John Beck

Production

John Beck

Born 1909-10-24 · Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA

John Beck was the American producer who facilitated the production of the original King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), which he released in a heavily edited form in the United States in 1963 as King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963). Beck's other claims to fame are producing the 1950 James Stewart film Harvey and his involvement in the 1946 merger between Universal Pictures and International Pictures. Stop-motion animator Willis O'Brien had contacted Beck with a film treatment for King Kong vs. Frankenstein, which they made a handshake deal to work on. Beck recruited sci-fi screenwriter George Worthing Yates to write the script which became King Kong vs. Prometheus. After failing to pitched it to several American studios, Beck did not further contact with O'Brien. Instead he found a buyer in Japan, Toho, who substituted Godzilla for Frankenstein and started from scratch. Beck, having secured the rights to the film in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Israel, sold them to Universal for $200,000. He also produced the English-language version of the film, which was extensively recut and featured new scenes in a United Nations newsroom directed by Thomas Montgomery. After learning of King Kong vs. Godzilla, O'Brien contemplated suing Beck but he didn't have enough money and passed away shortly thereafter. Beck himself died of cancer at the age of 83 on July 18, 1993.

Acting credits

20 Mule Team poster
6.6

It is 1892 in Death Valley and the yields from the Borax ore are getting so small that refining it is a losing proposition. The only thing that will save the company is a new deposit of high grade Borax, and Skinner Bill Bragg has a pouch of it that he got from a dead prospector he buried on the road. Stag Roper knows the value of the strike could be worth millions, but he needs Bragg to find the prospector's claim so they can record it and become rich partners. While Roper has no intention of cutting Bragg in on the millions, he also has his eye on young Jean Johnson. Josie Johnson, Jean's mother, sees Roper as the scalawag he is, and that means trouble in Furnace Flat.

20 Mule Team

1940

When the Daltons Rode poster
6.2

Young lawyer Tod Jackson arrives in pioneer Kansas to visit his prosperous rancher friends the Daltons, just as the latter are in danger of losing their land to a crooked development company. When Tod tries to help them, a faked murder charge turns the Daltons into outlaws, but more victims than villains in this fictionalized version. Will Tod stay loyal to his friends despite falling in love with Bob Dalton's former fiancée Julie?

When the Daltons Rode

1940

On the Spot poster
5.8

Frankie Kelly is the soda jerk and embryo scientist in Midvales only drugstore. Two murders and an attempted killing suddenly swing Midvale into national prominence. Frankie and his pal, Jefferson, become involved when a wounded gangster starts to tell them where $300,000 in stolen loot is hidden, but he is murdered before he can give them all of the information. The search is on.

On the Spot

1940

Smiling Irish Eyes poster
9.0

A pretty, young violinist who travels from Ireland to America to seek fame and fortune on Broadway finds a bit more than she expected. A lost film.

Smiling Irish Eyes

1929

Behind the camera

Harvey poster
7.7

The story of Elwood P. Dowd who makes friends with a spirit taking the form of a human-sized rabbit named Harvey that only he sees (and a few privileged others on occasion also.) After his sister tries to commit him to a mental institution, a comedy of errors ensues. Elwood and Harvey become the catalysts for a family mending its wounds and for romance blossoming in unexpected places.

Harvey

1950

King Kong vs. Godzilla poster
6.5

When an underhanded pharmaceutical company goes to a remote tropical island to steal King Kong for advertising purposes, they get more than they bargained for when the gigantic ape attacks an unsuspecting village and an enormous octopus.

King Kong vs. Godzilla

1963

The Singing Nun poster
5.9

Belgian nun Sister Ann is sent to another order where she's at first committed to helping troubled souls, like Nichole and little Dominic. When Father Clementi hears Sister Ann's uplifting singing style, he takes her to a talent contest. Sister Ann is signed to a record deal and everyone is listening to her lighthearted songs. She is unprepared for her newfound fame (like appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show) and unwanted side effects, including a wrongful attraction to an old friend.

The Singing Nun

1966

Family Honeymoon poster
6.3

Grant Jordan, bachelor botany professor, marries Katie, a widow with three kids, despite the machinations of Grant's former girlfriend Minna. But on the wedding day, Aunt Jo, who was to babysit, breaks a leg; so the kids come along on the honeymoon.

Family Honeymoon

1948

The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell poster
6.3

Sgt. O'Farrell an Army soldier on an island in the South Pacific during World War II is trying to bring the two basics of life to his fellow servicemen, women and beer. The supply ship carrying the beer is torpedoed and the contingent of nurses consists of six males and ugly nurse Nellie Krause. If he could at least try to salvage the shipment of beer.

The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell

1968

The Countess of Monte Cristo poster
7.0

This musical tells the tales of two movie extras who abscond to an expensive resort with their costumes and pretend to be aristocrats. Included in the film are ice skating numbers and songs.

The Countess of Monte Cristo

1948

Kill the Umpire poster
6.9

Ex-baseball player Bill Johnson, failing at many jobs when his ball-playing days are over, reluctantly takes the advice of his father-in-law, Jonah Evans, a retired umpire, and enters an umpire-training school. Assigned to the Texas League, he does fine until the championship play-offs when a riot develops over one of his calls. The involved player is knocked unconscious in the proceedings and cannot verify that Bill made the correct call. Despite lynch mob plans to at least tar-and-feather him, Bill's family - his daughters Lucy (Gloria Henry and Susan and his wife Betty - help Bill reach the ballpark safely the next day through a series of hair-raising encounters.

Kill the Umpire

1950

Fury at Showdown poster
5.6

After serving a year for a killing in self-defense, gunfighter Brock Mitchell tries to help his younger brother save his ranch but a crooked lawyer has other ideas.

Fury at Showdown

1957