Joseph E. Levine

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Joseph E. Levine

Joseph Edward Levine (born September 9, 1905 in Boston , Massachusetts , United States , † July 31, 1987 in Greenwich , Connecticut ) was an American film producer , film distributor and financier.

Live and act

The early years

Levine was the son of a Russian-Jewish immigrant who earned little as a tailor and could barely support his family with six children. So Joseph E. Levine had to start working early. At the age of 14 he left school to support the now widowed mother. The various jobs he took on included working in a clothing store that he ran with two of his brothers. He then bought a small place in Boston, the Café Wonderbar. In 1938 he married a singer from the band Rudy Vallees , with whom he moved to New Haven . Here he bought a movie theater and found his way into the film business.

Entry into the film business (film distribution)

In 1942 Levine founded the distribution company Embassy Pictures and began distributing films in 1943. He initially bought film rejects of American origin, which cost little but still promised good business. His business partner during this time was Max J. Rosenberg . Both men also brought European film classics such as Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel and Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City to US cinemas. In the 1950s Levine rose to become one of the most important distributors of foreign films, and since the second half of the 1950s mainly Italian productions, whose distribution in the USA also proved to be lucrative. Among them were Mythology and Peplum films like The Incredible Adventures of Hercules and Hercules and the Queen of the Amazons , but also more sophisticated productions that nonetheless promised good profit, including the war drama And Yet They Live , which won an Oscar for Sophia Loren .

Levine's marketing policy was seen as very aggressive and vociferous; his advertising campaigns often went far beyond what was customary in American film circles until then. Levine's aggressive personality in the commercialization of films has earned him awards such as Pioneer of the Year, Showman of the Year, Producer of the Year and Master Showman of the World, awarded by institutions such as the Variety Club of New York, the Allied States Associates of Motion Picture Exhibitions or the Hollywood Foreign Press, which presented him with the Cecil B. DeMille Award as part of the 1964 Golden Globe Award .

Start of film production

By the late 1950s, Levine had largely stayed out of film production. Up until the 1960s, he referred to himself several times as an (often unnamed) executive producer, but has only been concentrating more and more on film production since the middle of the same decade. His almost one and a half decade-long phase of intensive film production included such diverse entertainment films as Aladdin's Adventure , The Insatiable and their prequel Nevada Smith , the Hollywood introspections ... because nobody is guilty and The world of Jean Harlow , the political thriller The Day of the Dolphin , the star-studded war film The Bridge of Arnhem and the thriller Magic - An Eerie Love Story , which Levine produced with his son Richard. There were two more collaborations with Sophia Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti in the 1960s, in 1964 for weddings in Italian and 1969 for sunflowers . In 1970/71 Levine also took part in the production of two of the most successful beating westerns with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer ( The Right and Left Hand of the Devil and Four Fists for a Hallelujah ). After working on the thriller Tattoo with Bruce Dern , Levine retired from film production into private life in 1981.

Filmography (small selection)

As a film producer or line producer

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See: William Goldman: Adventures in the Screen Trade; Grand Central Publishing, 1989

literature

  • International Motion Picture Almanac 1965, Quigley Publishing Company, New York 1964, p. 169
  • International Television Almanac 1985, Quigley Publishing Company, New York 1985, p. 159
  • Obituary in the Washington Post August 1, 1987

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Levine, Joseph E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levine, Joseph Edward (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film producer, distributor and financier
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts , United States
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1987
Place of death Greenwich , Connecticut , United States