The story
Founded by Kirk Douglas on Sep 28, 1949.1
Formation of Bryna Productions and early projects (1949–1954)
Kirk Douglas formed an independent film production company at the suggestion of his friend and I Walk Alone co-star, Burt Lancaster, who was already having success with his own film production company, Norma Productions. Lancaster and his agent, Harold Hecht, formed Norma Productions in 1947, at a time when many actors, directors and producers were forming their independent units, which quickly became the largest and most successful independent film production unit in Hollywood during the 1950s. Douglas registered his new company, Bryna Productions, Incorporated, on September 28, 1949, and immediately began optioning properties and securing writers and directors, though it would take more than five years for a project to make it before the cameras. Douglas' mother, Bryna Demsky, after whom the company was named, was a stockholder in the firm.
The first property acquired by Bryna Productions was Ben Hecht's short story The Shadow, about a magician who seeks vengeance against his twin brother for the alienation of his blind wife. Douglas made a deal with lawyer-turned-agent-turned-producer Charles K. Feldman (who, ironically, had tried to sue Lancaster and Norma Productions in 1948) to head Bryna Productions and produce The Shadow at Republic Pictures. Feldman hired screenwriter Charles O'Neal to write the screenplay (O'Neal retitled the film Mr. Shadow), which was to star Douglas in dual roles of the twin brothers. In the role of the estranged wife, Douglas first wanted to cast Jane Greer, then Jane Wyman. By early 1952, Bryna Productions was attempting to film The Shadow in England.
In June 1950, Bryna Productions optioned Irwin Gielgud's story The Life of David Garrick, a story about the life and career of English actor David Garrick. The property was to be filmed under the title Garrick's Gayeties, for which Douglas hoped to co-star with Judy Garland in the role of Peg Woffington. In September 1950, Bryna Productions procured Ivan Thors' screenplay Nowhere to Go, a story about a displaced person fighting for a new home in the United States. Bryna Productions also owned the filming rights to Darwin Teihet's novel The Fear Makers, which Douglas hoped to direct himself.
In March 1952, Douglas revealed plans for Bryna Productions to make three films a year, with him to star in only one of the three yearly films. Producer William Schorr, who had previously been attached to Billy Wilder and produced the Douglas-starring film Ace in the Hole, became an executive partner at Bryna Productions. Schorr was to oversee the production of films, as associate producer, while Douglas would star in the pictures; Schorr would remain instrumental to Bryna Productions for the next four years. That year, Bryna Productions became tied to Strange Harvest, a yarn about a World War II G.I. who returns to visit Italy with his new American wife, only to discover that he has a young son from a war-time fling with an Italian woman. Strange Harvest was written by Sy Bartlett and Harold Conrad; Bartlett co-wrote the screenplay with Schorr, and the film was to be directed by David Miller on location in Italy.
Douglas hoped to film most of his early productions in Europe. In 1953, he and Schorr attempted to secure a two-picture deal with Italian producers Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis. The plan was for Douglas to star in the Italian producers' film Ulysses, in exchange for a co-production deal to film The Shadow, which Douglas hoped to finally get underway with Anatole Litvak secured as director. Ulysses came through but The Shadow was never made. In June 1953, Bryna Productions discussed a co-production deal with Sidney Sheldon to film Alice in Arms in Italy, adapted from a play in which Douglas had appeared on Broadway in 1945.
By January 1954, the local for Strange Harvest had been changed from Italy to Japan, when a financing deal was secured there, and Bryna Productions wanted Marlon Brando to star in the picture. Later in 1954, Bryna Productions acquired Robert Carson's story The Quality of Mercy, though its filming rights were up to challenge. Bryna Productions had been given permission by the author via a verbal agreement, whereas John Wayne and his business partner Robert Fellows had received a written agreement from Carson's agent, through their film production company Batjac Productions. A partnership was then formed between Batjac Productions and Bryna Productions to co-produce the film together, with Douglas starring and Ben Hecht writing the screenplay. Batjac Productions' existing Warner Brothers Pictures financing and distribution deal would back the picture, though it was ultimately never made. In April 1954, it was reported that Douglas was interested in producing and starring in a television series through Bryna Productions. In September 1954, Bryna Productions showed interest in filming Robert Wright Campbell's already-written film script The Dangerous Game.
Six-picture deal with United Artists (1955)
In early January 1955, Douglas formally activated Bryna Productions by signing a six-picture, three-year financing and distribution deal with United Artists. After signing the deal, Douglas and his second wife, Anne Douglas, were invited out to celebrate with cocktails at 21 Club in New York City by United Artists executives, president Arthur B. Krim and board chairman Robert S. Benjamin. That month, Stanley Margulies was appointed Publicity Director for Bryna Productions' new subsidiary, Public Relations Consultants, Incorporated, and the company's first two motion pictures were announced: The Viking Raiders, a swashbuckler about Vikings pillaging the coast of Brittany, adapted by Edison Marshall's novel and to be directed by Richard Fleischer; and Van Gogh, a biopic of Vincent Van Gogh, to be directed by Jean Negulesco. Douglas was to star in both. A month later, however, in February 1955, it was announced that The Indian Fighter, a story about a reckless adventurer who tries to foment a war between the Indians and the western settlers after the Civil War, with a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Frank Davis and also starring Douglas, would be the inaugural picture to be filmed. That same month, Norman A. Cook was appointed General Manager of Bryna Productions.
The Van Gogh biopic property was subject to some debate as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer also owned the filming rights to a similar story, Lust for Life, based on Irving Stone's novel, with John Houseman secured as producer and Vincente Minnelli inked as director. American producer Robert Goldstein was also in a partnership with Italian producer Giuseppe Amato, ready to film a Van Gogh biopic in Rome from an original Harry Brown screenplay. Instead of battling Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer over the property, Douglas chose to approach the company and offered to make the picture together, with his services as an actor.
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In March 1955, Bryna Productions moved into its first official headquarter office at 9235 West Third Street, Beverly Hills, California. That same month, it was announced that the company hoped to film Jacquin Sanders' novel Freak Show, a provocative love story about a wrestler and a freak girl at a carnival. The Indian Fighter secured André de Toth as director in early March 1955, and was originally scheduled to begin filming in early April 1955, but due to Douglas' personal publicity tour promoting Man Without a Star for Universal-International Pictures, the shooting only began on May 23, 1955. The film was shot entirely on location, using CinemaScope cameras and Technicolor film, during five weeks in and around Bend, Oregon, without any studio retakes, for a cost of over $1,000,000. Bryna Productions also brought over Italian actress Elsa Martinelli for the femme lead and featured actors like Walter Matthau, Lon Chaney, Jr., Alan Hale, Jr., and Douglas' former wife Diana Douglas. After the filming was completed, Bryna Productions hired folk singer Terry Gilkyson to sing a couple of songs written by Irving Gordon and Franz Waxman to compose the score. Bryna Productions also acquired the filming rights to Robert Wright Campbell's original screenplay The Allison Brothers for $25,000, a story written especially for the author's brother, William Campbell.
Immediately after completing The Indian Fighter, Douglas began filming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Lust for Life in France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, following which he planned to produce and star in The Viking Raiders; the Norse film would, however, be pushed back by three years. While in Europe, Bryna Productions optioned German author Klaus Schuitz's story The Runaway Heart, which deals with an Italian girl who falls in love with an SS Nazi officer during World War II. The male lead was to be played by Douglas, while the Italian role was offered to Sophia Loren.
In October 1955, after returning from Europe for the filming of Lust for Life, Douglas named three new executives for Bryna Productions: Jerry Bresler was appointed Producer and General Manager; Myer P. Beck was appointed Producer's Representative; and David E. Weshner was appointed Sales and Distribution Representative. The company then announced plans to film Robert Alan Aurthur's original story Shadow of the Champ. The plot revolved around a has-been boxing champion's romance with a lonely woman, and had already been adapted for television on The Philco Television Playhouse earlier that year. The story's filming rights were advanced by United Artists for $100,000; the highest fee ever paid at the time for a television package-play. The film was to be co-produced with Jonathan Productions, a company founded by Aurthur, David Susskind and Alfred Levy, with Douglas to play only a secondary character in the film. Although Aurthur wrote the screenplay, Shadow of the Champ was ultimately never made, but the writer collaborated on four future projects with Bryna Productions: A Very Special Baby, Spring Reunion, Tales of the Vikings and Grand Prix.
One-picture deals with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1955–1956)
By December 1955, Bryna Productions had negotiated a secondary financing and distribution deal (separate from the six-picture United Artists deal) with Arthur Loew, president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, for a single picture. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was rarely dealing with independent film production companies at that time so the one-picture deal was somewhat of an achievement in the film industry. Even more so surprising was that Bryna Productions was negotiating a second one-picture pact with the same studio. The first film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was to be The Syndicate, set to star Douglas and Jeanne Crain and to be co-produced with Frank and Maurice King's King Brothers Productions. The second film was to be King Kelly, based on Robert Wright Campbell's novel about an ambitious soldier who attempts to set up his own empire in the Southwest after the Civil War, with Douglas starring and Daniel Mainwaring writing the screenplay. By the end of 1955, Bryna Productions' plans were to produce two films in 1956 (Shadow of the Champ for United Artists and King Kelly for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), and to be able to produce three to four pictures a year by 1957. The Indian Fighter simultaneously premiered on December 21, 1955, at the Mayfair Theatre in New York City and at the Liberty Theatre in Portland, Oregon; it was an immediate success.
In January 1956, Bryna Productions acquired the filming rights to Samuel Grafton's novel A Most Contagious Game, the story of a magazine reporter who goes undercover as a gangster to research the underworld but ends up becoming a mob leader himself; the filming rights to the story had previously been owned by Victor Saville's Parklane Pictures, which produced a television movie for Studio One. Bresler was to produce the film while Grafton was hired to write the screenplay. Douglas immediately offered the lead role to Lancaster, but plans were ultimately made for Douglas to star in A Most Contagious Game, financed by United Artists, with filming to begin in March 1956 on location in New York City. It was also announced that, in addition to Shadow of the Champ, Aurthur would be adapting two more of his stories for Bryna Productions: A Very Special Baby and Spring Reunion. A Very Special Baby was to be the second film co-produced by Bryna Productions in partnership with Jonathan Productions, and the company put up a $100,000 security on the property, which was to be filmed without major studio financing; the completed film would instead be put up for auction to the highest bidder for distribution. Bryna Productions was also to finance the Broadway play version. Spring Reunion, a drama story about a high school reunion, quickly took center stage as the next film to go before cameras, with a scheduled starting date of May 15, 1956, when Robert Pirosh was signed as writer-director, and stars Dana Andrews and Betty Hutton were tied to the production.
By late January 1956, Bryna Productions' previously planned two-pictures-in-1956 schedule had been expanded to five pictures over the next eighteen months, for a total budget of $8,000,000. The Viking (previously announced as The Viking Raiders) was budgeted at $4,000,000 alone for United Artists, while King Kelly was to cost around $1,500,000 for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The remaining $2,500,000 budget from United Artists was to be divided between three other properties already in pre-production stages: Spring Reunion, Shadow of the Champ and A Most Contagious Game. Only a month later, in February 1956, Bryna Productions acquired a sixth property for development in their 1956 schedule: The Silent Gun, for a reported $25,000 (which was factually $22,000). The Silent Gun, a dramatic story about a cowardly man who poses as a famous outlaw, was written by Carson A. Wiley, who was also hired by to write the screenplay. The lead in The Silent Gun was immediately offered to Gary Cooper and Montgomery Clift. That same month, Bryna Productions also signed Italian actress Elsa Martinelli to a four-picture, two-year contract (two pictures a year for two years). In late February 1956, Barney Briskin was appointed Production Manager of Bryna Productions.
Bryna Productions' plans began to delay in March 1956 when Douglas started filming Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on location in Arizona. Each new film in which he accepted to star pushed back Bryna Productions' schedule. In early April 1956, Bryna Productions announced that Lewis Milestone would direct King Kelly on location in Texas, and later that month appointed Charles Levy as Eastern Publicity Representative of the company. That same month, Bryna Productions also optioned the filming rights of the novel Deliver Us from Evil: The Story of Vietnam's Flight to Freedom, the autobiography of Lieutenant Thomas Anthony Dooley III, a navy doctor who served behind the Communist Bamboo Curtain in Vietnam. Douglas was hoping to play the lead and the movie was to begin filming in the late autumn of 1956.
In late May 1956, Bryna Productions' plans changed again when another new property was acquired. A third one-picture deal was set with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the financing and distribution of a film based on Shirley Jackson's novel The Bird's Nest, which Bryna Productions purchased from theater producer Ray Stark. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's contracted-actress Eleanor Parker was immediately signed for the lead role in the film which was to be titled Lizzie, with plans to start filming on August 1, 1956, at Kling Studios, though it was delayed to September 10, 1956, with director-actor Hugo Haas. Bette Davis was originally cast in the role of Aunt Morgan, but it was ultimately played by Joan Blondell. Meanwhile, Spring Reunion was also pushed back to start filming on June 4, 1956, at Republic Studios, while King Kelly was scheduled to film on location in East Flat Rock, North Carolina starting July 23, 1956 with Douglas, Elsa Martinelli and Lance Fuller as co-stars. Mala Powers was eventually announced as Martinelli's replacement in King Kelly. Although Douglas was free to start filming, his next picture, Top Secret Affair, only starting to shoot on December 4, 1956, the production team was unhappy with the script of King Kelly and put off the shoot. Screenwriter Edna Anhalt was brought in to work on King Kelly's script.
Formation of Michael Productions and Joel Productions (1956–1957)
Bryna Productions announced in May 1956 that it had loaned-out Leslie Nielsen from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to star in A Most Contagious Game, replacing Douglas who had originally planned to take the lead. In June 1956, Douglas and Bryna Productions began what would be a ten-year partnership with writer-producer Edward Lewis. That month, Bryna Productions acquired Lewis' original story and screenplay, Mavourneen, a comedy about three girls in an Irish town who conspire to trick the town's most eligible bachelor into marrying one of them. Lewis was appointed Associate Producer for both Mavourneen and Lizzie and would become a key member for the organization.
On August 6, 1956, Douglas registered the Bryna Productions subsidiaries Michael Productions, Incorporated, and Joel Productions, Incorporated, named after his first two sons Michael Douglas and Joel Douglas. Although the original plan was to alternate between production companies for each film for tax purposes (as Hecht and Lancaster had done with their film production companies), Michael Productions would only be used for a single film, while Joel Productions remained dormant for the next six years. In September 1956, Bryna Productions announced that the teenage drama The Young Lovers (later released as The Careless Years) had been added to its United Artists-financed schedule of productions and assigned Lewis as Producer. The company initially attempted to loan-out Dennis Hopper for the male lead, but Warner Brothers Pictures' price was too high.
By October 1956, The Viking had again become Douglas' top starring-producing project at Bryna Productions, with a re-written script by Noel Langley; the latter had been hired for the job in June 1956. Its budget had been reduced to $3,000,000 (though it would go over-budget during filming) and it was revealed that it would be filmed authentically in Scandinavian locations during three-and-a-half months in the spring of 1957. In November 1956, Bryna Productions announced interest in acquiring Stephen Longstreet's novel The Beach House, as well as Dale Wasserman and Jack Balch's teleplay Elisha and the Long Knives, as properties for Douglas to star. Also in November 1956, Bryna Productions announced that its new trademark logo had been designed and would first appear in the opening screen credit of Lizzie, due out in early 1957. In December 1956, The Careless Years' lead actors, Dean Stockwell and Natalie Trundy, were both simultaneously signed for the film and to five-year contracts with Bryna Productions. Bryna Productions' second film, Spring Reunion, premiered at the Astoria Theatre in London, England in late December 1956.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bryna Productions, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4