Connection
The Ladd Company
If you like this company, let us know!
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.
Best films
(1995)
(1984)
(1981)
(1985)
(1982)
(2007)Filmography of The Ladd Company (27 films)
Production
Add to a movie list
Love Child (1982)
, 1h36Directed by Larry Peerce
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Crime, Romance
Themes Prison films
Actors Amy Madigan, Beau Bridges, Mackenzie Phillips, Albert Salmi, Joanna Merlin, Margaret Whitton
Terry Jean Moore (Madigan) was convicted of a crime at the age of 19 and over the time she spent in prison, she meets a guard named Jack Hansen (Bridges). The two fall in love and Moore ends up having his child. Terry has to face the possibility of losing her baby, but she takes up the fight to keep the baby.
Night Shift (1982)
, 1h42Directed by Ron Howard
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Films about sexuality, Erotic films, Films about prostitution
Actors Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton, Shelley Long, Richard Belzer, Gina Hecht, Pat Corley
Chuck (Winkler), formerly a successful stockbroker, has found a refuge from the ulcer-inducing Wall Street rat race in his job as an attendant at the New York City morgue. His displeasure at being "promoted" to Night Shift Supervisor to make room for his boss's nephew is exacerbated by the irrational exuberance of Bill "Blaze" Blazejowski (Keaton), his new co-worker. They are inspired by the plight of Chuck's prostitute neighbor, Belinda (Long), to apply Chuck's financial acumen and Bill's entrepreneurial spirit to open a prostitution service headquartered at the morgue.
Chariots of Fire (1981)
, 1h59Directed by Hugh Hudson
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy-drama, Historical
Themes Films about religion, Sports films, Athletics films, Films about the Olympic Games, Films about Jews and Judaism, Children's films
Actors Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, Cheryl Campbell, Alice Krige, Ian Holm
In 1919, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) enters the University of Cambridge, where he experiences anti-Semitism from the staff, but enjoys participating in the Gilbert and Sullivan club. He becomes the first person to ever complete the Trinity Great Court Run – running around the college courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12. Abrahams achieves an undefeated string of victories in various national running competitions. Although focused on his running, he falls in love with a leading Gilbert and Sullivan soprano, Sybil (Alice Krige).
Outland (1981)
, 1h52Directed by Peter Hyams
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Action, Adventure, Crime
Themes Space adventure films, Dans l'espace, Films set in the future, Space opera
Actors Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen, James Sikking, Kika Markham, Steven Berkoff
In the future, Federal Marshal William O'Niel (Sean Connery) is assigned to a tour of duty at the titanium ore mining outpost 'Con-Am 27' operated by the company Conglomerates Amalgamated, on the Jovian moon of Io.
Body Heat (1981)
, 1h53Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime, Romance, Erotic thriller
Themes Films about sexuality, Erotic films, Erotic thriller films
Actors William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J. A. Preston, Mickey Rourke
During a particularly intense Florida heatwave, inept lawyer Ned Racine (William Hurt) begins an affair with Matty (Kathleen Turner), the wife of wealthy businessman Edmund Walker (Richard Crenna). They go to great lengths to keep their affair a secret, but Ned carelessly propositions an old school friend of Matty, Mary Ann Simpson (Kim Zimmer), thinking she was Matty. Matty soon makes it clear to Ned that she wants to leave Edmund but also wants his money, explaining that a divorce would leave her with very little due to their prenuptial agreement. Racine suggests the only option is to kill Edmund. While planning the murder, Ned consults one of his shadier clients, Teddy Lewis (Mickey Rourke), an expert on incendiary devices, who supplies him with a bomb.
Looker (1981)
, 1h33Directed by Michael Crichton
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller
Themes Films about computing, Films about suicide, Films about television, Films set in the future
Actors Albert Finney, James Coburn, Susan Dey, Leigh Taylor-Young, Terri Welles, Dorian Harewood
Dr. Larry Roberts (Albert Finney), a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, is puzzled when four beautiful models working in television commercials request cosmetic surgery to make changes so minor as to be imperceptible to the naked eye. When these models later start dying under mysterious circumstances, he discovers they are all linked to the same advertisement research firm.
Divine Madness (1980)
, 1h35Directed by Michael Ritchie
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Documentary, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Documentary films about music and musicians, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Musical films
Actors Bette Midler
Distribution
A Very Brady Sequel (1996)
, 1h29Directed by Arlene Sanford
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films
Actors Shelley Long, Gary Cole, Tim Matheson, Barbara Eden, Henriette Mantel, Christopher Daniel Barnes
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.
Twice Upon a Time (1983)
, 1h14Directed by John Korty
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure, Animation
Actors Lorenzo Music, Julie Payne, Hamilton Camp, Marshall Efron, Judith Kahan, Paul Frees
In the faraway eternally busy city of Din, live the black-and-white Rushers, who constantly go about their business in a fast-paced way and stop only to sleep. Din lies in between two worlds that create dreams to deliver to the sleeping Rushers – one is the bright and cheerful Frivoli, where Greensleeves and his Figmen of Imagination bring sweet dreams, and the other is the Murkworks, a dark and dingy factory home to vultures who drop nightmare bombs. The evil Synonamess Botch, maniacal ruler of the Murkworks wants to foil Greenie's efforts and subject the Rushers to non-stop waking nightmares. He uses his vultures to kidnap the Figs and Greensleeves, but not before Greensleeves writes an S.O.S. to Frivoli.
Lovesick (1983)
, 1h35Directed by Marshall Brickman
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Actors Dudley Moore, Elizabeth McGovern, Alec Guinness, Christine Baranski, Wallace Shawn, Ron Silver
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.
Love Child (1982)
, 1h36Directed by Larry Peerce
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Crime, Romance
Themes Prison films
Actors Amy Madigan, Beau Bridges, Mackenzie Phillips, Albert Salmi, Joanna Merlin, Margaret Whitton
Terry Jean Moore (Madigan) was convicted of a crime at the age of 19 and over the time she spent in prison, she meets a guard named Jack Hansen (Bridges). The two fall in love and Moore ends up having his child. Terry has to face the possibility of losing her baby, but she takes up the fight to keep the baby.
Chariots of Fire (1981)
, 1h59Directed by Hugh Hudson
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy-drama, Historical
Themes Films about religion, Sports films, Athletics films, Films about the Olympic Games, Films about Jews and Judaism, Children's films
Actors Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, Cheryl Campbell, Alice Krige, Ian Holm
In 1919, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) enters the University of Cambridge, where he experiences anti-Semitism from the staff, but enjoys participating in the Gilbert and Sullivan club. He becomes the first person to ever complete the Trinity Great Court Run – running around the college courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12. Abrahams achieves an undefeated string of victories in various national running competitions. Although focused on his running, he falls in love with a leading Gilbert and Sullivan soprano, Sybil (Alice Krige).