Edward Nassour, a pioneering film producer, co-owned Nassour Studios with his brother William. In the 1930s, Edward made a significant contribution to the world of animation by producing a stop-motion animation short film, "Knight Time", shot in Technicolor, which told the captivating story of a knight's squire named Yebo who finds himself battling a fire-breathing dragon.
Nassour's most cherished project was an all-animated feature film, "Ring Around Saturn", which was based on a concept previously owned by renowned documentary filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty and later by the legendary Orson Welles. Welles had used this idea as a segment in his unfinished documentary, "It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles", released in 1993. Nassour acquired the property from Welles and transformed it into a feature-length film using replacement puppet animation. Unfortunately, the project was never completed during Nassour's lifetime.
Following his passing, his brother William released a re-edited version of the film, titled "Emilio and His Magical Bull", in 1975.
Edward Nassour's legacy was marked by another significant milestone when his film, "The Brave One", won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture Story in 1956. However, Nassour later sued the film's producers, the King Brothers, for plagiarism, alleging that the story of "The Brave One", written by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo under the pseudonym "Robert Rich", shared many similarities with the story of "Ring Around Saturn". The King Brothers ultimately settled the dispute by paying an out-of-court settlement of $750,000.
