Hollywood Independent

How the Mirisch Company Changed Cinema

Paul Kerr

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781501336751
• eBook ISBN: 9781501336768
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Film Direction & Production
• Index: History

Hollywood Independent dissects the Mirisch Company, one of the most successful employers of the package-unit system of film production, producing classic films like The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), The Great Escape (1963) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) as irresistible talent packages. Whilst they helped make the names of a new generation of stars including Steve McQueen and Shirley MacLaine, as well as banking on the reputations of established auteurs like Billy Wilder, they were also pioneers in dealing with controversial new themes with films about race ( In the Heat of the Night ), gender ( Some Like it Hot ) and sexuality ( The Children's Hour ), devising new ways of working with film franchises ( The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther and In the Heat of the Night spun off 7 Mirisch sequels between them) and cinematic cycles, investing in adaptations of bestsellers and Broadway hits, exploiting frozen funds abroad and exploring so-called runaway productions. The Mirisch Company bridges the gap between the end of the studio system by about 1960 and the emergence of a new cinema in the mid-1970s, dominated by the Movie Brats.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Prequel: What did you do in the war, daddy? The Mirisch brothers before entering production
• 2 Prequel: The first time: The Mirisches at Monogram, Allied Artists and Moulin Productions
• 3 How to succeed in business without really trying: Towards a corporate history of the Mirisch companies
• 4 The organization: Corporate culture and the Mirisch Company as ‘author’
• 5 ‘This book is all that I need’: Adaptation as aesthetic and business strategy at the Mirisch Company
• 6 Same time next year or the return of the seven: The Mirisch Company’s sequels and series for cinema and television
• 7 ‘You can’t kill a squadron’: The Mirisch Second World War film cycle
• 8 The border jumpers: ‘Lend lease in reverse’ – The Mirisch Company and transnational cinema
• 9 The children’s hour – Why the Mirisch brothers never worked with the movie brats
• 10 Midway: Between blockbusters and television – The Mirisch Company after United Artists
• 11 Conclusion – Cast a giant shadow
• Mirisch Company filmography
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright