Irving Allen
Born(1905-11-24)November 24, 1905
Lemberg, Austria-Hungary
DiedDecember 17, 1987(1987-12-17) (aged 82)
Encino, California, United States
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
OccupationFilm producer
AwardsBest Short Subject, Two-reel
1947 Climbing the Matterhorn

Irving Allen (born Irving Applebaum, November 24, 1905 – December 17, 1987) was a theatrical and cinematic producer and director.[1]

He received an Academy Award in 1948 for producing the short movie Climbing the Matterhorn. In the early 1950s, he formed Warwick Films with partner Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and relocated to England to leverage film making against a subsidy offered by the British government. Through the 1950s, they each became known as one of the best independent film producers of the day, as the two men would sometimes work in tandem, but more often than not on independent projects for their joint enterprise producing multiple projects in a given year.

Biography

Born in Lemberg (Austro-Hungary), Allen entered the film industry as an editor at Universal, Paramount and Republic in 1929. During the 1940s, he made a sequence of shorts, including the Academy Award-nominated Forty Boys and a Song (1941), which he directed.[2] His short films often won more acclaim than his low-budget features. In the late 1940s, Allen started concentrating more fully on being a producer.

Warwick Films

In the early 1950s, he led Warwick Films as the 'name producer', making films in both the US and England, with Albert R. Broccoli something of a junior partner. In 1957–1958, his partnership with Broccoli was strained both by Broccoli's family health crises (his second wife became terminally ill, soon after adopting one child and with a newborn) and to a lesser extent their disagreement over the film potential of the James Bond novel series. Broccoli was very interested, believing the novels could lead to a high quality series of films, and Allen was not, eschewing the potential of Broccoli's vision of Bond in favor of older established forms. The partners met with Bond author Ian Fleming separately in 1957, Cubby from New York where he'd retreated to care for his wife, but in the London meeting with Fleming arranged by Broccoli, Allen all but insulted Fleming, declaring that Fleming's novels weren't even "good enough for television". Broccoli mired in his troubles in New York, only knew that no deal had occurred until pre-production meetings with Fleming which resulted in the decision to make the Dr. No, as the first film project by Eon Productions.

In 1959, captivated by the historical importance and a good script Warwick undertook the risky project of producing, funding, and distributing The Trials of Oscar Wilde, which was released in 1960. Ahead of the times, its frank unprejudiced depiction of homosexual issues ran into a ratings stone wall in the United States all but preventing any sort of advertising, and the company lost its large investment, Broccoli and Allen fell out, and the partnership became moribund, being dissolved officially in a 1961 bankruptcy liquidation.

Thus the two partners each turned into solo producers in late 1960. Broccoli went on to found Danjaq, S.A. and Eon Productions with Harry Saltzman beginning the Bond films on a shoestring budget, and Allen occupied himself with other projects.

Matt Helm

Some years later, Allen cast about for his own spy series. He acquired the rights to Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm series. Allen was responsible for the Matt Helm series, The Silencers (1966), Murderers' Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967), and The Wrecking Crew (1969).

In July 1967, Allen said "At this stage I"m only interested in making money. I'm not interested in kudos or getting good reviews - I've had all that. I'm just concerned with getting the greatest number of people into theatres."[3] "I've done practically everything," he said. "There's no place I haven't been in the business. The only thing I can't do is write."[3]

Allen's Helm series had one major effect on Broccoli's Bond movies (produced at the time in partnership with Harry Saltzman). To get Dean Martin on board as Matt Helm, Allen had to make the actor a partner in the enterprise. Dean Martin ended up making more money on The Silencers (1966) than Sean Connery made on Thunderball (1965). This did not go unnoticed by Connery.

Allen was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood, California.

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ Bruce Eder (2014). "Irving Allen". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2014-07-24.
  2. ↑ "The 14th Academy Awards (1942) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
  3. 1 2 Allen at Helm of Production Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times 6 July 1967: e14.
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