‘Hollywood In Madrid’: American Film Producers and the Franco Regime, 1950–1970

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgment My great thanks to Akira Iriye, Ernest May, Joseph Nye for their years of extraordinary mentoring, reflected, albeit imperfectly, in this piece and everything I write; to my friend Paul G. Nagle of the William Morris Agency, who has provided me with an incomparable education in the real-world workings of the entertainment industry, and with whom I am coauthoring a biography of producer Samuel Bronston; to Jonathan Rosenberg of Hunter College, Dr. John Trumpbour, and the members of the writers’ group organized by Jonathan Soffer of Polytechnic University, all of whom generously offered invaluable editorial suggestions that enhanced this article in numerous ways; to the many interview subjects cited within this piece, who took time to respond to my queries; to Professor Nicholas Cull of USC's Annenberg School for Communications; to Thomas Schatz of the University of Texas and Frank Ninkovich of St. John's University for their general encouragement of my work; and to the staffs of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, the US National Archives in College Park, Maryland, the Spanish General Archive of the Civil Administration of the State in Alcala de Henares, and the archive of the Spanish Ministry of Culture in Madrid for their aid and attention throughout my research. Notes Notes 1. See for example Fernando Termis Soto, Renunciando a todo: El Régimen franquista y los Estados Unidos desde 1945 hasta 1963 (Madrid, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Biblioteca Nueva, 2005); Boris N. Liedtke, Embracing a Dictatorship: U.S. relations with Spain, 1945–1953 (New York, St. Martin's, 1998); Arturo Jarque Íñiguez, Queremos esas Bases: El Acercamiento de Estados Unidos a la España de Franco (Alcalá de Henares, Centro de Estudios Norteamericanos, Universidad de Alcalá, 1998); Antonio Marquina Barrio, España en la Politica de Suguridad Occidental: 1939–1986 (Madrid, Servicio de Publicaciones del E.M.E., 1986); R. Richard Rubottom and J. Carter Murphy, Spain and the United States: since World War II (New York, Praeger, 1984); Arthur P. Whitaker, Spain and the Defense of the West: ally and liability (New York, Council on Foreign Relations, 1961). 2. This will be briefly described below. For an in-depth examination, see Neal Moses Rosendorf, ‘Be El Caudillo's guest: the Franco regime's quest for rehabilitation and dollars after World War II via the promotion of U.S. tourism to Spain,’ Diplomatic History, 30(3), June 2006. 3. See below in text. 4. For example, the future Spanish cult film auteurs Jess Franco and Paul Naschy. Jess Franco was an uncredited extra in Mike Todd's mammoth production Around the World in 80 Days (1956), served as an uncredited production assistant on King Vidor's Solomon and Sheba (1959), and was a second-unit director on Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight (1966). Paul Naschy had a bit role in Nicholas Ray's films King of Kings (1961) and 55 Days at Peking (1963). (See entries for Jesus Franco and Paul Naschy at the Encylopedia of Fantastic Film and Television Website at http://www.eofftv.com/names/f/fra/franco_jesus_main.htm, as well as the Internet Movie Database entries on Franco and Naschy at http://www.imdb.com). 5. Most notably in Anthony Mann's El Cid, 1961, produced by Samuel Bronston (see below in text). 6. For example in Jean Negulesco's The Pleasure Seekers, 1964. 7. This gigantism ran counter to the period's most forward-looking European cinema trends, the minimalist, low-budget Neo-Realist movement and its more-polished aesthetic successors in Italy and France's Nouvelle Vague. N.B. the late S. Frederick Gronich, the former vice-president of the Motion Picture Export Association of America [MPEA], was insistent that both the Neo-Realist and New Wave movements were underwritten by Hollywood funding, as part of the MPEA's program to meet Italian and French domestic film production quotas. Author interview with S. Frederick Gronich, Los Angeles, CA, 1996. 8. This point is the product of an ongoing colloquy between cultural historian John Trumpbour and the author. To be sure, plenty of grand-scale film-making took place during the early postwar period elsewhere in Europe, especially Britain and Italy. In the latter country, not only were there US epic productions like Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, and Cleopatra; there were also the more modestly budgeted but still visually sumptuous ‘peplum’ films, such as the two Steve Reeves Hercules film and The 300 Spartans. But the crucial difference was that, as far as we currently know, there was no official government political propaganda agenda at work in Britain or Italy concerning encouraging the production of certain cinematic subject matter. (N.B. I have had a hypothesis lingering in the background of my research for years concerning the British government in particular over some cinematic subject matter: World War II-themed and espionage films (such as those featuring super-spy James Bond) could have been seen by officials as good propaganda to place regularly before American audiences to remind them who their staunchest and most indispensable ally was, especially after the debacle of the Anglo-French-Israeli Suez Canal invasion in 1956, which placed the US and Britain at loggerheads. But I have not had the time to go on the research expedition to London to explore this possibility.) 9. Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Soft Power: the means to success in world politics (New York, Public Affairs, 2004), 5. 10. For a discussion of these anxieties, especially as they pertain to Europe, see for example Victoria de Grazia, Irresistible Empire: America's advance through 20th-century Europe (Cambridge, MA, Belknap Harvard, 2005), Richard H. Pells, Not Like Us: how Europeans have loved, hated, and transformed American culture since World War II (New York, Basic Books, 1997), Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Stephen Ricci (eds) Hollywood and Europe: economics, culture, national identity 1945–95 (London, British Film Institute Press, 1998); John Trumpbour, Selling Hollywood to the World: U.S. and European struggles for mastery of the global film industry, 1920–1950 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002); Ian Jarvie, Hollywood's Overseas Campaign: the North Atlantic movie trade, 1920–1950 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992). For a general discussion of ‘cultural imperialism,’ the standard point of entry is John Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism: a critical introduction (Baltimore, MA, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991). 11. For example, Fritz Lang, David Lean, Milos Forman, and John Woo, who brought with them to Hollywood such cinematic traditions as German Expressionism, English Romanticism, post-war Eastern European anti-authoritarianism, and Hong Kong's hyperkinetic ballets of stylized action. See Neal M. Rosendorf, ‘Social and cultural globalization: concepts, history, and America's Role, in Joseph S. Nye and John D. Donahue (eds) Governance in a Globalizing World (Washington, DC, Brookings Institution Press, 2000), 118–119. 12. Most notably that of Columbia Pictures in its defense of Fred Zinnemann's controversial film Behold a Pale Horse (1964). See below in text for a discussion of this episode. 13. One can perceive recent analogous behavior by American media toward the People's Republic of China, including Rupert Murdoch's blocking of the BBC in the mid-1990s from his Star satellite television network, which was being beamed into China, and the aid software companies Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have provided to the PRC in its efforts to control domestic access to reading and posting online content. See for example Zhao, ibid.; William Shawcross, ‘Rupert Murdoch,’ Time, October 25, 1999, online at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/intl/article/0,9171,1107991025-33716-1,00.html; OpenNet Initiative, Internet Filtering in China in 2004–2005: a country study, online at http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/china/; Clive Thompson, ‘Google's China Problem (and China's Google Problem),’ New York Times Magazine, April 23, 2006. 14. The divorcement decrees were designed to strip the major studios outright of approximately half of the more than 3100 theaters they controlled as of 1945. Michael Conant, ‘The impact of the Paramount decrees,’ in Tino Balio (ed.) The American Film Industry (Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), 347–348, 362–363. 15. As Business Week noted sardonically about potential movie-goers’ viewing options, ‘Set owners, millions of them, were not going to pay to see mediocre films; they could watch similar entertainment at home for nothing.’ (‘A Turn for the Bigger,’ Business Week, November 14, 1953, p. 149.) This is not to say that inexpensively produced films, or films about modest subjects, were abandoned by Hollywood. For example, Marty, the story of a lonely Bronx butcher, filmed on a shoestring budget in black and white and scripted by television writer Paddy Chayefsky, won the 1955 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay. Tino Balio, United Artists: the company that changed the film industry (Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), 79–82. 16. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer attempted to carry on its in-house production into the mid-1950s but ultimately had to bow to Hollywood's changed economic climate. Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System: Hollywood filmmaking in the studio era (New York, Pantheon, 1988), 462. 17. Domestic critics decried the practice as ‘runaway production.’ 18. Britain's Eady Plan was perhaps the best-known and most lucrative of these schemes. 19. For a full discussion of the respective merits and programs of these overseas destinations for Hollywood production, see Neal Moses Rosendorf, The life and times of Samuel Bronston, builder of ‘Hollywood in Madrid’; a study in the international scope and influence of American popular culture, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 2000, chapter 5: ‘Runaways, independents and blockbusters: Hollywood's shift toward foreign movie production in the 1950's and 1960's.’ 20. See Rosendorf, ‘Be El Caudillo's Guest,’ passim. 21. ‘Anteproyecto de Plan Nacional de Turismo,’ July 1952, p. 2, section 49.02, box 14415, general heading ‘Cultura,’ General Archive of the Civil Administration of the State, Alcala de Henares, Spain [General Archive Alcala]. 22. Carlos F. Heredero, Las Huellas del Tiempo: Cine espanol, 1951–1961 (Valencia, Archivo de la Filmoteca de la Generalitat Valenciana, 1993), 29. 23. Trumpbour, passim. 24. US Embassy, Madrid to State Department, January 8, 1963, ‘Efforts of Motion Picture Export Association of America to Persuade Spanish Government to Liberalize Restrictions on Distribution of United States Motion Pictures,’ 852.452/1-863, Record Group 59, US Department of State Central Files [RG 59], US National Archives, College Park, Maryland [NA]. 25. ‘Borrador Previo para un Estudio Sobre Fines y Medios de la Propaganda de Espana en el Exterior,’ ‘Borrador Previo para un Estudio Sobre Fines y Medios de la Propaganda de Espana en el Exterior,’ dated August 1960, p. 12, in box 28353, section 49.06, heading ‘Cultura,’ General Archive Alcala. 26. Paramount vigorously denied both the rumors and that it had subsequently pulled its punches in the final version—all the studio would admit to was that it had given a script draft to the Spanish Consul in San Francisco, whose suggestions for revisions, Paramount claimed, had been ignored utterly. (‘Off the Hollywood Wire,’ New York Times, February 14, 1943, in ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ clipping file, MHL. However, while there is no archival substantiation to date of State Department pressure on the producers, one reviewer offered this assessment at the time of the film's release: ‘How about the fascists—there was all that talk about Franco interference with the script—do the fascists ever get mentioned? Ans[wer:] Never; every place the word ‘fascist’ appeared in [screenwriter] Dudley Nichols’ script, Paramount substituted the word ‘Nationalist.’ Furthermore, they call the Loyalists ‘Republicans’ all the way through it, too so it's all pretty confusing.’ Still, even with evident tampering, ‘The net effect of ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ can scarcely be called pro-Franco,’ the reviewer conceded. (John T. McManus, ‘The Tongue-Tied ‘Bell’ Tolls Dully,’ PM Reviews, July 15, 1943, in ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ clipping file, MHL.) In an ironic coda, when Hilton Hotels opened the Castellana Hilton in Madrid in 1953, one of the American celebrities on hand for the dedication festivities was Gary Cooper, who had portrayed the anti-fascist Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls a decade earlier. See ‘Old Cowhand,’ Time, July 27, 1953, p. 17. 27. ‘Spanish Censure Hollywood Films: Academy of Medicine Also Finds Variety of Faults in American Psychiatry Methods,’ Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1950, p. 28, in ‘Spain—Motion Picture Industry 1950s’ file, Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences [MHL], Beverly Hills, CA. 28. Paul Preston, Franco: a biography (New York, Basic Books, 1994), 417–418; Aurora Bosch and M. Fernanda del Rincón, Dreams in a dictatorship: Hollywood and Franco's Spain, 1939–1956, in Reinhold Wagnleitner and Elaine Tyler May (eds) ‘Here, There and Everywhere’: the foreign politics of American popular culture (Hanover, NH, and London, University Press of New England, 2000), 100. N.B. While the chapter cited in the latter volume contains some useful information on the Franco regime's policy concerning Hollywood films that sought Spanish distribution, it says nothing about Hollywood productions in Spain or the regime's policies toward them. 29. Heredero, 20. 30. See for example memorandum from the US Embassy, Madrid to the State Department, ‘Motion Picture Association of America: Distribution of American Films in Spain,’ dated November 14, 1957; memorandum from US Embassy, Madrid to State Department, ‘MOTION PICTURES [sic]; Government Measures to Support Spanish Motion Picture Industry’, dated March 11, 1958; memorandum from US Embassy, Madrid to State Department, ‘New Agreement Between the Spanish Government and the Motion Picture Export Association of America, Inc. (MPEAA),’ dated March 26, 1959, all in folder, 852.452/1-3056, box 4621, RG 59, NA; Antonio Valles Copeiro del Villar, Historia de la Politica de Fomento del Cine espanol (Valencia, Filmoteca, Generalitat Valenciana, Institut Valencia d’Arts Esceniques, Cinematografia i Musica, Conselleria de Cultura, Educacio i Ciencia, 1992), 72. 31. Report from American Embassy, Madrid, to US Department of State, ‘The Motion Picture Industry in Spain,’ dated February 8, 1960, p. 4, in folder 852.44/2-2660, Box 2583, RG 59, NA. 32. Report from American Embassy, Madrid, to US Department of State, ‘The Motion Picture Industry in Spain,’ dated February 8, 1960, p. 22. 33. Report from American Embassy, Madrid, to US Department of State, ‘The Motion Picture Industry in Spain,’ dated February 8, 1960, p. 34. 34. The one unalloyed masterpiece of Spanish cinema during this period was Luis Bunuel's Viridiana (1960), in which the Franco regime got far more than it had bargained for when it momentarily welcomed back the renowned director from his Mexican exile and received a brilliant exercise in anti-Catholic blasphemy in return. The film, which among other things depicts the repeated rape of a saintly nun, would win the Palm d’Or at Cannes, which theoretically might burnish Spain's reputation as the source of quality motion pictures. The regime, which fashioned itself as the defender of the Catholic Church, did not see it that way and banned the film and banished the film-maker. 35. Letter from Gwynne Ornstein (wife of George Ornstein and daughter of Mary Pickford) to Mary Pickford, January 11, 1961, in folder, ‘Family: Gwynne and Bud Ornstein, #1’, Mary Pickford Collection, Herrick Special Collections, MHL; ‘Bud Ornstein Gets Honor From Spain,’ Hollywood Reporter, May 9, 1968, ‘George Ornstein’ clipping file, MHL. Ornstein would later transfer to London, where, as UA's head of European operations, he would help shepherd both the early James Bond films and the Beatles’ A Hard Day's Night into production. 36. For the history of United Artists, see Balio, United Artists. 37. John Cabrera, an Anglo-Spanish cinematographer who was then employed by Technicolor in the UK and assigned to Decameron Nights, recalls that the film crew was overwhelmingly British, with a few Spaniards working in minor technical positions; Spanish production facilities in the early 1950s were of a low quality, and Spanish technicians ‘were behind the times.’ Author interview via telephone with John Cabrera, Jan. 2006. 38. Ibid. 39. ‘Spanish Film Market Expanding—Fregonese,’ Hollywood Reporter, April 1, 1954, in ‘Spain—Motion Picture Industry’ file, MHL. 40. Untitled clipping, New York Times, August 1, 1954, in ‘Alexander the Great’ clipping file, MHL. 41. ‘Angles on “Alex”: Greece Couldn’t Handle Filming,’ Variety, December 21, 1955. Indeed, in an interesting sideline, another dictatorship, Yugoslavia, was under consideration, and Marshall Tito had even offered Rossen the services of his army for battle scenes. But Rossen still decided on Spain. ‘Alexander Conquers a New World,’ This Week Magazine, September 4, 1955, both cites in ‘Alexander the Great’ clipping file, MHL. 42. Memorandum from Chief of Service, Cinematographic Economic Order Service, Ministries of Industry and Commerce, to the Director-General of Cinema and Theater, Ministry of Information and Tourism, January 17, 1955, in ‘Alexander the Great’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. [Note: all Spanish government documents are in Spanish; translations by author.] 43. Photograph of Rossen being met in Spain by Ornstein (untitled), in ‘Alexander the Great’ folder, Robert Rossen Collection, UCLA Arts Special Collections, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. 44. ‘On February 17th, 1955 there was placed before the CinemaScope cameras at the Sevilla Studio, Madrid, the production of Robert Rossen's ‘Alexander the Great.’ Shooting will continue later in Manzanares, El Molar, Rascafria, Segovia and Malaga in Spain …’ (Advertisement, Variety, February 25, 1955, in ‘Alexander the Great’ clipping file, MHL). 45. Jose Clemente, ‘Film in Spain,’ Film Culture, summer 1955, in Spain—’Motion Picture Industry’ clipping file, MHL. 46. ‘Film's Campaign Boon for Spain’, Life, November 14, 1955, in ‘Alexander the Great’ clipping file, MHL. 47. ‘“Alexander” Band,’ New York Times, April 24, 1955. 48. ‘Film's Campaign Boon for Spain’, Life, November 14, 1955. 49. ‘Film's Campaign Boon for Spain’, Life, November 14, 1955. 50. ‘Conditions in Spain Now Favorable for American Producers,’ Hollywood Reporter, November 22, 1955, in ‘Spain—Motion Picture Industry file 1950s,’ MHL. 51. Draft of newspaper article by Vernon Scott [syndicated columnist], ‘For AM's of Wednesday, Oct 24 [1956],’ in folder, ‘Publicity: Blowitz-Markel,’ box 14, Stanley Kramer Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections, Young Library, University of California, Los Angeles, Westwood, CA. 52. Letter (in Spanish) from Stanley Kramer to Don Manuel Torres Lopez, Director General of Cinema and Theater, Ministry of Information and Tourism, September 16, 1955, in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 53. Memorandum (in Spanish) from Stanley Kramer Films, March 9, 1956, in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 54. Memorandum from Chief of Service, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, to the Director General of Cinema and Theater, Ministry of Information and Tourism, January 17, 1956, in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 55. Letter from the Minister of Information and Tourism (Gabriel Arias Salgado) to the Minister of the Army (Agustín Muñoz Grande), March 15, 1956, in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 56. ‘Stan Kramer Takes Pride in $3,000,000 Saving Achieved by Shooting Pic in Spain,’ Variety, October 18, 1956, in ‘Pride and the Passion’ clipping file, MHL. 57. Memorandum from the Director General of Cinema and Theater to the Minister of Information and Tourism, April 27, 1956, in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 58. Memorandum, ‘“Orgullo y Passion”—Informe sobre el guión y propuestas de modificación,’ undated [probably April 1956], in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 59. Memorandum, ‘Informe sobre “Orgullo y Passion”,’ undated [probably April 1956], in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 60. Memorandum (in Spanish), ‘“Orgulla y Passion”,’ from the Director General of Cinema and Theater to the managing director, Stanley Kramer Films Inc., May 25, 1956, in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. Kramer would similarly be willing to make script changes on one of his most notable subsequent ‘message’ films, On the Beach (1959), in order to meet with the Franco regime's approval. This motion picture, which was filmed on location in Australia, depicts the residents of Melbourne waiting to die from a radiation cloud released by a full-scale US-Soviet nuclear exchange. In order to gain a Spanish release for the film, Kramer significantly toned down in Spanish prints references to characters committing suicide, which the regime opposed on the grounds that it violated Catholic Church dogma. Memorandum, ‘The Motion Picture Industry in Spain,’ from US Embassy, Madrid, to the US Department of State, February 8, 1960, in folder 852.452/2-860, box 2583, RG 59, NA. 61. Memorandum from Spanish ambassador, Delhi (Conde de Artaza), June 17, 1958, in ‘Pride and Passion’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 62. Author's telephone conversation with representative of the Bryna Company, 1996. 63. Producer-star Kirk Douglas famously used the occasion of his film to break the Hollywood blacklist by giving writer Dalton Trumbo his first screen credit in almost a decade. 64. Letter from George Ornstein to Mary Pickford, May 3, 1959, in folder, ‘Family: Gwynne and Bud Ornstein, #1’, Mary Pickford Collection, Special Collections, MHL. N.B. Anthony Mann was the original director of Spartacus, until executive producer Kirk Douglas replaced him with Stanley Kubrick. 65. ‘For six weeks, the legions of Rome marched where they had not trod for nearly 2,000 years, across Spain … Subsequent location sites included Guadelajara, Colmenar, Viejo, Alcazarde Hernandez (Cervantes’ birthplace), Navacerrada, Taracena, and Iriepal.’ (‘Behind the Scenes With “Spartacus”’ promotional pamphlet, 1960, p. 4, in ‘Spartacus’ file, MHL). 66. Film review, Time, April 6, 1959, p. 90. 67. Note (in Spanish) from George Ornstein to the Ministry of Information and Tourism, undated (mid-1958), in ‘Solomon and Sheba’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 68. ‘Aim “Solomon and Sheba” For Christmas Release; Richmond Due in N.Y.,’ Variety, May 27, 1959, attached to letter from George Ornstein, United Artists Corporation, to José Muñoz Fontán, Director General of Cinema and Theater, June 30, 1959, in ‘Solomon and Sheba’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 69. Letter from George Ornstein, United Artists Corporation, to José Muñoz Fontán, Director General of Cinema and Theater, June 30, 1959, in ‘Solomon and Sheba’ file, Ministry of Culture, Madrid. 70. ‘Who's Who Overseas: George “Bud” Ornstein,’ The Film Daily, June 9, 1960, in ‘George Ornstein’ file, MHL. 71. ‘The Return of the Peep Show,’ New York Times, April 21, 1940, in ‘Martin Eden’ clipping file, MHL. James Roosevelt personally petitioned the US State Department on Bronston's behalf in 1939 when the producer sought permanent residency in the United States. (Letter from James Roosevelt to W.R. Blocker, American Counsel [sic] General, Juarez, Mexico, June 28, 1939, in ‘Bronston, Samuel’ folder, container 534 ‘Br’, James Roosevelt Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY). 72. ‘Sam Bronston to Biopic “John Paul Jones” for WB,’ Variety, December 23, 1955, in ‘John Paul Jones’ clipping file, MH. 73. Ibid.; ‘Bronston … Shot Biopic Abroad,’ Hollywood Reporter, November 3, 1958; ‘Bronston, Farrow to Repeat Abroad,’ Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1958, all in ‘John Paul Jones’ clipping file, MHL; Affadavit of Irwin Margulies [vice-president and treasurer, John Paul Jones Productions, Inc.], October 30, 1958, in John Paul Jones Productions, Inc. v. Barnett Glassman and Thomas J. Todarelli, US District Court, Southern District of New York [USDC-SDNY], case file CIV 138-205, filed November 3, 1958, National Archives and Records Administration [NARA] facility, Lee's Summit, MO [LS]. 74. ‘Filming Life of Christ as Written by Ex-Chief Rabbi,’ Variety, September 23, 1953, in ‘King of Kings’ clipping file, MHL. 75. Aside from the maritime protagonist's Scottish heritage, as noted earlier much ‘runaway production’ took place within Great Britain, which combined currency repatriation restrictions with a film subsidy plan of which foreign producers could easily take advantage. 76. John Cabrera interview. 77. Author interview with Paul Lazarus, Jr., former senior vice-president of Samuel Bronston Productions, Santa Barbara, CA, 1996; Paul Lazarus, Jr., ‘The Madrid Movie Caper,’ Focus (University of California Santa Barbara), 16 (1995), 45–47. 78. Direct examination of Rudolph M. Littauer, December 1, 1958, pp. 156–158; affidavit of Frederick M. Stern, October 30, 1958, both in John Paul Jones Productions, Inc. v. Barnett Glassman and Thomas J. Todarelli, USDC-SDNY, case file CIV 138-205, filed November 3, 1958, NARA facility, LS. 79. John Cabrera interview. 80. Franco undoubtedly intended this gesture at least in part as a slap against the Bourbon pretender to the Spanish throne Don Juan, whom he detested. John Cabrera interview; Preston, Franco, 552–53; 685–86. 81. ‘Film “Armada” in Spain: “John Paul Jones” Movie Unit Takes Small Iberian Village by Storm,’ New York Times, August 17, 1958; ‘“John Paul Jones”—Historic Epic,’ Los Angeles Times Sunday Entertainment supplement, cover story, September 21, 1958, both in ‘John Paul Jones’ film clipping collection, MHL. 82. ‘Bronston Raps His Ex-Accountant; Repeats “Harassment” by Glassman Can’t Halt “John Paul Jones” Dates,’ Variety, December 17, 1958, in ‘John Paul Jones’ film clipping collection, MHL. 83. ‘Total Bronston Operation Liabilities About $35 Mil, Court Documents Show,’ Variety, August 9, 1965, ‘Samuel Bronston’ clipping file, Variety Editorial Offices, Los Angeles, CA (My thanks to Paul G. Nagle of the William Morris Agency, with whom I am co-authoring a biography of Samuel Bronston (University of Texas Press, in contract), for his instrumental aid in obtaining Variety's ‘Samuel Bronston’ clipping files). Dollar conversion courtesy of John J. McCusker, ‘Comparing the Purchasing Power of Money in the United States (or Colonies) from 1665 to 2005’, Economic History Services, 2006, at http://www.eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/. 84. ‘Pierre S. DuPont: High-Flyin’ Angel,’ Variety, January 20, 1960, in ‘Samuel Bronston’ clipping file, Variety Editorial Offices. 85. On criticism of Wanger see Marcia Reed, ‘Wanger, Love and Mussolini,’ New Theatre, August 1936, p. 23; see as well ‘Mussolini Sends Agent to U.S. for Aid for Italian Production,’ Motion Picture Herald, August 29, 1936, p. 17, which describes the Italian follow-up to Wanger's trip to Rome. Both located in ‘Italy-MP Industry [pre-WW II]’ clipping folder, MHL.) On Roach see ‘Hollywood Closed Down for a Year … Would be Blessed,’ Motion Picture Herald, October 2, 1937, p. 21; ‘Mussolini Deal Off: Duce's Son Departs Chilled by Reception; Roach Out 12 Grand,’ Variety, October 7, 1937, both in ‘Italy-MP Industry [pre-WW II]’ clipping folder, MHL. 86. See note 1. Indeed, in 1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower would travel to Spain and be photographed exchanging a warm abrazo with Franco. 87. See documents contained in ‘El Rey de Reyes’ file folder, Archives of the Ministry of Culture, Madrid. Both 88. Author interviews: Irene Bronston (Samuel Bronston's daughter), Berkeley, CA, 1996; Dr. William Bronston (Samuel Bronston's son), Sacramento, CA, 1995–96; and Dorothea Bronston (Samuel Bronston's ex-wife), London, 1996. 89. John XXIII would soon set in motion, through the ‘Vatican II’ deliberations, the most extensive changes in Catholic doctrine in four centuries, among them the absolution of the Jews for the death of Christ (this would be codified in 1965 by John's successor, Paul VI, in Nostra Aetate: Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, available online at http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html). The King of Kings script portrayed Barabbas and Judas as Jewish revolutionaries committed to freeing Judea from Roman rule, which, while Scripturally problematic, was in fact historically plausible (the ancient Jewish historian Josephus describes the religio-political radicalism of the Zealots, who were a rising force in Judea at the time of Jesus’ Ministry (see H.H. Ben-Sasson, ed., A History of the Jewish People (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985) 272--76. 90. ‘“King of Kings” Distribution to be Sold Country by Country,’ Hollywood Reporter, April 1, 1960, in ‘King Of Kings’ clipping file, MHL; Pete Hebblethwaite, Pope John XXIII: shepherd of the modern world (Garden City, NY, Doubleday, 1985). 91. Although John XXIII would consecrate Franco's gargantuan mountaintop war monument-cum-cathedral at the ‘Valley of the Fallen’ in 1962, the Vatican would ultimately officially disassociate itse