Гарольд Хехт: Американский кинопродюсер и его вклад в кинематограф

American film producer

Harold Adolphe Hecht (June 1, 1907 – May 26, 1985) was an American film producer, dance director and talent agent. He was also, though less noted for, a literary agent, a theatrical producer, a theatre director and a Broadway actor. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Screen Producers Guild. During his first stay in Hollywood in the early to mid 1930s, Hecht was one of the leading dance directors in the movie industry, working with the Marx Brothers, Mae West, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, W. C. Fields, Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier and Marion Davies. In 1947, he co founded Norma Productions, an independent film production company, with his business partner and managed actor Burt Lancaster. From 1954 to 1959, the Norma Productions subsidiaries Hecht Lancaster Productions and later Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions, were the biggest and most important independent production units in Hollywood. Following the end of the Hecht Hill Lancaster partnership, Hecht continued as one of the top three independent producers in Hollywood, a position he shared with Stanley Kramer and the Mirisch brothers, for the next ten years. At the 28th Academy Awards ceremony in 1956, Hecht received a Best Picture Oscar for the 1955 Hecht Lancaster Productions film Marty. He was again nominated three years later at the 31st Academy Awards ceremony for the 1958 Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions film Separate Tables. The film did not win but Hecht did accept the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in place of Wendy Hiller who could not be present. The Broadway play version of Separate Tables, produced by Hecht Lancaster Productions, was nominated for the Best Play Award at the 11th Tony Awards ceremony in April 1957 In November 1959 Hecht was chosen by United States President Dwight Eisenhower to accompany the cultural exchange program committee in a trip to Russia when Marty was selected by the USSR as the first American film to be screened in that country since World War II. Fourteen of Hecht's film productions (and an additional three on which he was a choreographer) have won and been nominated for several awards and prizes at various ceremonies and film festivals, including; Academy Awards, Golden Globe Award, British Academy Film Awards, Bodil Awards, Directors Guild of America Award, Writers Guild of America Award, National Board of Review Awards, New York Film Critics Circle Award, Laurel Awards, David di Donatello Award, Bambi Award and the Online Film & Television Association Award; and at the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. Four of the films Harold Hecht was associated with have been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States National Film Preservation Board and have been selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry; Duck Soup in 1990, Sweet Smell of Success in 1993, Marty in 1994 and She Done Him Wrong in 1996.

Harold Adolphe Hecht was born on June 1, 1907, in Yorkville, New York City, to Joseph Hecht and Rose (née Loewy) Hecht. His father was born on November 17, 1882, in Austria. While employed as a sailor at the age of seventeen, he immigrated to New York City in January 1899. Once in New York he worked in construction and eventually made it up to the position of a building contractor. His mother was born on January 18, 1882, in [Austria]. Joseph and Rose were married in 1906 in New York City and had two children; Harold (born 1907) and Janet Hecht (b. 1910, later Janet Garfield, mother of Warren Garfield, a noted film trailer producer).

Just as Hecht was looking for his vocation, the very field he wanted to be in was interviewing students for a new school. In November 1923, Richard Boleslavsky, a Russian immigrant and former student of Konstantin Stanislavsky, opened the American Laboratory Theatre, the first school in the United States to teach Stanislavski's system of acting. Hecht was among the first students accepted to attend the new school in late 1923. Many of The Lab's students worked on additional aspects of the plays that the school produced and Hecht was most drawn by choreography. He also worked under Boleslavsky, both in The Lab's productions and on other Broadway productions, as stage assistant. In 1929 Boleslavsky left for Hollywood and Hecht continued to attend The Lab headed by Maria Ouspenskaya and Maria Germanova. Chi Chi and Her Papas, a 1924 German comedic play originally written by Armin Friedmann and Fritz Lunzer under the title Sie und ihr Zimmerherr, had been translated into English by Max Steiner in a single day. Steiner also composed three original songs and the score for the film adaptation, while the movie's producer, William LeBaron, wrote the lyrics. Other supporting roles were scheduled for George Frank, Tiny Sandford and Gertrude Astor. Hecht left by plane from New York City to Hollywood on Monday, November 2, his position on the film already confirmed. Once in California, he interviewed 200 girls and 150 men, in order to find the twelve girls and six men necessary for the dance numbers. But a week after Hecht's arrival, the film was put on hold. Earlier that fall, RKO had acquired the Pathé Exchange film studio and a number of issues had come of it. New studio head, David O. Selznick clashed with equally positioned Charles Rogers and similar arguments went on between producer William LeBaron and former vice President Joseph I. Schnitzer. Prinz had clashed with the original choreographer, Billy Grant and Hecht came in to replace him. Other crew members included Earl Dancer staging the choir with music by Otis René and Leon René and lyrics by Ben Eilleon. Stories exist that it was his friend Busby Berkeley who helped him get in touch with the right people at Paramount, where the two are said to have worked on films together. Hecht's first assignment at Paramount was directing two dance ensembles in the Marx Brothers' college football comedy film Horse Feathers. One of the numbers Hecht directed was I'm Against It, a scene where Groucho Marx, playing Quincy Adams Wagstaff, is first installed as the new headmaster of Huxley College. Hecht trained Groucho alongside twenty elder actors, aged 61 to 77 years old, with naturally grown beards and dressed in academic gowns. Considering that his first known assignment at Paramount Pictures was a Marx Brothers film, it is quite possible that Hecht found his way to that studio through Nat Perrin, whom he had just worked with on Lucky Day and was Groucho's close friend and collaborator. Hecht was reported to have worked on additional Marx Brothers films, though no specific titles have surfaced to confirm this (i. e.: "Hecht worked on Marx Brothers films", in plural form). The exact shooting dates for Duck Soup have not been established, but it is known to have been filmed during the summer of 1933, after Hecht's contract at Paramount had expired. It is always possible that the studio reached out to Hecht, though no screen credits were provided for the dance numbers (no screen credits were provided for Horse Feathers either). As for A Night at the Opera, it was filmed at M G M Studio in the summer of 1935, during a time when Hecht was associated with the studio. However, the film gives screen credits to Chester Hale for the choreography. Whether Hale worked alone or if Hecht had any input in the film is unknown. Following Horse Feathers, Hecht worked on Lady and Gent (at the time known under the title The Challenge), directed by Stephen Roberts and starring George Bancroft and Wynne Gibson, and Devil and the Deep, directed by Marion Gering and starring Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton and Cary Grant. In June and July 1932, Hecht was loaned out from Paramount to M G M for the Marion Davies film Blondie of the Follies (then known under the title Good Time Girl). The film was produced by Davies who sought out Hecht herself and was directed by Edmund Goulding, who would later reunite with Hecht. The film also starred Robert Montgomery, Billie Dove and Jimmy Durante. Immediately after Lucky Day, Hecht started working on the play Hullabaloo, which took several months of preparation. Hecht co directed it with Paul Gerard Smith and choreographed the Gilmor Brown production. The production featured music by Ralph Rainger and lyrics by Don Hartman. Hullabaloo opened on May 26 at the Pasadena Community Playhouse and ran until June 19, with a cast featuring Sterling Holloway, Frank Atkinson, Leonard Sillman and his sister June Carroll. Karl Hajos composed and conducted the 30 piece orchestra and the cast included Herbert Evans, Ruth Gillette, Alex Callam, Florinne McKinney, Franklin Record, Roland Woodruff, Diane Warfield, Paul Sauter, Rolloe Dix, William Jeffries, Harold Reeves and Evelyn Cunningham. The play opened on Monday November 14 at the Columbia Theater in California. Earlier that year Paramount had signed Mae West to a contract and the actress was eager to step up from the lower billed role she received in her first picture, Night After Night. She was billed fourth, after George Raft, Constance Cummings and Wynne Gibson. West was working to adapt her notoriously banned play, Diamond Lil, into a film, initially titled Honky Tonk. But the censors objected and Paramount worked quickly to change a few scenes, re title the film to Diamond Lil and tried again to get it into production. But the censors found far too many similarities between Ruby Red and Diamond Lil and blocked the production completely. West and Paramount decided to merge Ruby Red into another West film in the writing stages, She Done Him Wrong, using the cast and crew already hired for Ruby Red. This final version of the script made it into production. Producer LeBaron, who had left RKO to work for Paramount, hired Hecht to work on She Done Him Wrong back when it was still a separate entity from Ruby Red. Hecht was also hired for dance routines on Ruby Red. Ultimately, all of Hecht's material was merged into a single film and used on She Done Him Wrong. The film was directed by Lowell Sherman and starred West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore and Noah Beery. Following the Mae West projects, Hecht became one of the more prominent choreographers in Hollywood and was well in demand at Paramount and other studios. ), directed by Norman Taurog and starring Maurice Chevalier and Helen Twelvetrees, International House, directed by A. Edward Sutherland starring W. C. Fields, Bela Lugosi and George Burns and the highly anticipated blockbuster College Humor. College Humor, another William LeBaron production, was proclaimed by Paramount's publicity department as "the most lavish musical picture since the advent of talking pictures". The new dance was well advertised in newspapers and magazines with a depiction of steps and moves for people to learn it at home. Hecht later stated that he worked with director Frank Tuttle during his days at Paramount. Hecht put together a number that included a line of 36 girls for the Mark Sandrich film starring Charlie Ruggles and Phil Harris. Dave Gould took over Hecht's work on the RKO film and received screen credits for the dance routines. For this picture, Hecht trained two hundred girls for the dances and selected the best nine to appear in the film. One number in particular, which took place at the New Orleans Mardi Gras carnival in the film, was taken on the road to help promote the picture, with the girls performing it on stage. Meanwhile, Hecht put on a new play for the "Symphonies Under the Stars", a week long festival beginning on July 25. Skyscrapers opened on Saturday July 29 at the Hollywood Bowl to a cast of over one hundred dancers. Hecht directed the play and choreographed the dances to music originally composed by John Alden Carpenter. Hecht refashioned the work into an eight scene ballet with the help of Blanding Sloane, who worked on the sets, lights and made the masks, and Kay Otteson who designed the costumes. Richard Lert, husband of Vicki Baum, conducted the orchestra.

In October 1933, Hecht was offered opportunities to direct dance numbers at Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Fox Films and Columbia Pictures within a short period of time. Hecht first went to Warner Bros. to choreograph a Vitaphone Technicolor two reeler short, produced by Gordon Hollingshead. Hecht's numbers in the picture were lauded by critics. In May he was approached by Stanley Bergerman for another Roger Pryor film, Romance in the Rain. This time Hecht provided the dances in the film directed by Stuart Walker.

Hecht is said to have worked on the Edmond Goulding film Hollywood Party (at the time known under the title Star Spangled Banquet) at Metro Goldwyn Mayer in March 1934, though no official credit has surfaced to confirm this. The shorts were to be based on errors made by college students in filing out official forms, hence making them "goonies". Hecht's new production unit, formed for the purpose of making these shorts in December 1934, was called Goonies Inc. Gypsy Night (known under the working title Song of the Gypsies) was produced by Harry Rapf from a story by Richard Goldstone. The short was based on a romantic perspective of the Russian Gypsies' lives, with dance numbers by Hecht and music by Burton Lane and Harold Adamson. The cast featured Mary Jo Mathews, Perry Askam, Joseph Mario and Ilia Khmara. Gypsy Night opened on Friday, May 24, 1935, at the Capitol Theater in New York City. It was considered avant garde by some but received generally praising reviews towards its artistic aspect. Hecht later claimed that his initial departure from Hollywood was caused by a lack of work in the fast paced, constantly evolving musical pictures business. Hecht was not the original stage manager of the play and only came in through Schneider's insistence. But for the Grace of God opened on January 12, 1937, and ran for forty two performances. The actress was so insulted that she rushed to Hecht, asking for the man to be fired. Hecht gloriously championed the rights of blacks by responding to her "Sally, I'm surprised at you. He has just as much right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness as you and I have". Saunders was horrified by Hecht's approval of racial equality and in August of that same year testified against him, the Federal Theater, the Workers Alliance of America and entire production of Sing for Your Supper at an anti communist hearing in Washington, D. C. It was reasonably successful, running forty four performances and closing on June 30. His army serial number was 19126700. He was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant and placed in Special Services, the entertainment department. Hecht and Rantz set up their office at 324 South Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, California. During a show going holiday in New York City in late November 1945, Lillian Schary, Dore Schary's sister, suggested to Hecht that he go see a new Broadway play at the Lyceum Theater. Hecht attended the play many more times before it closed after twenty three performances on December 8. Together they were invited to restaurants, hearing offers from David O. Selznick, 20th Century Fox and Hal B. Wallis, who had a deal at Paramount Pictures. A few months later, in April 1946, Hecht and Lancaster were sitting in the bar of the Barbizon Plaza Hotel in New York City, having a last drink before Lancaster was off for the filming of The Killers for Mark Hellinger Productions. By 1947, Harold Hecht Productions was doing very well as a talent agency and Hecht started hiring staff from other noted Hollywood agencies. In May 1947, E. Henry Lewis left the Goldstone Agency to head Harold Hecht Productions' literary staff.

In the summer of 1947 Hecht co founded Norma Productions with Burt Lancaster, who named the company after his second wife, Norma Anderson. They worked out a deal with Universal International, for whom Lancaster had already done The Killers and Brute Force, both for Mark Hellinger Productions. Hecht and Lancaster's first production was Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, a film noir based on British author Gerald Butler's best selling novel. The movie starred Lancaster, Joan Fontaine and Robert Newton and was directed by Norman Foster, famous for the Mr. Moto crime series starring Peter Lorre, with a soundtrack by Miklós Rózsa, a noted film noir composer. Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, a co production through Norma Productions and Harold Hecht Productions, was released in late 1948 to moderate success. Following this, Hecht worked exclusively through Norma Productions for the next ten years. In early 1949 Norma Productions made a three picture deal with Warner Brothers Pictures, all to be produced by Hecht and to star Lancaster. The inaugural picture was The Flame and the Arrow, a Technicolor swashbuckler directed by Jacques Tourneur. The big budget film featured some of the biggest names from the Warner Brothers lot at the time, including Virginia Mayo (fresh from White Heat) as the leading lady and Max Steiner (famous for Casablanca and Gone with the Wind) who was hired to compose the soundtrack. The Flame and the Arrow was released in the summer of 1950 and became one of the year's top grossers, earning two nominations at the 23rd Academy Awards ceremony in March 1951; one for Best Dramatic or Comedy Score (Max Steiner), another for Best Color Cinematography (Ernest Haller). Hecht's next production for Warner Brothers was The Crimson Pirate, another Technicolor swashbuckler starring Lancaster and Nick Cravat, a close friend since boyhood, and former acrobat who had worked with Lancaster in the circus (he had also co starred in The Flame and the Arrow). It was directed by Robert Siodmak, written by Roland Kibbee and featured an early appearance by Christopher Lee. The Crimson Pirate was made entirely in remote locations, with filming in Ischia, an island off the Gulf of Naples, Italy and at Teddington Studios in England. Released in the fall of 1952, it also went on to be a top grosser for Warner Brothers. Years later Hecht attempted to develop a sequel, Jolly Roger: Son of the Crimson Pirate, but this film was never made. Before completing their contract at Warner Brothers, Hecht and Lancaster signed a two picture deal with Columbia Pictures through the Norma Productions subsidiary, Halburt Productions. The two moderate budget Columbia films were shot back to back at Columbia Studios and marked the beginning of a professional relationship between Hecht, Lancaster and Robert Aldrich, who was Hecht's assistant producer at the studio. Halburt Productions' first film, Ten Tall Men (released in late 1951) was another Technicolor adventure flick about the French Foreign Legion during the Rif War in Morocco. It was written and directed by Willis Goldbeck, co written by Roland Kibbee and starred Lancaster, Jody Lawrance and Gilbert Roland. It also featured memorable parts by character actors George Tobias, Nick Dennis, Mike Mazurki and Robert Clary. But the real turning point was when Columbia allowed Hecht and Lancaster to produce their first film without Lancaster acting in it. The First Time (released in early 1952) was a comedy film directed by Frank Tashlin starring Robert Cummings and Barbara Hale, based on a short story by Hugo Butler and Jean Rouverol as first time parents. Hecht's final Warner Brothers commitment was His Majesty O'Keefe, filmed in mid 1952 but only released in early 1954. His Majesty O'Keefe was granted another large budget for remote location shooting in Technicolor. This time the crew headed to Viti Levu in the Republic of Fiji, where production costs skyrocketed. The film was directed by Byron Haskin and starred Lancaster, Joan Rice and André Morell. It was scored by Dimitri Tiomkin and was the first time that Hecht and Lancaster collaborated with writer James Hill who later became a partner in the company. In December 1952 Hecht joined the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Harold Hecht's name was given to the House Un American Activities Committee by Martin Berkeley on September 19, 1951. Marty was also one of the many films considered by Hecht Lancaster Productions to be made into a television show. An original pilot was made with Shecky Greene in the late 1950s and later (unrelated to Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions) with Tom Bosley. Neither were sold to the networks. Hecht Lancaster Productions' second film to be released in 1955 was The Kentuckian, another large budget adventure film shot in Technicolor using the CinemaScope widescreen technology on location in the Kentucky mountains. the screenplay was written by Pulitzer Prize winning author A. B. Guthrie Jr. from Felix Holt's novel The Gabriel Horn and was Burt Lancaster's official directorial debut. Guthrie had already famously adapted Shane in 1952 and his novel, The Big Sky, was made into a successful Western by Howard Hawks that same year. Hecht and Lancaster hired famed composer Bernard Herrmann for the soundtrack, already renowned at the time for his work with Orson Welles. Herrmann is now best remembered as a close collaborator of Alfred Hitchcock, composing the soundtracks to Psycho, Vertigo and North By Northwest. In addition to starring Lancaster, The Kentuckian featured Dianne Foster, Diana Lynn, John McIntire and was the film debut of Walter Matthau, who played the heavy. As part of its publicity, Hecht hired artist Thomas Hart Benton to paint a life sized portrait of Lancaster and Donald MacDonald (in character), posing with their dog Faro. The painting, also known as The Kentuckian, has been exhibited at a number of museums over the years and is currently part of Los Angeles County Museum of Art's permanent collection. The film competed at the Venice Film Festival for its top prize, the Golden Lion Award. The last film released under the Hecht Lancaster Productions banner (prior to changing the company's name) was the massively budgeted circus film Trapeze. Also filmed in Technicolor with CinemaScope lenses, the film starred Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Italian sex symbol Gina Lollobrigida. The script went through a number of writers including James Jones (From Here to Eternity), Ernest Lehman, Ben Hecht, James R. Webb, Wolf Mankowitz and Liam O'Brien. Trapeze was shot in Paris, France with locations such as the indoor arena Cirque d'Hiver, with recently knighted director Sir Carol Reed. The film is noted for having the largest promotional allowance of the times, with a reported $2 million for publicity. It paid off and was the third best box office earner of the year. Many of its premieres featured local circus performers who were hired to parade through the streets. Though it failed to make an impact at the Academy Awards, it won several awards including the Bambi Award for Best Actress – International, the Berlin International Film Festival Silver Berlin Bear Award for Best Actor, the Berlin International Film Festival Bronze Berlin Bear Award for Audience Poll and a nomination for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. On June 12, 1956, Hecht joined the Screen Producers Guild as their 150th member. That year he also returned to Broadway to bring English playwright Terence Rattigan's hit show Separate Tables to the American stage, with plans to turn it into a film for Hecht Lancaster Productions. The Broadway production opened on October 25, 1956, and was highly successful, running for 332 performances at the Music Box Theatre and closing on September 28, 1957. The play was directed by Peter Glenville and starred Margaret Leighton, Eric Portman, Donald Harron, Beryl Measor, Phyllis Neilson Terry, Helena Carroll and May Hallatt. It was nominated for seven Tony Awards at the 11th ceremony in April 1957, winning one for Margaret Leighton as Best Actress. The other nominations included Best Play (The Producers Theatre and Hecht Lancaster Productions), Best Actor (Eric Portman), Best Featured Actor (William Podmore), two for Best Featured Actress (Beryl Measor and Phyllis Neilson Terry) and Best Direction (Peter Glenville).

When Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions announced a hiatus (which eventually led to their breakup) in the spring of 1959, Hecht was approached with two offers. The first was for a major executive position at Paramount Pictures as Production Chief, succeeding Young Frank Freeman. But Hecht had enjoyed the freedom of being an independent film producer for twelve years and was reluctant to deal with a major Hollywood studio's problems. He had also been offered a similar position at Metro Goldwyn Mayer two years earlier, which he had not accepted for the same reason. Hecht turned down Paramount's offer and the position was eventually filled by Jack Karp. The second proposal interested him much more. Producer Alan J. Pakula had purchased the film rights to Elliott Arnold's action novel, Flight from Ashiya, and approached Hecht to co produce it. Hecht and Lancaster had previously purchased the screen rights to one of Arnold's Western books, Blood Brother, and came very close to turning it into a picture (it was eventually made as Broken Arrow with James Stewart). Pakula commissioned Arnold to adapt Flight from Ashiya into a screenplay while Hecht approached such stars as Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan and Tuesday Weld for the leads. But that summer Hecht became involved with other film projects that soon took on priority and it would be four years before Flight from Ashiya was filmed, with a different script and an all new cast including Yul Brynner. On top of promoting a backlog of Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions films that were coming out in 1959–1960 (The Rabbit Trap, Cry Tough, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, The Devil's Disciple, Take a Giant Step and The Unforgiven), Hecht was busy planning future United Artists financed films from the H H L unit (including The Way West). He also formed a new film production company with Canadian actor Glenn Ford. Their first film together was to be Evan Hunter's novel, A Matter of Conviction, concerning members of a Harlem street gang tried for murder (later released as The Young Savages). Glenn Ford had already starred in another Hunter adaptation, Blackboard Jungle; the film was nominated for four Oscars. Hecht was hoping that the new combo would be as successful and hired more top Hollywood personnel to work on The Young Savages; John Gay to write the screenplay and Robert Rossen to direct. But by the end of the year, Glenn Ford had left the project and in early 1960 Rossen dropped out to focus on his future Oscar nominated film, The Hustler. Many of the projects that Hecht worked on between 1959 and 1964 shifted back and forth between independent solo productions and Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions ventures. Because of a financial deficit owed to United Artists when Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions decided to call it quits in 1959, the three partners were obligated to make a number of films for the studio in an attempt to recoup the costs. Some of the films were to be as individuals, others were required to be under the Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions banner. Based on Nikolai Gogol's novella of the same name, Taras Bulba tells the story of a Cossack clan in Ukraine fighting against the Poles, all while a love story develops between the son of the Cossack leader and the daughter of an aristocratic Polish family. The film was a co production between Tony Curtis' Curtleigh Productions and Hecht's original Harold Hecht Productions, making a comeback after its first use for 1948's Kiss the Blood Off My Hands. Hecht hired J. Lee Thompson as director and Waldo Salt, who had written the script of The Flame and the Arrow in 1949 before being blacklisted, and Karl Tunberg, a two time Oscar nominee who had just worked on megahit Ben Hur, to write the screenplay. The title role was first planned for Lancaster, then for Anthony Quinn and finally landed on Yul Brynner, an Academy Award winner for his role in The King and I, who would provide an authentic performance with his Gypsy background. It co starred Tony Curtis and Christine Kaufmann, who went on to marry him after the film. Featured roles were played by Sam Wanamaker, Brad Dexter, who had appeared in Hecht's Run Silent, Run Deep and The Magnificent Seven with Brynner, Guy Rolfe, Perry Lopez and George Macready. Hecht also gave a cameo role to his soon to be second wife, Martine Millner, as a gypsy dancer. The production was financed by United Artists with a budget of $3,800,000. Hecht went on location in Salta, Argentina with Eastmancolor equipped Panavision cameras, and two time Oscar nominated cinematographer, Joseph MacDonald. After a series of delays, extensive hiring of extras for the battle scenes and post production costs at Columbia Studios, the films' budget skyrocketed to a total of $7,000,000. After a series of projects fell through, Hecht decided to revive an old Hecht Lancaster Productions property from the mid 1950s, Roy Chanselor's Western novel, The Ballad of Cat Ballou. As a Hecht Lancaster Productions project, Cat Ballou was originally to be a comedy musical Western film starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis as rival brothers. As early as 1960, Hecht worked on Cat Ballou as a solo project and was finally able to secure its production through his Columbia deal. The plot for Cat Ballou evolves around a young woman coming back to her homestead only to find her father's farm terrorized by local gunmen. She hires the legendary Kid Shelleen to defend the farm but soon realizes that he's a washout, more interested in getting drunk. The film went through a series of screenwriters from its inception in 1956, starting with Roy Chanselor who adapted his own novel, then William Bowers, William Ludwig, Burt Kennedy, Walter Newman, Mitchell Lindemann, Frank Pierson, and finally Walter Bernstein, who agreed to write the script "to Hecht's satisfaction". That no time limit clause in his contract caused him to work for two years until Hecht said, okay, that's it. Bernstein said he would never agree to such a contract clause again. The principal role of Kid Shelleen was offered and passed on by almost every big name star in Hollywood over its ten year pre production stage. After Lancaster dropped out, five other actors turned down the role, including Spencer Tracy, Kirk Douglas and José Ferrer, before Lee Marvin was offered the part. The role of Cat Ballou was also offered to a number of stars, including Natalie Wood (when Lancaster was still in the cast) and Ann Margret (who didn't get a chance to accept it as her agent turned it down without consulting her), before Jane Fonda accepted it. The rest of the cast featured Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Nat King Cole, Stubby Kaye, Tom Nardini, Jay C. Flippen, John Marley, Arthur Hunnicutt, Reginald Denny and Bruce Cabot. Cat Ballou turned out to be Nat King Cole's final film appearance as he passed away of lung cancer four months before it was released. The film was directed by Elliot Silverstein, who had spent the previous ten years directing television episodes, and was shot in twenty eight days on location in Cañon City, Colorado, at the Columbia Ranch in Burbank, California and at the Gower Street Studios in Hollywood. Two time Oscar nominee Frank De Vol composed the soundtrack with songs written by Mack David and Jerry Livingston. Released in the summer of 1965, Cat Ballou was a huge success and earned over $20,000,000 at the box office. It was one of the top ten films of the year and was nominated and won a ton of awards. At the 38th Academy Awards ceremony in 1966 it was nominated for five Oscars including one for Lee Marvin who won for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Other nominated categories included Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Editing, Best Music, Original Song and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment. At the Golden Globe Awards, Marvin won for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Most Promising Newcomer – Male and for Best Original Song. The British Academy Film Awards too rewarded Marvin for Best Foreign Actor and nominated Nardini for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. The Laurel Awards was another big supporter of the film, with four Golden Laurels; one for Best Comedy, one for Top Male Comedy Performance, one for Top Female Comedy Performance and another for Top Song. The Directors Guild of America nominated Silverstein for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures and the Writers Guild of America nominated Newman and Pierson for Best Written American Comedy. The New York Film Critics Circle gave Marvin an award for Best Actor. The Berlin International Film Festival Awarded the film in three categories; the Silver Berlin Bear Award for Best Actor, the Award of Special Mention and the Award for Best Feature Film Suitable for Young People and nominated Silverstein for a Golden Berlin Bear Award for Best Director. Before Cat Ballou was even released, Hecht announced to the press an interest in producing a sequel entitled Kid Shelleen. He hoped to have Marvin and Fonda reprise their roles and was in negotiation with Bette Davis for a part. Hecht worked on various scripts and pre production stages over the next twenty years of his life. Cat Ballou was also adapted for two separate television pilots, both in 1971. The first was for ABC and starred Lesley Ann Warren as Cat Ballou, Jack Elam as Kid Shelleen and Tom Nardini who returned as Jackson Two Bears. The ABC episode aired on September 5, 1971. The second pilot was produced at the same time by NBC and starred Jo Ann Harris as Cat Ballou, Forrest Tucker as Kid Shelleen and featured Harry Morgan as a rancher. This episode aired on September 6, 1971, the day after the ABC episode was shown. Neither pilots were picked up for production. Hecht's final released film was adapted from A. B. Guthrie Jr.'s Pulitzer Prize winning Western novel, The Way West. The production of The Way West marked the end of Hecht's contract with United Artists, which had already spent quite a considerable amount of money on pre production at that point. The property had originally been purchased by Hecht Lancaster Productions in late 1953 and Hecht spent fourteen years developing the screenplay under the financial supervision of United Artists. When announced in 1953, United Artists had granted the production unit the largest budget a Western film had ever received, with $5,000,000, advertising costs excluded. By 1959 that budget had been raised to $8,000,000. The Way West was intended as a major box office attraction and Hecht hired Hollywood's top names to work on the film. Over the years such stars as Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Ingrid Bergman and Katharine Hepburn were all signed on for parts. A number of writers also worked on various developments, including Clifford Odets, John Twist, Marvin Borowsky, James R. Webb and Jessamyn West. The final screenplay was written by Mitchell Lindemann and Ben Maddow and the production starred Kirk Douglas, Richard Widmark and Robert Mitchum. Jack Elam, Nick Cravat, John Mitchum (Robert Mitchum's younger brother, best remembered for appearing in Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry series), Stubby Kaye and Sally Field (making her film debut) all had featured roles. Filmed on location in Oregon and Arizona using Panavision cameras equipped with DeLuxe color film, The Way West retold the story of pioneers who crossed the Midwest to reach the new territory of Oregon in the mid 1840s. The film was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, an established and well respect Western director who had done McLintock! with John Wayne, Shenandoah and The Rare Breed, both with James Stewart, The Ballad of Josie with Doris Day and Peter Graves, and Gun the Man Down with James Arness. He had also directed a number of Western television episodes on Have Gun – Will Travel with Richard Boone, Gunsmoke with James Arness, Rawhide with Clint Eastwood and Gunslinger with Tony Young. The cinematographer on The Way West was equally qualified. William H. Clothier was a two time Oscar nominee for Westerns. He had worked on Stagecoach, The Rare Breed, Shenandoah, Cheyenne Autumn, McLintock!, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Comancheros, The Alamo, The Horse Soldiers, Gun the Man Down and Seven Men from Now. The movie was topped by Bronislau Kaper's soundtrack, a three time Academy Award nominated composer. But even with all the star power that Hecht had employed over the years, the film turned out to be a box office disappointment. After The Way West, Hecht continued working on a great many film projects and never retired from his profession. The next film he developed was The Comic, his second of the two picture contract at Columbia Pictures. Adapted from the original story Baggy Pants by Walter Newman, The Comic was first adapted by the author in late 1965. The story dealt with a silent screen star, his rise to fame and his downfall. In the summer of 1967 Hecht approached Dick Van Dyke to star in the film and Carl Reiner to direct and co produce it. With them on board The Comic became a joint venture between Harold Hecht Productions, Van Dyke's DFI Productions and Reiner's Acre Enterprises. Later that summer Hecht screen tested May 1967 Playboy Playmate of the Month model, Anne Randall, for the female lead. Reiner, Van Dyke and screenwriter Aaron Ruben re wrote the screenplay considerably over the next year and by the summer of 1968, Hecht was out of the picture. The film was eventually released in late 1969, strictly as a Reiner production, and it is currently unknown if any of Hecht's contributions remained in the final version of the film. One of the projects that has been wrongly accredited to Hecht is Ulzana's Raid. Certain sources claim (without validating their own sources) that Hecht (as well as Burt Lancaster, who starred in the film) was an uncredited producer. Hecht's involvement was never claimed by anyone who worked on the film and the only credited production companies and producers for Ulzana's Raid are Robert Aldrich and his production company, The Associates and Aldrich Company, and Carter DeHaven and his production company, De Haven Productions. There are no records of Hecht having any input on this film, nor of his various production companies being involved. Neither are there any records of Lancaster's company, Norlan Productions, being involved in the making of the film. Though Lancaster was often noted as having a strong influence on the directing and editing of the motion pictures he appeared in, Ulzana's Raid was in fact a financial agreement between Lancaster and Universal Pictures; in exchange for appearing in Ulzana's Raid, Universal was to finance the making of Norlan Production's film The Midnight Man. Hecht's collaboration on Ulzana's Raid is therefore a debated issue, and with no proof whatsoever to validate this claim, it is better to assume that he was not associated with the project at all.

Hecht was married twice. His first marriage was to Gloria Joyce Buzzell on November 1, 1947, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Gloria Buzzell's father, Samuel Jesse Buzzell, was a theatrical and music patent attorney and her uncle was film director Edward Buzzell. She had previously worked as an executive assistant in MGM's story department. Harold and Gloria had three children together; Steven, Duffy and Alma. Steven Hecht, born 1948 is an attorney living in the Los Angeles area. Duffy W. Hecht, born June 1950 at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood, is a producer/writer living in Carpinteria, California. Alma Hecht, born September 1955 at the Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica is a landscape designer living in Berkeley, California. Harold and Gloria separated on July 18, 1959, with Harold moving permanently into Hecht Hill Lancaster Productions' luxurious apartment on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, which he had been maintaining during the couples previous arguments. On August 25, 1960, Gloria sued Hecht for divorce alleging mental and physical suffering. Other causes stated included frequent arguments and Harold's extended absence from the family home while working on film productions. Gloria demanded over $1,300,000 in community properties and full custody of their three children. The filing for divorce procedure was granted by the Santa Monica, California court on September 7, 1960, and on June 28, 1961, the divorce was finalized. Harold's estimated $2–4 million value went under appraisal while the ruling over custody of their three children was postponed for an additional 60 days. Additional court sessions were held in July 1961, August 1962, April 1963 and June 1963, where Gloria sued for additional alimony. The court's decision concluded that Harold would pay alimony to Gloria for 121 months (a little over 10 years) regardless of occupation or remarriages. If Harold was to pass away before the end of the ten years, his estate was to continue payments. On July 12, 1963, Gloria remarried to Franklin Desser, an attorney from New York City, and became Gloria Hecht Desser. This time the court ordered Harold to pay a $4,000 monthly allowance to Martine and she retained possession of the couple's $350,000 home and half of his $2,000,000 community property assets. Harold Hecht, Jr., born September 14, 1963, worked with director John Frankenheimer and is now a three time Emmy Award winning sports television producer. Adam Arthur Hecht was born on August 6, 1965, at the UCLA Medical Center and worked as a tennis coach before mysteriously vanishing on July 7, 1989, from Beverly Hills, California at age 23. He has never been found, but the police do not suspect foul play and classify the case as a missing person. The story of Adam Hecht's disappearance was depicted on the American television series Unsolved Mysteries in 1990. Rebecca was born in May 1970; her profession is a baking business.

Hecht died in his home in Beverly Hills, of pancreatic cancer on May 26, 1985. It was six days before his 78th birthday. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.