Film Ventures International
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Film Ventures International (FVI) was a small scale independent theatrical motion picture production and distribution company which was originally situated in Atlanta, Georgia. FVI was known as one of the most notorious production companies in the industry and mainly specialized in producing and distributing B-Movie fare and making a significant impression with the theatrical market during the 1970's. The entrepenur who spearheaded the company as the President was an Italian-American business man named Edward L. Montoro, whom had originally came from Cleveland and wrote, directed and produced the company's first feature film, an adult oriented genre film entitled "Getting Into Heaven" which grossed nearly twenty times its $13,000 budget.
FVI was also noteworthy for acquiring Italian genre films from overseas and distributing the films within the United States. A few of these films included the 1968 film "Boot Hill" a sequel to the famous "Trinity" western films, and the 1974 release of "Beyond the Door" starring Juliet Mills, which FVI acquired for approxmiately $100,000, and earned over $9 million in box office revenue making the film one of the most successful releases of 1974.
"Beyond the Door", which is often times labled as a ripoff of "The Exorcist" followed with a law-suit prompted by Warner Bros against FVI, claiming copyright infrigement. This was to be the beginning as to why FVI had earned the name of "notorious", instead of "famous" even though the films FVI produced, acquired or distributed had become major motion pictures. Eventually the Warner Bros. law-suit over "Beyond the Door" fell through after it was learned that Warner Bros. had no rights to the key scenes depicted in "The Exorcist".
"Grizzly", a post "Jaws" clone featuring a giant killer bear is probably the film that FVI is most notable for producing and distributing. Montoro financed the film for $750,000 and was directed by the late filmmaker William Girdler. The film starred veteran actors Christopher George, Andrew Prine and Richard Jaeckel and shot on location in Clayton, Georgia; "Grizzly" became the most financially successful independent motion picture of 1976 earning over $40 million in box office revenue, and breaking records in Tokyo and Berlin. Montoro's decision however to keep profits for himself eventually resulted in William Girdler and the films producers and screenwriters to file suit against Montoro and FVI to have the profits returned.
Girdler then directed another killer animal film entitled "Day of the Animals" in 1977 also financed and produced by Montoro and FVI and featuring an all-star cast that included Christopher George, Leslie Nielsen, Richard Jaeckel, Michael Ansara and Ruth Roman. The film relationship between Montoro and Girdler eventually deteriorated after the release of the film.
Montoro eventually brought his headquarters to Hollywood and began churning out semi-noteworthy and semi-successful genre films that were either produced or acquired through FVI which included "Beyond the Door II", "The Dark", and "Vigilante".
In 1980, FVI acquired the rights to the Italian produced 'Jaws' ripoff "Great White" starring James Franciscus and Vic Morrow. Montoro and FVI had spent over $3 million in advertising to promote the film in the US and the film was released in several terrorities to success. However Universal Pictures filed suit against the producers and FVI due to the fact that the film seemed to derivitive of 'Jaws'. Universal eventually won the law-suit and "Great White" was soon pulled from US theatrical release. The cause of this law-suit is partially the reason why Film Ventures International went into financial trouble.
In 1982, FVI formed a subsidiary division, Artists Releasing Corp. (ARC) to release such independent film product which had included "The Power", "Alley Cat", "The Incubus" and "House on Sorority Row" which had kept the company limping along.
"Mutant" starring Wings Hauser and Bo Hopkins was the final film produced and released by Film Ventures International. In 1984, the company had began to collapse with the inability to successfully release films. Edward L. Montoro's successful B-Movie empire had began to collapse. In 1985, Montoro had stole a million dollars left in the operating account for Film Ventures International and vanished, never to be seen again. Film Ventures International eventually filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was later bought by the INI Corporation.
Although the backstory to Edward L. Montoro and Film Ventures International is fascinating, this is a very rare Hollywood story, unforseen behind the walls of the motion picture industry. Today, many of the films produced and released originally through FVI are now distributed through small scale home video/DVD companies such as Anchor Bay Inc.
Sources: imdb.com/name/nm0600162
www.badmovieplanet.com/unknownmovies/reviews/fvi/html
