# Samuel Goldwyn Productions

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 Hollywood's Golden Age.

## 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.
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 consistently 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 | Distributor | Notes |
| September 6, 1923 | Potash and Perlmutter | First National | |
| January 24, 1924 | The Eternal City | First National | |
| April 3, 1924 | Cytherea | First National | |
| September 29, 1924 | In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter | First National | |
| May 3, 1925 | His Supreme Moment | First National | |
| June 18, 1925 | A Thief in Paradise | First National | |
| September 27, 1925 | The Dark Angel | First National | |
| November 16, 1925 | Stella Dallas | United Artists | |
| February 15, 1926 | Partners Again | United Artists | |
| October 14, 1926 | The Winning of Barbara Worth | United Artists | |
| January 27, 1927 | The Night of Love | United Artists | |
| September 18, 1927 | The Magic Flame | United Artists | |
| November 3, 1927 | The Devil Dancer | United Artists | |
| March 23, 1928 | Two Lovers | United Artists | |
| November 17, 1928 | The Awakening | United Artists | |
| January 12, 1929 | The Rescue | United Artists | |
| May 2, 1929 | Bulldog Drummond | United Artists | |
| June 22, 1929 | This Is Heaven | United Artists | |
| November 3, 1929 | Condemned | United Artists | |
| July 24, 1930 | Raffles | United Artists | |
| October 5, 1930 | Whoopee! | United Artists | |
| December 20, 1930 | The Devil to Pay! | United Artists | |
| January 14, 1931 | One Heavenly Night | United Artists | |
| September 5, 1931 | Street Scene | United Artists | |
| October 3, 1931 | Palmy Days | United Artists | |
| October 28, 1931 | The Unholy Garden | United Artists | |
| December 17, 1931 | Tonight or Never | United Artists | |
| December 26, 1931 | Arrowsmith | United Artists | |
| February 13, 1932 | The Greeks Had a Word for Them | United Artists | |
| November 17, 1932 | The Kid from Spain | United Artists | |
| December 24, 1932 | Cynara | United Artists | |
| September 3, 1933 | The Masquerader | United Artists | |
| December 29, 1933 | Roman Scandals | United Artists | |
| February 1, 1934 | Nana | United Artists | |
| November 1, 1934 | We Live Again | United Artists | |
| November 10, 1934 | Kid Millions | United Artists | |
| March 8, 1935 | The Wedding Night | United Artists | |
| September 8, 1935 | The Dark Angel | United Artists | |
| October 13, 1935 | Barbary Coast | United Artists | |
| November 22, 1935 | Splendor | United Artists | |
| January 24, 1936 | Strike Me Pink | United Artists | |
| March 18, 1936 | These Three | United Artists | |
| September 23, 1936 | Dodsworth | United Artists | Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1990 |
| November 6, 1936 | Come and Get It | United Artists | |
| December 25, 1936 | Beloved Enemy | United Artists | |
| May 7, 1937 | Woman Chases Man | United Artists | |
| August 6, 1937 | Stella Dallas | United Artists | |
| August 27, 1937 | Dead End | United Artists | |
| November 9, 1937 | The Hurricane | United Artists | |
| February 4, 1938 | The Goldwyn Follies | United Artists | |
| April 15, 1938 | The Adventures of Marco Polo | United Artists | |
| November 17, 1938 | The Cowboy and the Lady | United Artists | |
| April 7, 1939 | Wuthering Heights | United Artists | Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2007 |
| August 18, 1939 | They Shall Have Music | United Artists | |
| September 29, 1939 | The Real Glory | United Artists | |
| December 29, 1939 | Raffles | United Artists | |
| September 20, 1940 | The Westerner | United Artists | |
| August 29, 1941 | The Little Foxes | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| December 2, 1941 | Ball of Fire | RKO Radio Pictures | Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2016 |
| July 14, 1942 | The Pride of the Yankees | RKO Radio Pictures | Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2024 |
| January 27, 1943 | They Got Me Covered | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| June 12, 1943 | Spitfire | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| November 4, 1943 | The North Star | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| February 17, 1944 | Up in Arms | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| November 17, 1944 | The Princess and the Pirate | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| June 8, 1945 | Wonder Man | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| March 21, 1946 | The Kid from Brooklyn | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| November 21, 1946 | The Best Years of Our Lives | RKO Radio Pictures | Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1989 |
| August 4, 1947 | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| December 9, 1947 | The Bishop's Wife | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| October 19, 1948 | A Song Is Born | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| December 11, 1948 | Enchantment | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| August 18, 1949 | Roseanna McCoy | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| December 25, 1949 | My Foolish Heart | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| July 27, 1950 | Our Very Own | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| August 2, 1950 | Edge of Doom | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| December 22, 1951 | I Want You | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| November 25, 1952 | Hans Christian Andersen | RKO Radio Pictures | |
| 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., with Miramax managing global licensing; the latter was handled by StudioCanal as part of a deal with Miramax until 2021, when Paramount Global (then ViacomCBS), 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.