John Maxwell (film producer)

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John Maxwell (* 1877 in Glasgow , Scotland , † October 2, 1940 in Witley , Surrey ) was a British film producer . The trained lawyer rose to become one of the most important British film entrepreneurs in the late 1920s when he founded the cinema chain Associated British Cinemas (ABC Cinemas) and the Elstree- based film company British International Pictures (BIP). At the beginning of the sound film era , BIP was one of the leading British film studios thanks to the films by Alfred Hitchcock . With the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), Maxwell laid the foundation stone in 1933 for a company that after his death became one of the leading film distributors and film production companies in the United Kingdom.

biography

John Maxwell was born in the Scottish city of Glasgow . He became a lawyer and founded the law firm Maxwell, Hodgson & Co in Glasgow . The firm worked for a number of movie theaters, which helped Maxwell see the economic potential of these new entertainment establishments. In 1912 he invested in his first cinema, The Prince's Cinema in Glasgow. Maxwell founds the company Scottish Cinema and Variety Theaters , which in 1920 controlled 20 theaters . In 1918 John Maxwell founded the regional film distributor Waverley Films with Arthur Dent . The company grew steadily and in 1923 took over the London film distributor Wardour Films .

In 1925 Maxwell relocated to London. He acquired the first film studios , whereby Maxwell was economically involved in the production, distribution and showing of films. When the British government fixed film quotas in 1927 to strengthen the domestic film industry , he bought the British National Studios in Elstree, which Herbert Wilcox had co-founded, and founded the film production company British International Pictures (BIP). As the name suggests, Maxwell speculated on the international film market, which is why he hired the German director EA Dupont and the American actress Anna May Wong , among others . Of Gainsborough Pictures Maxwell campaigned with Alfred Hitchcock on a promising directing talent.

When, at the end of 1927, The Jazzsinger helped the talkies break through, BIP was the first British film studio to venture to produce a talkie. Hitchcock's blackmail was BIP's biggest success to date in 1929. In order to be able to continue to operate internationally, Maxwell produced EA Duponts Atlantic in three different language versions in the same year - a procedure that was adopted by other film studios in Europe and the United States until dubbing was introduced. Maxwell quickly gave up on ambitious but not very profitable films and concentrated on the domestic market with cheaper productions. He benefited from the early installation of sound film systems in Elstree. BIP became the leading British studio of the early sound film era and produced twice as many feature films as its strongest competitor British-Gaumont / Gainsborough.

In addition to film production, John Maxwell continuously expanded his cinema chain. In November 1928, he merged his 29 cinemas, mainly in Scotland, to form the Associated British Cinemas (ABC Cinemas) chain . ABC Cinemas became a subsidiary of BIP and grew rapidly over the next several months. In July 1929 Maxwell already owned 80 cinemas, and by the end of 1931 there were 160.

In September 1933 Maxwell merged BIP, ABC Cinemas and Wardour Films to form the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). The new vertically integrated film company was one of the largest cinema operators in the UK, with Maxwell increasingly focusing on film exploitation and BIP film production mainly to meet the demand for new films in its own theaters. Maxwell appointed Walter C. Mycroft as the new studio manager at BIP and no longer appeared publicly as a film producer. In 1934 Maxwell tried for the first time to take over his fiercest competitor, Gaumont-British . The owners at that time, the Ostrer brothers, rejected the offer.

Increased production costs and setbacks on the American film market forced ABPC to further reduce film production at the end of 1936. Instead, Maxwell decided to increase its own share of UK cinema halls. Another attempt by Maxwell to take control of Gaumont-British failed this time due to the American shareholder 20th Century Fox . A long legal battle ensued between John Maxwell and the Ostrer brothers, which weakened Maxwell's health. Maxwell acquired the smaller Union cinema chain in place of Gaumont-British , so that at the end of 1937 ABPC rose to become the largest British cinema operator with 493 cinemas. At the same time, John Maxwell also supported the actor Charles Laughton and the German producer Erich Pommer in founding their own film production company. The Elstree-based company Mayflower Pictures only produced three films, including 1939 Riff Pirates , directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

When John Maxwell, suffering from diabetes, died on October 2, 1940, he left a healthy company that, thanks to its high proportion of film venues, not only weathered the economic crises of the 1930s but also benefited from the audience boom during World War II . In 1941, Maxwell's widow Catherine, with whom he had seven children, sold half of her shares in ABPC to the American film company Warner Bros. Warner finally took full control of ABPC in 1945.

Filmography (selection)

John Maxwell has been named as the producer of the following films, among others:

literature

  • Brian McFarlane (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of British Film . 3rd edition. Methuen, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-413-77660-0 .
  • Robert Murphy: Maxwell, John . In: David J. Jeremy (Ed.): Dictionary of Business Biography: A Biographical Dictionary of Business Leaders Active in Britain in the Period 1860–1980 . Vol. 4. Butterworths, London 1985, ISBN 0-406-27340-5 , pp. 405-410.
  • Robert Murphy: Maxwell, John (1877-1940). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ The Encyclopedia of British Film names 1875 as the year of birth, but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and obituaries of Maxwell published in 1940 list the year 1877.
  2. ^ The New York Times : JOHN MAXWELL, 63, OF BRITISH FILMS , Oct. 4, 1940.
  3. ↑ Kevin Brownlow : The War, the West and the Wilderness . Knopf, New York 1979, ISBN 0-394-48921-7 , p. 162.
  4. ^ Tom Ryall: A British Studio System: The Associated British Picture Corporation and the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in the 1930s . In: Robert Murphy (Ed.): The British Cinema Book , British Film Institute, London 2001, ISBN 0-85170-852-8 , p. 37.
  5. ^ Peter Miskell: The Film Industry in Twentieth Century Britain: Consumption Patterns, Government Regulation, and Firm Strategy . In: Richard Coopey, Peter Lyth (Eds.): Business in Britain in the Twentieth Century . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-922600-9 , p. 312.
  6. ↑ Jeffrey Richards: The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in Britain 1930-1939 . Routledge & Paul, London 1984, ISBN 0-7100-9764-6 , pp. 38-41.
  7. ^ Robert Murphy: Maxwell, John . In: Dictionary of Business Biography , p. 407.
  8. ^ Margaret Dickinson, Sarah Street: Cinema and State: The Film Industry and the Government 1927-84 . British Film Institute, London 1985, ISBN 0-85170-160-4 , pp. 101-102.
personal data
SURNAME Maxwell, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 1940
Place of death Witley , Surrey