05/04/2026
This motion picture contract prepared by L.A. attorney Neil S. McCarthy stipulated the legal arrangement between Howard Hughes as president of the film company The Caddo Company, Inc. (“Producer”) and Howard Hawks (“Artist”). The contract spanned the period between June 27, 1932 and June 26, 1934, with an option to renew through 1936. Hughes promises to pay Hawks a salary of $3,000 per week worked on Caddo projects, with a maximum commitment of three motion pictures per year distributed by either The Caddo Company or other film studios. Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer is referenced throughout the document, and of note is a reference to Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg on p. 4.
Howard Hughes had established The Caddo Company, Inc. in 1926. Before it became reabsorbed into Hughes’ larger corporate holdings in 1932, Caddo was responsible for the production and distribution of nine films, including the last-ever Caddo production, the Howard Hawks-directed and co-produced “Scarface.” The gritty mobster film inspired by Chicago Gangland’s Al Capone was released to American theatres just two months earlier, in April 1932, and was thus outside of the parameters of this contract.
Even though this contract between Hughes and Hawks was good up through June 1934, Hawks did not complete another picture with Hughes and Caddo. Between 1932 and 1934, Hawks directed/produced four other films besides “Scarface,” all of which were distributed by rival film studios like Warner Brothers, MGM, Columbia, and First National Pictures.
Lot 196 has far surpassed the estimate, and has a current bid of $6,500.
