The United Artists Story (1940-1949)

In the 62 years that it existed as its own independent company, the 1940's can easily be considered the weakest and least distinguished decade in UA's mostly prestigious history. Charlie Chaplin made one of his very best films ("The Great Dictator") and David O. Selznick, whose production output had become very few and far between at this point, was always able to turn out successful films but otherwise aside from a few more high profile exceptions, the company's annual release slates were mostly comprised of too many small, low budget pictures that were made only to fill the less attractive bottom half of a double feature and nothing more. Many of the high quality producers who had been with UA throughout the 30's (Samuel Goldwyn, Alexander Korda, Walter Wanger) left for other distributors early in the new decade, leaving UA without those profitable partnerships. Many of the new production companies that UA formed distribution partnerships with just didn't have that same level of quality...and potential profit in their pictures. The company's annual box office reports suffered as a result. Far too many UA pictures simply were not making money. Combine that with D.W. Griffith's death in 1948 and Mary Pickford's retirement from film producing and show business altogether and it seemed very much like UA's days were numbered. Hollywood was changing and UA was becoming very slow to get with the changing times. As the 40's drew to a close, surviving partners Pickford and Chaplin started looking for investors to sell UA to (though they still held on to some shares themselves for the next several years) in order to keep it afloat.

The complete 1940's filmography of UA is all chronologically listed here. This was the last decade that its founders would maintain full control of the company. Things might look grim here but as the next decade progressed, the formerly borderline extinct UA was set to make one of the biggest comeback stories in Hollywood history.

Related lists

View more top voted lists

Embed this list with widgets RSS Feed