The Mirisch Company was a film production company owned by Walter Mirisch and his brothers, Marvin and Harold Mirisch. The company was also known at various times as Mirisch Production Company, Mirisch Pictures, Inc., and The Mirisch Corporation.
Walter Mirisch began producing at Monogram Pictures beginning with Fall Guy (1947) and the profitable Bomba the Jungle Boy series.
The Mirisch brothers had controlled production at Allied Artists before going independent. They had made Friendly Persuasion and Love in the Afternoon (1957 film) that were critically acclaimed but not lucrative.
The Mirisch Company was founded in August 1957. The company signed a 12-picture deal with United Artists (UA) in 1957, which was extended to 20 films two years later. UA acquired the company on March 1, 1963 for $1.8 million, but the Mirisch brothers continued to work there and in rented space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio.
It produced many famous motion pictures for United Artists, starting with Fort Massacre (1958) but later including Some Like It Hot (1959) , The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Apartment (1960), The Magnificent Seven (1960), West Side Story (1961), The Great Escape (1963), The Pink Panther (1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967), and many others.
In 1964 Mirisch Films Ltd, or Mirisch Films GB was formed in the United Kingdom that produced 633 Squadron, A Shot in the Dark and several other films.[1]
The Pink Panther featured an animated Pink Panther (character) that soon became a star of a series of cinema cartoons made by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises that were released by Mirisch/UA.
Mirisch first entered television in 1959 with the series, Wichita Town for Four Star Television. Then they sold an unsuccessful pilot for Some Like It Hot in 1961.[2] Mirisch co-produced live action television shows such as The Rat Patrol, Hey Landlord and The Magnificent Seven (TV series) as well as cartoon shows of The Super 6 and The Pink Panther Show.
They forged relationships with such directors as Billy Wilder, Blake Edwards, John Sturges and Norman Jewison, who directed three consecutive successes for them - The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).