John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones (1959)

The adventures that will live forever in America's naval history!

The career of Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones, from his youth in Scotland through his service to Catherine the Great of Russia.

Date of release
1959-06-16
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (14)
Runtime
2h 6m
Genres
War, Action, Romance
Director
John Farrow

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Madrid

John Paul Jones is a 1959 biographical adventure film from Warner Bros. Pictures, filmed in the Technirama process, about the American Revolutionary War naval hero. The film, shot in Denia, Spain, was produced by Samuel Bronston and directed by John Farrow, from a screenplay by John Farrow, Ben Hecht, and Jesse Lasky Jr. The film is based on the story Nor'wester by Clements Ripley. The music score was by Max Steiner and the cinematography was by Michel Kelber. It was the final film directed by Farrow.

Production

During the 1930s, numerous American film studios attempted to make biopics about John Paul Jones, but abandoned their projects due to the heavy cost and long length of the projects. In March 1939, Warner Bros. Pictures had purchased the screen rights to Clements Ripley's biographical novel about John Paul Jones, with Aeneas MacKenzie hired to write the script.

In 1946, independent producer Samuel Bronston announced that he had obtained the cooperation of the U.S. Navy for the making of his own biopic of John Paul Jones. It took Bronston nine years to eventually find the financing for the project. In December 1955, Bronston announced that he had formed Admiralty Pictures Corporation, consisting of a group of New York investors, and that they had made a deal with Warner Bros.

In 1956, Lasky completed the script with consultation from U.S. Navy officials. In May 1956, Bronston announced that Glenn Ford had accepted the title role. Later, in July, William Dieterle had signed to direct the project, in which filming was scheduled for August. Dieterle favored Richard Todd and Richard Basehart for the role of Jones and John Miljan for George Washington, and hired Ben Hecht to write a new version of the script.

In October 1956, Bronston signed a contract to shoot the feature in the Todd-AO process. However, production was pushed back as Warner Bros. had withdrawn from the project. In October 1957, John Farrow had signed on to direct the film with shooting being re-located to Spain.

Bronston had Uruguayan Jaime Prades as his representative in Spain.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended