Benedict Bogeaus
Birth : 1904-05-04, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Death : 1968-08-23
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benedict Bogeaus (May 4, 1904, in Chicago – August 23, 1968, in Hollywood), was an independent film producer and former owner of General Service Studios. He became a property developer in Chicago, accumulating a fortune of $18 million, which he lost during the Great Depression. He went to Europe with what money had had left, looking for new opportunities. He produced a film in France, The Virgin Man and one in Germany, Daughter of the Regiment and later said both were "very bad".
Bogeaus moved to Hollywood in 1940 and went into partnership with Herbert Huston making a portable developing machine. The advent of World War Two saw this become a huge success.
When AT&T's Western Electric unit that manufactured sound equipment for film was forced by an antitrust action to divest itself of the General Service Studio complex, Bogeaus outbid producer Edward Small to acquire the studio. He allowed the United States Government to use his complex for film work and leased it out to various independent film producers, keeping his eye on their progress. Eventually he decided to make films himself.
Forming Benedict Bogeaus Productions in 1944, his first film was The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944), directed by Rowland V. Lee and released though United Artists. He followed it with Dark Waters (1944), directed by Andre de Toth), and Captain Kidd (1945), directed by Lee with Charles Laughton and Randolph Scott. He also produced The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) along with stars Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith; it was directed by Jean Renoir.
Though these films were critically acclaimed, they didn't set the box office on fire. Realising the public's attraction to low and middle budget films with star power, Bogeaus signed George Raft on for a few films, beginning with Mr. Ace (1946), directed by Edwin Marin. The movie was not a financial success.
Bogeaus made The Macomber Affair (1947) with Gregory Peck directed by Zoltan Korda. He made two anthology films with multiple stars in different storylines so they could be filmed at different times: Christmas Eve (1947), with Raft and Scott, directed by Marin; On Our Merry Way (1948), with Goddard, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. and Bogeaus made two films with Dorothy Lamour and George Montgomery, Lulu Belle (1948) and The Girl from Manhattan (1948).
He turned to film noir with two films directed by Robert Florey: The Crooked Way (1949) and Johnny One-Eye (1950).
Most of Bogeaus' films had been released through United Artists. He signed a deal with RKO for Count the Hours (1952), Appointment in Honduras (1953), Silver Lode (1954), Passion (1954), Cattle Queen of Montana (1955), Escape to Burma (1955), Pearl of the South Pacific (1955), Tennessee's Partner (1955), and Slightly Scarlet (1955). RKO collapsed and Bogeaus made The River's Edge (1957) with Dwan for Fox, and Enchanted Island (1958) for Warners.
Dwan's final films included two directed by Byron Haskin in Mexico: From the Earth to the Moon (1958) and Jet Over the Atlantic (1959). His last production was Most Dangerous Man Alive directed by Dwan that was filmed in 1958 in Mexico but not released until 1961. Dwan and Bogeaus cooperated in three unfilmed projects, a remake of The Bridge at San Luis Rey, Will You Marry Me, written by Dwan, and The Glass Wall.
Producer
An escaped, but framed, prisoner escapes prison during a cobalt explosion and soon discovers he has grown a special power that makes his body impervious to everything. Learning this, he seeks vengeance on the bad guys who framed him for jail.
Producer
Set just after the American civil war, businessman and inventor Victor Barbicane invents a new source of power called Power X. He plans to use it to power rockets, and to show its potential he plans to send a projectile to the moon. Joining him for the trip are his assistant Ben Sharpe, Barbicane's arch-rival Stuyvesant Nicholl, and Nicholl's daughter Virginia. Nicholl believes that Power X goes against the will of God and sabotages the projectile so that they cannot return to earth, setting up a suspenseful finale as they battle to repair the projectile.
Producer
Two 19th-century sailors jump ship only to discover their tropical paradise is a cannibal stronghold.
Producer
A murderous thief on the run with stolen loot forces a poor rancher to guide him across the desert into Mexico. Accompanying them is the rancher's wife, who happens to be the killer's former girlfriend.
Producer
Kleptomaniac Dorothy Lyons is paroled from prison into the custody of her sister June, secretary to "reform" politician Frank Jansen. Ben Grace, associate of crime boss Sol "Solly" Caspar, sees this as a way to smear Jansen's campaign. Seductive Dorothy will do anything to get what she wants, which includes having a good time with Ben-- whom June is now in love with.
Producer
A tough, womanizing high-stakes gambler known only as Tennessee has an uneasy relationship with Duchess, madam of a thinly-disguised bordello, and no other friends at all. But he's saved from murder by a lonesome cowpoke ('My friends call me Cowpoke'), in town to meet his fiancée Goldie on the steamboat. When she arrives, there's a mysterious undercurrent between Goldie and Tennessee, whose newfound friendship with Cowpoke is destined to be severely tried...
Producer
A fugitive in British Burma hides on a tea plantation, thanks to a mutual attraction with owner Gwen Moore.
Producer
Sierra Nevada Jones must fight a villainous rancher to regain the land that is rightfully hers.
Producer
In old Spanish California, dashing cattleman Juan Obregon returns to the rancho of his friend Gaspar Melo, to find he's fathered a son on Rosa, one of Gaspar's identical twin daughters. Overjoyed, he plans to formalize his "unofficial" marriage. But trouble brews; Melo's land is of unclear title and the new Don Domingo hopes to grab it for his own profit. Violence results. Without even knowing who survived, Juan (accompanied by Rosa's tomboy sister Tonya) rides for revenge, through spectacular pastoral and wilderness scenery.
Producer
Dan Ballard, a respected citizen in the western town of Silver Lode, has his wedding interrupted by four men led by Ned McCarty, an old acquaintance who, as a US Marshal, arrests Ballard for the murder of his brother and the theft of $20,000. Ballard seeks to stall McCarty while tracking down evidence that will prove his innocence.
Producer
On a tramp steamer off Central America are Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard, five prisoners en route to a Nicaraguan prison, and Corbett, an American carrying money for a Honduran counter-revolution. Denied permission to land in Honduras, Corbett releases the prisoners and with their aid hijacks the ship. They land, taking the wealthy Sheppards as hostages, and start the arduous trip upriver to Corbett's rendezvous, meeting jungle hazards
Producer
A lawyer defends a migrant worker in a sensational murder trial.
Producer
Lawyer Jimmy Donovan thinks a bicycle tour through Mexico is just the thing to keep him out of trouble until his client arrives. But when school teacher Jean Harper misses her tour bus, all of a sudden Jimmy is in for much more than he bargained for.
Producer
Danny, a greenhorn from New York comes to the Mexican border in search for his older brother whom he has always looked up to. A Texas Ranger charged with bringing in, El Tigre and his gang of bandits, takes Danny under his wing.
Producer
Johnny One-Eye was adapted from one of Damon Runyon's lesser-known stories. Martin Martin and Dane Cory were former partners in crime who have long since split up. When a new district attorney puts the heat on, Cory, anxious to save his own hide, accuses Martin of an unsolved murder. Holed up in abandoned house, Martin is befriended by a little girl and her dog. It so happens that the girl is the daughter of the crusading DA, and thereby hangs the rest of this tale.
Producer
A war veteran suffering from amnesia, returns to Los Angeles from a San Francisco veterans hospital hoping to learn who he is and discovers his criminal past.
Producer
A small-town girl who's made it big in New York as a fashion model returns home, only to find that her somewhat dotty uncle has mortgaged his boarding house to the hilt. In her efforts to help him keep his boarding house, she becomes involved with a handsome young minister and his superior, an older bishop.
Producer
Lulu Belle is singing in a cheap dive in Natchez, Mississippi in the early 1900's when she meets rising young attorney George Davis. He gives up his fiancée and career to marry Lulu Bell. When his money runs out, Lulu Belle goes to work in a New Orleans club run by tough gambler Mark Brady. She tries to send George back to Natchez by pretending that she has fallen for prize-fighter Butch Cooper but George, in a fit of jealousy, drives a handful of forks into Butch's face. He is sent to prison and Lulu goes to New York with millionaire Harry Randolph, who makes her the singing sensation of Broadway and asks her to marry him. She refuses when she learns that George has been released from prison, realizing that he is the only man she ever truly loved.
Producer
Oliver Pease gets a dose of courage from his wife Martha and tricks the editor of the paper (where he writes lost pet notices) into assigning him the day's roving question. Martha suggests, "Has a little child ever changed your life?" Oliver gets answers from two slow-talking musicians, an actress whose roles usually feature a sarong, and an itinerant cardsharp. In each case the "little child" is hardly innocent: in the first, a local auto mechanic's "baby" turns out to be fully developed as a woman and a musician; in the second, a spoiled child star learns kindness; in the third, the family of a lost brat doesn't want him returned. And Oliver, what becomes of him?
Presenter
The greedy nephew of eccentric Matilda Reid seeks to have her judged incompetent so he can administer her wealth, but she will be saved if her three long-lost adopted sons appear for a Christmas Eve reunion. Separate stories reveal Michael as a bankrupt playboy loved by loyal Ann; Mario as a seemingly shady character tangling with a Nazi war criminal in South America; Jonathan as a hard-drinking rodeo rider intent on a flirtatious social worker. Is there hope for Matilda?
Producer
The greedy nephew of eccentric Matilda Reid seeks to have her judged incompetent so he can administer her wealth, but she will be saved if her three long-lost adopted sons appear for a Christmas Eve reunion. Separate stories reveal Michael as a bankrupt playboy loved by loyal Ann; Mario as a seemingly shady character tangling with a Nazi war criminal in South America; Jonathan as a hard-drinking rodeo rider intent on a flirtatious social worker. Is there hope for Matilda?
Producer
A big-game hunter takes a rich American couple on an African safari. Film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber".
Producer
Celestine, the chamber-maid, has a new job in the country, at the Lanlaires. She has decided to use her beauty to seduce a wealthy man, but Mr. Lanlaire is not a right choice: the house is firmly controlled by Madame Lanlaire, helped by the strange valet Joseph. Then she tries the neighbour, former officer Mauger. This seems to work. But soon the son of the Lanlaires comes back. He is young, attractive and does not share his mother's antirepublican opinions. So Celestine's beauty attracts Captain Mauger, young Georges Lanlaire, and Joseph. Three men, from three different social classes, with three different conceptions of life. Will Celestine be able to convince Georges of her sincerity?
Producer
Cutthroat pirate William Kidd captures Admiral Blayne's treasure ship and hides the bounty in a cave. Three years later, Kidd, posing as a respectable merchant captain, offers his services to the king. Seeking a social position, Kidd also negotiates for Blayne's title and lands, provided he can prove Blayne was associated with piracy. Launched upon his royal mission, Kidd is unaware that Blayne's son Adam is among the crew, determined to clear his father's name.
Producer
Leslie Calvin, the sole survivor of a submarine accident, goes to her relatives in order to recover emotionally. Unfortunately, she encounters various scam artists led by Mr. Sydney who intend to kill her and steal the family assets. Dr. George Grover helps Leslie to defeat Sydney.
Producer
A rope bridge over a gorge in the Peruvian Andes snaps, sending five people plunging to their deaths. A priest sets out to find out more about the life of each of the victims.
