Editing Monogram Pictures (section)

==Improved productions==
[[File:Eduardo Ciannelli in Dillinger (1945) trailer.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Eduardo Ciannelli in ''[[Dillinger (1945 film)|Dillinger]]'']]
In the mid-1940s Monogram very nearly hit the big time with ''[[Dillinger (1945 film)|Dillinger]]'', a sensationalized crime drama that was a runaway success in 1945. Filmed by [[King Brothers Productions]], it received an [[Academy Award]] nomination for [[Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay|Best Original Screenplay]]. Monogram tried to follow ''Dillinger'' with several "exploitation" melodramas cashing in on topical themes, like ''[[Black Market Babies]]'' (1946, about illegal traffic in adoptions) and ''[[Allotment Wives]]'' (1946, about women marrying servicemen for their federal allotment checks). The studio did achieve some success -- its slogan in 1946 was "Make Way for Monogram"<ref>[[Terry Ramsaye]] (ed.), ''The International Motion Picture Almanac'', Quigley Publications, 1946, p. 249.</ref> -- but Monogram never became a respectable "major" studio like former poverty-row denizen [[Columbia Pictures]].

Monogram's fortunes continued to improve after World War II. With Hollywood's larger studios curtailing B-picture production in favor of more prestigious and more expensive pictures, there was now a greater need for low-priced pictures that theater owners could afford. Major first-run theater chains that had never played Monogram's budget movies -- as well as small, independent theaters that depended on bargain-rate films to turn a profit -- began using Monogram features regularly. The casting in Monogram features improved tremendously after the war, because scores of actors found themselves unemployed or underemployed when their home studios now made fewer movies. Major-studio talent began accepting work at Monogram, which gave the studio's films more prestige and boxoffice value.

Monogram continued to launch new series. In 1946 The East Side Kids became The Bowery Boys under a new producer, Jan Grippo. The former producer, Sam Katzman, began a new musical-comedy series called "The Teen Agers" (1946-48) as a vehicle for singer [[Freddie Stewart (actor)|Freddie Stewart]]. Other series included the Cisco Kid westerns (1945-47); the exploits of masked crimefighter [[The Shadow]] with [[Kane Richmond]] (1946); the ''[[Bringing Up Father]]'' comedies (1946-50) based on the [[George McManus]] comic strip, featuring [[Joe Yule]] and [[Renie Riano]] as "Jiggs and Maggie; the "Joe Palooka" prizefight comedies (1946-51); the [[Roddy McDowall]] series (1948-52), with the juvenile lead forsaking child roles for dramatic and action vehicles; the "Henry" series of small-town comedies (1949-51) co-starring [[Raymond Walburn]] and [[Walter Catlett]]; and the "[[Bomba, the Jungle Boy]]" adventures (1949-55) starring [[Johnny Sheffield]] (formerly "Boy" of the [[Tarzan]] films).

The studio's biggest drawing cards were The Bowery Boys, Charlie Chan, and the Monogram westerns (now featuring Johnny Mack Brown, [[Jimmy Wakely]], and [[Whip Wilson]]). Monogram filmed some of its later features in [[Cinecolor]], mostly outdoor subjects like ''[[County Fair (1950 film)|County Fair]]'', ''[[Blue Grass of Kentucky]]'', and ''[[The Rose Bowl Story]]'', as well as the science-fiction film, ''[[Flight to Mars (film)|Flight to Mars]]'' (1952).

The only Monogram release to win an Academy Award was ''[[Climbing the Matterhorn]]'', a two-reel adventure that won the "Best Short Subject" Oscar in 1947. Other Monogram films to receive Oscar nominations were ''[[King of the Zombies]]'' for [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for Best Music (Music Score of a Dramatic Picture) in 1941 and ''[[Flat Top (film)|Flat Top]]'' for Best Film Editing in 1952.

===Creation of Allied Artists Productions===
Producer [[Walter Mirisch]] began at Monogram after World War II as assistant to studio head [[Steve Broidy]]. He convinced Broidy that the days of low-budget films were ending, and in 1946 Monogram created a new unit, Allied Artists Productions, to make costlier films. The new name was meant to mirror the name of United Artists by evoking images of "creative personnel uniting to produce and distribute quality films".<ref>{{cite book|first=Tino |last=Balio |title=United Artists, Volume 2, 1951–1978: The Company that Changed the Film Industry |publisher=Univ. of Wisconsin Press |year=2009 |page=164 |isbn=978-0-299-23014-2}}</ref>

At a time when the average Hollywood picture cost about $800,000 (and the average Monogram picture cost about $90,000), Allied Artists' first release, the Christmas-themed comedy ''[[It Happened on 5th Avenue]]'' (1947), cost more than $1,200,000.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Out Hollywood Way |date=September 8, 1946 |page=X1}}</ref> It was rewarded with an estimated $1.8 million boxoffice return.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://footeandfriendsonfilm.com/2020/12/22/revisiting-the-christmas-classic-it-happened-on-5th-avenue-1947/ |title=Revisiting a Christmas Classic: It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947) |date=2020-12-22 |website=Foote & Friends on Film |access-date=2023-10-12}}</ref> Subsequent Allied Artists releases were more economical. Some were filmed in black-and-white, but others were filmed in [[Cinecolor]] and [[Technicolor]].

Monogram continued to be the parent company; the "Allied Artists Productions" all bore Monogram copyright notices, and were released through Monogram's network of film exchanges. The studio's new deluxe division permitted what Mirisch called "B-plus" pictures, which were released along with Monogram's established line of B fare. 

Mirisch's prediction about the end of the low-budget film had come true thanks to television, and in September 1952 Monogram announced that henceforth it would only produce films bearing the Allied Artists name. The Monogram brand name was retired in 1953, and the company was now known as Allied Artists Pictures Corporation.{{sfn|Okuda|1999}}

Allied Artists retained a few vestiges of its Monogram identity, continuing its popular [[Stanley Clements]] action series (through 1953), its B-westerns (through 1954), its [[Bomba, the Jungle Boy]] adventures (through 1955), and especially its breadwinning comedy series with [[The Bowery Boys]] (through 1957, with Clements replacing Leo Gorcey in 1956). For the most part, Allied Artists was heading in new, ambitious directions under Mirisch.