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One User Of A Producer‘s Representative:
One User Of A Producer‘s Representative:
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
In the hierarchy of Hollywood Behind the scenes was a staff of
studios Republic was the minnow that competent journeymen, but the studio
worked hard to keep up with the could also boast films by John Ford,
whales. In 1935 Herbert J. Yates forced two by Orson Welles and one by Fritz
a merger between six ‘poverty row’ Lang.
studios, and created an entity greater Although everything was tightly
than the sum of its parts. budgeted, Republic punched above its
It was a year of mergers and new weight in the technical sphere. The
players. Twentieth Century Pictures and head of the sound department Daniel J.
Fox Films became Twentieth Century- Bloomberg won an Academy Award in
Fox with Darryl F. Zanuck as studio 1946 ‘for the construction of an
head, and David O. Selznick formed outstanding auditorium for musical
Selznick International Pictures. A re- scoring’, and its special effects division
vitalised Hollywood was in the making, - two brothers working from a home
and it was a crowded field. garage - was legendary.
Yates was no Zanuck, steeped in the According to a story in American
rough-and-tumble of film-making, nor Cinematographer, Republic submitted
was he a Selznick, with his acute an aerial dogfight - staged with model
understanding of the top-end of the planes - for an Academy Award. The
market. Amongst his other interests judge was Paramount’s master of
Yates previously ran a film-processing special effects Farciot Edouart. He
laboratory, so from the outset, disqualified Republic’s entry on the
Republic’s supports and serials looked grounds that it was photography of real
better than their content. Modest planes.
aspirations brought modest but For readers interested in the history
profitable results. Unlike Selznick’s of this studio, the video The Republic
operation, Republic turned out Pictures Story is compulsory viewing.
examples in every film genre, even if Republic’s great hit in Australia was
the musicals were dire. John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in
Yate’s efforts to move to A-features The Quiet Man. Booked into the
were helped by the war and the public’s Regent, Melbourne to begin 16 April
insatiable appetite for screen 1953 - and expected to run a fortnight -
entertainment, but the years when it astounded both distributor and Hoyts
penny-pinching and one top director by staying eight weeks. It then played
could lift a studio from also-ran to a to packed houses in the suburbs.
major were long gone. Martin Scorcese, the man
The studio never created a true star, considered by many to be the finest
but it did nurture one. John Wayne Hollywood director of his generation,
ploughed a narrow but fertile furrow for has masterminded the restoration of
Republic in a long series of westerns Republic’s A Fair Wind To Java (1953).
after the failure of Fox’s The Big Trail According to Scorcese, this sea saga
1930). This long apprenticeship - (with Fred McMurray) is a perfect
honing his craft, watching the role of example of the professionalism of old
directors and producers - brought Hollywood: visually interesting, a
results, initially for another studio. strong storyline, crisp editing and on a
Wayne continued to appear on-and-off modest budget. Herbert J. Yate’s
for Republic. judgment seems to be vindicated. ★
As part of its A-feature push in the - I.S.
1940s, the studio ‘borrowed’ actors like
Left from top: From Wake of the Red
Susan Hayward, Joan Bennett, George
Witch (1948) with John Wayne and Gail
Raft and Walter Pidgeon (twice). In the
Russell to The Quiet Man (1953), the
fifties the likes of Joan Crawford,
reliance on John Wayne and director John
Barbara Stanwyck, Ray Milland and
Ford, either working together or
Margaret Lockwood did one-off stints.
separately, is evident.
CINEMARECORD 2008 21
