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30-620: PRC produced 179 feature films and almost never spent more than $ 100,000 on any of them; most of its films actually cost considerably less. Only the 1944 musical Minstrel Man had enhanced production values; it showed such excellent progress during filming that its planned $ 80,000 budget was nearly tripled. The company evolved from the earlier Producers Distributing Corporation (PDC), begun in 1939 by exhibitor Ben Judell (Benjamin Nathaniel Judell; 1890–1974), who had hired producer Sigmund Neufeld and his brother, director Sam Newfield , to make

60-431: A bodyguard: a thug named Gooch ( Frank Hagney ) who stays at the home. When Effie decides to stop the divorce, her lawyer stages a scene. His girlfriend Nan (Florence Wright) poses as the blonde Henry was supposedly seeing, and convinces Effie to proceed. It is only then that the live-in witnesses, her niece Jane ( Luana Walters ), and Henry's friend Bob Grant ( Ralph Byrd ) notice that the shoe Henry brought back that night

90-540: A hesitant, wide-eyed, babyish simpleton who had trouble dealing with adult problems. Beginning in 1938 Langdon had been experimenting with a new "henpecked husband" screen personality, similar to the timid Caspar Milquetoast of the comic strips, and used this characterization in Misbehaving Husbands . The finished film was distributed by PRC , the smallest of the Hollywood studios. The Langdon-Beaudine collaboration

120-500: A patriotic musical, The Yanks Are Coming . Author Don Miller, in his 1973 book B Movies , devotes two chapters to PRC. He usually comments on how very cheap the studio's early productions were, but does offer kind words for certain pictures: "Most of the remainder of the 1942 PRC product dealt with gangsters, crime, or whodunit puzzles, reliable standbys of the indie companies catering to action and grind theater houses. Baby Face Morgan played it for laughs, with Richard Cromwell as

150-520: A rube posing as a tough racketeer. Robert Armstrong , Chick Chandler , and Mary Carlisle lent strong support, and while it never scaled any heights it was a passable spoof of the genre." In 1943, Robert R. Young , a railroad magnate who also owned American Pathé's film processing laboratory, acquired the studio, and the films generally became more substantial. PRC grew in standing, with the company securing big-city exposure and critical praise for many of its features. The executive in charge of production

180-538: A sequel, Devil Bat's Daughter ; Misbehaving Husbands with silent-comedy star Harry Langdon; and Jungle Man and Nabonga , Buster Crabbe jungle thrillers with Julie London in the latter. During World War II , PRC made several war films such as Corregidor , They Raid by Night , A Yank in Libya , a pair of films set in China — Bombs over Burma and Lady from Chungking , both starring Anna May Wong — and

210-486: Is a 1940 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine for Producers Releasing Corporation . The film had the working titles At Your Age and Dummy Husbands . Harry Langdon , Betty Blythe , Esther Muir , and others in the cast had been stars in silent films . It was Gig Young 's film debut, under his real name Byron Barr. Absent-minded department store owner Henry Butler ( Harry Langdon ), forgetting his wedding anniversary , ends up working late and missing

240-655: Is too small for Nan. Jane also notices that Gooch and Nan seem to recognize each other, and tricks Gooch into calling Nan. They overhear her on an extension phone and get the truth out of her. A tipsy Henry drags the mannequin all over town, only to meet the police, Effie, and her lawyer waiting for him at home. Effie to Jane : "I'm going to get tight !" Bob to Jane : "You've been reading too many detective stories." (inside joke: Ralph Byrd played detective Dick Tracy , in four movie serials and two feature films, from 1937 to 1947, and on television.) Henry : "All this fuss over one little shoe!" Misbehaving Husbands

270-539: The public domain and appear on budget DVDs. Eighty-one films from the PRC library were acquired by National Telefilm Associates; they are currently owned by TV syndicator and video dealer Films Around The World, Inc. Strange Holiday , originally released by PRC, is now owned by Paramount Pictures . Minstrel Man (1944 film) Minstrel Man is a 1944 American musical drama film directed by Joseph H. Lewis and produced by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). It

300-456: The baby in the care of his friends, Lasses and Mae, and drops out of sight. Presumed dead, Dixie stays undercover and takes an assumed name, as a shipboard entertainer. Years later, Dunn grooms Dixie's daughter Caroline for stardom in a revival of Dixie's Broadway show. Dixie's former agent Bill Evans sees an opportunity to sue Dunn for damages, and arranges for Dixie to confront his daughter and his old friends. Production began in late 1943, but

330-553: The door for PRC to book more of its features into first-run situations. The children's fantasy The Enchanted Forest , filmed in Cinecolor , was a surprise hit for the studio, and led to several major studios filming their own movies in the process. Austrian director Edgar G. Ulmer directed three film noir classics for PRC: Bluebeard (1944), Strange Illusion (1945), and Detour (1945). All three — especially Detour — have acquired reputations as artistic achievements. PRC

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360-528: The early 1940s cost $ 70,000 or less; a PRC western cost $ 20,000 or less. PRC president Batcheller followed the Chesterfield business model that had served his father successfully during the Depression years. Chesterfield had catered to small-town owners of neighborhood theaters, who couldn't afford the big studios' first-run movies. Chesterfield product was made on low budgets with actors who had been dropped from

390-500: The gossip spread among her party guests and, seeing Henry come home with the mannequin's blonde hair on his clothes and one of the mannequin's shoes, fears the worst. Her friend, Grace Norman ( Esther Muir ), and an unscrupulous lawyer, Gilbert Wayne ( Gayne Whitman ), urged her to file for a divorce. Since neither one will leave the family home, lawyers ask witnesses to prove that the husband and wife are living apart. Due to Henry's alleged violent temper, Effie's lawyer demands that she have

420-400: The illusion that the PRC had an entire staff of directors. Most of PRC's movies were made within the genres of other studios of the 1940s, but on much lower budgets, and each generally took a week or less to shoot. They included westerns , action melodramas , and horror movies . A low-budget feature from a major studio would cost between $ 300,000 and $ 500,000 to produce, but a PRC feature of

450-1205: The rosters of larger studios, but still had name value. A few then-current stars worked for PRC ( Bela Lugosi , Buster Crabbe , Bob Steele , Frances Langford , Ralph Byrd , Edward Everett Horton ), but generally the company couldn't afford star salaries and had to make do with less expensive "name" talent. PRC cast its starring roles with featured players ( J. Edward Bromberg , George Zucco , Neil Hamilton , Lyle Talbot , Gladys George , Mary Carlisle , Noel Madison , Douglas Fowley , Iris Adrian , Patsy Kelly , Virginia Vale , Frank Albertson , Wallace Ford , Ralph Morgan , Henry Armetta , Chick Chandler , Pauline Moore , Bruce Bennett , John Carradine , Frank Jenks , Eddie Dean ); stars who were idle ( Harry Langdon , Lee Tracy , Anna May Wong , Mary Brian , Glenda Farrell , Freddie Bartholomew , Fifi D'Orsay , El Brendel , Slim Summerville , Armida ); or celebrities from other fields (burlesque queen Ann Corio , Broadway headliner Benny Fields , animal hunter Frank Buck , radio announcer Harry Von Zell , radio comedian Bert Gordon , Miss America (of 1941) Rosemary LaPlanche ). Some of PRC's hits were The Devil Bat with Bela Lugosi and

480-479: The scheduling conflicts of cast and crew were resolved. Producer Leon Fromkess originally budgeted Minstrel Man at $ 80,000, slightly above average for the very-low-budget PRC studio. When Fromkess saw how well the project was progressing, he allocated more money. Composer Harry Revel co-wrote the original songs with Paul Francis Webster ; Revel was equally impressed with the project and invested his own money, earning an "associate producer" credit. The final budget

510-537: The studio had always produced inexpensive westerns, and there was a definite market for them. Among PRC's westerns were the Lone Rider series starring operatic and Broadway star turned singing cowboy George Houston ; a Billy the Kid film series with the lead alternating between Buster Crabbe and Bob Steele ; and The Frontier Marshals , similar to Republic Pictures ' and Monogram Pictures ' cowboy trio series. Buster Crabbe

540-587: The studio's feature films would now bear the Eagle-Lion trademark, the low-budget westerns continued to be marketed with the PRC logo into 1948. Eagle-Lion took over the distribution arm of the company in 1946; the production arm (and with it the entire company) followed suit shortly thereafter. PRC's final release was The Gas House Kids in Hollywood on August 23, 1947. Madison Pictures Inc. released PRC's products for both television showings and theatrical re-releases until 1955. Madison, formed in late December 1945,

570-555: The studio's films. After the collapse of PDC, Judell became an independent producer and the company was reorganized as Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) under former Pathé executive O. Henry Briggs. Briggs was succeeded in January 1941 by George R. Batcheller Jr., son of former Chesterfield Pictures president George R. Batcheller . The studio relied on Sam Newfield to direct most of its early features; Newfield actually adopted two other names ("Peter Stewart" and "Sherman Scott") to create

600-447: The surprise party thrown by his wife, Effie ( Betty Blythe ). He has to have a store mannequin repaired. On the street he is spotted, with the mannequin , by a friend of his wife who thinks Henry is escorting a strange blonde. Other bystanders think it's a murder victim and call the police. Henry is picked up by the police and kept for interrogation until the wee hours of the morning, but his troubles are just starting. Effie has overheard

630-446: Was "more than $ 200,000", according to Variety . PRC's most elaborate production was booked into many major first-run theater chains. Minstrel Man became the biggest critical and financial success the company enjoyed. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards : Best Original Score ( Ferde Grofé and Leo Erdody ) and Best Original Song (Harry Revel and Paul Francis Webster). Misbehaving Husbands Misbehaving Husbands

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660-456: Was PRC's leading western star until he quit in 1945, alarmed by the budgets sinking to new lows. He was succeeded by singing cowboy Eddie Dean in the first B-western series filmed in Cinecolor. Dean was sometimes co-starred with Lash LaRue , who went on to his own starring series. The PRC westerns were so popular that they actually outlasted the studio, which was absorbed by Eagle-Lion . Although

690-412: Was a vehicle for Broadway and vaudeville headliner Benny Fields . Singing star Dixie Boy Johnson and his wife Caroline are jubilant over Dixie's headlining a Broadway show and Caroline's impending motherhood. On opening night, Caroline is rushed to the hospital and Dixie begs to leave the theater and join her, but producer Lew Dunn refuses. Caroline dies in childbirth and Dixie is shattered. He leaves

720-464: Was headed by Armand Schenck, a former supervisor of PRC's branch operations and previously an executive with Commonwealth Film Corporation and later Pathé Laboratories, a subsidiary of Pathé Industries. Madison was bought by United Artists . As early as 1950, the CBS Television network was screening PRC films on television for the bargain-basement price of $ 1,750 per title. Many PRC films are now in

750-437: Was now Leon Fromkess. The Benny Fields musical Minstrel Man was a watershed event: it was the first elaborately mounted PRC picture, and the first to receive Academy Award nominations ( Ferde Grofé and Leo Erdody for best musical score, and Harry Revel and Paul Francis Webster for best original song). Theater chains that formerly would not play PRC pictures were now showing Minstrel Man first-run across America, opening

780-403: Was produced by Hollywood promoter Jed Buell on a very small budget. Buell was friendly with William Beaudine , who had been a top director until an ill-fated business trip to England resulted in depleted finances and fewer opportunities to work. Buell hired Beaudine, and Beaudine worked closely with Langdon in the staging of the comedy sequences. Langdon's silent-screen character had been that of

810-606: Was purchased by Pathé Industries, and the films were now labeled "The New PRC Pictures." The company continued to flourish within its own element until after World War II. Two new detective series were launched: Hugh Beaumont as Michael Shayne (five entries) and William Wright or Alan Curtis as Philo Vance (three entries), as well as a comedy series, The Gas House Kids , an attempt to create its own version of The Bowery Boys (three entries). PRC also engaged in transactions with other studios. Its 1944 exploitation film Hitler's Madman (1944), directed by Douglas Sirk ,

840-414: Was replaced by Gladys George . The juvenile role was intended for PRC contractee Gerra Young, who was sidelined by illness; she was replaced by Judy Clark . Character comedian Lee "Lasses" White was replaced by a bigger name, Roscoe Karns ; Karns's screen character is still named "Lasses White." White himself remained in the film as "Tiny," featured in the minstrel-show sequence. Production resumed after

870-450: Was shut down for four weeks and retooled when various cast and crew members became unavailable. Director Joseph H. Lewis was drafted during production; he was briefly replaced by Edgar G. Ulmer and then Wallace W. Fox . Lewis was released from the army in March 1944 and completed the film. Female lead Binnie Barnes had a prior commitment to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and had to drop out; she

900-481: Was topical enough to be picked up by MGM for distribution. The 1946 thriller The Brute Man had been filmed by Universal but two factors clouded its release: its star, acromegaly victim Rondo Hatton , had just died; and Universal was then undergoing a corporate shakeup and discontinuing all B-picture production. Universal, preferring not to publicize a deceased star and no longer bothering with low-budget films, sold The Brute Man to PRC. Since PRC's inception,

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