JAMES CAGNEY - CONTRACT SIGNED 03/24/1958 - HFSID 164447
Price: $700.00
JAMES CAGNEY
Universal cancels a verbal agreement with Cagney to do Bon
Voyage and amends its contract re: percentage compensation for Never
Steal Anything Small and Man of a Thousand Faces.
Carbon Typed Document Signed: "James Cagney" in ink, with correction
initialed: "JC", 3p, 8½x11. Universal City,
California, 1958 March 24. In letter form from Universal Pictures to
Cagney, who has approved and accepted its contents. In part: "You
and we have heretofore had discussions and/or negotiations concerning and
pertaining to our engaging you to render your services for us as an actor in
connection with the proposed production by us of an actor in connection with the
proposed production by us of a photoplay tentatively entitled 'BON VOYAGE',
which discussions and negotiations resulted in an agreement to employ you as an
actor in connection with such photoplay, which verbal agreement was never
reduced to writing. Accordingly, it is hereby mutually agreed between us that
said verbal agreement (including any and all other understandings and/or
agreements with respect thereto) shall be deemed cancelled and terminated and at
an end as of the date hereof...In connection with that certain contract of
employment between us dated November 27, 1956, as amended, whereunder we employ
you to render your services for us in connection with out photoplay now entitled
'DEVIL'S HORNPIPE', and that certain contract of employment between us dated May
31, 1956, for us in connection with our photoplay now entitled 'THE MAN OF A
THOUSAND FACES' (collectively hereinafter referred to as 'said contracts'), the
following will constitute the further understanding and agreement between us
with respect thereto and said contracts shall be deemed to be amended
accordingly...It is hereby agreed that in no event shall we be required to pay,
nor shall you be entitled to receive, more than an aggregate of Fifty Thousand
Dollars ($50,000.00) of percentage compensation, if any, during the calendar
year commencing January 1, 1958...more than an aggregate of One Hundred Fifty
Thousand Dollars ($150,000.00) of percentage compensation, if any, during the
subsequent calendar year of 1959...more than an aggregate of Two Hundred Fifty
Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00) if any, during the subsequent calendar year...the
amount of such excess shall be withheld and payment thereof shall be made in the
next succeeding calendar year...." Universal never made Bon Voyage,
which may have been a feature-length remake of a 1944 26-minute propaganda film
by Alfred Hitchcock about a British RAF pilot who escapes from France with
the assistance of the French Underground and a treacherous Nazi informer.
Devil's Hornpipe was the name of a play by Maxwell Anderson and Rouben
Mamoulian. Renamed Never Steal Anything Small (1959), it starred Cagney
as Jake MacIllaney, a gangster out to control a Longshoreman's union.
Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) starred Cagney in the title role as Lon
Chaney. Lightly creased. Staple holes in upper left blank corners, 2 file
holes and light paper clip impression in upper center blank margin. Fine
condition.
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