Warner Brothers' Darryl F Zanuck (1902-1979) was a somewhat prolific screenwriter before his prestigious promotion to production chief; would subsequently launch gangster and musical cycles that carried Warners to success beyond the initial boost that was provided by Vitaphone talkies. Zanuck and Jack Warner certainly understood one another and at times did see eye to eye - but it was Harry's impervious nature that would result in Zanuck's official resignation and Hal B.Wallis took over. Wallis kept Warners in the money with his shrewd choice of supervisors, directors and screenwriters.
After Zanuck's departure, Jack Warner's workhorse regime inspired some mighty famous quarrels. Noted stars like Bette Davis and James Cagney vehemently protested the films they were forced to make under unfair contract provisions. Miss Davis had high hopes of acting abroad in England where she was sure she could secure more challenging roles, but was defeated in the courtroom. Cagney would manage to make two independent films but both Davis and Cagney returned to Warner Brothers with the satisfaction of being offered better parts.
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| Mark Sandrich (1900-1945) |
Darryl Zanuck's status after Warners was sufficient for financier Joe Schenk to back a wholly new company - 20th Century Productions. In the first place, they simply produced films releasing them through United Artists but in 1935 when they merge took place with the then faltering Fox Films Corporation, the new 20th Century-Fox company turned out its own movies in its own studio and went on to handle its own releasing.
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| Hey Ernie, size doesn't matter. (Darryl Zanuck with a decidedly more humble cigar than Lubitsch's) |
At Paramount, creativity was given a free hand. Alas the company went so far as to appoint an already established artist in emigre director Ernst Lubitsch to run the studio. This was by no means a pragmatic move and Lubitsch soon returned to the place where he once belonged, happiest at the helm. In the latter part of the Thirties, select directors in the likes of William Wellman and Mark Sandrich who left RKO for the greener pastures of Paramount, were permitted to independently produce their own films.