Realart Pictures

Realart Pictures was a motion picture distribution company founded in 1948 by Jack Broder and Joseph Harris. The company specialized in reissues of older pictures, particularly from the library of Universal Pictures, but also handled an occasional pickup or import, as well as the films made by Jack Broder Productions It is not to be confused with Realart Productions, a silent movie production unit that was affiliated with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players-Lasky studios, and had no relation to the silent pictures' Realart Pictures Corporation that handled Paramount releases.

When Universal Pictures became Universal-International in 1946, new studio head William Goetz discontinued the studio's popular B-pictures - comedies, musicals mysteries, westerns, and serials - to begin a prestigious operation that would feature many independent productions. Goetz had no interest in Universal's sizable backlog, and leased the entire sound-film library (dating from 1930 to 1946) to Broder and Harris. Realart had theatrical reissue rights for 10 years; television rights were not included.

Realart reissued Universal's old product in double-feature package deals, with new and more exciting advertising (Universal was never mentioned in the ads or posters). Most films went out under their original, familiar titles, while others were given more effective (and often more lurid) titles: The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry became Guilty of Murder; Man-Made Monster became The Atomic Monster; The Mystery of Marie Roget became Phantom of Paris.

Supporting players who had since become stars were now given more prominent billing, such as Robert Mitchum becoming second-billed on the reissue of Gung Ho! (1943); Dan Dailey catapulted to top billing for the reissue of The Andrews Sisters' Give Out, Sisters; and Keefe Brasselle of The Eddie Cantor Story was billed over star Gloria Jean in the waterfront melodrama River Gang. Abbott and Costello were incidental players in their first film, the 1940 Allan Jones musical One Night in the Tropics; Realart removed 13 minutes of footage with the romantic leads, and remarketed the edited version as a full-fledged Abbott & Costello comedy. Realart occasionally acquired non-Universal productions: A Walk in the Sun was retitled Salerno Beachhead.

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