Milton Subotsky was born on 27 September 1921. He, along with Max Rosenberg, founded Amicus Productions.
I associate Amicus closely with American International Pictures. But most people associate it more with Hammer Film Productions. Why?
First, Subotsky and Rosenberg were American even though the company was British. But it’s more the companies were similar. Both were founded by two men. And the division of labor was much the same. Subotsky and James H Nicholson were the creative ones and Rosenberg and Samuel Z Arkoff were the business guys.
Like most fans, I tend to valorize the creatives. But let’s be honest: the films weren’t that creative. They wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for the unsung businesspeople.
Milton Subotsky got his start in film production in the Army during World War II, writing and editing educational films. He leveraged that to produce TV in the 1950s. And in the late 1950s, he moved to the United Kingdon. There he wrote and produced a couple of feature films before making The City of the Dead (Horror Hotel in the US).
It was on this last film that he started his collaboration with Max Rosenberg. They made a couple of silly teen comedies. Dr Terror’s House of Horrors changed everything.
It was an anthology film in the tradition of Dead of Night. And Amicus is even today synonymous with them. Not that they didn’t produce other films. They notably produced two Dr Who films starring Peter Cushing. As with AIP, there were many other genres.
Amicus saw its fortunes fade at roughly the same time and for the same reason as AIP. The market was changing. Big budget Hollywood films were going after the same market.
Subotsky’s later career featured some successes (eg, The Lawnmower Man) and some failures (eg, Maximum Overdrive).
Let’s celebrate Martin Subotsky’s life by watching an under-valued Amicus film, The House That Dripped Blood.
Milton Subotsky via IMDB under Fair Use.