Irving Allen

Who was Irving Allen?

Irving Allen was a theatrical and cinematic producer and director. He won an Academy Award in 1948 for producing the short movie Climbing the Matterhorn. In the early 1950s he formed Warwick Films with partner Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and relocated to England to leverage film making against a subsidy offered by the British government. Through the 1950s they each became known as one of the best independent film producers of the day, as the two would sometimes work in tandem, but more often than not on independent projects for their joint enterprise producing multiple projects in a given year.

Born as Irving Applebaum in Lemberg, he entered film as an editor at Universal, Paramount and Republic in 1929. During the 1940s, he made a number of superb shorts, including the Academy Award-nominated Forty Boys and a Song 1941, which he directed. His short films often won more acclaim than his low-budget features. In the late 40s, Allen started concentrating more fully on being a producer.

In the early 50s, he led Warwick Films as the 'name producer', making films in both the USA and England, with Albert R. Broccoli something of a junior partner slowly emerging from Allen's hefty shadow, despite their joint ownership and close affection. In 1957-1958, his partnership with Broccoli was strained both by Broccoli's family health crises and to a lesser extent their disagreement over the film potential of the James Bond novel series. Broccoli was very interested, believing the novel series could lead to a high quality series of films, and Allen was not, eschewing the potential of Broccoli's vision of what became the action-adventure genre which was established by the advent of Bond in favor of older established forms. The pair met with Bond author Ian Fleming separately in 1957, Cubby from New York where he'd retreated to care for his wife, but in the London meeting with Fleming arranged by Broccoli, Allen all but insulted Fleming, declaring that Fleming's novels weren't even "good enough for television". Broccoli mired in his troubles in New York, only knew that no deal had occurred until pre-production meetings with Fleming for which resulted with the decision to make the Dr. No, as the first film project by Eon Productions.