instead decided to direct a film adaptation of
Agatha Christie's 1943 play
And Then There Were None (which was also performed under the title
Ten Little Indians).
Dudley Nichols was hired to write the screenplay, while the principal cast included
Louis Hayward,
Barry Fitzgerald, and
ZaSu Pitts. Principal photography was scheduled to begin on November 15, 1944. Meanwhile, Duvivier had been set to direct
Edward Chodorov's 1944 play
Decision. The project centered on a returning U.S. war veteran who discovers
fascism rampant at home, but United Artists dropped the production when it was met with opposition from the
United States Office of War Information (OWI). Between 1942 to 1945, the OWI reviewed Hollywood film scripts, and urged revisions or discarded material which portrayed the United States in a negative light, including anti-war sentiment. In 1944, the
Zeppo Marx Agency sent Milestone a copy of Harry Brown's war novel
A Walk in the Sun. Milestone read the novel and prompted Bronston to buy the screen rights. Bronston purchased the rights from the
Alfred A. Knopf publishing company. In November 1944, filming for
A Walk in the Sun began at the Agoura Ranch in
San Fernando Valley, as a stand-in for
Italy. Financing for the film was primarily handled by the bank creditor
Walter E. Heller & Co. of Chicago which loaned $850,000, while Ideal Factoring Corp. contributed secondary financing for $300,000. However, the loan from Ideal Factoring (headed by Martin Hersh) was secured at the start of the production. Back in New York, Bronston phoned Milestone to report Walter E. Heller had withdrew their loan agreement. Bronston tried to arrange a more lucrative arrangement, in which they offered $200,000 at 6 percent interest, plus a bonus of 15 percent and 40 percent of the picture's profits (for a sum total of $300,000). Alarmed at the figure, the Chicago banks withdrew their offer. Bankrupt, Bronston withdrew from the project altogether. Within a year,
A Walk in the Sun had earned $1.6 million in domestic box office rentals. Twentieth Century-Fox took 30 percent of the earnings for their distribution fee. That same month, Bronston had lost the rights to
Ten Little Indians due to copyright issues. A new production company Popular Pictures, Inc., headed by Harry Popkin and Edward J. Peskay, was formed to finish the project, retitled as
And Then There Were None (1945). René Clair and Dudley Nichols remained with the project, along with the principal cast.
1946–1959: Return from dormancy In March 1946, Bronston announced plans to produce a biographical film of
John Paul Jones. He stated he had wanted to commence filming during the same summer with the cooperation of the
United States Navy. A month later, Bronston offered the project to
Warner Bros. Pictures. However, the project was dropped due to the needed expenses and lengthy screen time necessary to cover the subject adequately. In 1949,
The New York Times reported that Bronston was developing a feature-length documentary in
Rome based on
The Vatican: Behind the Scenes in the Holy City, a book by Ann Carnahan. The documentary was intended to feature the daily life of Vatican citizens and views of holy places to be visited by pilgrims during the impending
Holy Year. At the time, the documentary was the first color film production taken within the
Vatican. Bronston was also involved in a lengthy project to document the Vatican's treasures in an extensive collection of
35 mm slides. According to Bronston's biographer Mel Martin,
Bob Considine narrated the film. A year later, in 1950,
Variety reported Bronston had returned to the United States, having spent 15 months filming the Vatican. Bronston, who had been the production chief of All-Nations Television Corp., intended to release his documentary as a series of shorts for theatrical distribution. He also sought to publish pictures of the Vatican in
Life magazine. By 1955, Bronston returned to Hollywood and aimed to reactivate his long-dormant biopic of John Paul Jones. He formed Admiralty Pictures Corporation, an
investment company with a group of New York investors. Bronston was the president, while R. Stuyvesant Pierrepont Jr. served as the chairman of the board of directors. Through this contact, Bronston recruited multiple limited partners, including
Nelson and
Laurence Rockefeller. The most influential partner of Bronston's partners was Pierre S. du Pont III, a member of the
prominent family and senior executive in their business enterprises. The Du Ponts had financed patriotic radio and television series, and Bronston's project appealed to him. Du Pont personally invested nearly $1.5 million, over a quarter of the film's total cost. Several companies which invested included
DuPont,
General Motors,
Eastman Kodak, and
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. Bronston had initially planned to film
John Paul Jones (1959) in the United States and overseas, including in both Scotland and Italy. In 1957, Bronston met with
José María de Areilza, then
Spain's Ambassador to the United States, at a U.S. State Department dinner. Areilza encouraged him to shoot on location in
Spain. Moreover, Bronston's pool of investors had investments frozen in place by local currency restrictions in Italy, France, and Spain. One day, he received a private investment of $500,000, which was tied up in Spanish
pesetas. When Bronston arrived in Madrid, he selected Spain to film
John Paul Jones because of the support of the government, the cheap, cost-efficient labor, and accommodable filming conditions. Bronston hired
John Farrow to direct
John Paul Jones as part of his three-picture deal, and the cast included
Robert Stack in the title role,
Macdonald Carey,
Charles Coburn,
Marisa Pavan and
Jean Pierre Aumont. He also hired retired Admiral
Chester Nimitz as his personal advisor on the film. Nimitz immediately connected Bronston with assistance from the United States Navy, including Nimitz's successor, who pledged the Navy's full cooperation. Alan Brown was recruited as associate producer, having served as Nimitz's executive officer at the
Pacific Fleet headquarters. The production was shot mostly on location in Spain, with permission from the
Royal Palace of Madrid by the
Francoist Spanish government. Minor filming was done on location in England and France. Released by Warner Bros. in 1959,
John Paul Jones received mixed reviews from film critics. The film earned $1 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada. In 1964, Warner Bros. sold their ownership of the film to Bronston, who planned to re-release the film later that same year.
1960–1964: Successful releases and bankruptcy Upon the completion of
John Paul Jones, Bronston relocated his studio to Madrid. There, he started development on a more ambitious epic,
King of Kings (1961). Within a few years, Bronston hired more production staff personnel and studio executives to handle management and distribution.
Michał Waszyński was hired as an executive producer, after Bronston had met Waszyński through
Robert Haggiag. Waszyński presented himself as a descendant of the displaced Polish aristocracy. Regarded for his elegance and impeccable manners, he was known as the "Prince." Waszyński had previously worked as an assistant to
F. W. Murnau and directed over thirty Polish films, among them
The Dybbuk (1937). Jaime Prades, a Uruguayan who worked for
Cesáreo González's studio, served as an intermediary between Bronston's studio and the Spanish government. In October 1958, Bronston and John Farrow formed a production company, Brofar. However, Farrow exited the project due to Bronston, who allegedly saw the script as anti-Semitic and not sufficiently dramatic. In November 1959,
Nicholas Ray was then hired as director, and promptly hired screenwriter
Philip Yordan to write a new script. In March 1960, Bronston met with
Pope John XXIII, who had been pleased the script refocused its blame for
the Crucifixion of
Jesus on the Romans, gave
King of Kings his blessing and pledged the Vatican's full cooperation. Bronston, having consolidated his studio in Madrid, initially tried to acquire the Sevilla Film Studios, the largest Spanish film studio with five sound stages. The deal fell through, and Bronston instead rented the Sevilla and Chamartín Studios, the latter of which had new sound stages approved by municipal authorities. Filmed in
Super Technirama 70,
King of Kings went into production in April 1960. By June of the same year,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) obtained the film's distribution rights.
King of Kings premiered at the
Loew's State Theatre in New York City on October 11, 1961, and began
roadshow engagements in 22 key cities throughout the United States. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office success, earning $8 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada. While
King of Kings was still in pre-production, Bronston was preparing another historical epic
El Cid (1961). A dream project of Bronston's since 1958, the film's subject matter was tailored to appease the Francoist regime, whose
namesake leader envisioned himself as
the Cid's latter-day incarnation. Set in the
11th century, the film centered on Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as the Cid, who mobilizes the
Kingdom of Spain against the
Moors. As Spanish financiers and banks were not permitted to invest into Samuel Bronston Productions Inc., a foreign company, Bronston formed a local production company, Samuel Bronston Española, which allowed the Spaniards to invest into his films. Thereby, local villages were employed to make costumes, and foundries made steel helmets and swords. , Spain.|alt=In a walled enclosure, there are several tents and an empty rectangle surrounded by tens of mounted knights. A castle rises in the background. Before principal photography began on
El Cid, Bronston was faced with an infringement lawsuit from Cesáreo González's Aspa Films, who had earlier announced his
El Cid project in 1956. By August 1960, Bronston negotiated to have Aspa Films and Robert Haggiag's Dear Film involved in his production, thus making
El Cid an Italian–Spanish co-production. interior scenes for
El Cid were shot at Chamartín, Sevilla, and Cea Studios. Additional filming was done in Rome for tax incentives. Released in December 1961,
El Cid received critical acclaim, with praise towards Mann's direction, the cast, and the cinematography. At the box office, the film earned $12 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada. In September 1961, Bronston announced he was planning a trilogy of historical epic films in Spain; among them were
55 Days at Peking (1963) and
The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). Nicholas Ray, who was set to direct an epic retelling of the
French Revolution, decided instead to direct
55 Days at Peking. Bronston purchased the Chamartín Studios near the completion of
King of Kings, and renamed it the Samuel Bronston Studios. Meanwhile, the sets for
55 Days of Peking were built in
Las Matas, about outside of Madrid, leading into the
Sierra de Guadarrama. There, Bronston rented a vast terrain of and periodically renewed an option to purchase it. During filming on
55 Days of Peking, Jaime Prades was forced out, and Bronston promoted Michał Waszyński as vice president of production, while remaining as the film's associate producer. That same time, Bronston was heavily involved with
The Fall of the Roman Empire, a more ambitious film project in which he sought to reconstruct the city of Rome in Las Matas. Bronston was already arranging the distribution pre-sales for the project and looked to reuse materials from the
Peking set to construct the exterior
Roman Forum sets. On September 11, 1962, Nicholas Ray was hospitalized for a heart attack, which suited Bronston and Waszyński who both wanted to move forward with
The Fall of the Roman Empire. Ray was relieved of his duties, and
Charlton Heston called in
Guy Green to direct the remaining scenes between him and
Ava Gardner. Bronston called in second unit director
Andrew Marton to finish the remainder of filming. Released in May 1963,
55 Days at Peking was distributed by Allied Artists in the United States and Canada. It received mixed reviews from film critics, who praised the production design, but were not impressed with the script. By January 1964, the film earned $5 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada. Due to the film's estimated $9 million production budget, the film did not earn a profit in the United States, but recouped its cost from international territories. In July 1964, Bronston later told
The Hollywood Reporter the film had earned $7.2 million in total. In April 1963, Bronston formed Bronston Distributions, Inc., with the intent to release
The Fall of the Roman Empire, which was scheduled for spring 1964 for first-run roadshow engagements. Paul N. Lazarus, Jr., executive vice president of the production unit, was selected to head the distribution company, with Harold Roth as sales manager. Additionally, Lazarus and
Milton Goldstein, a foreign sales executive, were assigned to cover the
Cannes Film Festival and other film festivals to scout for potential films to release. That same year, Bronston Distributions, Inc. released a French-language comedy
War of the Buttons (1962) to no financial success. However, in December 1963, Paramount Pictures signed a distribution deal to release Bronston's next four films for an investment of $40 million.
The Fall of the Roman Empire and
Circus World were both scheduled for 1964, while a
Nightrunners of Bengal film was in development with
Richard Fleischer set to direct. Concerned that the first two films had both gone over budget (costing a total of $24 million), Pierre S. du Pont III asked Bronston to sign him as the principal trustee, granting him control over Bronston's films. This way, Bronston could not proceed with any contractual or financial measure without du Pont's full approval. By March 1964, du Pont III had acquired control over Bronston Productions. It was also separately reported half of the 40-person staff at Bronston Productions' New York office had been laid off with no warning, a decision Bronston had made "at the request of our banks". Lazarus told
Variety that he was not leaving "at the moment", but the layoffs were advised to cut unnecessary
overhead. Goldstein also left, and was named as special assistant for special productions to Paramount International Films. Released in March 1964,
The Fall of the Roman Empire received mixed reviews and was a financial failure, in which it earned $1.9 million in distributor rentals in the United States and Canada. A month later, Paramount announced it would still release
Circus World later that year, with its investment in the film left intact.
Frank Capra was originally set to direct the film, but was replaced by
Henry Hathaway. He and the film's star
John Wayne helped secure Paramount Pictures' investment to complete and release the film. However,
Circus World was another financial failure, in which it earned $1.6 million in distributor rentals in the United States and Canada. In late December 1966, Aurelio awarded du Pont III a
summary judgment award of nearly $3.6 million, affirming Bronston's statements were "without valid basis."
1965–1971: Financial litigation and aftermath At the time, Bronston had established his studio in Las Matas, which was still managed under Samuel Bronston Española. To alleviate his debts, Bronston leased his studios to
Televisión Española (TVE). Another part of his studio was lent to Twentieth Century-Fox, which used the facilities to shoot four films in Spain, which included
100 Rifles (1969) and
Patton (1970). Philip Yordan also formed a production company called Scotia International to film
Battle of the Bulge (1965) and
Krakatoa, East of Java (1968). Bronston received outside revenue through his investments in Spanish petroleum oil, and continued box office rentals from his films were paid to his creditors. In April 1966, Bronston announced a biographical film titled
Isabella of Spain was in development. He had secured financial backing from a pool of Spanish investors and the support of
Manuel Fraga, the country's
Minister of Information and Tourism. By 1971, he had managed to raise $1 million for pre-production, with most of the private capital raised in England.
Glenda Jackson was cast as the titular queen and
John Philip Law was cast as
Ferdinand II.
Ronald Neame was set to direct, with plans to commence filming later that summer in Madrid. Meanwhile, the
Banco Español de Crédito launched an inquiry into Bronston Productions when payments into Bronston's debts were not producing interest. The bank decided to foreclose even though the studio was occupied by the TVE. The bank appealed to Fraga's successor
Alfredo Sánchez Bella, who held no particular sympathies towards Bronston. Sánchez Bella ordered for the TVE to vacate the facilities, though TVE's president
Adolfo Suárez refused because of production for the following year would be aversely affected. However, Sánchez Bella won out, and as TVE vacated, the bank foreclosed on the studio.
Isabella of Spain was subsequently cancelled, and the Banco Español de Crédito held a public auction selling assets of the studio on the sound stages. Proceeds from the auction lasted for four days, with the monies transferred to the Union of Film Workers, which had filed suit on behalf of select union members owed thousands in back payments. In 1984, the former Samuel Bronston Studios was sold and then renamed the
Luis Buñuel Studios. In 1984, it was used for the filming of ''
Rustlers' Rhapsody'' (1985), which starred
Tom Berenger. ==List of Samuel Bronston Productions films ==