Pursuing a legacy

CALL it “The Mystery of the Lancaster Copyrights.”

The star: Burt Lancaster.

The studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The plot: Why did Lancaster’s business manager sign away valuable copyrights to some of the actor’s best-known films, including “Elmer Gantry,” “Sweet Smell of Success” and “Birdman of Alcatraz,” to MGM in the 1990s at a time when the actor either was incapacitated by a stroke or after his 1994 death from a heart attack at age 80.

Seeking answers, Lancaster’s three daughters and grown granddaughter have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that these well-known movies along with nine others were signed away to the studio for as little as $1 each, amounting to what the suit calls a “wholesale plundering” of the actor’s estate.

“Something went terribly wrong with my father’s estate,” his youngest daughter, Sighle Lancaster, 50, of Los Angeles, said in a statement released through her attorney. “At this point, I do not know who exactly is responsible for why it happened, but my goal is to find out as much as I can.”

Lancaster’s relatives currently earn a portion of home video sales of the late star’s movies, but contend that the copyrights could allow them to earn much more. Given today’s red-hot market in DVD sales and rentals, the family says that some of Lancaster’s movies could potentially generate millions of dollars in the years to come.

The other films at the center of the suit include movies that Lancaster either starred in or co-produced, such as “The Unforgiven,” “The Devil’s Disciple,” “Separate Tables,” “The Young Savages,” “Cry Tough,” “Bachelor Party,” “Season of Passion” (also known as “Summer of the Seventeenth Doll”), “Take a Giant Step” and “The Rabbit Trap.”

Joining their sister Sighle (pronounced Shee-la) in the lawsuit are Susan Elizabeth Lancaster, 55, and Joanna Mari Lancaster, 53, and the actor’s 38-year-old granddaughter, Keigh Lancaster, all of Los Angeles.

According to the lawsuit, the movie rights were transferred in the ‘90s by the actor’s business manager, Jack M. Ostrow, who died in 1998. Lancaster’s heirs, who can’t fathom why Ostrow would do such a thing, are alleging fraud, negligence, conspiracy and breach of fiduciary duty against three people who might know the answers: employees of a banking company, U.S. Trust, which was a co-trustee along with Ostrow.

The suit claims that former employees John Westwater and Andrew Gifford and a current vice president, Mimi Evers, “should have sounded an alarm” when the unusual transfers occurred and also alleges that the employees “failed to undertake any investigation of the suspect conduct.”

U.S. Trust declined to discuss the suit, but a spokeswoman issued the following statement: “U.S. Trust and its officers managed the Lancaster Trusts properly and professionally, in the best interests of all of the beneficiaries of the trusts created by Burt Lancaster. We firmly believe the complaint has no merit.”

The Lancaster heirs are also suing an attorney who they say missed a crucial deadline to file a claim against MGM. As a result, although MGM -- recently sold to a business consortium led by Sony Corp. -- retains the copyrights in question, it is not a party to the lawsuit, the family’s attorney said.

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Out-of-the-ordinary pact

IT is rare for stars to have copyright ownership of the films in which they appear. Studios prefer to keep those rights, and instead give a star a percentage of a movie’s gross receipts on the back end. However, the copyrights would give the Lancaster heirs the ability to pick out any distributor they want, and put together their own deals, instead of relying upon the studio to do so.

The story of the Lancaster copyrights began in the late 1940s, not long after Lancaster shot to stardom in the 1946 film noir “The Killers” costarring Ava Gardner. Before the decade was out, Lancaster had decided to buck the studio system and formed a production company with Harold Hecht, the man who had spotted him early in his career and told him: “In five years we’ll be making our own pictures.”

Lancaster and Hecht made film deals with United Artists stipulating that their production company would retain a substantial interest in ownership rights to each of their films, including copyrights, according to the lawsuit. United Artists eventually would be absorbed into MGM, which continued to distribute many of Lancaster’s films around the world.

In 1988, the actor set up a trust to oversee his assets and he became a co-trustee along with Ostrow, his business manager. But Lancaster suffered a stroke in 1990 that left him unable to communicate and he was removed as co-trustee.

In 1992, Ostrow transferred the rights to “Elmer Gantry,” for which Lancaster won an Oscar as best actor, to MGM. A year later, MGM received the rights to “Sweet Smell of Success.” Then in 1997, the rights to 10 other Lancaster films, including “Birdman of Alcatraz,” were signed away to MGM.

Since Lancaster’s death in 1994, his heirs have received less than $2 million from MGM, and only for three films -- including “Elmer Gantry” -- according to their attorney, Charles G. Smith of Los Angeles.

“Neither I nor any of the other heirs of Burt Lancaster has ever received any money for ‘Sweet Smell of Success,’ ” Sighle Lancaster said through her attorney, referring to what is one of her father’s most popular movies. “We have not received anything for TV or video rights.... We have always been told that the movie is in a loss position.”

Smith, who filed the suit on behalf of Lancaster’s daughters and granddaughter, said he is baffled by Ostrow’s moves.

There is no suggestion that Ostrow benefited financially from the transfers, Smith said, and it seems unlikely that he would have betrayed Lancaster, who was a close friend and confidant.

The lawsuit speculates that some of the transfers came at a time when MGM was in corporate turmoil, and Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti borrowed against the MGM-UA film library to fund his short-lived control of the studio.

“We cannot figure out why [Ostrow] transferred these movie rights for what appeared to be no consideration. More to the point, we don’t understand why he had to do it.... It doesn’t make sense he would do this for financial gain for himself because he was financially stable and he was a longtime associate that Burt depended on.”

Added Smith: “That’s why these transfers make no sense.”

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Memorable roles

Some of Burt Lancaster’s best-known films are among those whose rights were signed away to MGM and have become the center of a court battle. Following is a snapshot of three that earned him some of his best notices. All, including his Oscar-winning performance in “Elmer Gantry,” pictured at far left, are available on DVD.

‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’: Though it wasn’t a financial success when released in 1957, “Sweet Smell” is considered one of the seminal films from the 1950s. Lancaster is cast as J.J. Hunsecker, the most powerful newspaper columnist in New York. Tony Curtis plays sleazy publicist Sidney Falco. Directed by Alexander Mackendrick,

“Sweet Smell” also features a superb jazz score by Elmer Bernstein.

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‘BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ’: Released in 1962, this film was Lancaster and director John Frankenheimer’s triumph as a team. Lancaster received a best actor Oscar nomination for his moving performance as Robert Stroud, a convicted murderer who becomes an expert on birds after saving a baby sparrow. Thelma Ritter, as his mother, and Telly Savalas also received Oscar nominations.

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‘SEPARATE TABLES’: One of the most acclaimed films of 1958, “Tables” received numerous Oscar nominations including best picture and actress (Deborah Kerr). It won Oscars for David Niven and Wendy Hiller, above with Lancaster. Lancaster plays an alcoholic residing in an English hotel who is secretly engaged to the woman (Hiller) who runs it. Rita Hayworth plays Lancaster’s ex-wife, who arrives for a visit to stir things up.