A bit on Paramount pictures and Warner Bros. and their impact to the gangster genre

1. Gangster film producers
BY LAUREN

2. The Fantastic Five
• A film distributor is a company or individual who is
responsible for the marketing of a film.
• In the 1930’s, the American film industry was
dominated by five film companies.
• These included: 20th Century Fox (founded by Joseph
Schenk, 1933), MGM (founded by Louis B. Mayer, Sam
Goldwyn and Marcus Loew, 1924) RKO Radio (formed
after the KAO) theatre chains in 1928)
• But the two who produced the most on gangster films
are:
• Paramount
• Warner Bros.

3. Warner Bros: A brief history
Warner Bros. studios began when brothers (Albert, Sam, Jack and Harry
Warner) came together to form a movie company in 1923.
In 1927, Warner Bros. brought along the release of the world’s first talkie “The
Jazz Singer”. This brought innovation to the movie market, and that word now
became a synonym with the name Warner Bros.
Out of all the movie companies, Warner Bros. seemed to be the ones who
showed reality through film. People who lived in the city, out on the streets,
struggling, who are criminals. It brought a sense of real-ness to the public.
They shaped and defined many actor’s careers such as Bette Davis, James
Cagney, Paul Muni and Humphrey Bogart. They became some of the greatest
actors of all time.
It is one of the most respected, adored and successful motion picture and
television studios in the world.

4. The Warners and the Gangsters..
• After Paramount pictures released some gangster films
such as “Underworld” (1927) and “The Racket” (1928),
Warner Bros. decided to try out the genre.
• Among the mob films produced during the 30’s such as
“Little Caesar” and “The Public Enemy”, they began to
portray a “neo-realistic” approach to film plots and the
began to produce more “tough-guy” movies.
• There was something different about Warners’ pictures
compared to other companies such as Paramount.
• They created, shaped and defined the gangster movie
era, and produced a number of films that were
historically and socially significant and raised awareness
of the growing problems in America to the public.
• Warner Bros were the company that touched up more
on “real life” issues of America at the time.
• They produced numerous noir/gangster/crime classics
such as “Goodfellas”, “Public Enemy”, “white heat”,
“The Departed” and “The petrified forest”.

5. More on Warner Brothers
Warner Bros distributed a number of deep
and meaningful films.
Director Mervyn LeRoy made “I am a Fugitive
from a Chain Gang,” a film that led to prison
reform.
“Black Legion” (dealing with the Ku Klux Klan)
“Black Fury” (about the mistreatment of coal
miners)
“They Won't Forget” (about prejudice and
lynching in the Deep South)
They were all fact-based, hard-hitting and
exposed and reflected America’s problems.
In contrast of their films aiming at real
problems of America, the ‘30s also marked
the beginning of the now classic Looney
Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons
The modern-day gangster film The departed
ranked in #3 highest grossing gangster
movies of all time. The 2006 film generated
$142.97 million

6. Paramount – The history
• Paramount was originally founded in 1912 by a guy called Adolph Zukor and
is the fifth oldest film studio in the world and the longest operating studio
remaining in Hollywood.
• Paramount films were very successful and popular, they even won the very
first Academy Award for best picture in 1927.
• They “nurtured and aided” the industry’s most legendary movie talent and
directors such as the Marx Brothers and D.W Griffith.
• In more recent years, work with stars such as Steven Spielberg, Harrison
Ford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise has been produced.
• They focused on less on political and cultural plots than Warner Bros.
however still producing iconic films including the highest grossing film of all
time, “Titanic”.

7. Paramount gangster films..
Paramount released the first ever official Gangster movie – “The
Musketeers of Pig Alley”.
The very first of it’s kind, this would only be a taster of what’s to
come. It was about a couple who lived in poverty in New York, and
gets robbed of money. This was the first the American public ever
saw of shoot-outs and robberies.
Paramount produced and distributed Griffith’s work, he was
popular to the public as he introduced editing, moving cameras,
close-ups, and naturalistic acting to create more suspenseful
dramas.
Paramount were responsible for many older gangster movies
produced in the silent era because soon enough, Warner Bros. took
dominance of that genre.
However, The Godfather trilogy is deemed the highest grossing
gangster film of all time, the 1972 trilogy raked in a whopping
$355.44 million.
Following behind at number two is another Paramount Production,
“The Untouchables” 1987 which grossed $144.47 million in
revenue.
Overall, in my opinion Paramount was more focused on big stars
and generating big profits rather than ambiguous and detailed
socially accutate storylines.