Stanley Kubrick: Producers and Production Companies Thesis submitted by James Fenwick In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy De Montfort University, September 2017 1 Abstract This doctoral thesis examines filmmaker Stanley Kubrick’s role as a producer and the impact of the industrial contexts upon the role and his independent production companies. The thesis represents a significant intervention into the understanding of the much-misunderstood role of the producer by exploring how business, management, working relationships and financial contexts influenced Kubrick’s methods as a producer. The thesis also shows how Kubrick contributed to the transformation of industrial practices and the role of the producer in Hollywood, particularly in areas of legal authority, promotion and publicity, and distribution. The thesis also assesses the influence and impact of Kubrick’s methods of producing and the structure of his production companies in the shaping of his own reputation and brand of cinema. The thesis takes a case study approach across four distinct phases of Kubrick’s career. The first is Kubrick’s early years as an independent filmmaker, in which he made two privately funded feature films (1951-1955). The second will be an exploration of the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation and its affiliation with Kirk Douglas’ Bryna Productions (1956-1962). Thirdly, the research will examine Kubrick’s formation of Hawk Films and Polaris Productions in the 1960s (1962-1968), with a deep focus on the latter and the vital role of vice-president of the company. Finally, the research will move to examine the Jan Harlan years (1975-1999), a period in which Kubrick’s production rate slowed markedly. The thesis utilises the methodological framework of the New Film History and draws heavily on archival material. It also develops the historiography of Kubrick, the American film industry, and the role of the producer, with significant critical engagement with the work of Peter Krämer, Robert Sklar, and Andrew Spicer. Asking what Kubrick’s role was as a producer allows for a fuller understanding of the way in which he obtained control of his productions, as well as the industrial limitations and constraints in which he produced (or failed to produce) his films. 2 Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 5 List of Images and Tables 6 Notes on Text 7 Introduction 8 - Thesis Context 10 - Biographical Context 13 - Literature Review 21 - Defining the Producer 35 - Approach and Methodology 38 - Thesis Structure 44 Chapter One 48 ‘Nobody’s going to get anything out of this movie but me’: The Emergence of a Film Producer 1953-1955 - Kubrick the Guerrilla Producer: Minotaur Productions and Killer’s Kiss 49 - The Transformation of Modes of Production: Kubrick and the New York Group 58 - Conclusion 66 Chapter Two 69 The Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation and the Diversification of the Package-Unit System 1955-1962 - James B. Harris: The Boy Wonder 71 - The Killing, Exploitation, and Art House Cinema 73 - Management and Administration at the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation 83 - Lolita and the Diversification of the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation 89 - Conclusion 99 Chapter Three 102 ‘If you don’t have legal authority, you don’t have any authority at all’: New Modes of Producing in Hollywood 1957-1965 - New Modes of Producing 103 - Levels of Autonomy on Paths of Glory 106 - Lew Wasserman’s Monopolisation of the Package-Unit System 118 - Determining Control of Spartacus 123 - Conclusion 129 3 Chapter Four 132 Spheres of Influence: Polaris Productions and 2001: A Space Odyssey - ‘The Day of the Merchandiser Has Come’: Industrial Contexts 134 - Polaris Productions: A Producing Powerhouse 138 - When Spheres of Influence Collide: Polaris versus MGM 143 - Polaris versus Kubrick: Exploiting the Future 150 - Conclusion 160 Chapter Five 163 Producing a Kubrick Feature in the New Hollywood 1968-1980 - Industrial Contexts: Kubrick, Warner Bros. and Absolute Control 165 - Producing A Clockwork Orange 174 - Brand Kubrick 180 - Conclusion 192 Chapter Six 194 Kubrick versus the Super Producers - Empyrean Films 197 - Kubrick and Spielberg 203 - Perpetual Pre-Production: The Case of Aryan Papers 207 - Conclusion 215 Conclusion 217 Appendix I: Transcript of Interview with James B. Harris 224 Appendix II: Transcript of Interview with Jan Harlan 251 Appendix III: Statement of Profit and Loss, Minotaur Productions 269 Bibliography 271 - Books, Articles, and Reports 271 - Unpublished and Archival Sources 300 Filmography 312 4 Acknowledgements This research project was made possible by the generous research scholarship, the Vice Chancellor’s High Flyers Award, awarded to me by De Montfort University and for which I am extraordinarily grateful. I would also like to thank the European Association for American Studies for the generous Transatlantic Travel Grant they awarded me in order to conduct a research visit to the Kirk Douglas Papers housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison. I would like to thank the following people for their help and advice throughout this PhD. Ian Hunter and Jim Russell for their supervision and guidance; the staff at the Stanley Kubrick Archive, University of the Arts London for their endless support and for fetching me countless boxes, including Richard Daniels, Sarah Mahurter, Georgia Clemson, Sarah Cox, Elizabeth Thurlow, and the many archive volunteers I have encountered there over the years; the archival staff at the Wisconsin Historical Society for providing me access to the Kirk Douglas Papers and in particular the help of Mary Huelsbeck; Kristine Krueger of the Margaret Herrick Library for her support and research assistance; the staff of the National Archives; the archival staff at the University of Liverpool who guided me around the Brian Aldiss Papers; and the staff of the British Library for providing me with access to the Harold Pinter Papers. Thanks also to Laura Mee for pointing me in the right direction during the early days of this project; to Chris Corker for the much needed “PhD rants” in Marmadukes; to my mum, Julie Pigott, and dad, John Fenwick, for their continued support; and to Nash Sibanda for being the best drinking and travelling buddy a PhD student could have. A special thank you to Jan Harlan, who it has been a pleasure to get to know and who has provided me with many contacts and stories of his time working with Kubrick, and to Mrs Harlan for hosting me over a wonderful meal. And a special thank you to James B. Harris for allowing me the lengthy telephone calls and regaling me with stories about his friendship and working relationship with Kubrick, and the chance to talk about one of my favourite films ever, Cop (1988). And finally a big thank you to the staff of the Soar Point: there was always a cold Blue Moon waiting. 5 List of Images and Tables Figure 1: p. 9 List of credited producers on films that Stanley Kubrick directed 1951-1999 Figure 2: p. 77 The advert placed by Harris and Kubrick against the wishes of United Artists (Anon. 1956a: 17). Figure 3: p. 116 Posters for Paths of Glory (1957) and Attack (1956) displaying clear similarities. Figure 4: p. 142 Vice-presidents of Polaris Productions Inc., 1962-1973. Figure 5: p. 148 MGM’s press kit for The V.I.P.s, coordinated by Dan Terrell (Steen 1963: b1) Figure 6: p. 157 Wedgwood ashtray used in the promotion of 2001: A Space Odyssey (Anon. 2009). Figure 7: p. 190 The 1972 front cover of Newsweek, the photograph of which Kubrick staged himself. The article said Kubrick had an ‘inexhaustible drive to orchestrate the smallest details’ (Zimmerman 1972: 28). 6 Notes On Text Where the website boxofficemojo.com is referred to for box office figures, this is indicated in text by only the website name for presentation purposes. Full URL references can be found in the bibliography. Similarly, this applies to the website creativeskillset.org. Where email correspondence is cited, this will be indicated in text. British spelling is used throughout, except in quotations where American spelling is used. Years of release are given only on the first mention of a film, with an alphabetised filmography giving full details. 7 Introduction Following his time spent as director on the historical epic Spartacus (1960), Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) tried to put as much distance as possible between him and the film, seeing it as decidedly un-Kubrickian. Speaking over a decade later, Kubrick said that the key lesson he took from the production was the need for what he called legal authority: ‘If you don’t have legal authority, you don’t have any authority at all’ (Zimmerman 1972: 32). The legal authority on Spartacus resided with its producers, the all-powerful Hollywood actor-producer Kirk Douglas (who also played the eponymous tragic-hero), and the Bryna Productions producer, Edward Lewis, with Kubrick being a director-for-hire after the firing of Anthony Mann just two weeks into the shoot. To ensure Kubrick kept in line, the film’s financial backer, Universal, assigned an assistant director, Marshall Green, to keep a watchful eye over Kubrick and to make certain he kept to schedule (LoBrutto 1997: 181). Universal and the film’s producers were making it clear that Kubrick had no legal authority. By 1961, Kubrick was sitting with his lawyer, Louis C. Blau, and Kirk Douglas negotiating his way out of his contract with Douglas’s Bryna Productions (193), with the intent of continuing his ‘ongoing quest for ever greater control’ (229) – to be his own producer. And being his own producer Kubrick was, from 1963 onwards with the dissolving of the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation (HKPC), a nearly seven-year long partnership with producer James B. Harris that had taken Kubrick into the heart of Hollywood and eventually across to the United Kingdom.