The United Artists Story (1950-1954)

UA had a mostly difficult and unprofitable 1940's but surviving founders Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin were not about to let their company just completely shut down as it entered a new decade. Two lawyers-turned-Hollywood producers named Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin (the men in the dark suits seated to the left and right of Pickford in the header image) made a deal with Pickford and Chaplin to help run the floundering UA. They were under the optimistic impression that they could make the company profitable again by the end of the decade and assume full control of it. It felt like a long shot but it was a chance that Pickford and Chaplin were willing to take. In 1951, a new era of UA began: the Krim/Benjamin era. The slates of films were mostly modest at first and Krim and Benjamin really upped the ante on looking for product to acquire and distribute. The amount of UA releases for the first half of the 1950's alone slightly exceeded the total amount of UA films from the 1930's, thus necessitating the need to tell the 1950's period of the UA story in two parts.

All UA releases for the years 1950-1954 are collected here. There are some genuine classics and a lot of obscure filler. Still, UA was gradually making decent money again and plenty of great things would be in store for them during the second half of the 50's.

Related lists

View more top voted lists

Embed this list with widgets RSS Feed