The Ladd Company is an American film production company founded by Alan Ladd, Jr., Jay Kanter, and Gareth Wigan in 1979.
Prior to the company's formation, Ladd was President of 20th Century Fox, and Kanter & Wigan also served as Fox executives. As the alleged results of quarreling between Ladd and the studio higher-ups, the trio announced their intents to leave Fox when their contracts expired in December 1980 and form a production company to be financed by Warner Bros. Fox subsequently cut their contracts short, ending on October 1, 1979. The day after the contracts expired, the trio placed ads for the newly named "Ladd Company" in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
Under Warner Bros., it distributed Chariots of Fire, which won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Picture, and produced the space epic The Right Stuff, the space western Outland, Ridley Scott's sci-fi film Blade Runner, neo-noir film Body Heat and the first two Police Academy movies, amongst others.
Even with the phenomenal success of Police Academy, the good business couldn't outweigh the bad, as the box-office failures of The Right Stuff, the edited version of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America and the animated Twice Upon a Time (co-produced with Lucasfilm) sent the company towards oblivion. On April 18, 1984, Alan Ladd, Jr. and Warner Bros. parted ways, even though the former still had three years left on the studio's contract. From that point on, "the Ladd Company [would] become a non-exclusive production organization."
During a brief partnership with Paramount Pictures in the mid-1990s, it produced the Best Picture Oscar winner Braveheart, and A Very Brady Sequel.
Ladd's most recent releases are the 2005 Lasse Hallström drama, An Unfinished Life and the 2007 Ben Affleck drama Gone Baby Gone, both distributed by Miramax Films.
Private investigator Patrick Kenzie and his partner/girlfriend Angie Gennaro witness a televised plea by a woman named Helene McCready for the return of her missing daughter Amanda, who was abducted with her favorite doll "Mirabelle". Patrick and Angie are then hired by the child's aunt Beatrice to find Amanda and discover that Helene and her boyfriend "Skinny Ray" had recently stolen money from Cheese, a local Haitian drug lord. After Ray is murdered, Patrick and Angie join the police detectives investigating the case, Remy Bressant and Nick Poole, to arrange a trade of the money for Amanda. Captain Jack Doyle reads Patrick a telephone transcript of the drug lord setting up an exchange for Amanda. The exchange at a nearby quarry in Quincy is botched and Amanda is believed to have drowned, as her doll is found in the quarry and returned to Helene. Doyle, whose own daughter was killed years before, takes responsibility for the death and goes into early retirement.
One year ago, a wild bear stole a calf from Mitch (Morgan Freeman) and Einar’s (Robert Redford) ranch. The two friends attempted to save the calf, but the bear viciously attacked Mitch — and because Einar was drunk, he failed to save him from serious injury. The bear escaped into the mountains.
In the early 16th century, a young boy witnesses his father's death at the hands of Kabai Sengh during an attack on their ship by the ruthless Sengh Brotherhood. He is washed ashore on an island called Bengalla and found on the beach by tribesman who take him to their village. There he is given the Skull Ring and swears to devote his life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty and injustice. In adulthood, he adopts the identity of "The Phantom", a masked avenger. The role of The Phantom is passed on from father to son through centuries, leading people to believe in a single, immortal figure and accordingly to nickname him "The Ghost Who Walks" and "The Man Who Never Dies".
Following its predecessor, the film places the 1970s Brady Bunch family in a contemporary 1990s setting, where much of the humor is derived from the resulting culture clash and the utter lack of awareness they show toward their relatively unusual lifestyle.
In 1280, King Edward "Longshanks" (Patrick McGoohan) invades and conquers Scotland following the death of Alexander III of Scotland, who left no heir to the throne. Young William Wallace (James Robinson) witnesses Longshanks' treachery, survives the deaths of his father (Sean Lawlor) and brother (Sandy Nelson), and is taken abroad on a pilgrimage throughout Europe by his paternal Uncle Argyle (Brian Cox), where he is educated. Years later, Longshanks grants his noblemen land and privileges in Scotland, including Prima Nocte (or droit du seigneur, the right of the lord to have sex with female subjects on their wedding nights). Meanwhile, Wallace (Mel Gibson) returns to Scotland and is reunited with his childhood friend, Hamish Campbell (Brendan Gleeson). Wallace falls in love with his other childhood friend, Murron MacClannough (Catherine McCormack); they marry in secret so she will not have to spend the night with the local English lord. Wallace rescues Murron from being raped by English soldiers, but as she fights off their second attempt, Murron is captured and publicly executed. In retribution, Wallace leads his clan to slaughter the English garrison in his hometown and send the occupying garrison at Lanark back to England.
After a random attack the night before by a local gang known as "The Scullions" and their infantile leader Zed McGlunk (Bobcat Goldthwait), Chief Henry Hurst (George R. Robertson) arrives at the 16th precinct and notifies its captain, Pete Lassard (Howard Hesseman) that the precinct is the worst in the city. Nevertheless, Hurst gives Lassard 30 days to turn the precinct around or he is out. Before Hurst leaves, Lieutenant Mauser (Art Metrano) schemes his way into getting a promotion to Captain should Lassard fail. Capt. Lassard then calls his brother Eric (George Gaynes) who is in charge of the Police Academy and asks him for six new recruits. Mauser is seen talking with his dim-witted partner, Sgt. Proctor (Lance Kinsey), as he attempts to take control of the precinct.
The film is presented in non-chronological order, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and it is largely told through flashbacks from the viewpoint of one person. The specific scenes and their order varies from version to version. The following section describes the full European cut of the film:
In Los Angeles, bank teller Betty Parrish (Debra Winger) has a one-night stand with a young tennis instructor named Mike (Mark Keyloun), but then has only random contact with him over the course of the next two years.
Due to a shortage of police officers, the newly elected mayor of an unnamed American city has announced a policy requiring the police department to accept all willing recruits, effectively abolishing fitness requirements, educational levels, and medical standards. Not everyone in the police force is happy about the new changes.
Pendant la guerre du Vietnam, Don Jardian, jeune médecin de 29 ans, compte les jours avant son retour aux États-Unis, espérant y ouvrir un cabinet et faire fortune. Mais sans y être préparé, il se retrouve à affronter le danger, la violence, la peur... et l'amour.
A teenaged girl, Dorothy Hoogstraten, is working at a Dairy Queen in her hometown of Vancouver, Canada when a customer in his 20s, Paul Snider, makes her acquaintance. Snider becomes her date for a school dance, over the objections of Dorothy's mother, Nelly, who does not care for his manner, dress, or attempt to ingratiate himself with the family, Dorothy's younger sister in particular.
The film begins in 1947 at Muroc Army Air Field, an arid California military base where test pilots often die flying high-speed aircraft such as the rocket-powered Bell X-1. After another pilot, Slick Goodlin, demands $150,000 to attempt to break the sound barrier, war hero Captain Chuck Yeager receives the chance to fly the X-1. While on a horseback ride with his wife Glennis, Yeager collides with a tree branch and breaks his ribs, which inhibits him from leaning over and locking the door to the X-1. Worried that his injury might become known, Yeager confides in friend and fellow pilot Jack Ridley. Ridley cuts off part of a broomstick and tells Yeager to use it as a lever to help seal the hatch to the X-1, and Yeager becomes the first man to fly at supersonic speed, defeating the "demon in the sky".
Psychologist Saul Benjamin takes on a patient temporarily as a favor to a colleague friend, Otto Jaffe, who is infatuated with her. After her doctor dies, Chloe Allen comes to see Dr. Benjamin and immediately he is smitten with her, too.
In Los Angeles, November 2019, retired police officer Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is detained by officer Gaff (Edward James Olmos) and brought to his former supervisor, Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh). Deckard, whose job as a "Blade Runner" was to track down bioengineered beings known as replicants and destroy them, is informed that four have come to Earth illegally. As Tyrell Corporation Nexus-6 models, they have only a four-year lifespan and may have come to Earth to try to extend their lives.