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Samuel Bronston (; 7 August 1908 – 12 January 1994) was a -born American film producer and media executive. His films have earned a total of seven Academy Award nominations.
Born in Bessarabia, Russian Empire (present day Moldova), Bronston immigrated into the United States in 1937. A year later, he met James Roosevelt, the son of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and moved to Los Angeles. Together, they formed a brief but fruitless partnership. Roosevelt left Hollywood to return to active military service. Bronston then joined Columbia Pictures, and worked as an associate producer on The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942). A year later, in 1943, Bronston founded his namesake studio Samuel Bronston Productions, and produced Jack London (1943) for United Artists. He next collaborated with Lewis Milestone on the war film A Walk in the Sun (1945) and René Clair on the mystery film And Then There Were None (1945); however, Bronston went uncredited as he struggled to raise financing.
Bronston left Hollywood, and worked as a photographer with the Vatican City. There, he produced a total of 26 documentary films, exploring the Vatican archives. In 1955, he returned to Hollywood as an independent producer. He relocated Bronston Productions in Madrid, Spain, and raised financial capital by pre-selling his film projects to private investors, including financier Pierre S. du Pont III. In Madrid, Bronston spearheaded several productions of historical epics, including King of Kings (1961), El Cid (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963), and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964).
By June 1964, Bronston declared bankruptcy due to the box office failures of The Fall of the Roman Empire and Circus World (1964), in which he owed over US$5.6 million to du Pont III. He subsequently produced Savage Pampas (1966) and Dr. Coppelius (1966), albeit uncredited. During his bankruptcy proceedings with his creditors' attorneys, while under oath, Bronston was found to have committed perjury. He was convicted on one count of perjury, but was later acquitted in a prominent case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which set a major precedent for perjury prosecutions. In 1994, Bronston died in Sacramento, at the age of 85.
In 1932, Bronston was accused of writing bad checks, and he fled to the Netherlands to avoid a jail sentence. He was apprehended by French authorities, and released from police custody. He migrated with his family to England in the following year. There, he met Charmian London, the second wife of author Jack London. While in England, Bronston's family had aspirations to relocate to the United States.
In late April 1941, Bronston signed with Columbia Pictures to work as an associate producer on The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942). A month later, Sidney Salkow was hired to direct, while Glenn Ford and Claire Trevor were enlisted to portray the lead roles. Filming began on October 15, 1941. In 1943, Bronston formed his namesake production company, Samuel Bronston Productions. As his inaugural project, he produced the 1943 film Jack London for United Artists. The film was an adaptation of the biographical book authored by London's widow Charmian London. The film starred Michael O'Shea as Jack London, while Susan Hayward was cast as Charmian. Before the film's release, Bronston signed an optioning deal with Charmian for the screen rights to her husband's other novels. In 1944, he announced plans to adapt London's novels, including The Valley of the Moon, The Star Rover, and The Little Lady of the Big House.
Bronston's second project was City Without Men (1943). In 1944, Bronston enticed director Lewis Milestone away from the studio system and signed him to a multi-picture contract to direct independent film projects, which were be distributed by United Artists. Bronston had also lured exiled French directors René Clair and Julien Duvivier to work for him. During the summer of 1944, he acquired the screen rights to Agatha Christie's 1943 play And Then There Were None (which was also performed under the title Ten Little Indians), with Clair hired to direct the film adaptation.
Meanwhile, Bronston decided to produce a film adaptation of the 1944 book A Walk in the Sun by Harry Brown, after the Zeppo Marx Agency had sent him a copy. Bronston subsequently purchased the screen rights to Brown's novel for $15,000 (). Milestone also agreed to direct a film adaptation of Borrowed Night adapted from the Oscar Ray novel. In November 1944, United Artists cancelled two of Bronston's projects in development, which included a film adaptation of Edward Chodorov's 1944 play Decision and Final Hour, an original film about munitions manufacturers. The former project was dropped due to opposition from the United States Office of War Information (OWI) as the story concerned a returning U.S. war veteran who discovers fascism rampant at home. That same month, Duvivier sued Bronston for $395,000, alleging a breach of contract on his two-picture deal. Duvivier had been set to direct Decision, in which Bronston agreed to modify the adaptation treatment to secure approval from the OWI.
Bronston then proceeded with A Walk in the Sun (1945) with Milestone as co-producer and director. Robert Rossen was hired to write the screenplay, and principal photography began in November 1944 at the Agoura Ranch within the San Fernando Valley. Financing of the film was initially handled by the bank creditor Walter E. Heller & Co., which loaned $850,000, while Ideal Factoring Co. loaned $300,000. Back in New York, Bronston was alarmed when Heller & Co. withdrew its financial backing. By this point, the project was $45,000 in debt, to which Milestone deferred $30,000 of his own salary to secure the deficit. Bronston then tried to re-negotiate with Heller & Co, but they later withdrew their offer. Bankrupt, Bronston withdrew from his producing duties on A Walk in the Sun. Milestone flew to Chicago and successfully negotiated a deal for $750,000. Filming proceeded, and wrapped on January 5, 1945.
However, United Artists decided not to distribute the film as they had agreed to release The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), another war film with similar subject material. Milestone then presented the film to Twentieth Century Fox, whom agreed to distribute the film. In August 1946, Variety anticipated while A Walk in the Sun had earned $1.6 million in distributor box office rentals, it would leave no immediate net profit to reimburse Bronston, Milestone, and the creditors' financial investments. Before the film's release, Bronston filed suit against the bank creditors and five other individuals connected with the film for $3.36 million for the film rights, along with $1 million in punitive damages. He had alleged the defendants committed "oppression and fraud" in which Bronston's interest in the film rights that was submitted as collateral were sold without his knowledge.
By January 1945, Bronston had withdrew from producing And Then There Were None (1945). A new production company Popular Pictures, Inc., which was headed by Harry Popkin and Edward J. Peskay, was formed to finish the project. Popkin and Peskay acquired the script, which had been written by Dudley Nichols. The principal cast, which had been hired, remained with the project. It was later distributed by Twentieth Century Fox.
By March 1950, after fifteen months of filming, Variety reported Bronston had returned to the United States, intending to sell his documentaries for theatrical distribution. He also had pictures of the Vatican published in Life magazine.
In October 1957, director John Farrow had signed on to direct the film, as part of a three-picture contract deal with Bronston. The two other projects were slated to be Son of Man, a religious biopic of Jesus, and The Story of Nelson. Before filming began, Robert Stack had been cast in the title role, with supporting roles filled by Macdonald Carey, Charles Coburn, Marisa Pavan, and Jean Pierre Aumont. Bette Davis made a cameo appearance as Catherine the Great. To finance the film, Bronston formed an investment company called Admiral Pictures Corp., with R. Stuyvesant Pierrepont as the board chairman. Bronston raised financial capital from multiple investors, including financier Pierre S. Du Pont III (of the du Pont family). In his autobiography, Stack stated several American corporations had frozen assets in Spain and could only be reinvested locally. Among them, Du Pont agreed to invest $5 million into the film.
Principal photography began in January 1958, with scenes shot in Versailles in France, Scotland, and Ostia, near Rome. Filming was also allowed inside the Royal Palace of Madrid by the Francoist Spain. However, casting an actor to portray George Washington proved difficult, which delayed filming of scenes featuring Washington. At one point, Farrow and Bronston sent one-dollar U.S. bills to casting agents, asking them to help select an appropriate actor that most resembled him. Farrow eventually selected American actor John Crawford, who was vacationing in Madrid at the time. During shooting, Farrow had Crawford deliver his dialogue with his back turned to the camera. Filming wrapped on August 5, 1958.
John Paul Jones was released in June 1959 to mixed reviews from film critics. James Powers of Variety wrote in his review: " John Paul Jones has some spectacular sea action scenes and achieves some freshness in dealing with the Revolutionary War. But the Samuel Bronston production doesn't get much fire-power into the characters. They end, as they begin, as historical personages rather than human being." The film earned $1 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada, becoming a box office flop. Despite losing his investment, Du Pont III told Bronston he did not invest in individual projects but "rather in the ability of men."
Actor Jeffrey Hunter was cast as Jesus after John Ford had suggested him as a candidate, having directed him in The Searchers (1956) and Sergeant Rutledge (1960). Ray was familiar with Hunter, having directed him in The True Story of Jesse James (1957). Bronston agreed because of Hunter's striking blue eyes, explaining: "I really chose him for his eyes. It was important that the man playing Christ have memorable eyes." Principal photography began on April 24, 1960, and ended on October 4. For King of Kings (1961), Bronston continued his pre-selling financial method, in which financing of the film was provided by private investors. Pierre S. du Pont III contributed $1.375 million of the film's $7 million production budget, according to Variety. After the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, MGM studio president Joseph Vogel and other studio executives visited the set during filming, and became interested in securing the distribution rights due to their concurrent success of Ben-Hur (1959). By December 1960, Bronston sold the distribution rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The studio did not provide any financing towards the film, but Bronston signed guarantee bonds with MGM, ensuring the film's completion.
King of Kings was released in October 1961 and received mixed reviews from film critics. Bosley Crowther, in his New York Times review, felt the filmmakers had "missed or disguised certain happenings that were dramatic and important in Jesus' life. They have obfuscated the healings, avoided the miracles and skipped altogether the judgment of Jesus as a blasphemer and seditionist by the Jews ... In short, the essential drama of the messianic issue has been missed and the central character has been left to perform quietly in a series of collateral tableaux." However, at the box office, King of Kings earned $8 million in distributor rentals from the United States and Canada.
In April 1960, Variety announced that Bronston was independently producing El Cid after he had purchased the rights to screenwriter Fredric M. Frank's 140-page film treatment. In July 1960, Bronston next hired Anthony Mann to direct the film and Philip Yordan to write the final script. A known Hispanophile, Mann expressed excitement at the project: "The reason I wanted to make El Cid was the theme 'a man rode out to victory dead on his horse.' I loved the concept of that ending." Both Bronston and Mann had Charlton Heston in mind to portray the lead role. Bronston also had envisioned Sophia Loren in the role as Rodrigo's wife, Chimene. Loren was hired for $1 million (), becoming the second actress to receive a one-million salary for a film (behind Elizabeth Taylor). After being cast, Loren had read Yordan's draft but was displeased with her dialogue. She recommended Ben Barzman, a blacklisted screenwriter, to rewrite it. During a flight trip to Madrid, Mann flew Barzman and handed him the latest shooting script; during the flight, Barzman read it and agreed to rewrite a new screenplay. Before the film's premiere, Bronston paid Barzman a $50,000 bonus and purchased his wife Norma Barzman a mink coat she did not ask for.
Before principal photography was to begin, 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, making El Cid an American-Italian-Spanish co-production. Principal photography began on November 14, 1960, where interior scenes were shot the Chamartín, Sevilla, and Cea studios in Madrid. Additional interior filming was shot at the Cinecittà in Rome, while second-unit filming was shot on actual locations, including the Belmonte Castle. Heston finished filming his scenes in April 1961, with the duel fight of Calahorra sequence.
Released in December 1961, El Cid was released to 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. At the 34th Academy Awards, in 1962, the film received three Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction—Color, Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Original Song for the "Love Theme From El Cid (The Falcon and the Dove)".
Weeks after his announcement, Bronston faced another infringement complaint, this time from producer Jerry Wald who went public about his in-development project, tentatively titled The Hellraisers. Wald told Variety he had filed an infringement complaint with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and his project once had similar talent behind it. In 1956, Wald claimed he discussed the project in detail with Yordan while developing No Down Payment (1957) at Twentieth Century Fox; Wald had also wanted Guinness to star in his project as well. By April 1962, Wald's infringement complaint proved to be unsuccessful, and he began redeveloping his project into a television film for NBC. Wald however died three months later, on July 13.
Principal photography began on July 2, 1962, again at Bronston's studios in Las Rozas. The production was beset with numerous difficulties, including an unfinished shooting script, which Ray was dissatisfied with. Having pre-sold his film to international distributors, Bronston was pressed to have the film ready for its established release date. During filming, Bronston had heated discussions with Ray over the project, which resulted in Ray suffering a heart attack months into shooting. Guy Green was hired to direct the remaining scenes between Heston and Ava Gardner, while Andrew Marton directed the remaining sequences, including the beginning and opening scenes. Principal photography ended on November 15, 1962.
Released in May 1963, 55 Days at Peking received mixed reviews from film critics, who praised the production design, but were not impressed with the script. By January 1964, 55 Days at Peking had 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.
Similar to his earlier productions, Bronston refused to use miniatures or matte paintings, insisting the set be built to life-size scale, where he invited investors and international distributors to visit the set. During filming, in February 1963, Martin Rackin, then-head of production of Paramount Pictures, visited the set and was left impressed. He told the Los Angeles Times, "When 9,300 people reported for work, it was like D-Day. It took me 40 minutes just to drive around the set. They took the scale of Cleopatra and doubled it." By December 1963, Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute Bronston's next four films, for an investment of $40 million.
Released in March 1964, The Fall of the Roman Empire received mixed reviews from film critics. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was the sharpest, arguing: "There isn't a character in the for whom you're made to care two hoots —or, indeed, made to feel is important, or, for that matter, made to understand. The fellows who wrote the screenplay — Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina and Philip Yordan—have failed completely to shape a drama that has human interest or even sense."
Due to claims of historical inauthenticity, Mann subsequently shot back: "Now I guarantee you there is not one person had read Gibbon ... From Bosley Crowther on down or up. And for them to start to say: 'This isn't Gibbon'—well, this is a lot of crap! Because all we were trying to do was dramatize how an empire fell. Incest, buying an army, destroying the will of the people to speak through the Senate, all these things ... were in the film." The film was a costly box office flop, earning $1.9 million in distributor rentals in the United States and Canada.
Because The Fall of the Roman Empire and Circus World 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 6 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. By 25 March, feeling shut of his own studio, Bronston challenged the trusteeship by hiring Louis Nizer as his attorney. In response, du Pont III hired Thomas Dewey, the former Governor of New York and two-time Republican presidential nominee in the 1944 and 1948 elections, as his attorney. During the same week, The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) premiered and later became a financial failure. Undeterred, Paramount announced it was still releasing Circus World later that year, with its investment in the film left intact.
Released in June 1964, Circus World received a mixed reception from film critics. A review in Time magazine stated: "Though likable enough, this least pretentious of Bronston spectaculars cannot compare to The Greatest Show on Earth. It's just a minor romantic tearjerker, it's Stella Dallas with stardust." It was another box office failure, earning $1.6 million in distributor rentals.
Bronston tried to reorganize his studio operations in Madrid, and convinced the Banco Exterior to not foreclose on his mortgage of his properties. Thanks to his connections with Adolfo Suárez, who was the programme director of the state broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE), Bronston managed to rent his studios to the network. 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 after he purchased a terrain near Ajalvir. There, he used Bronston's studio facilities to film Battle of the Bulge (1965) and Krakatoa, East of Java (1968). Yordan, who had worked with Bronston, decided to remain uninvolved throughout Bronston's financial struggles. Eventually, the real estate was acquired by Spanish director Juan Piquer Simón, who shot Los Diablos Del Mar (translated into The Sea Devils, 1982).
During the financial litigations, Jaime Prades, an associate producer on Bronston's films, arranged enough financing to produce small-scale films such as Savage Pampas (1966), starring Robert Taylor. The film had been long in development since 1958, with Steve Barclay and Hugo Fregonese set to produce and direct, respectively. Plans were intended to shoot in Argentina. For the 1966 film adaptation, Fregonese returned to direct. Bronston however was uncredited. This was followed up with Dr. Coppelius (1966), a film adaptation based on the comic ballet Coppélia. The story concerns the title character who constructs a doll named Coppelia that is quite lifelike that people mistaken it for a real woman. The film starred Walter Slezak in the title role, and filming began in late 1966. By 1967, Bronston's legal battle against du Pont III continued, in which the financier eventually settled with Bronston's creditors for twenty-five cents on the dollar, which reduced the debt considerably, although he paid out $13.5 million in legal fees.
In April 1966, Bronston announced plans to produce a biographical epic about Isabella of Spain, with José María Pemán having written a script. He had secured financial backing from a pool of Spanish investors, and the support of Manuel Fraga from the Ministry of Information and Tourism. In 1971, Bronston again announced his intentions to produce Isabella of Spain. The Los Angeles Times reported that Brosnan had cleared his "technical-legal monetary problems," and found new financing from Marion Harper, an advertising executive based in Madison Avenue. He had opened new production offices in London and Madrid, where filming was scheduled to begin. Ronald Neame was hired to direct and John Peebles had written a script. Glenda Jackson had signed to portray the title role while John Philip Law was to play Ferdinand II.
However, by June 1971, plans had been halted, and an auction, ordered by the Banesto, was in order to sell all assets within Bronston's studios from waste baskets to antique sets. Proceeds of 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 pay. During the same month, the New York State Supreme Court ordered Bronston to pay du Pont III nearly $2.5 million plus interest, for a total of $3 million.
The creditors' attorneys later discovered that Bronston indeed had an active personal bank account in Geneva while he was an active film producer. In 1969, he was charged with two federal counts of perjury for denying he had a Swiss bank account and denying he retained an interest in a potential Spanish Symphony film for the Spanish government. On October 7, Bronston pled not guilty on both counts in a federal court. In February 1971, a jury found Bronston guilty on one count of perjury. A sentence hearing was set for March 16, in which Bronston faced a potential jail sentence of five years. At the time, Bronston had been freed on a $10,000 bond. The case was next appealed to the Second Circuit Court. In April 1971, a jury upheld the perjury charge. Judge Charles H. Tenney stated he disagreed with the jury verdict. While he refrained from issuing a jail sentence, nevertheless, Tenney imposed a $2,000 fine against Bronston. In December 1971, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the perjury charge, in a 2–1 decision.
The case Bronston v. United States ultimately reached the United States Supreme Court. On January 10, 1973, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction, in which it ruled that while Bronston's answer was "shrewdly calculated to evade," it did not rise to the level of perjury because he told the literal truth. Over two decades later, the case was invoked by President Bill Clinton's attorneys when he was charged with perjury during his impeachment.
Afterwards, Bronston moved to a small apartment in Houston, and was still ambitious to develop historical epics. His wife Dorothea stated, "Sam always said, 'Those people take chances and have money so I'm to go there, if they can help me out.' He did a lot of borrowing." He briefly returned to film producing, and was last credited on Fort Saganne (1984), a French film starring Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve.
On January 12, 1994, Bronston died from pneumonia secondary to Alzheimer's disease in Sacramento, California, at the age of 85. He is buried in Las Rozas, Madrid, Spain.
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