James B. Harris (born August 3, 1928) is an American filmmaker best known for his collaborations with Stanley Kubrick.
Born in Manhattan, Harris studied music at the Juilliard School for a year before he dropped out. He later worked for his father's insurance firm. In 1949, Harris co-founded Flamingo Films with David L. Wolper and Sy Weintraub, which acquired the television licensing rights of shorts and documentaries. He was later drafted into the United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) where he met Alexander Singer. While they filmed a detective short film, Singer introduced Harris to Stanley Kubrick, then a fledging young filmmaker.
In 1955, Harris and Kubrick co-founded their namesake production company, whereby Harris produced The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), and Lolita (1962). Harris made his directorial debut with the Cold War thriller The Bedford Incident (1965). He also directed the actor James Woods in two films: the prison-guard drama Fast-Walking (1982) and the thriller Cop (1988), based on a James Ellroy novel, which Woods co-produced. Harris also directed the 1993 thriller Boiling Point.
Early life James B. Harris was born to a Jewish family on August 3, 1928 in Manhattan, New York. He was the second child to Joseph Harris, who worked as an insurance broker, and Sylvia, who had produced Broadway plays. His older sibling was J. Robert Harris. His family relocated to the Jersey Shore until they returned to New York City when he was a junior in high school. There, Harris studied at Columbia Grammar. After his graduation, he attended the Juilliard School as a percussion major, with the intent to become a professional musician.
Harris recalled, "Percussion was one thing, but it included playing actual musical instruments, like xylophone and timpanis, and you also had to have a minor in piano and courses like composition and music dictation... I realized quickly that I was in over my head." Meanwhile, Harris's father placed his son as an office boy for his insurance brokerage firm. He then began working for Essex Universal, a media company owned by his father which financed and distributed theatrical films. By 1949, Harris was working for Realart, which distributed foreign-language films in the United States.
Career 1949–1954: Flamingo Films That same year, in 1949, Harris co-founded Flamingo Films, a motion picture and television distribution company, with his former classmate David L. Wolper and Sy Weintraub, who had been in the U.S. Army with Harris's brother. The venture was financed by Harris's father. Harris traveled across the United States to acquire the television licensing rights with several production companies that had produced short-format documentaries, serials, animation, and educational and travelogue films. In 1951, Flamingo Films licensed the exclusive television rights to the 1948 Superman serial.
In 1950, Harris was drafted into the United States Army Signal Corps (USASC), located at the Astoria Studios on Long Island, which produced military training films. There, he met Alexander Singer, where they both trained as combat photographers. While at the Signal Corps, Harris and Singer borrowed film equipment from the Astoria Studios to film a 15-minute detective film they had scripted. They scheduled a weekend shoot at the Harris' Manhattan apartment, which served as both the production base and setting for the film. Harris was the director while Singer was the cameraman. Harris's cousin was cast in one of the lead roles and James Gaffney, one of their Signal Corps friends, was hired as the editor.
While filming, Singer told Harris of Stanley Kubrick, his former classmate from Taft High School. Singer had previously worked on Kubrick's short documentary Day of the Fight (1951). He invited Kubrick onto the set; Harris recalled: "I was a little nervous because it was like performing in front of someone who was already an established professional. He was telling me about the two short films he had made, Day of the Fight and Flying Padre. He had just completed his first feature film, Fear and Desire, which he had done all by himself." In 1954, Harris was discharged from the Signal Corps Photographic Unit and reintroduced himself to Kubrick in front of 1600 Broadway. Kubrick invited Harris to a screening of his second film, Killer's Kiss (1955).
Since his first meeting, Harris had seen Kubrick's past films and was impressed after he watched Killer's Kiss. He stated, "I was very impressed with this guy. I was very impressed that someone could do it all. It had a beginning, middle, and end. It seemed to be very professional. I thought it was hell of an accomplishment and said, 'This guy is really going to be a great, great director! Kubrick remembered Harris's Flamingo Films and asked if he could get Fear and Desire (1953) to be aired on television. They met at the offices of Flamingo Films at 509 Madison Avenue. However, the distribution rights to Fear and Desire could not be cleared as the film's producer Joseph Burstyn had died of a heart attack during a transatlantic flight. From there, the rights were caught in a litigation between Burstyn's estate and the distributor., Afterwards, Harris asked Kubrick what he had planned to direct next. Kubrick replied he had nothing scheduled but had wanted to direct another film. Harris then proposed a business partnership, in which he would acquire literary properties to adapt while Kubrick would handle the creative responsibilities.
1955–1962: Collaborations with Stanley Kubrick The Killing In 1955, they formed Harris–Kubrick Pictures Corporation, and opened an office at West 57th Street. Kubrick and Harris considered several literary novels, including Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me. Harris then came across the novel Clean Break by Lionel White at the Scribner's bookstore on Fifth Avenue. A novel about a racetrack robbery, Harris had liked that it was told from different perspectives similar to Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950). He handed the book for Kubrick to read. They agreed the book would make for a good film. Harris acquired the film rights for $10,000, beating out United Artists (UA) who had wanted to adapt the novel for Frank Sinatra.
Kubrick broke the novel into scenes, deciding which ones to use for the script. At Kubrick's suggestion, they hired Jim Thompson to write the dialogue. Retitled Day of Violence, Harris and Kubrick met with Max Youngstein for United Artists to propose a three-picture deal. Youngstein agreed in exchange for $200,000 if they could hire a prominent lead actor. Sterling Hayden was Kubrick's first choice, but he was not big enough for UA. Harris financed the budget using $80,000 of his own money and a $50,000 loan from his father.
Principal photography began in late 1955, and Kubrick finished shooting in 24 days as scheduled. Retitled The Killing (1956) at UA's request, the film premiered at the New York City Picturehouse on May 19, 1956 and opened nationwide the next day. It was released as a double feature with Bandido (1956)., The film received a positive reception from film critics, but was not a commercial success. After two years in release, The Killing had only earned $30,000, thereby Harris had lost his investment. When Kubrick and Harris sold their share of the film back to UA to finance Lolita (1962), it became profitable.
Paths of Glory For their second project, Harris–Kubrick decided to adapt Humphrey Cobb's 1935 novel Paths of Glory. They went to MGM's production head Dore Schary, who had been impressed with The Killing. Schary declined their offer, however, as The Red Badge of Courage (1951) had flopped during its release, telling them: "I'm sorry, I know the book. It's great but not here." Instead, he hired them for $75,000 to select one of their hundreds of optioned properties. They selected Stefan Zweig's 1913 novel The Burning Secret and hired Calder Willingham to write the script. After several months in development, Schary was forced out, and MGM terminated their exclusive contract with Harris–Kubrick when it was discovered they had secretly hired Jim Thompson to adapt Paths of Glory.
Harris and Kubrick had wanted Kirk Douglas to play Colonel Dax, and sent the script to his agent. Impressed with the script, Douglas negotiated with UA to star in The Vikings (1958) unless they agreed to finance Paths of Glory for $850,000. Harris–Kubrick signed a five-picture deal with Douglas's production company Bryna Productions, in which Douglas was paid $350,000. Harris and Kubrick were each paid $20,000 plus a percentage of the profits. The production was filmed entirely in Munich, Germany, beginning on March 20, 1957. Towards the end of filming, Harris had a brief disagreement with Kubrick, who wanted to cast Christiane Harlane as a German girl who nervously sings "The Faithful Hussar" (German: "Der treue Husar") at the end of the film. Harris relented, and the scene remained in the final film.;
Paths of Glory premiered in Munich on November 1, 1957 and was later released in the United States on December 20, 1957. Still under contract to Bryna Productions, Harris–Kubrick developed a sitcom starring Ernie Kovacs and optioned Herbert Emerson Wilsons's autobiography, I Stole $16,000,000, but these projects languished in development. In May 1958, Marlon Brando unexpectedly called Kubrick, having seen his last two films, and asked him to direct The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones.
Lolita Meanwhile, Calder Willingham suggested that Harris and Kubrick should adapt Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita after he had read it. When Kubrick asked to read Harris's copy, Harris tore the first section of the novel and gave it to Kubrick, who found it fascinating. Later on, Harris–Kubrick acquired the screen rights for $150,000 by selling their shares of The Killing to United Artists. During the summer of 1958, Kubrick had several tumultuous meetings with Brando; by mid-November, Kubrick decided to step down as director before shooting began. Retitled One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Brando took over as director.;
Kubrick was asked to direct Spartacus (1960), however, after Kirk Douglas had removed Anthony Mann as the initial director. Harris negotiated with Douglas to waive Lolita (1962) as part of their contractual obligation in exchange to loan out Kubrick for Spartacus on a temporary contract.; ; At the end of 1961, Douglas allowed Harris–Kubrick to buy out their contract from Bryna Productions.
While Kubrick was filming Spartacus, Willingham delivered a first script draft of Lolita. Although Harris had liked it, Kubrick did not approve of Willingham's draft. In August 1959, Harris and Kubrick asked Nabokov to write his own adaptation script of Lolita, but he turned down the offer. In January 1960, they offered Nabokov $40,000 to write the screenplay with an additional $35,000 for final credit. By June 1960, he delivered his first draft of the script, which Kubrick and Harris found too lengthy. Nabokov turned in a shorter version of the script in September 1960, which Kubrick accepted. The final shooting script was heavily revised by Kubrick and Harris in England, but they decided to give Nabokov the sole screenwriter credit.
In New York, Harris secured financial backing from Eliot Hyman of Associated Artists Productions (AAP), which had a British film subsidiary known as Seven Arts UK. As part of the deal, Kubrick was given final cut, and a 50/50 partnership was agreed upon. MGM would handle the publicity and distribution. Filmed in England under the Eady Levy, Lolita featured James Mason, Peter Sellers, Shelley Winters, and newcomer Sue Lyon.; ; On June 13, 1962, Lolita premiered at the Loew's State Theatre in New York. It received mildly positive reviews from film critics and garnered $4.5 million in gross rentals in the United States and Canada.; ;
Dissolution of Harris–Kubrick Pictures