Samuel Goldwyn Productions was an American film production company founded by Samuel Goldwyn in 1923, and active through 1959. Personally controlled by Goldwyn and focused on production rather than distribution, the company developed into the most financially and critically successful independent production company in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
History
After the sale of his previous firm Goldwyn Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn organized his productions beginning in February 1923, initially in a partnership with director George Fitzmaurice (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, created by merger in April 1924, bears Goldwyn's name, but he did not produce films there). Goldwyn Production's first release, Potash and Perlmutter, successfully opened in Baltimore on September 6, 1923.Goldwyn: A Biography, A. Scott Berg
Some of the early productions bear the name "Howard Productions", named for Goldwyn's wife Frances Howard, who married Goldwyn in 1925. In the 1920s, Goldwyn released films through Associated First National. Throughout the 1930s, Goldwyn released most of his films through United Artists. Beginning in 1941, Goldwyn released most of his films through RKO Radio Pictures.
With consistently high production values and directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks, Goldwyn frequently received Academy Award for Best Picture nominations: Arrowsmith (1931), Dodsworth (1936), Dead End (1937), Wuthering Heights (1939), and The Little Foxes (1941). In 1946, he won best picture for The Best Years of Our Lives.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, many of Goldwyn's films starred Danny Kaye. Goldwyn's final production was the 1959 version of Porgy and Bess.
Elements for many films produced by Samuel Goldwyn Productions between 1929 and 1955 are held by the Academy Film Archive as part of the Samuel Goldwyn Collection.
Filmography
Release date Title DistributorNotes September 6, 1923 Potash and Perlmutter First National January 24, 1924 April 3, 1924 Cytherea September 29, 1924 In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter May 3, 1925 His Supreme Moment June 18, 1925 September 27, 1925 November 16, 1925 Stella Dallas United Artists February 15, 1926 Partners Again October 14, 1926 January 27, 1927 September 18, 1927 November 3, 1927 March 23, 1928 Two Lovers November 17, 1928 January 12, 1929 May 2, 1929 Bulldog Drummond June 22, 1929 This Is Heaven November 3, 1929 Condemned July 24, 1930 Raffles October 5, 1930 Whoopee! December 20, 1930 January 14, 1931 One Heavenly Night September 5, 1931 Street Scene October 3, 1931 Palmy Days October 28, 1931 December 17, 1931 Tonight or Never December 26, 1931 Arrowsmith February 13, 1932 November 17, 1932 December 24, 1932 Cynara September 3, 1933 December 29, 1933 Roman Scandals February 1, 1934 Nana November 1, 1934 We Live Again November 10, 1934 Kid Millions March 8, 1935 September 8, 1935 October 13, 1935 Barbary Coast November 22, 1935 Splendor January 24, 1936 Strike Me Pink March 18, 1936 These Three September 23, 1936 Dodsworth Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1990 November 6, 1936 Come and Get It December 25, 1936 Beloved Enemy May 7, 1937 Woman Chases Man August 6, 1937 Stella Dallas August 27, 1937 Dead End November 9, 1937 February 4, 1938 April 15, 1938 November 17, 1938 April 7, 1939 Wuthering Heights Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2007 August 18, 1939 They Shall Have Music September 29, 1939 December 29, 1939 Raffles September 20, 1940 August 29, 1941 The Little Foxes RKO Radio Pictures December 2, 1941 Ball of Fire Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2016 July 14, 1942 Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2024 January 27, 1943 They Got Me Covered June 12, 1943 Spitfire November 4, 1943 February 17, 1944 Up in Arms November 17, 1944 June 8, 1945 Wonder Man March 21, 1946 November 21, 1946 Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1989 August 4, 1947 December 9, 1947 October 19, 1948 December 11, 1948 Enchantment August 18, 1949 Roseanna McCoy December 25, 1949 My Foolish Heart July 27, 1950 Our Very Own August 2, 1950 Edge of Doom December 22, 1951 I Want You November 25, 1952 Hans Christian Andersen November 3, 1955 Guys and Dolls Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer June 24, 1959 Porgy and Bess Columbia Pictures Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2011
Distribution In 2012, the distribution rights of Samuel Goldwyn films from the library were transferred to Warner Bros. Entertainment, with Miramax managing global licensing; the latter was handled by StudioCanal as part of a deal with Miramax until 2021, when ViacomCBS (now Paramount Skydance Corporation), under its flagship studio Paramount Pictures, acquired a 49% stake in Miramax and worldwide distribution rights to its content library. U.S. rights to The Hurricane, which had since reverted back to United Artists, are currently owned by its parent company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, now part of Amazon MGM Studios. Rights to The North Star were not initially renewed due to its controversial subject matter, thus had fallen in to the public domain. Currently, U.S. rights to the film are handled by Paramount as a successor to National Telefilm Associates, which distributed a re-cut version in 1957 as Armored Attack, one of the few Goldwyn titles not included in the Warner–Miramax arrangement. Studio Distribution Services, LLC., a joint venture between Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, distributes the entire Samuel Goldwyn catalog on home video, including The Hurricane, via a distribution deal with MGM Home Entertainment. Rights to Street Scene were retained by the estate of its author Elmer Rice, which would transfer ownership to Video-Cinema Films in 2004.U.S. Copyright Office Document No. V3511D054 / 2004-06-01
See also Goldwyn Pictures, the film production and distribution company active from 1916 and merged with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on April 16, 1924. Samuel Goldwyn Studio, informal name for the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios lot in Hollywood. The Samuel Goldwyn Company, founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr. in 1979, active through 1997. Samuel Goldwyn Films, founded by Goldwyn Jr. in 2000.
References