Albert Zugsmith
Albert Zugsmith (April 24, 1910 – October 26, 1993) was an American film producer, film director and screenwriter who specialized in low-budget exploitation films through the 1950s and 1960s. With a background in music promotion (Ted Weems, Paul Whitman) public relations (one of his clients in depression era Chicago was Al Capone), journalism and brokering communication properties (radio, newspaper, early television), Zugsmith became independently wealthy and began producing films at RKO during the Howard Hughes years. Zugsmith's most significant credits are a string of four genre masterpieces produced in the late 1950s, all for Universal Studios: the  science-fiction classic "The Incredible Shrinking Man," Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil," Douglas Sirk's "Written on the Wind", and the camp exploitation films produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer "High School Confidential" and "The Girl in the Kremlin". An archive of some of his shooting scripts and screen plays are housed in the Special Collections department at the University of Iowa. Biography. Zugsmith was a journalist and publicist. In 1939 he moved in to brokering sales of communication properties like newspapers and radio and television stations; he was very successful, doing up to $250 million worth of sales, and  became a millionaire off his commissions. He was a film buff and wanted to move into film producing. American Pictures Corporation. Zugsmith formed American Pictures Corporation, along with Peter Miller, Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen They planned to make six films a year for five years out of a fund of $3.5 million. They did a three picture deal with RKO to make "Captive Women" (1952), "Sword of Venus" (1953), and "Port Sinister" (1953). No film cost more than $100,000. It was a film he made for Columbia that established him - "Invasion, U.S.A." (1952), which earned profits of  over a million dollars. He followed it with "Paris Model" (1953), a comedy and "Top Banana" (1954) with Phil Silvers. Universal. Zugsmith's success saw him receive a long term contract at Universal. While there he acted as a script doctor for several Universal-International films and produced "Female on the Beach" (1955), a melodrama with Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler; "The Square Jungle" (1955), a boxing film with Tony Curtis; "Raw Edge" (1956), a Western with Yvonne de Carlo and Rory Calhoun; "Red Sundown" (1956), a Western with Calhoun, directed by Jack Arnold; and "Star in the Dust" (1956 ), another Western with John Agar and Mamie Van Doren, directed by Charles F. Haas. Zugsmith had a big hit with "Written on the Wind" (1956) starring Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall and Dorothy Malone, directed by Douglas Sirk. Also popular was "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957) from the script and novel by Richard Matheson. Zugmsith produced "The Tattered Dress" (1957) with Chandler, "The Girl in the Kremlin" (1957), and "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" (1957), a film noir. He did "The Tarnished Angels" (1957) which reunited Sirk, Hudson, Stack and Malone, and "Man in the Shadow" (1957) with Chandler and  Orson Welles, directed by Arnold. He did "The Female Animal" (1957) with Hedy Lamarr from his own story, directed by Harry Keller. Zugsmith's next film was "Touch of Evil" (1958), which had Welles attached to play the villain; Charlton Heston agreed to star if Welles directed, which happened, although some additional scenes were directed by Harry Keller after Zugsmith left the studio. MGM. Zugsmith says he left Universal because he was unhappy Edward Muhl had been made subservient to Al Daff He over to MGM where he signed a six picture deal. The association started well with "High School  Confidential!" (1958), starring Russ Tamblyn and Van Doren and directed by Jack Arnold. It was a big hit. He followed it with a series of movies at MGM: "Night of the Quarter Moon" (1958); "The Beat Generation" (1959), with Van Doren and Steve Cochran, co written by Matheson, and directed by Haas; "The Big Operator" (1959) with Van Doren, Cochran and Mickey Rooney, directed by Haas; and "Girls Town" (1959) with Van Doren, also directed by Haas. All these lost money. Zugsmith later said "after telling me that I would have decent budgets, MGM never gave me a decent budget  while I was there... I didn't get along very well with Mr Benny Thau... I never cared for MGM. They gave me all kinds of curves: bad cameramen that happened to be under contract, and so on. I wasn't one of the 'clique'. They wouldn't back me up on the set or anything else." Zugsmith turned director with "The Private Lives of Adam and Eve" (1960) which he filmed with Rooney, who also starred; Van Doren was in the cast. It was made independently outside MGM, for Universal. "I pick my titles to get 'em into theatres ," said Zugsmith. "Thousands of exhibitors say amen to that." Back at MGM Zugmsith produced "Platinum High School" (1960), with Rooney, directed by Haas. Director. Zugsmith was billed as sole director for "College Confidential" (1960) starring Steve Allen, from a story by Zugsmith, at Universal. He then bought stock in Allied Artists and directed three films for them: "Sex Kittens Go to College" (1960) with Van Doren and Tuesday Weld; "Dondi" (1961), a children's film with David Janssen and Patti Page; and "Confessions of an Opium Eater" (1963) with Vincent Price. Zugsmith later said "Allied Artists was a very depressing  period in my life. Maybe it showed in the films I made there. I was very depressed there. I didn't like it; I felt imprisoned; I had to get away." He produced "Zigzag" (1963) in the Philippines then produced and directed "The Great Space Adventure" (1963). He produced Russ Meyer's "Fanny Hill" (1964), but the two men disliked working together. He directed some scenes of "Dog Eat Dog" (1964). He wrote and directed "The Incredible Sex Revolution" (1966); directed "Psychedelic Sexualis" (1966), "Movie Star, American Style or; LSD, I Hate You" (1966) and "The Chinese Room" (1968); produced  and wrote "Sappho Darling" (1968); and directed "Two Roses and a Golden Rod" (1969), "The Very Friendly Neighbors" (1969), and "The Phantom Gunslinger" (1970) with Troy Donahue. In 1973, he said in an interview "many of the talents that I have developed or worked with have suffered by not continuing with me. And I have suffered by not continuing with them." Zugsmith's last credit was directing "Violated!" (1975). Personal life. His older sister, Leane Zugsmith, was a leading proletarian novelist in the 1930s. He was married to Ruth (Feldman). Zugsmith had two daughters, Suzan and Patricia (Patty) and a  son Michael. Sue became the Mayor of Claremont, California.