Step by Step Hollywood Part Three
This segment is heavily influence (Rip off from) Todd Serial Blog
http://blog.serialexperience.com/
If you have not read Todd blog, check it out, I wait.
Back, Good.
One of the first Things did when he did when Howard Hughes bought Republic studio in 1938 was start look for characters that could be made into serials.
He quickly zoom it on two characters from Robert Howard. The American in Afghanistan El Borak and Conan the Barbarian. These two character would Hughes felt, make the best movie Serials. he also began to discuss getting the rights to two of his favorite Pulp Heroes, The Shadow and Doc Savage from Smith and Street.
He got the Howard rights fairly quickly. But the Character from Smith and Street took longer.
Hughes wanted Republic two director of Serials William Witney and John English to get to work on Conan right away. He want Willis O Brian, to do the creatures for it.
But Real life stop Hughes. Witney and English had four serials that they were to direct in 1939. The second Dick Tracy serial, a second Lone Ranger serial, Daredevils of the Red Circle and A third Dick Tracy.
Hughes cancel the Third Dick Tracy serial, order them them to work on Conan in it place.
Ray Crash Corrigan was cast as Conan. Witney and English were able to flim on some of the sets from Heart of Darkness and were allow to film on the fortress set being build of 1940 Gunga Din before George Steven even got a chance to film on it. Costume and Props from other RKO films werre used. Often being grab off the RKO lot while filming was still going one, including stuff from Warbirds that was just finishing shooting, and Sideway in Time which was in the middle of Shooting. ( according to a rummor on the RKO lot, George Stevens wondered over to Republic lot and stole a couple of important props and held them for a week, claiming he was using them in his film .)
And then, everything went on hold. The Problem was Willis OBrian. He had done the Effects on Dunwich Horror and Was working in the War Bird. He would not have the time to do the creatures, till he was done with War Bird. By the time War Birds effects were finished, Hughes had pushed O Brian to begin work on the live action version of Zeppelin vs the Pterodactyls.
O Brian manage to quick get the necessary shots for Conan, by reusing Models for other movies. The Conan Film used the Monster from Dunwich Horror , redone, Some of the models from War Birds and a few from the Upcoming Zeppelin vs the Pterodactyls.
He did not finish all the shots. He needed a break. Two of the shots in the Conan serial were taken from Creation, and one from King Kong. The Spider Pit had been edited out. Now it was being used.
The serial Conan was released in 1941
Conan was a moderate success. It did not do as well as Hughes has hope, El Borak was put on Hold. The long time between the filming of the serial and the release hurt Republic, which was use to releasing films as quickly as they could.
1940 saw Republic serial unit do Drum of Fu ManChu , Adventure of Red Ryder, and King of the Royal Mounted. Since the end of 1939 Republic had been trying to get the rights to National Comics Superman. A script had been written. they were ready to go. National had already sold the rights to Paramount, which then hire the Fleischer Brothers to do animated shorts.
Republic then try to get the rights to National other big Hero Batman.
National claimed that that they did not want a cheap version of their Hero.
National offer another Hero to Republic, The Crimson Avenger. Republic agreed with the Hope that National would let them do other heroes latter.
The Crimson Avenger Serial was a success. (In our Timeline, Dc did not offer to let Republic use the Crimson Avenger, So Republic created their own hero for the Serial, The Mysterious Doctor Satan)
Republic return to National after the success of Crimson Avenger and try again for either Superman or Batman. But there was another problem.
When RKO purchased Gladiator, Phillip Wylie Book for filming, they discovered that Columbia picture was film a comedy movie based on the book. RKO had purchase the rights for the book. Columbia had not. RKO sued Columbia to stop their version from being released. They won. The Columbia version would not be seen till the 2000's when a DVD of RKO version included the Columbia Movie.
( There was a version of Gladiator as Comedy by Columbia in OTL. Columbia did not try to buy the rights. But in OTL Columbia was able to release it, since no one else had bought the rights)
After RKO won their Case, Phillip Wylie, went to court to sue National Comics, over Superman. Nation argued that Superman was based on the power of characters from the old greek myth. Their Case fall apart when Jerry Siegel admitted that he read Gladiator in Court. The Court required National to make a payment to Wylie and that he would get a royality payment for all Comic, Movies, radio show and Merchandising as well as the credit for Superman now including Wylie Name.
Nation would take in out on Siegel and Shuster, denying them paychecks and payments over little annoyances. They also blamed Hughes and RKO. Since Republic was own by Hughes also, Nation Comic decided that RKO/Republic would never get the rights to any of their Characters ever again.
Republic would turn to one of National competitors Fawcett comics and do Serials of Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher. The end result were some of the best serial ever made. Hughes had in 1939 out bid Columbia for the rights to both Doc Savage and the The Shadow. (OTL COlumbia did a Shadow serial in 1940, No Doc Savage serial was ever done in the OTL)
in 1941 Hughes cancel the Third Dick Tracy serial again and had Witney and English do the Shadow. Assisting them as a Producer was some one, no one would have every thought would have work on a Serial ever.
Orson Wells in a discussion with Hughes in 1940's joke that he would love to attempt a motion picture of the Shadow. Hughes told Wells that he could serve as a Producer on The Shadow, if he also would work on a second serial latter, one of Hughes Choosing. Wells agreed, thinking that Hughes was joking.
Well was shock when he got a call from Hughes to get over to the Republic Lot and get to work on the Shadow. Well keep bringing over members of his crew from Citizen Kane. They keep talking about the visual style of the serial. The serial people where puzzled. This was a serial, you film it quickly and did not worry about style.
Well manage to influence the serial with a Film Noir style and came up with some great shots . "The Shadow" had a style that no other serial had.
it would influence all of Republic serial from then on. Mixing the action style with Film Noir.
Yet it lost money. Wells people spend more then three times, the normal amount that Republic normally spend on a Serial.
Well figure that Hughes would hold him to his condition that Wells would have to do a second serial. He had his Crew start design work on Doc Savage .
Hughes then Show up and Told Wells to quit wasting his and his crew time on Doc Savage and get Back to work on the Magnificent Amberson.
Mean while Witney would film Doc Savage alone, with Buster Crabb as the Doc. released in 1942, He made use of the work Welles Crew had done and gave the Serial a visual style that was epic in size. It was twice the cost of a normal serial and Republic paid for it by only releasing three serial that year, the other being Spy Smasher and Perils of Nyoka, based on a story by Edger Rice Burrough.
I going to stop now.
Next week I try to finish with Post World war 2, Orson Welles Batman, ' Orson Welles' War of the World and how a balloon crash in New Mexico would become a Urban Legend.
