getting in Hollywood, when Hecht jokingly told him "Well Burt, if you don't like what you get into out there, we'll just produce our own films. That's the one way you're sure to get what you want!". Throughout the 1940s, every actor, producer and director hoped to start their own film production company to achieve creative freedom, but few were able to accomplish it due to contractual or financial obligations. The few that did manage to venture into productions of their own, most often did not last long enough to make an impact and rarely produced more than a handful of films. As it turned out, Hecht and Lancaster were able to produce their first film only nineteen months after meeting and remained in partnership for seventeen years, producing twenty-three motion pictures. The Killers was filmed in the spring of 1946 and was released mere months later, in August 1946, through the newly merged Universal-International Pictures (previously two separate film companies). The film was an immediate box office success and received critical acclaim, making Lancaster an overnight film star with his first movie. Though Desert Fury was next filmed between August and September 1946, the film was kept in Paramount Pictures' backlog for an entire year, until August 1947, as Wallis' other productions rolled out to the public. The same delay occurred with Wallis' next Lancaster projects: Variety Girl was filmed in October—November 1946, but only released in August 1947, and I Walk Alone was filmed from December 1946 to February 1947, but was not released until January 1948. Following the back-to-back filming of those three Wallis productions at Paramount Pictures, Lancaster was again loaned out to Hellinger for another successful film noir, Brute Force. The film was shot from March to April 1947 and released without delay in July of that year though Universal-International Pictures. As early as April 1947, Lancaster wanted to break his contract with Hal Wallis Productions, but it took six months of negotiations (and star-power appeal) for Wallis to grant better working conditions to the actor. Lancaster's renewed, but improved, seven-year contract with Wallis, signed in early October 1947, resulted with a decrease to one annual Paramount Pictures-distributed Hal Wallis Productions picture, and an increase to two independent production options a year. This allowed Lancaster to deal directly with Mark Hellinger Productions, with which he signed a three-picture contract. The press was understandably surprised when