Precedents: Classic Films on DVD
	Stanley Kramer () Judge Barrie Maxwell March 6th, 2001 • Email Judge Maxwell

As a movie enthusiast, I guess I first became really aware of Stanley Kramer when It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World appeared in 1964. Oh, I had seen Judgment at Nuremberg a few years prior, but that was before I started associating films with their directors. Then in 1967, I was impressed with his Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, but I didn't realize then that there weren't going to be any more real winners from Stanley Kramer. He had six more films in him, but titles like RPM (1970), The Domino Principle (1976), and even Oklahoma Crude (1973) didn't do anyone proud (except maybe George C. Scott in the latter). I like to think that it was this last period that prompted Andrew Sarris's rather dismissive evaluation of Kramer:

"If Stanley Kramer had not existed, he would have had to have been invented as the most extreme example of thesis or message cinema. Unfortunately, he has been such an easy and willing target for so long that his very ineptness has been encrusted with tradition. He will never be a natural, but time has proved that he is not a fake."

But Sarris's words were written in 1968 for his book "The American Cinema" before any of those last films of Kramer's were made. I really find it hard to reconcile Sarris's view with Kramer's earlier interesting and intelligent efforts such as Not As a Stranger (1955), The Defiant Ones (1958), On the Beach (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and Ship of Fools (1965). But then, we all have our own perspectives.

Stanley Kramer was born in New York City and grew up in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan. Eventually he attended New York University from which he graduated as a business and commerce major in 1933. His interest had always been in writing, however, and a movie internship offer beckoned, resulting in an assignment to Twentieth Century-Fox. That soon ended, but Kramer persisted, kicking around Hollywood doing odd jobs in the film industry and trying his hand at screenplays. Finally, he got steady work with MGM in its research department and then in its editing room. His boss there, Albert Lewin, formed an independent production company with David Loew and Kramer went with them. He got his first two screen credits for So Ends Our Night (1941, UA) as a production assistant and The Moon and Sixpence (1942, UA) as associate producer. Then war service interrupted for three years.

When Kramer returned to Hollywood in 1946, jobs were scarce and he soon decided to make up his own job, declaring himself a producer. An abortive involvement with Armand Deutsch, heir to the Sears Roebuck money, did generate some cash for Kramer and that allowed him to begin his producing career. He began with two Ring Lardner stories that he had optioned during the war. The first became So This Is New York (1948, UA, with Henry Morgan and Rudy Vallee) which was distinctly unsuccessful, but the second was Champion (1949, UA), a film about the fight racket. The star of Champion was Kirk Douglas who really wanted the role and managed to sell himself to Kramer. Neither would regret it. Champion became a tremendous success and went on to get six Oscar nominations, winning for Best Editing.

So Kramer was on his way. Over the next six years, he would produce fifteen films many under a releasing agreement with Columbia whose head Harry Cohn had agreed to provide financial backing. Included were Death of a Salesman (1951, with Fredric March), High Noon (1952, a film that Kramer wrapped up for UA just as he was getting going at Columbia), The Five Thousand Fingers of Dr. T (1953, from a Dr. Seuss story), and The Wild One (1954, with Marlon Brando). Studio interference, however, was a continuing annoyance for Kramer. Although most of his films for Columbia were critically acclaimed, none were moneymakers, until the last one—The Caine Mutiny (1954, with Humphrey Bogart).

Kramer's first success with The Caine Mutiny was getting what MGM and Fox had already failed to get—U.S Navy cooperation for the production. His second was lining up Bogart, Fred MacMurray, Van Johnson and José Ferrer for the lead roles, which allowed him to persuade Cohn to up the budget to $2 million, an amount twice the limit previously imposed on Kramer's Columbia productions. The completed film was a major critical and box office success, grossing $11 million which more than made up for Columbia's losses on all the previous Kramer films.

After his experience at Columbia, Kramer determined to ensure all his future films would be subject only to his own control, to which end he decided to take on the directing task himself as well as producing. His first effort was Not As a Stranger (1955, UA), a film that exposed many of the negatives of the medical profession. The cast was a high-powered one and included Robert Mitchum, Olivia de Havilland, Frank Sinatra, Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford and Gloria Grahame. Although the film was a tremendous box-office success, Kramer was never entirely satisfied with his directorial debut, feeling that he had not paid enough attention to a number of details in the story and that he had not done as much justice to the virtues of medical profession as he had to its vices.

Thus began a twelve-year period during which Kramer produced and directed a rich and varied collection of films that continue to offer much to think about. Included are: The Defiant Ones (1958, UA, Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as two escaped prisoners shackled together), On the Beach (1959, UA, the eerie aftermath of nuclear war and true to Nevil Shute's novel), Inherit the Wind (1960, UA, Spencer Tracy and Fredric March square off over the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961, UA, the German war criminals trials with a wealth of fine performances), Pressure Point (1962, UA, a fine drama of prison psychiatrist and patient with Poitier again), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963, UA, everybody and everything comedic but overlong), Ship of Fools (1965, Columbia, wonderfully acted shipboard drama and Vivien Leigh's last role), and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967, Columbia, Poitier again and Spencer Tracy's last role).

Thereafter, the muse seemed to leave Kramer and the choices were increasingly curious. The man who used film, as he said himself, to shed light on "discrimination, hatred, prejudice and excessive power" ended his career with two theatrical films that were standard throw-away items. The swansong—The Domino Principle (1976)—was a sad muddle of a thriller.

Less than a quarter of Stanley Kramer's 37 films are available on DVD. The biggest gap is the period of UA releases. MGM holds the video rights to these films, but only On the Beach has so far made it to DVD. The often requested It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is reportedly under consideration for DVD at present. Many of Kramer's early Columbia pictures have never made it home video in any format, so any early DVD release seems unlikely. In general, titles previously made available on LD are the more likely candidates for a future DVD release. The following table summarizes the current status.

Stanley Kramer Films on DVD

* p = producer, d = director