Eagle-Lion Distributors
 |
|
| Industry | Film studio |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merger |
| Successor | Eagle Lion Classics |
| Founded | Sept 1946 |
| Defunct | 1950 |
|
Key people
|
J. Arthur Rank |
Eagle-Lion Films was a British film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to release British productions in the United States.
In 1947 it acquired Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures, a small American production company, to produce B Pictures to accompany the British releases. The studio became one of the most respected makers of B-movies on what was known as Hollywood's "Poverty Row."
Eagle-Lion was also a film distribution company under the name of Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited in the United Kingdom and Eagle-Lion Films Inc. in the United States. In 1954, the film lot, at 7324 Santa Monica Boulevard, was purchased by the Ziv Company for production of its syndicated television programs. It has long since been demolished.
The company was founded in September 1946.
From 1946-1949 Eagle-Lion was under the control of Arthur Krim who in addition to releasing films by Rank and reissues of David O. Selznick films produced his own B-movies as support. Bryan Foy the former head of the B-picture unit at Warner Bros. was placed in charge of production. Some of the producers working at Eagle-Lion included Aubrey Schenck, Jack Schwarz and briefly, Walter Wanger. Directors included Anthony Mann.
The initial arrangement was that Rank and Eagle-Lion would each produce five films a year. Costs were also initially kept to less than $500,000 per film. Their first year of films were financed with $8 million in loans from the Bank of America which Young personally guaranteed.
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