paramount's reliance on its essential creators led to german filmmaker ernst lubitsch taking over alltudio operations in the mid-30's. i think it's an artists' studio in the 30's in a way that no other studio is. and i think that has a lot to do with the fact that two of the founders of what eventually was paramount, jesse lasky, cecil b. demille, were both filmmakers. there was a tremendous amount of creative responsibility that was given to people like sternberg, in the 40's, to people like lubitsch and later, billy wilder, preston sturges. they had a tremendous amount of control over their careers, relatively speaking. it built production units around, say, a von sternberg, who did a series of movies with marlene dietrich using the same creative people on film after film. (mace neufeld) the studio system could do that. when they found talented people who could work together, they put them together in a unit and said, "give us 2 mysteries a year, give us 2 musicals a year, or give us 4 westerns a year." (dramatic music playing) and i think that a style then developed for producers a