Mirisch Company
Encyclopedia
The Mirisch Company was a film production company
owned by Walter Mirisch
and his brothers, Marvin
and Harold Mirisch. The company was also known at various times as Mirisch Production Company, Mirisch Pictures, Inc., and The Mirisch Corporation.
Walter Mirisch began producing at Monogram Pictures
beginning with Fall Guy (1947) and the profitable Bomba the Jungle Boy series.
The Mirisch brothers had controlled production at Allied Artists before going independent. They had made Friendly Persuasion
and Love in the Afternoon (1957 film)
that were critically acclaimed but not lucrative.
The Mirisch Company was founded in August 1957. The company signed a 12-picture deal with United Artists
(UA) in 1957, which was extended to 20 films two years later. UA acquired the company on March 1, 1963 for $1.8 million, but the Mirisch brothers continued to work there and in rented space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio
.
It produced many famous motion pictures for United Artists
, starting with Fort Massacre (1958) but later including Some Like It Hot
(1959) , The Horse Soldiers
(1959), The Apartment
(1960), The Magnificent Seven
(1960), West Side Story
(1961), The Great Escape
(1963), The Pink Panther
(1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967), and many others.
In 1964 Mirisch Films
Ltd, or Mirisch Films GB was formed in the United Kingdom that produced 633 Squadron
, A Shot in the Dark
and several other films.
The Pink Panther featured an animated Pink Panther (character) that soon became a star of a series of cinema cartoons made by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
that were released by Mirisch/UA.
Mirisch first entered television in 1959 with the series, Wichita Town
for Four Star Television
. Then they sold an unsuccessful pilot for Some Like It Hot in 1961. Mirisch co-produced live action television shows such as The Rat Patrol
, Hey Landlord and The Magnificent Seven (TV series) as well as cartoon shows of The Super 6
and The Pink Panther Show
.
They forged relationships with such directors as Billy Wilder
, Blake Edwards
, John Sturges
and Norman Jewison
, who directed three consecutive successes for them - The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
(1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967) and The Thomas Crown Affair
(1968).
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
owned by Walter Mirisch
Walter Mirisch
Walter Mortimer Mirisch is an American film producer. In his long and successful motion picture career, Walter Mirisch has produced some of the industry’s finest and most memorable films...
and his brothers, Marvin
Marvin Mirisch
Marvin Eliot Mirisch was an American film producer. He was the brother of Walter Mirisch and Harold Mirisch, who were also film executives, and of Irving Mirisch, who ran a company which supplied candy to movie theatres....
and Harold Mirisch. The company was also known at various times as Mirisch Production Company, Mirisch Pictures, Inc., and The Mirisch Corporation.
Walter Mirisch began producing at Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
beginning with Fall Guy (1947) and the profitable Bomba the Jungle Boy series.
The Mirisch brothers had controlled production at Allied Artists before going independent. They had made Friendly Persuasion
Friendly Persuasion (film)
Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 Civil War film starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love. The screenplay was adapted by Michael Wilson from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West, and was directed by William Wyler...
and Love in the Afternoon (1957 film)
Love in the Afternoon (1957 film)
Love in the Afternoon is a 1957 American romantic comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder. The screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is based on the Claude Anet novel Ariane, jeune fille russe , which previously was filmed as Scampolo in 1928 and Scampolo, ein Kind der Strasse in...
that were critically acclaimed but not lucrative.
The Mirisch Company was founded in August 1957. The company signed a 12-picture deal with United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
(UA) in 1957, which was extended to 20 films two years later. UA acquired the company on March 1, 1963 for $1.8 million, but the Mirisch brothers continued to work there and in rented space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio
Samuel Goldwyn Studio
Samuel Goldwyn Studio was the name that Samuel Goldwyn used to refer to the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios lot and the offices and stages that his company, Goldwyn Pictures, rented there during the 1920s and 1930s...
.
It produced many famous motion pictures for United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
, starting with Fort Massacre (1958) but later including Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot is an American comedy film, made in 1958 and released in 1959, which was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and George Raft. The supporting cast includes Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien and Nehemiah Persoff. The film is a remake by Wilder and I....
(1959) , The Horse Soldiers
The Horse Soldiers
The Horse Soldiers is a 1959 DeLuxe Color war film, set in the American Civil War, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, William Holden and Constance Towers...
(1959), The Apartment
The Apartment
The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow-up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, was a commercial and critical hit, grossing $25...
(1960), The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
(1960), West Side Story
West Side Story (film)
West Side Story is a 1961 musical film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was adapted from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno,...
(1961), The Great Escape
The Great Escape (film)
The Great Escape is a 1963 American film about an escape by Allied prisoners of war from a German POW camp during World War II, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough...
(1963), The Pink Panther
The Pink Panther (1963 film)
The Pink Panther is a 1963 American comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and co-written by Edwards and Maurice Richlin, starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Robert Wagner, Capucine, and Claudia Cardinale...
(1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967), and many others.
In 1964 Mirisch Films
Mirisch Films
Mirisch Films was a British motion picture and television production company subsidiary of Mirisch Productions. Originally founded in 1962, it was best-known for producing The Pink Panther series of films , and various DePatie-Freleng animated cartoons, before shutting down in 1982.- Films and...
Ltd, or Mirisch Films GB was formed in the United Kingdom that produced 633 Squadron
633 Squadron
633 Squadron is a 1964 British film which depicts the exploits of a fictional Second World War British fighter-bomber squadron. It was based on a novel of the same name by Frederick E. Smith, published in 1956, which itself drew on several real Royal Air Force missions. The film was directed by...
, A Shot in the Dark
A Shot in the Dark (1964 film)
A Shot in the Dark is a 1964 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and is the second installment in the Pink Panther series. Peter Sellers is featured again as Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the French Sûreté...
and several other films.
The Pink Panther featured an animated Pink Panther (character) that soon became a star of a series of cinema cartoons made by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises was a Hollywood-based animation production company, active from 1963 to 1981. They produced theatrical cartoons, animated series, commercials, title sequences and television specials. Notable among these is The Pink Panther film titles and cartoon shorts and the Dr....
that were released by Mirisch/UA.
Mirisch first entered television in 1959 with the series, Wichita Town
Wichita Town
Wichita Town is a half-hour western television series starring Joel McCrea, Jody McCrea, Carlos Romero, and George Neise that aired on NBC from September 30, 1959, until April 6, 1960....
for Four Star Television
Four Star Television
Four Star Television, also called Four Star International, was an American television production company. Founded in 1952 as Four Star Productions by prominent Hollywood actors Dick Powell, David Niven, Ida Lupino, and Charles Boyer, the company produced many well-known shows of the early days of...
. Then they sold an unsuccessful pilot for Some Like It Hot in 1961. Mirisch co-produced live action television shows such as The Rat Patrol
The Rat Patrol
The Rat Patrol is an American television program that aired on ABC during the 1966–1968 seasons. The show follows the exploits of four Allied soldiers who are part of a long-range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II...
, Hey Landlord and The Magnificent Seven (TV series) as well as cartoon shows of The Super 6
The Super 6
The Super 6 was an animated cartoon series which was produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in 1966, and shown on the NBC television network from 1966 to 1969...
and The Pink Panther Show
The Pink Panther Show
The Pink Panther Show is a showcase of cartoon shorts produced by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng between 1969 and 1979. The television series was produced by Mirisch Films and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, and was broadcast on two American TV networks:...
.
They forged relationships with such directors as Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
, Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
, John Sturges
John Sturges
John Eliot Sturges was an American film director. His movies include Bad Day at Black Rock , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , The Magnificent Seven , The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra .-Career:He started his career in Hollywood as an editor in 1932...
and Norman Jewison
Norman Jewison
Norman Frederick Jewison, CC, O.Ont is a Canadian film director, producer, actor and founder of the Canadian Film Centre. Highlights of his directing career include In the Heat of the Night , The Thomas Crown Affair , Fiddler on the Roof , Jesus Christ Superstar , Moonstruck , The Hurricane and The...
, who directed three consecutive successes for them - The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming is an American comedy film. Based on the Nathaniel Benchley novel The Off-Islanders, the film was directed by Norman Jewison and adapted for the screen by William Rose....
(1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967) and The Thomas Crown Affair
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 film)
The Thomas Crown Affair is a 1968 film by Norman Jewison starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Award for Best Song with Michel Legrand's "Windmills of Your Mind"...
(1968).