VOLUME 06 - NUMBER 04 WINTER 1970-71

after his broadcast banging , is too extended , and Kanin . With Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. regrets the implicit suggestion that Lt. Dish has been 1943 making it with Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland ), which THE CROSS OF LORRAINE MGM . Directed by Tay Gar- vitiates her supreme sacrifice of giving herself to nett. Screenplay by Ring Lardner, J r. , Michael restore the virility of the impotent dentist. Kanin , Alexander Esway, and Robert Andrews. From He also faults the football game sequence for being the nove l, A Thousand Shall Fail, by Hans Habe. \" too long and ending too abruptly. \" Lardner had With Jean-Pi erre Aumont , Gene Kelly , and Si r Ced- intended the death of the unit's Korean mascot, Ho-Jon , to have a sobering effect on the drunken ric Hardwicke . revelry , but though this episode was shot, it was 1944 not used in sequence . Thus , we are unaware that its TOMORROW, THE WORLD! United Artists. Directed by the Korean boy on the operating table for whom Lesl ie Fenton . Screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr. and Radar steals a pint of blood from the sleeping Colo- Leopold Atlas . From the play, Deep Are the Roots, nel 's arm , or that its his corpse that is being wheeled by James Gow and Arnaud D' Usse au. With Fredric into a hospital hearse, in the background of a poker March, Betty Field , and Agnes Moorehead. MAR- game scene. Lardner cannot vouch for the se- quence 's working as written , as he never saw it on RIAGE IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR MGM. Directed by Robert the screen , but he knows \" it needs something ,\" Z. Leonard . Screenplay by David Hertz and Lenore after the football chicanery , that is missing . Coffee (and , uncredited , Ring Lardner, Jr.). From a novel by Judith Kelly. With Lana Turner and James On the strength of M-A-S -H, the wheel has come full Craig . LAURA 20th Century-Fo x. Directed by Otto circle , and Ring Lardner, Jr. , along with fellow Preminger. Screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hof- blacklistee Waldo Salt (MIDNIGHT COWBOY) , is once fenstein , and Betty Reinhardt (and , uncredited, Ring Lardner, Jr.). From the novel by Vera Caspary. With again among the most sought-after American Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, and Clifton Webb. screenwriters. 1946 As is often the case with movie deals, the projects CLOAK AND DAGGER Warners. Directed by Fritz Lang . offered Lardner that most attract him seem the least Screenplay by Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner, Jr. likely to be financed , and the more obviously com- From a story by Boris Ingster and John Larkin. From mercial ones tend to repel him . His personal favorite the novel by Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain . With is a private diary of a Mexican American War veter- Gary Cooper, Lilli Palmer, and Robert Alsa. an , My Confession by Sam Chamberlain , unearthed 1947 after a century in an attic , and excerpted in Life FOREVER AMBER 20th Century-Fo x. Directed by Otto along with the author's original drawings. According Preminger. Screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr. and to Lardner, the diary \" provides a realistic account Ph ilip Dunne . Adapted by Jerome Cady. From the of atrocities on both sides, and gives a new view novel by Kathleen Winsor. With Linda Darnell, Cor- on how the U.S. acquired the Great Southwest. \" nel Wilde, Richard Green , and George Sanders. At this year 's Cannes Film Festival , Lardner wryly 1949 FORBIDDEN STREET 20th Century-Fo x. Directed by repulsed Otto Preminger's congratulatory embrace Jean Negulesco. Screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr. From the novel, Brittannia Mews, by Margery Sharp. by saying , \" it would be better if you were not so With Dana Andrews, Maureen O'Hara, and Dame Sybil Thorndike. ostentatiously friendly with me in public , as you and 1950 FOUR DAYS LEAVE Film Classics. Directed by Leopold Leonard Bernstein have just been denounced by Lindtberg. Screenplay by Richard Schweizer and Lindtberg. Dialogue by Ring Lardner, Jr. With Cornel J. Edgar Hoover for giving money to the Black Pan- Wilde, Josette Day, and Simone Signoret. (Released in Switzerland under original title , SWISS TOUR, in thers. \" IIIIIIII 1949 .) 1959 RING LARDNER, JR_ (1915- 1937 VIRGIN ISLAND Films-Around-the-World . Directed by A STAR IS BORN United Artists . Directed by William Pat Jackson . Screenplay by \" Phillip Rush \" UOint A. Wellman. Screenplay by Dorothy Parker, Alan pseudonym for Ring Lardner, Jr. and Ian McLellan Campbell, and Robert Carson (and, uncredited, Hunter). With Sidney Poitier and John Cassavetes. Ring Lardner, Jr.). From a story, What Price Holly- 1960 wood, by Wellman and Carson . With Janet Gaynor, Fredric March , Adolphe Menjou , and May Robson . A BREATH OF SCANDAL Paramount. Directed by Mi- NOTHING .SACRED United Artists. Directed by William chael Curtiz. Screenplay by Walter Bernstein (and, A. Wellman. Screenplay by Ben Hecht (and , uncred- uncredited , Ring Lardner, Jr.). From the play ited , Ring Lardner, Jr.). From a story , Letter to the Olympia, by Ferenc Molnar. With Sophia Loren , Editor, by James A. Street. With Carole Lombard Jean Gavin , and Maurice Chevalier. and Fredric March . 1965 1939 THE CINCINNATI KID MGM . Directed by Norman Jew- MEET DR. CHRISTIAN RKO Radio . Directed by Bernard ison. Screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr. and Terry Vorhaus . Screenplay by Ian McLellen Hunter, Ring Lardner, Jr. , and Harvey Gates. From a story by Southern. From the novel by Richard Jessup. With Gates. With Jean Hersholt and Dorothy Lovett. Steve McQueen , Edward G. Robinson , Tuesday 1940 Weld , Karl Malden , Ann-Margret, and Joan Blondell. 1970 THE COURAGEOUS DR. CHRISTIAN RKO Radio . Directed MoAoSoHo 20th Century-Fox. Directed by Robert Alt- by Bernard Vorhaus . Screenplay by Ring Lardner, man . Screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr. From the novel Jr. and Ian McLelien Hunter. With Jean Hersholt and by Richard Hooker. With Elliott Gould and Donald Dorothy Lovett. Sutherland . 1942 WOMAN OF THE YEAR MGM . Directed by George Ste- vens. Screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr. and Michael FILM COMMENT 49



Gary Carey was Assistant Curator of the Museum is the only one which is well-known . Starring Mary of Modern Art 's Department of Film until 1969. Since Pickford and Lionel Barrymore and directed by D. then he has written two books: Lost Films and Cukor W. Griffith , the film has remained in circulation and has become a staple of film courses and film socie- &. Co . Both are published by the Museum of Modern ties. Certainly, if Griffith had placed his imprimatur on more of Miss Loos ' scripts , more would have Art. remained available through the years. This was not to be the case. Though from 1912-1916, Miss Loos As Nancy Milford remarks in Zelda , the 1920's was followed Griffith from studio to studio, from Biograph the great period of the wisecrack, that peculiarly to Mutual and finally to Triangle as a staff-writer, American adaptation of the bon mot, punchy and her scripts were assigned to secondary production snappy and middle-class where its European an- units, never selected by the Master himself (though cestor had been elegant, foppish , aristocratic. The he was later to ask her to aid in writing the titles first practitioner of the wisecrack for the screen was for INTOLERANCE). Anita Loos who , at a time when the film had not yet found its voice , single-handedly introduced ver- Undoubtedly Griffith was appreciative of Miss Loos' bal humor, with special attention to the national gifts, but , as an artist , he was temperamentally ill - argot that was then evolving , and made the printed disposed to them. Comedy was not his forte and subtitle as ubiquitous as the photographic image. Miss Loos was obviously born with some happy optical peculiarity which reflected only the funny Miss Loos was born sometime on the other side of side of anything. Early in her career she occasionally the turn of the century . (There is some discrepancy tried her hand at those theatrical penny-dreadfuls when it comes to pinpointing a date.) Her father into which Griffith could breathe life; but , in her was a California newspaper man , with a reputation scripts, what beg ins by suggesting melodrama, both as a wit and a strong attraction to the theater. He in outl ine and title , often ends as tongue-in-cheek combined profession and advocation by publishing burlesque. That idyllic, pastoral world Griffith paints a dramatic newspaper which served theaters along in films such as TRUE-HEART SUSIE becomes in Miss the Barbary Coast (an area that spawned most of Loos' hands \" Hicksville\" (a mythical town which the raciest American slang). According to Miss Loos, recurs in the titles of several of her 1913-4 films) . her father's newspaper was more notable for its Many of Griffith 's films, even at the time of their girlie pictures and humor than for its contribution creation, must have seemed a backward glance at to the growth of American drama. a life fast fading , whereas Miss Loos' little stories prick the pulse of the times. Those of her early films When money ran short, Loos pere decided that Anita available for viewing show a keen eye for all con- and her sister should earn their keep by becoming temporary pretensions, foibles and fads. If they were child actresses. At a tender age, Miss Loos was not Mr. Griffith's cup of tea, they seemed exactly treading the boards in melodramas such as East what was needed for the studios' two-reel comedy Lynne-the kind of drama which she would often stars. guy in her early scenarios for the Biograph and Mutual companies. Her most significant appearance At the time (c. 1914) Miss Loos became a permanent on the stage was as one of Nora Helmer 's children Hollywood fixture as a staff-writer, the industry's in the first American production of A Dol/'s House. leading scenarists were, by large majority, women. Though probably too young to hear clearly Ibsen 's Perhaps there is a good sociological reason for this ; clarion call to female emanCipation , Miss Loos was perhaps it was because women were more attuned in the course of her later life to adhere to its doctrine. than men to turning out the kitsch melodramas and Doll-size she might be and remain throughout her hot-house romances that dominated the run-of-the life, but she was never to trade on her diminutive mill Hollywood product of the period. Whatever the feminity. From her early teens, she seemed intent reason , it was a phenomenon that remained con- on her career, not domesticity. Judging her gifts stant until the mid-1920's. This was the hey-day of as an actress with cool objectivity , she decided that the lady writer, the girls with those crazy names that her career lay elsewhere than on the stage and , evoke a incongruous image of a beplumed toque following in the path of her father , she began to above an archaic typewriter: Clara Beranger, Agnes write articles for local newspapers. Christine Johnston, Frances Marion (who wrote the best of the Mary Pickford films and later was a Her father's love of drama was also inherited . specialist for Marie Dressler), Olga Printzlau , Jose- Watching the short films that were then used to phine Lovett, June Mathis (remembered mainly and empty the auditorium after a theatrical performance, unfairly as the woman who cut GREED to shreds), she felt that she could do as well. According to her Ouida Bergere, Grace Unsell, Jane Murfin , Beulah autobiography, A Girl Like I, Miss Loos sent her first Marie Dix , Jeanie MacPherson (C. B. De Mille's scenario , THE NEW YORK HAT, to the Biograph Com- favorite scenarist), Bess Meredyth , Lenore J. Coffee. pany since she foul\"ld their screen dramas the most It was a woman 's world , and Anita led the pack, consistently intelligent of those she had seen . Ac- vying with the stars for space in the fan magazines cording to the records Miss Loos kept of her early even though , for a while, many of her scripts ended movie sales, this is not quite the truth. Although THE up filed rather than filmed. NEW YORK HAT was the first of her scenarios to be filmed , it is not the first sale she made. On March Paul Grant in an article, John, Anita and the Giftie, 3, 1912 the Lubin Company bought THE EARL AND written for Photoplay in 1918, explains why this was THE TOMBOY, but it appears that this was never so. Directors were disappointed in Miss Loos' scripts filmed . A month later (April 11 , 1912), Biograph because they rarely turned out as amusing on bought Miss Loos' THE ROAD TO PLAINDALE which screen as they promised on paper. The problem was was not filmed until 1914. THE NEW YORK HAT was that much of her humor was contained in the turn Miss Loos ' third sale, a check for $25.00 arriving of a phrase, a witty description , even a wise-cracking at her San Diego address on October 1, 1912. line or so of dialogue, all lost on the silent screen Miss Loos' tampering with the facts is understand- able since THE NEW YORK HAT, of all her early films , FILM COMMENT 51

which still used the subtitle only as a terse guide And , voila!, the script was aborning . Even granting to audience comprehension of character, locale or that th is account is probably only an anecdotal plot. precis of what really took place, it does suggest the informality that characterized film writing in those It was not until D. W. Griffith turned over Douglas days. Fairbanks to one of Triangle's secondary directors, John Emerson , that Anita 's scripts found a sympa- The series of articles also shows that the authors thetic interpretor. Looking through Triangle's files (and perhaps screenwriters in general) were begin- for possible material , Emerson came upon some ning to take themselves with distressing serious- discarded scripts by Miss Loos, liked them , and ness. With Aristotelian solemnity, the authors ca- asked her to fashion one for Fairbanks. Contrary tegorize screen drama, finding that it falls into either to her previous experience, Loos was encouraged of two broad categories . The first is the drama of by Emerson to write an unusual amount of dialogue pure plot ; the second and more sophisticated is the and to invent all the gags she could think of, whether drama in which plot evolves from a chosen theme , or not they could be conveyed visually. When Griffith such as \" New Thought \" (another name for saw the finished film , HIS PICTURE IN THE PAPERS , Coueism) which gave rise to the vaudevillian action he was not impressed . Emerson had printed all the of REACHING FOR THE MOON . gags as inter-titles. Griffith found the titles amusing , but evidently thought that if the audience wanted Even more fatuous pontificating follows . Emerson to read , they would stay at home with a book. The and Loos write: \"The subtitle has stolen the last film was shelved and only a booking crisis forced things the stage held back. We believe that the Triangle into releasing it. A sensational hit, it es- recognition of the great importance and value of tablished Fairbanks as a film star and the printed subtitles has provided an endless fund of material title as a part of film grammar. for writers of the motion picture . .. it has made it possible for authors who pride themselves on literary The success of HIS PICTURE IN THE PAPERS also niceties to find a fitting medium for expression in guaranteed the continued collaboration of the the motion picture.\" Emerson-Loos-Fairban ks team . During the next year (1916-1917), Fairbanks wou ld use other directors Within the year, Loos and Emerson were to find and , on occasion , other writers (though Loos would \" those literary niceties\" leading them astray. A often supply titles for films even if she had not warning had been sounded as early as 1916 when provided their original scripts). The biggest suc- the Motion Picture News wrote of AMERICAN ARIS- cesses, however, came when the three were to- TOCRAC Y: \" In the matter of construction it is not up gether again . to the standard of his [Fairbanks'] earlier films. It starts off with such a bang and with such a rattling ·Most of the films were in the same vein as HIS PIC- selection of uproarious subtitles that it cannot keep up the pace and as a consequence the action slows TURE IN THE PAPERS. They featured Loos' wisecrack- up for a while during the middle of the picture.\" ing titles, and the plots combined Fairbanks' all- This critic just missed pinpointing the trouble: Miss Loos was perhaps paying too much attention to the American athletics with some pungent ribbing of titles and not enough to dramatic construction that would be visually interesting. As long as Fairbanks current fads . Though it was not meant kindly, a was present to galvanize the story with his athletic fandangos, the problem remained dormant. At the comment made by one critic describes the films end of 1917, Loos and Emerson decided to call it aptly: \" a St. Vitus dance set to ragtime .\" Fairbanks ' a day with Fairbanks. The actor had contracted Allan Dwan as his new director, and was beginning to exuberance can be quite resistible, smacking at edge towards those swashbuckling boy's-adven- tures that were to dominate his later career. Loos times too strongly of locker-room showing-off. Miss and Emerson signed with Paramount, which guaranteed them their own production unit. The Loos ' major success in these films was in providing films they produced under this contract (COME ON IN; GOODBYE BILL; OH , YOU WOMEN!) were, as Miss a comic perspective in which Fairbanks ' gymnastics Loos readily adm its in her biography , little more than a series of illustrations for the printed titles. All were became engaging . At the same time that she appre- failures at the box office. ciated and gave full range to his physical prowess, Miss Loos and Emerson were married in 1919. Since such a large part of Miss Loos' career was spent she also saw the absurdity of fanatical physical in collaboration with Emerson , a word or two about him is in order . He was born in 1875, had first studied fitness , and used this awareness as the point of view for the Episcopalian ministry , but later entered the theatre in 1904; that same year he became both of her humor. In REACHING FOR THE MOON (1917) , leading man and stage manager for Minnie Maddern Fiske. Soon he was one of the leading matinee idols she kids Coueism, that form of late-teens-early- of the New York stage. D. W. Griffith lured him to Hollywood in 1914; soon after, he directed OLD HEI- twenties optimism which proferred autosuggestion DELBERG with Dorothy Gish . as a means to attaining its slogan , \" Every day in In her autobiography , Miss Loos describes her at- traction to Emerson as a May-December romance every way I am getting better and better.\" Her films between an unsophisticated girl and a man of the world . As described by Miss Loos, the marriage had cast Fairbanks as a symbol of this typically American absorption in self-improvement and , ever so gently, sent it up ever so nicely. Beginning in February 1918, Loos and Emerson wrote a series of articles for Photoplay concerning the art of screenplay writing . In one chapter they describe a story conference held on REACHING FOR THE MOON , which goes like this : Fairbanks: You know, folks, I have always wanted to play the type of young chap who has tremendous ambi- tions; who wants to go out and conquer the world overnight. Emerson : We ought to able to find a theme that will fit that character, but let's have one that we can satirize. Loos: I know! Poke fun at New Thought. That 's not been done yet. 52 WINTER 1970-71

striking resemblance to that of the docile Colette 1916 film which Loos and Emerson had written for and the credit-grubbing Willy, and their life together Fairbanks and which had featured Constance as the was life at the top , a less gin-soaked , less destructive feminine lead. Remembering this modest success, version of Scott and Zelda: they met everyone-the Schenck asked the Emersons to fashion another famous, the infamous, and the forgotten was- film for Constance . They did so, with such phenom- somebody-as they moved through the European enal success that, between 1919 and 1925, they and American places-to-be. were to write a total of 12 films for the actress. One of the reasons the Emersons gave for their Miss Loos seems to work best when she has aspecific break with Fairbanks was their desire to escape the personality with which to trigger her imagination. intellectual doldrums of Hollywood. They had decid- According to Miss Loos , Constance was an uncon- ed to live and work from New York . Their life became scious heartbreaker, an unwitting femme fatale , one centered around the East Coast and in the mid-20 's of the earliest of the flappers . According to Irving they began to intersperse their film work with writing Berlin, one of her suitors, Miss Talmadge was a for the stage. In collaboration , they wrote The Whole \"Virtuous Vamp \" (an epithet Miss Loos borrowed Town 's Talking (1923) ; The Fall of Eve (1925); an for the title of one of the films she wrote for the adaptation of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1926); actress). Miss Talmadge was also a gifted comedi- Cherries Are Ripe (1930) ; and The Social Register enne, and combining the lady's off-screen person- (1931) . The plays were middling 'successes or less, ality with her thespian skills, Miss Loos wrote a series and they show a surprising continuity with the au- of comic portraits of the modern woman , a girl thors' screen work: they are nothing more than small getting into all kinds of scrapes because she is not amusing plots evolved from a theme satirizing some willing to accept the her elders' notion of a woman's contemporary more . It was not until the early 1930's place. Probably, there is some of Miss Loos ' own that the Emersons returned to Hollywood with any personality present in the characters she wrote for permanency . First they worked as collaborative Constance , just as the wise-cracking, down-to-earth writers, but eventually Emerson began to concen- Dorothy in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES is both a trate on producing . Always plagued by bad health , self-portrait and a sketch of Peg Talmadge, the he entered a California sanatorium in 1937. He was mother of Norma, Constance and Natalie. to remain there, except for occasional visits to New York, until his death in March 1956. In 1921 , the Emersons wrote a book entitled Break- ing into the Movies, which is a very strange docu- The Emerson marriage took place on the estate of ment, covering topics such as on-set etiquette and Norma Talmadge and , as a wedding present, the tips on how to apply black-face make-up . In the light Talmadge family offered the authors the chance at of today's industry, the book seems irresponsibly new critical and popular success. Joseph Schenck, cheerful and vague about the topic it purports to Norma's husband , was managing the careers of his discuss, though perhaps this defect is merely the vastly successful wife and her less popular sister true reflection of an industry more cordial to would- Constance, who had been unable to recapture her be personnel. Be that as it may, Breaking into the initial success in INTOLERANCE . In the interim, one Movies is useful to the film historian because it does of her better films had been THE MATRIMANIAC, a give some indication of contemporary film salaries. GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES . Ruth Taylor and Mack Swain . FILM COMMENT 53

We are told that the star actor made frqm $1,000 version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949); the to $10 ,000 a week (only three people in the top bracket); a leading actor made $400-500 a week; book for an early 1950's musical , The Amazing smaller parts earned $50-200 weekly; bits got $10 a day; and extras, $5. Directors earned from $500- Adele, which did not reach Broadway; two adapta- $10,000 weekly , with the average at $500-$1,000. The writer of an original script could expect $1 ,000 tions of Colette Novels, Gigi (1952) and Cheri (1957); to $20,000 while adaptators or continuity writers seldom earned less than $20,000 a year. One imag- and The King 's Mare (1968), a play produced in ines that Miss Loos-who was paid $25-$35 for her first scripts for Biograph and earned $500 for her London but not as yet in New York. Her novels first feature length script, PENNINGTON'S CHOICE-was in the highest bracket of writers salaries by 1922. include A Mouse is Born (1951) and No Mother to From the mid- to the late-20's, Miss Loos film writing Guide Her (1961). 1111111 1 was sporadic. In 1925, she gained lasting fame as the author of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a book ANITA LOOS whose popularity was so great that it was virtually 1912 to eclipse her career as a screen-writer for later THE NEW YORK HAT Directed by D. W. Griffith . With generations. As everyone must know, Gentlemen Mary Pickford Prefer Blondes concerns the piscaresque adven- 1913 tures of Lorelei Lee, the archetypal dumb blonde with a cash register for a heart and a tongue as THE POWER OF THE CAMERA, A HORSE ON BILL, A HICKS- epigrammatically agile as Rochefucauld's. Like most of Miss Loos ' work , the novel is haphazardly con- VILLE EPICURE, HIGHBROW LOVE, UNLUCKY JIM, A structed and cast with caricature more than with character . But it captures a time ; it is brittle and HICKSVILLE ROMANCE, A FALLEN HERO, A CURE FOR witty and, at times, unexpectedly astute. Most of all , it is blessed with that crystal clear and balanced SUFFRAGETTES, THE PATH .OF TRUE LOVE, THE SUICIDE logic that characterizes the best comic writing . PACT, BINK RUNS AWAY, HOW THE DAY WAS SAVED, THE Little that Miss Loos wrote during the rest of the silent era was of any importance. She entered the WEDDING GOWN, YIDDISH LOVE, HIS AWFUL VENGEANCE, sound era with the loud thud of D. W. Griffith's disastrous THE STRUGGLE (1931) . This thesis-type PA SAYS, THE WIDOW'S KID, HIS HOODOO, THE LADY drama concerning alcoholism could not be further from Miss Loos' temperament, and one wonders why IN BLACK. she accepted the assignment, and why Griffith should have asked her to do so. Even with the initial 1914 mismatch taken into account, the resulting screen- play is a great deal less than what one might have FALSE COLORS, BILLY'S RIVAL, WHEN THE ROADS PART, feared . A BUNCH OF FLOWERS, GENTLEMAN OR THIEF, THE ROAD Nor, really , is the record of her subsequent film career so very impressive. Under contract to MGM , TO PLAINDALE, THE WALL FLOWER, WHEN A WOMAN she was often employed as the cinematic equivalent of the theatrical play doctor. She worked with scripts GUIDES, FALL OF HICKSVILLE'S FINEST, FOR HER FA- that other writers had cursed with problems. Here and there are fleeting lines and amusing scenes that THERS SIN With Blanche Sweet. ALL FOR MABEL, THE show Miss Loos' comic deftness, but they are, on the whole, too few to justify many of the films which FATAL DRESS SUIT, THE MEAL TICKET, THE SAVING they enliven. The best of these scripts are those she fashioned for Jean Harlow (particularly RED- PRESENCE, A CORNER IN HATS, ONLY A BURGLAR'S HEADED WOMAN) . Miss Harlow's personality, like those of Fairbanks and Talmadge, struck a respon- BRIDGE With Fay Tincher. IZZY AND HIS RIVAL, THE dant chord in Miss Loos' imagination . Her wise- cracking dialogue was enhanced by Harlow's bril- MILLION DOLLAR BRIDE, THE SUFFERING OF SUSAN, A liantly natural timing and gold-digger glamour. On the whole, however, Miss Loos' most personal script FLURRY IN ART. in this period was SAN FRANCISCO , a subject which invited her reminiscences about the Barbara Coast 1915 which she had experienced and learned about in her girlhood. SYMPATHY SAL, THE COST OF A BARGAIN, NELLY, THE Much of Miss Loos' allegiance to MGM was due FEMALE VILLAIN. With Fay Tincher. MIXED VALUES. to her admiration for Irving Thalberg. When he died, With Fay Tincher. PENNINGTON'S CHOICE. Directed she became increasingly disenchanted with the in- by O . A. C. Lund. Script by Loos , from a story by dustry. A few years later (1942) , fed up with the J . A. Culley. With Francis X. Bushman and Beverly inferior scripts upon which she was expected to Bayne . work miracles, she left Hollywood and returned to 1916 New York. Since then she has concentrated on MACBETH Directed by John Emerson. Titles arranged other forms of writing . For the stage she has written by Loos. With Sir Herbert Beerbohm-Tree. A CORNER Happy Birthday (1946); the book for the musical IN COTTON Directed by F. J. Balshofer. Script by Loos. With Marguerite Snow. WILD GIRL OF THE SIER- RAS Directed by Paul Powell. Script by Loos and F. M. Pierson. With Mae Marsh and Robert Harron . CALICO VAMPIRE With Fay Tincher . LAUNDRY LIZ With Fay Tincher. FRENCH MILLINER With Fay Tincher. THE WHARF RAT Directed by Chester Withey . Script by Loos. With Mae Marsh and Robert Harron . STRANDED Directed by Lloyd Ingraham . Script by Laos. With De Wolf Hopper. THE SOCIAL SECRETARY Directed by John Emerson. Script by Emerson and Loos. With Norma Talmadge and Erich von Stroheim . HIS PIC- TURE IN THE PAPERS Directed by John Emerson . Script by Laos. With Douglas Fairbanks. THE HALF- BREED Directed by Allan Dwan . Script by Loos from Bret Harte's story, In the Carquinez Woods. With Douglas Fairbanks. AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY Directed by Lloyd Ingraham . Script by Laos. With Douglas Fairbanks. MANHATTEN MADNESS, THE MATRIMANIAC Directed by Paul Powell. Script by Loos and John Emerson , from a story by Octavus Roy Cohen and J. V. Glesy. With Douglas Fairbanks and Constance Talmadge . INTOLERANCE Directed by D. W . Griffith . Titles by Loos. 1917 THE AMERICANO Directed by John Emerson. Script by Loos. With Douglas Fairbanks. IN AGAIN, OUT AGAIN Directed by John Emerson . Script by Loos 54 WINTER 1970-71

and Emerson . With Douglas Fairbanks. WILD AND 1928 WOOLY Directed by John Emerson . Script by Loos. GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES Directed by Malcolm St. With Douglas Fairbanks . REACHING FOR THE MOON Clair. Script by Loos and Emerson , from Loos' novel. Directed by John Emerson . Script by Emerson and Loos. With Douglas Fairbanks. With Ruth Taylor. 1918 1931 LET'S GET A DIVORCE Directed by Charles Giblyn. THE STRUGGLE Directed by D. W. Griffith . Script by Script by Loos and Emerson , from Victorien Sar- Loos and Emerson . Dialogue by Loos, Emerson and dou 's play Oivorco,/s. With Billie Burke. HIT-THE- Griffith . With Hal Skelly. EX-BAD BOY Directed by Vin TRAIL HOLIDAY Directed by Marshall Neilan . Script Moore. Script by Dale Van Every, from the play The by Loos and Emerson , from the play by George M. Whole Town 's Talking by Loos and Emerson . With Cohan . With George M. Cohan . COME ON IN Directed Robert Armstrong and Jean Arthur. by John Emerson. Script by Emerson and Loos. With 1932 Shirley Mason and Ernest Truex. GOODBYE BILL RED-HEADED WOMAN Directed by Jack Conway. Script Directed by John Emerson. Script by Emerson and by Loos, from Katharine Brush 'S novel , with Jean Loos. With Shirley Mason and Ernest Truex. Harlow, Chester Morris. 1933 1919 HOLD YOUR MAN Directed by Sam Wood , Story by UNDER THE TOP Directed by Donald Crisp. Story by Loos, script by Loos and Howard Emmett Rogers. With Jean Harlow, Clark Gable. MIDNIGHT MARY Emerson and Loos, script by Gardner Hunting . With Directed by William Wellman . Story by Loos, script Fred Stone. OH, YOU WOMEN! Directed by John by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola. With Loretta Emerson . Script and story by Emerson and Loos. Young, Ricardo Cortez. THE BARBARIAN Directed by With Ernest Truex and Louise Huff. GETTING MARY Sam Wood . Story by Edgar Selwyn , script by Loos MARRIED Directed by Allan Dwan. Script by Emerson and Elmer Harris. With Ramon Novarro, Myrna Loy. and Loos. With Marion Davies. A TEMPERAMENTAL WIFE Directed by John Emerson . Script by Emerson 1934 and Loos. With Constance Talmadge. THE ISLES OF SOCIAL REGISTER Directed by Marshall Neilan. Script CONQUEST Directed by Edward Jose. Script by by Clara Beranger, James Ashmore Creelman and Emerson and Loos, from a novel By Right of Con- Grace Perkins, from the play by Emerson and Loos. quest by Arthur Hornblow. With Norma Talmadge. With Colleen Moore. THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI Directed A VIRTUOUS VAMP Directed by David Kirkland. Script by Jack Conway. Script by Emerson and Loos. With by Emerson and Loos , from the play The Bachelor Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone. BIOGRAPHY OF A BACH- by Clyde Fitch . With Constance Talmadge. ELOR GIRL Directed by Edward H. Griffith . Script by Loos and Horace Jackson . With Ann Hard ing . 1920 TWO WEEKS Directed by Sidney Franklin . Script by 1935 Emerson and Loos, from the play, At the Barn by RIFFRAFF Directed by J. Walter Rubin . Story by Anthony Wharton . With Constance Talmadge. IN Frances Marion . Script by Marion , Loos and H. W. SEARCH OF A SINNER Directed by David Kirkland . Hanneman. With Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. Script by Loos and Emerson . With Constance Tal- madge. THE LOVE EXPERT Directed by David Kirkland . 1936 Script by Emerson and Loos. With Constance Tal- SAN FRANCISCO Directed by W. S. Van Dyke. Story madge. THE PERFECT WOMAN Directed by David Kirk- by Robert Hopkins, script by Anita Loos. With Clark land . Script by Emerson and Loos. With Constance Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy. Talmadge. THE BRANDED WOMAN Directed by Albert Parker. Script by Emerson and Loos, from the play 1937 by Oliver D. Bai ley. With Norma Talmadge . MAMA STEPS OUT Directed by George B. Seitz. Script by Loos. With Guy Kibbee, Alice Brady. SARATOGA 1921 Directed by Jack Conway. Story and script by Loos DANGEROUS BUSINESS Directed by R. William Neill. and Robert Hopkins. With Jean Harlow and Clark Script by Loos and Emerson . With Constance Tal- Gable. madge. MAMA'S AFFAIR Directed by Victor Fleming . 1939 Script by Emerson and Loos, from the play by Ra- THE WOMEN Directed by George Cukor. Script by chel Barton Butler. With Constance Talmadge. A Loos and Jane Murfin, from the play by Clare Booth . WOMAN 'S PLACE Directed by Victor Fleming . Script With Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer. by Emerson and Loos. With Constance Talmadge. 1940 1922 SUSAN AND GOD Directed by George Cukor. Script RED HOT ROMANCE Directed by Victor Fleming. Script by Loos , from the play by Rachel Crothers. With by Emerson and Loos. With Basil Sydney and Mary Joan Crawford . Collins . POLLY OF THE FOLLIES Directed by Joseph 1941 Plunkett. Story and script by Loos and Emerson . With Constance Talmadge. THEY MET IN BOMBAY Directed by Clarence Brown. 1923 Script by Edwin Justus Mayer, Anita Loos and Leon DULCY Directed by Sidney Franklin . Script by Emer- Gordon . With Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell, Clark son and Loos, from a play by George S. Kaufman Gable. WHEN LADIES MEET Directed by Robert Z. and Marc Connelly. With Constance Talmadge. Leonard . Script by S. K. Lauren and Loos, from the 1924 play by Rachel Crothers. With Joan Crawford , Greer THREE MILES OUT Directed by Irvin Willat . Story by Garson . BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST Directed by Mervyn Nerysa McMein . Script by Emerson and Loos. With LeRoy. Story by Ralph Wheelwright, script by Loos. Madge Kennedy. With Greer Garson . 1925 LEARNING TO LOVE Directed by Sidney Franklin . Script 1942 by Loos and Emerson . With Constance Talmadge. I MARRIED AN ANGEL Directed by W. S. Van Dyke . Script by Loos, from the musical play by Vaszary Jones, Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers. With Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy. FILM COMMENT 55

Tha Paul Jensen is the author of The Cinema of Fritz earaarot Lang , published by A. S. Barnes. His study of Boris Karloff's career will appear in Karloff and Lugosi : Dudleu niChOlS Titans of Terror, to be published in 1971 by Athe- . neum. by Paul Jensen During the thirties and forties, Dudley Nichols was 56 WINTER 1970-71 one of the best known and most respected of scriptwriters, but with today 's passion for idolizing directors, he has been just as overlooked as his less prominent compatriots. Nevertheless, his films often are just as \" personal \" as those of many directors. A look at Nichols 's career reveals the problems and successes of a serious writer in Hollywood . It also reveals the danger that comes with being, self- consciously, a Serious Artist. Reviews of his major films were usually lavish with certain adjectives-like \" sincere,\" \" literate,\" \" responsible\" -which simply skirt the question of whether or not a picture is good . They apply more to the intent, to the Message, than to the effectiveness, depth , and subtlety of accom- plishment. Coming at a time when movies were notoriously confectionary, Nichols's limited strug- gles to impose substance on the anti-intellectual Hollywood product and to circumvent the more ob- vious absurdities of censorship do deserve admira- tion. In our own infinitely liberal climate , however, his small victories and larger capitulations (both conscious and not) seem examples of old-fashioned superficiality. And the fact that the motion picture Establishment virtually deified him warns that per- haps Nichols was less courageous than he, and everyone else , thought-his courage flowed in tradi- tional channels which left the powers-that-be feeling tolerably comfortable. While reviewing THE STORY OF G .I. JOE , Nichols praised William Wellman 's picture for using \" screen-film, and not the kind of stage-film we fre- quently are given because it is easier to write words than to imagine pure film . [Ernie] Pyle seldom speaks, and when he does speak words there is no eloquence. But in his silences , in his contained compassion , his profound sense of tragedy and waste , there is a continual eloquence that soars beyond the scope of words. \" Speaking from the point of view of a screenwriter, Nichols confessed : \" Words are a terrible temptation when we have not

got our hands actually in film . .. The writer's desk THE INFORMER . From left :J ose ph Sawers, Una O'Conn er, must be moved nearer the camera and the cutting Heather Angel , and Victor McLagl en. room .\" At around the same time , Nichols wrote an \" inter- view\" with a hypothetical film critic , and had this mouthpiece comment on the film medium . \" From the beginning people have confused it with the stage but in the early days there was less confusion be- cause film did not talk . . . The silent film attained a higher artistic development than sound film has approached because it was not confused with the stage ... \" Clearly Nichols did a great deal of thinking about the medium in which he worked , and certainly he tried very hard to meet his own standards . In 1943 he and Jean Renoir were given \" complete freedom to make a film , without any other impediment than our own shortcomings \"; yet the result, THIS LAND IS MINE, was an excessively wordy , preachy effort. Although Nichols had tried to avoid this fate , he admitted that the movie was characterized by \" a talkativeness that is contrary to my own instinctive sense of cinema. \" The irony is that Nichols was instinctively verbal , not visual , and so the sincerity of his attempt was diluted by his self-conscious literary backgrou nd and his less-conscious literary snobbery. Nichols ' unintended snobbery is revealed in his discussion of THIS LAND IS MINE . He knew that the kind of film he wanted to make would have to deal with ideas, and felt that this would be a problem \" because ideas need words for their expression and an excess of words is a stumbling-block to good cinema technique. Words are not entertaining to the mass, who need simpler imqges.\" Here Nichols condescended to the very technique he advocated. Apparently pictures must be employed for a mass product, but intelligent people still return to the Theatre (i .e. words) for fulfillment and satisfaction . This schism within Nichols, this loyalty divided be- tween word and image, found its way into his films , with his most \" admirable\" works often being the most \" theatrical. \" When Dudley Nichols gets right down to it, quality means Literature and the Theatre, for which his adaptations reveal a weighty, almost- incestuous respect. It is only when Nichols works FILM COMMENT 57

on less significant projects and adapts unimportant a raid on a birth control clinic . His coverage of the stories that he can rid himself of a tainted faithful- Hall- Mills trial was included years later in an anthol- ness. ogy called Star Reporters. These articles reveal Nichols to be greatly impressed by the drama of In general , the films Nichols made with John Ford courtroom confrontations, and many of his future are less talky than those for other directors. This scripts would include trial scenes. But this interest must be interpreted as a result of the director being undermined Nichols' determination to make his in control. The director says he had Will Rogers films visual because such sequences allow writers create his own dialogue from Nichols' script; he to indulge in speech-making and conclusion-draw- had Victor McLaglen and Preston Foster improvise ing . The big court scene in THIS LAND IS MINE is an their trial scene in THE INFORMER; and he viewed extreme example, with Albert (Charles Laughton) the script for THE FUGITIVE as just \" a workmanlike running on and on about dignity and freedom , stat- blueprint for action. \" Nichols himself has been ing things on the soundtrack that had never been quoted, by Fritz Lang , as saying: \" A script is only fully shown on the screen. a blueprint-the director is the one who makes the picture. \" But too often directors considered Ni- As if trials were not theatrical enough , Nichols also chols' scripts, especially when adapted from re- came in contact with the real thing, though not as spected sources, to be inviolable. Even Ford suc- a playwright. In 1928 he was a reporter for the New cumbed to this temptation when he and Nichols York World when that paper's critic, Alexander made a static version of Sean O 'Casey's The Plough Woollcott, was requested by the Theatre Guild not and the Stars. to review the premiere of Eugene O'Neill 's Strange Interlude, as Woollcott had already read the play Probably Nichols' most successful attempt to write and expressed disapproval of it. As a result, Nichols a cinematic script was THE INFORMER . Here he con- was assigned to review this important theatrical sciously attempted \" to make the psychological action event, and h is enthusiastic article is both perceptive photographic . .. I sought and found a series of about this particular play and aware of the writer's symbols to make visual the tragic psychology of the prior work . He said , \"it needs all the restraint a informer.\" In particular, the poster announcing a reporter can muster not to stamp the occasion with- reward for Frankie McPhillip turns up again and out a second thought the most important event in again, as it hounds Gypo with a will of its own . First, the present era of the American theatre. \" it suggests the dastardly act; afterward, it haunts him like a conscience. The fog is \" symbolic of the But Nichols did not just hand out superlatives; he groping primitive mind\"; a stick used to push the tried to get at the nature of the play. \" O'Neill 's title reward money to Gypo is \"symbolic of contempt \"; is vague enough for him to imply all life within its the blind man is \" a symbol of the brute conscience .\" scope. In the eighth act he has his woman saying And so forth , in a screenplay that admirably attempts in one of her moments of profound and devious to visualize states of mind , b'ut that does so in an intuition , 'The present is a strange interlude in which excessively objective, calculating way. Never do any we call upon the past and future to bear witness of these constructed \" symbols\" seem as integral , that we are still living .' Hence his play grasps at or arouse as much emotion, as a true symbol like that ' present,' the traveling moment which is all of the flower in Jean Renoir's LA GRANDE ILLUSION . life. O 'Neill pursues a life, a complete life, and in doing so he fishes out of the void not a life but It is difficult to find other instances of Nichols em- life itself.\" ploying this technique. None of his films are as full of it as THE INFORMER , and even isolated examples It is significant that Nichols the reporter had enough are rare . SCARLET STREET is probably the next best knowledge and interest to handle this task , and it illustration , for here Christopher Cross is haunted , is not surprising that after becoming a screenwriter at the conclusion , by the voice of the girl he has himself he retained a sometimes excessive fondness murdered, by the portrait he painted of her, and for the theatre in general, and O'Neill in particular. by the ironic playing of Jingle Bells when he is down His film work includes adaptations of Maxwell An- and out. No doubt this approach found a sympa- derson 's Mary of Scot/and, Sean O 'Casey 's The thetic director in Fritz Lang , who had used a similar Plough and the Stars, and O'Neill's Mourning Be- situation at the end of FURY. Another example, ad- comes Electra and The Long Voyage Home. These mittedly a minor one , can be found in STAGECOACH. films had so much respect for the originals that study It is established that Buck, the driver, tosses pebbles guides were written for them and distributed to at the team to urge them forward , so when Buck schools. MOURNING , which Nichols wrote , produced , suggests that the coach turn back, the sheriff sitting and directed, was attempted only after consulting next to him doesn't say a word . \" He merely picks the oracle, O'Neill himself. Nichols simply reduced a stone out of Buck's pocket and hurls it at a horse. the running time, while keeping the original dialogue Buck has to hang on to the reins with the added and adding just a few previously offstage scenes. speed .\" The result was a film with a minimum of action and a maximum of talk, which the heavy, brooding visual Nichols' background was that of a reporter, not a style of director Nichols did nothing to enliven. creative artist, yet it gave him considerable experi- ence in using words and a healthy confidence in All of this contradicts an opinion stated by Nichols what he could do with them. His fairly rapid rise a few years earlier: \"Stage dialogue, no matter how as a journalist seemed to confirm this success . In wonderful in quality, cannot be directly shifted to addition , his job brought him in contact with two the screen ; it must be condensed , synopsized . The major forms of theatre: the Broadway stage, and reason is obvious ; on the stage the actor depends criminal trials . In 1929 he discussed three court for projection upon the word ; on the screen he relies cases in The Nation : one concerned witchcraft and upon visual projection .\" Interestingly, the most suc- murder in Pennsylvania , one involved sending a sex cessful of Nichols' stage adaptations was THE LONG pamphlet through the mails, and the last was about VOYAGE HOME , which was constructed of four sepa- 58 WINTER 1970-71

rate one-act plays , so the necessity of integrating THIS LAND IS MINE. Charles Laughton (drinking coffee) them together kept the adaptor from being slavishly and Maureen O'Hara. fa ith fu I. THE FUGITIVE. Henry Fonda under guard. Nichols dutifully scripted famous novels as well as important plays. Censorship problems occasionally forced him to tamper with the originals , so the can- dor of Hemingway and Graham Greene had to go , but otherwise Nichols stuck closely to the te xts . In the case of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS , this resulted in a nearly three-hour movie with so much talk that audiences were relieved at the final melodramatic action . John Ford , on the other hand, pared down the dialogue in THE FUGITIVE (based on Greene 's The Power and the Glory) and instead emphasized dra- matic photography. These books were Literature, and thus untouchable by the writer, but apparently Nichols didn 't feel that way about every novel he adapted. He was perfectly willing to select a new_ murderer for Agatha Christie 's An.d Then There Were None, or to change the natu re of almost every per- son in Liam O ' Flaherty 's The Informer, or to add an entirely new, major character to Geoffrey House- hold 's Rogue Male (filmed as MAN HUNT) . Nichols' peripheral contact with the theatre con- tinued after he became established in Hollywood . He generally spent his vacations on the East Coast , where intellectuals were in ferment , and even main- tained a home in Connecticut. In 1936 he co- authored with Stuart Anthony his first and only Broadway play , titled Come Angel Band. It was clearly a case of two movie writers making a pilgrim- age to the fount of all merit, for which they had saved up all the plot elements forbidden by cinema censors . Come Angel Band was a Tobacco Road- type of tragic melodrama filled with Southern sex and degeneracy. It opens beside a grave and ends near a gallows, with the inevitable Nichols trial scene in the middle. The New York critics justifiably found it heavy-handed and pretentious. Even the New York Sun's critic , one of the few satisfied with the plot, felt that it was written \" with a naive savoring of its anguish , missing no opportunity to sob and few to bring in the literary note. Not knowing the tricks of their trade any too well , they are forced to make up in repetition what they lack in complication . This gives a generally cluttered effect, and one is seldom impelled to share the feelings of the suffering char- acters.\" The production lasted for two perform- ances. In 1941 , Nichols left scriptwriting to freelance, and his first project was the revision of a script planned for production by the Theatre Guild . The play, Somewhere in France by Carl Zuckmayer and Fritz Kortner, was postponed several times by the Guild , and finally cancelled . Its story, about France during the Nazi occupation , probably provided Nichols with the basic idea of THIS LAND IS MINE , just as Come Angel Band's poor Southerner fleeing the law into a swamp later turned up in SWAMP WATER . But if Nichols the playwright was accused of not knowing theatrical technique, his film scripts often reveal just the opposite. Again and again he resorted to the traditional GRAND HOTEL format of isolating a group ·of characters and then observing their in - teraction . Several directors including Ford and Hawks have been c redited with having as a theme \"a small group of people thrust by chance into dramatic or tragic circumstances ,\" (Jean Mitry on Ford) but it is never mentioned that Nichols wrote FILM COMMENT 59

this sort of script for several different filmmakers . ence ... At any emotional crisis in a film , when a Surely he deserves some of the credit, even though character is saying something which profoundly there is no real development in his approach over affects another , it is to this second character that time and the various directors give different over- the camera instinctively roves , perhaps in close-up ; tones to the stories. and it is then that the hearts of the audience quiver Nichols ' first script, and his first for Ford , was MEN and open in release , or rock with laughter or shrink WITHOUT WOMEN , and this story established the basic with pain , leap to the screen and back again in dramatic situation , with fourteen men trapped in a swift-growing vibrations. The great actors of the submarine waiting for rescue. This was followed by stage are actors; of the screen , re-actors .\" numerous geographic and psychological variations. In THE LOST PATROL a platoon of British soldiers is But this gets complic ated , and distinctions blur, lost in the Mesopotamian Desert, and one by one when th e fo rm a reacti o n takes is action ; Nichols the men are picked off by an unseen enemy ; AND himself mention s this , calling it \" a reaction extended THEN THERE WERE NONE features ten people , staying into action , so to speak \" A look at his films reveals at a house on an island, who one by one become that Nichols often took his own advice (or perhaps the victims of an unknown murderer. STAGECOACH he conceived the advice after looking at his own puts the group on wheels and confronts it with films) . Indians rather than Arabs , just as HELLER IN PINK TIGHTS replaces the stagecoach with a wagonload The circumscribed situations cited above illustrate of actors crossing the plains and menaced by Indi- this rule ; for example , each character in the stage- ans . The all-male soldiers in THE LOST PATROL are coach reacts to the others and thereby reveals fac- set afloat in THE LONG VOYAGE HOME and sent aloft ets of himself. But many of Nichols's other, non- in AIR FORCE . RAWHIDE is simply THE DESPERATE Hotel films also apply. Perhaps the clearest instance HOURS transported to a stagecoach way station . of a character being acted upon by others is that of a hunted fugitive, and Nichols' cinematic cup Even when he did not contrive to isolate his charac- overflows with such tiddles . Some are just criminals ters completely, Nichols wrote scripts (excluding on the run , others are haunted by their own guilt those on which he worked as one of a team , at- or weakness, often the physical and psychological tempting to save or polish someone else 's work) flights are combined. that are almost invariably limited to a small group of people in a circumscribed environment. These The priest in THE FUGITIVE is trying to escape both include Gypo Nolan and his acquaintances during the soldiers and his own flaws . The innocent native one evening in THE INFORMER ; the guerrilla band in in THE HURRICANE keeps breaking out of prison. the mountains of Spain in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS ; Captain Thorndike in MAN HUNT is pursued by un- the Mammon family and mansion in MOURNING BE- dercover Nazis , as is the cynical writer in RUN FOR COMES ELECTRA ; and the pioneers going West in THE THE SUN , and both films finally trap their heroes (in BIG SKY. a cave and a cabin , respectively) , who rig up an ingenious method of killing the opponent (with a It is revealing to contrast the films handled by one slingshot and a combination of bullet and rock, director with those guided by another, since they r e s p e c t i v e l y ). often started with similar basic material. The John Ford pictures tend to be less talky and more senti- In THE TIN STAR , a cynical ex -sheriff tries to escape mental, and despite Ford 's stated preference, they his sense of duty, but rediscovers it by helping a have less humor and are more pretentiously \" trag- young sheriff; conversely , the cynical marshall in ic. \" Howard Hawks, on the other hand, consciously THE HANGMAN stops running from himself by dis- avoids sentimentality and injects humor into serious carding his badge and starting a new life. Gypo scenes (like the amputation of Kirk Douglas 's finger Nolan in THE INFORMER betrays a friend , and from in THE BIG SKY). A situation that usually produces then on is haunted by his own private furies (as conflict between the characters is reversed in well as by the Army). Christopher Cross in SCARLET Hawks's work (especially AIR FORCE) , and emphasis STREET commits murder and , while not caught by is placed on the unity that develops among the the police , is destroyed by his furies too (as is the individuals. Rene Clair provides still a third ap- Orin-Orestes character in O' Neill 's Mourning Be- proach , with his orientation toward light humor even comes Electra). The difference in the final effect of in a murder mystery. these two films may be attributed to the directors: John Ford lets Gypo Nolan be forgiven by Frankie Except for those that originally were plays, most of McPhillipp's mother and die relieved, while the more these films-despite their circumscribed, four-wall pessimistic Fritz Lang has SCARLET STREET end with nature-seldom seem filmically static because , as in Cross unforgiven and still tormented . STAGECOACH , the conte xt lends itself more to the wide visual range of film than to the narrow one Other characters who are acted upon , rather than of the stage. Yet the lessons Nichols learned from who act, include Mary of Scotland (by Queen Eliza- the Theatre are evident. beth , for example) and Sister Kenny (by the medical establishment). In fact , there are so many running Aside from this GRAND HOTEL formula for dramatic and reacting characters in these films that Dudley construction , of which he was apparently unaware, Nichols ' creations might be classified , somewhat Dudley Nichols had one other \" commandment\" for cavalierly , as fugitive works. screenwriters. \" Unthin king people,\" he said , \" speak of the motion picture as the medium of 'action '; the Besides causing Nichols to write physically circum- truth is that the stage is the medium of action while scribed scripts and to conceive the doctrine of reac- the screen is the medium of reaction . It is through tion , the theatre also inspired him to be Seri ous and , identification with the person acted upon on the if pOSSible , to write a Tragedy . The results here are screen , and not with the person acting, that the film less successful than his straightforward melodra- builds up its OSCillating power with an audi- mas , because Nichols compromises h is aims and comes up with a formula for what might be called \" sentimental tragedy.\" 60 WINTER 1970-71

Nichols tried to be realistic, but usually betrayed Mercy and pity and peace are upon him at last. He himself. It seems certain that he was not aware of turn s towards the front of the church and cries out this problem-he was just incapable of the necessary in a lo ud vo ice of joy . ' Franki e ! Frankie! Yo ur mother hardness and objectivity . About THIS LAND IS MINE forgi ves me! ' \" he wrote , \" There was no villain in the drama . We had ruled him out at the onset , for there are no MAR Y OF SCOTLAND also uses this formula ; as Mary villains in life .. .\" But in the very next paragraph stands by the scaffold , she \" hears \" Scottish music . he added, \" A conflict of ideas had become a conflict Said Nichols, in his script: \" Clo se-Up Mary as she of human beings; it had become a simple drama lifts her head , listening. Then courage seems to of good and evil . .\" Despite his determination to flood into her heart as the pipes swell louder, and create subtle and complex characters, Nichols her heart lifts, and strength surges into her and a ended up simplifying everything into good and bad. great joy ... Mary's body straightens with joy and as the pipes grow louder until they fairly thunder Though he did inject his characters with some with joy and jubilation she goes on up the steps c onflicting urges and motives, Nichols never left any with the lightness of faith and a great happiness.\" doubt as to how we should feel about his people. He went so far as to illustrate the appeal that fascism At the end of THIS LAND IS MINE , Albert-the weak , could have for non-villainous men in THIS LAND IS mother-dominated school teacher played by Charles MINE , and in RUN FOR THE SUN the hero recounts Laughton-knows that the Nazis will be coming for Trevor Howard 's growing fondness for Nazism in him after his \" speech \" during the trial. In the last such a way that it almost arouses sympathy. But scene he returns to his classroom , and has some- the young man who in THIS LAND informs on a sabo- how metamorphized into a good and firm and re- teur because he \" understands \" the motives of the spected teacher. And he is able to face his fate occupation is made by Nichols to see the error of pleasantly. \" Albert comes striding in , really looking his ways , repent , and commit suicide. The Howard young-and incredibly happy ... As Albert smiles at character in SUN , on the other hand , is never but his class the two rowdies, Philip and Henry, stand for those few moments seen as anything more than up abruptly and the other boys look at them and an effective menace to chase the hero . So Nichols ' all spring to their feet , standing straight and stiff, intended subtleties and objective views are nothing showing even more respect for their schoolmaster more than contrivances, rounding out the straw men than the townspeople did. \" When Albert is taken who are still knocked down as bad guys . away, he leaves \" with a firm step.\" In the fifties , when Nichols was less significant , this Typically, Nichols is fond of including prostitutes in tendency toward simplification surfaced in his wil- his scripts, imagining himself to be courageously lingness and ability to write the comic strip, hero- defying the censors. He even included one in MAN villain adventures of Prince Valiant. Here , an older HUNT when there had been no such character in man (Sir Gawain) trains the youthful hero (Valiant) the novel. In 1939, he and John Ford had the follow- until he is able to challenge the villain (Sir Brack) , ing dialogue about STAGECOACH : defeat him , and win knighthood for himself. THE TIN STAR follows exactly the same pattern , with an Nichols : We ' re all set to revolutionize the industry ex-sheriff training a youth to face the town bully. again ... We 're particularly attached to this one (THE BIG SKY also has a relationship between an because it violates all the censorial canons . older and a younger man.) Even as far back as THE Ford : There 's not a single respectable character in INFORMER , though , Nichols had changed the con, the cast. The leading man has killed three guys. plex , not-very-nice characters in the novel until each Nichols: The leading woman is a prostitute. one had become quite charming. Ford : There 's a banker in it who robs his own bank . Nichols: And don 't forget the pregnant woman who This tendency can be traced back to Nichols ' trial faints. accounts in The Nation , which are hardly examples Ford : Or the fellow who gets violently ill. of unbiased reporting . The best example of over- Simplification is Nichols' description of the lawyers Yet almost all of the \" bad \" characters have hearts in the sex pamphlet case . \" And concentric within of gold , and this is especially true of the prostitute this ring of crowding faces stood the adversaries, Dallas. During the trip she delivers another passen- duelling with light and darkness, embodying and ger ' s baby , and as a result she \" seems dramatizing the antagonized forces at work in the transfigured .\" Nichols described her in the script: roomful of people . Morris L. Ernst , young , vital , clear \"The last trace of hardness has vanished from Dallas reasoning , asked dismissal of the indictment ... The as she holds the infant in her arms , and there is atmosphere of intellectual and dispassionate state- a glow of wonder in her face . She stands a moment ment which Mr. Ernst had generated by his argu- in the doorway, a smile in her eyes ... Her ex peri- ment was rapidly dispelled when the Assistant Unit- ence of the last few hours has deeply affected her, ed States Attorney , Mr. Wilkinson , charged into the taken all the defiance out of her face , and softened ring , lowering the horns of a dilemma.\" it into beauty .\" If she were to die at this point , she would be just as \" tragic \" as Gypo and Mary and As fo r his desire to ac hieve tragic grandeur, Nich o ls Albert. Katie in THE INFORMER and Jenny in MAN HUNT usuall y end ed up w ith a sent ime nt ally \" inspiring \" are essentially no different from Dallas. ending in w hi c h the ma in chara cter mana<J es in- stantaneousl y to c ome to te rms wi th hi s inevitable Looking back on Dudley Nichols' career, one can fate and so goes happil y to his death , as mu sic wells easily be glib about his weaknesses. Certainly he was up in the backg round . Gypo Nolan is th e best- k no w n more facile than tragic, more famous than important, and most praise d illustratio n, and this is how Ni- more traditional than innovative, more verbose than c hols ' script desc ribes the moment s right aft er th e perceptive. His comments about the film medium dying Gypo is forgi ven by his victim 's mo th er : \" Gy p o were rarely put into practice by Nichols or anyone shivers fr o m h ea d to fo ot. A great joy fill s his h ea rt . else , yet the comments themselves are well worth our attention . Perhaps they indicate that he was , in the back of his mind , to o self-conscious and FILM COMMENT 61

aware to be a superior creator, and that he should Dudley Nichols. From a story by James K. McGuin- really have been a critic. The following lines, written ness. With Jack Holt and Evelyn Knapp. near the end of his life , are as good a description 1933 of a filmwriter 's position as can be found . PILGRIMAGE Fox . Directed by John Ford . Screenplay \" It is the writer who is the dreamer, the imaginer, by Barry Connots and Philip Klein . Dialogue by the shapero He works in loneliness with nebulous materials, with nothing more tangible than paper Dudley Nichols. From the story Gold Star Mothers and a pot of ink ; and his theatre is within his mind . by I. A . R. Wylie . With Henrietta Grossman and He must generate phantoms out of himself and live Heather Angel. ROBBERS ROOST Fox . Directed by with them until they take on a life of their own and Lo.uis King . Screenplay by Dudley Nichols . From a become, not types, but characters working out their story by Zane Grey. With George O'Brien and own destinies . If the ultimate film is to have any Maureen O 'Sullivan . THE MAN WHO DARED Fox . significant content, throwing some new glint of light Directed by Hamilton MacFadden. Screenplay by on life, it is the writer who will have to create it. Dudley Nichols and Lamar Trotti. With Preston Fos- Yet it is the director who has always dominated the ter and Zita Johann . HOT PEPPER Fox . Directed by field and will no doubt continue to dominate it, for John Blystone. Screenplay by Barry Conners and various good reasons . It is the director who must Philip Klein . From a story by Dudley Nichols. With realize the imagined people on film, who must know Edmund Lowe and Lupe Velez. all the technological processes, and command the 1934 extravagantly costly tools of film art. Writing costs YOU CAN'T BUY EVERYTHING MGM . Directed by are negligible by comparison . The filmwriter can Charles F. Reisner. Screenplay by Zelda Sears and afford to bow to the director; and if it be one of Eve Green . From a story by Dudley Nichols and the world 's few great directors, he can do so with Lamar Trotti. With May Robson , Jean Parker, and pride and gratitude.\" Lewis Stone. HOLD THAT GIRL Fox . Directed by Ha- Having worked with John Ford, Howard Hawks, Jean milton MacFadden . Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Lamar Trotti. From a story by Dudley Nichols Renoir, Fritz Lang, and George Cukor, Dudley Ni- and Lamar Trotti. With James Dunn and Claire Tre- vor. THE LOST PATROL RKO. Directed by John Ford . chols is one of the few script writers who can say Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Garrett Fort. From the story Patrol by Philip MacDonald . With this from first-hand experience. 11111111 Victor McLaglen, Wallace Ford and Boris Karloff. WILD GOLD Fox. Directed by George Marshall. DUDLEY NICHOLS Screenplay by Lester Cole and H. Johnson. From (1895-1960) a story by Dudley Nichols and Lamar Trotti . With 1930 John Boles and Claire Trevor. CALL IT LUCK Fox . MEN WITHOUT WOMEN Fox. Directed by John Ford . Directed by James Tinling . Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Lamar Trotti. Adaptation by Joseph Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From the story Sub- Cunningham and Harry McCoy. From a story by marine by James K. McGuinness and Ford. With Nichols and George Marshall. With Herbert Mundin . Kenneth MacKenna and Frank Albertson . ON THE JUDGE PRIEST Fox·. Directed by John Ford . Screen- LEVEL Fox . Directed by Irving Cummings. Screenplay play by Dudley Nichols and Lamar Trotti. From by Dudley Nichols. Dialogue by Andrew Bennison stories by Irwin S. Cobb . With Will Rogers. and William K. Wells . From a story by Wells . With 1935 Victor McLaglen and William Harrigan . BORN RECK- MYSTERY WOMAN Fox . Directed by Eugene Forde. LESS Fox . Directed by John Ford . Screenplay by Screenplay by Philip MacDonald . From a story by Dudley Nichols. From the novel Louis Beretti by Dudley Nichols and E. E. Paramore, Jr. With Mona Donald Henderson Clarke. With Edmund Lowe and Barrie and Gilbert Roland. THE INFORMER RKO . Lee Tracy. ONE MAD KISS Fox. Directed by Marcel Directed by John Ford . Screenplay by Dudley Ni- Silver. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From a story chols . From the novel The Informer by Liam O' Fla- by Adolt Paul. With Don Jose Majica and Mona herty. With Victor McLaglen, Preston Foster, and Maris. A DEVIL WITH WOMEN Fox . Directed by Irving Wallace Ford . THE ARIZONIAN RKO . Directed by Cummings. Screenplay by Dudley Nicholsand Henry Charles Vidor. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From a story by Nichols. With Richard Dix and Margot M. Johnson. From Dust and Sun by Clement Ripley. Grahame. THE CRUSADES Paramount. Directed by With Victor McLaglen and Mona Maris. Cecil B. DeMille. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols , 1931 Harold Lamb, and Waldemar Young . With Loretta SEAS BENEATH Fox . Directed by John Ford. Screen- Young and Henry Wilcoxon . STEAMBOAT ROUND THE play by Dudley Nichols. From a story by James BEND Fox . Directed by John Ford . Screenplay by Parker, Jr. With George O'Brien and William Collier, Du.dley Nichols and Lamar Trotti. From a story by Sr. NOT EXACTLY GENTLEMEN Fox. Directed by Ben- Ben Lucien Berman. With Will Rogers. THE THREE jamin Stoloff. Screenplay by William Conselman , MUSKETEERS RKO . Directed by Rowland V. Lee. Dudley Nichols and Emmett Flynn. Dialogue by Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From the novel by Alexandre Dumas. With Walter Abel , Paul Lukas, Conselman and Nichols. From Over the Border by Herman Whitaker. With Victor McLaglen , Fay Wray and Ian Keith . and Lew Cody. HUSH MONEY Fox. Directed by Sidney 1936 Lanfield . Screenplay by Philip Klein and Courtenay MARY OF SCOTLAND RKO . Directed by John Ford . Terrett. Dialogue by Dudley Nichols. With Joan Ben- Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From the play by nett and Hardie Albright. SKYLINE Fox . Directed by Maxwell Anderson . With Katharine Hepburn and Sam Taylor. Screenplay by Kenyon Nicholson and Fredric March . THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS RKO. Dudley Nichols. Dialogue by Nicholson, Nichols and Directed by John Ford . Screenplay by Dudley Ni- William Anthony McGuire. With Thomas Meighan chols . From the play by Sean O'Casey. With Preston Foster and Barbara Stanwyck. and Hardie Albright. 1932 THIS SPORTING AGE Columbia . Directed by Andrew W. Bennison and A. F. Erickson . Screenplay by 62 WINTER 1970-71

1937 Directed by Rene Clair. Screenplay by Dudley Ni- THE TOAST OF NEW YORK RKO . Directed by Rowland chols . From the novel by Agatha Christie . Wi th V. Lee. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols, John Twist, Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald. THE BELLS OF and Joel Sayre . From The Book of Daniel Drew ST. MARY 'S RKO. Directed by Leo McCarey . Screen- by Bouck White and Robber Barons by Matthew Josephson. With Edward Arnold and Cary Grant. play by Dudley Nichols. With Bing Crosby, Ingrid THE HURRICANE Goldwyn-United Artists. Directed by Bergman and Ruth Donnelly. SCARLET STREET Diana John Ford and Stuart Heisler. Screenplay by Dudley Productions , Universal. Directed by Fritz Lang . Nichols . Adapted by Oliver H. P. Garrett . From the Screenplay by Dudley Nichols . From the novel and novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. play La Chienne by Georges de la Fouchardiere and With Jon Hall, Dorothy Lamour and Mary Astor. Mouezy-Eon . With Edward G. Robinson and Joan 1938 Bennett. ( Diana Productions was formed in 1945, BRINGING UP BABY RKO . Directed by Howard Hawks . with Nichols on the Board of Directors .) Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde. 1946 From a story by Wilde. With Katharine Hepburn and SISTER KENNY RKO . Directed by Dudley Nichols. Cary Grant. CAREFREE RKO . Directed by Mark San- Screenplay by Nichols, Alexander Knox , and Mary drich. Screenplay by Allan Scott and Ernest Pagano. McCarthy. From the book And They Shall Walk by From a story by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde. Elizabeth Kenny and Martha Ostenso. With Rosalind With Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger:=; . Russell and Alexander Knox. 1939 1947 STAGECOACH Wanger-U nited Artists . Directed by THE FUGITIVE Argosy-RKO . Directed by John Ford . John Ford . Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From the Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From the novel The story Stage to Lordsburg by Ernest Hayco x. With Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. With Henry John Wayne, Claire Trevor and Thomas Mitchell. Fonda and Dolores Del Rio . MOURNING BECOMES THE 400 MILLION Garrison Films. Produced by Joris ELECTRA RKO . Directed by Dudley Nichols. Screen- Ivens and John Ferno . Commentary by Dudley play by Nichols. From the play by Eugene O'Neill. Nichols. Narrated by Fredric March . With Rosalind Russell and Michael Redgrave. 1940 1949 THE LONG VOYAGE HOME Wanger-United Artists . PINKY Fox . Directed by Elia Kazan . Screenplay by Directed by John Ford . Screenplay by Dudley Ni- Dudley Nichols and Philip Dunne. From the novel chols. From the plays The Long Voyage Home, Quality by Cid Ricketts Sumner. With Jeanne Crain The Moon of the Caribbees, Bound East for and Ethel Barrymore. (Nichols did preliminary work Cardiff, and In the Zone by Eugene O 'Neill. With on the script before leaving to fulfill another com- Thomas Mitchell and John Wayne. mittment. John Ford directed for one day before 1941 becoming ill. ) MAN HUNT Fox. Directed by Fritz Lang. Screenplay 1951 by Dudley Nichols. From the novel Rogue Male by RAWHIDE Fox . Directed by Henry Hathaway . Screen- Geoffrey Household. With Walter Pidgeon and Joan play by Dudley Nichols. With Tyrone Power and Bennett. (The finishe'd script was offered first to Susan Hayward. John Ford , who declined to make the film .) SWAMP 1952 WATER Fox. Directed by Jean Renoir. Screenplay RETURN OF THE TEXAN Fox . Directed by Delmer Daves . by Dudley Nichols. From a magazine serial by Vereen Bell. With Dana Andrews \".nd Walter Bren- Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From the novel The nan . Home Place by Fred Gipson . With Dale Robertson 1943 and Joanne Dru . THE BIG SKY RKO . Directed by THIS LAND IS MINE RKO . Directed by Jean Renoir. Howard Hawks. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From Screenplay by Dudley Nichols . With Charles the novel by A. B. Guthrie , Jr. With Kirk Douglas Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. AIR FORCE Warners. and Dewey Martin . Directed by Howard Hawks. Screenplay by Dudley 1954 Nichols. Dialogue by William Faulkner. With John PRINCE VALIANT Fo x. Directed by Henry Hathaway. Garfield and John Ridgely . FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From the comic strip Paramount. Directed by Sam Wood. Screenplay by by Harold Foster. With James Mason, Janet Leigh , Dudley Nichols . From the novel by Ernest Heming- and Robert Wagner. way. With Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman and Akim 1956 Tamiroff. (Nichols received sole credit, although RUN FOR THE SUN United Artists. Directed by Roy Louis Bromfield had written an earlier adaptation.) Boulting .Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Boulting . GOVERNMENT GIRL RKO . Directed by Dudley Nichols. From the story The Most Dangerous Game by Rich- Screenplay by Nichols. From a story by Adela ard Connell. With Richard Wid mark and Trevor Rogers St. John . With Olivia de Havilland and Sonny Howard . Tufts. 1957 1944 THE TIN STAR Paramount. Directed by Anthony Mann. IT HAPPENED TOMORROW United Artists . Directed by Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From a story by Bar- Rene Clair. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Clair. ney Slater and Joel Kane. With Henry Fonda and From ideas by Lord Dunsany , Hugh Wedlock , How- Anthony Perkins. ard Snyder, and Lewis Foster. With Dick Powell, 1959 Linda Darnell , and Jack Oakie . THE SIGN OF THE THE HANGMAN Paramount. Directed by Michael Cur- CROSS Paramount. Directed by Cec il B. De Mille. tiz. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols. From a story by Nichols wrote a nine minute prologue for the re- Luke Short. With Robert Taylor and Fess Parker. release of th is 1932 featu reo 1960 1945 HELLER IN PINK TIGHTS Paramount. Directed by AND THEN THERE WERE NONE 20th Century-Fo x. George Cukor. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Walter Bernstein. With Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn . FILM COMMENT 63



'l'III~Y refrains about the American Way were observant Slll'l~'l' touches, still ... Could these pockmarks , if such \"TI1I'I'I~11S they be, be blamed on the adaptors, or were they Pollack's fault? As it happens, any attempted answer 1)()N\"I' to this question would be wrong because the ques- tion itself is wrong . \" Adaptors\" suggests a collabo- 'l'III~Y? ration that never really took place. James Poe was not only the picture's first writer but also its prime James Poe mover and original director, although he received interviewed by co-writing credit only after three Writers Guild arbi- trators ruled in his favor. The differences between Michael the film he planned and the one actually shot are Dempsey enormous. These and other points he discussed when I spoke to him a few months ago at Universal Michael Oempsey studied film at UCLA and has Studios, where he was working on some new proj- written for Film Heritage and Film Quarterly. ects. His comments on the machinations involved in this production suggest that, somewhat like IS- \"Screenplay by James Poe and Robert E. Thompson \" ADORA (shorn of 44 minutes mainly because of an is the writing credit for THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON 'T unfavorable review by Los Angeles Times critic THEY?, directed by Sydney Pollack. Pollack's past Charles Champlin), THEY SHOOT HORSES , DON 'T THEY? work has been both dull (THE SLENDER THREAD) and very nearly emerged as one of those ill-starred ca- quite energetic (THE SCALPHUNTERS). Visually his sualties of the old Hollywood that is still all too much films have for the most part been routinely academ- ic ; he could hardly on this score be called a threat with us. to Andrew Sarris' or anyone else's Pantheon . How- ever, his actors have consistently given sharp indi- Poe's screenplay added several new characters to vidual and ensemble performances and since some McCoy's story-Alice the English peroxide blonde; (Burt Lancaster in THE SCALPHUNTERS , Natalie Wood Sailor, who dies of a gruesome heart seizure; Rocky in THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED , and Susannah York the emcee, a mere shadow in the book , among in HORSES) have often been stiff , strained , and man- others. It also altered McCoy's plot and structure nered, they clearly benefited from his guidance. radically . But , what is more, Poe's version is quite HORSES treated a 1930's marathon dance as neither dissimilar from Thompson 's re-write, which tries to myth nor ballad; the movie served up its fearsome get back closer to McCoy and gets into trouble in maelstrom with raw directness and tried (as Pollack the attempt. Many of Thompson 's alterations might has written) to create a valid metaphor for life as seem to be trifling details in themselves, but they a mad roundelay. The movie won well-deserved caused (and were caused by) damaging changes praise, especially for Jane Fonda's corrosive per- in Gloria and Robert . Since many critics have al- formance and for its distillation of the paranoia ready commented on the weaknesses of these two bubbling beneath the crust of American self-esteem , characters, I prefer to concentrate on two others, patriotism , and strength. both almost equally metamorphosed and diluted. Yet nagging weaknesses hurt the film . Gloria's sui- In the movie Rocky is the the essence of slickness , cide-euthanasia , so fitting a climax for Horace an ebullient but icy manipulator of both dancers and McCoy's lean novel , now seemed rather doubtful; audience. Yet at times his facade cracks, and his for Gloria, formerly a death-courting whiner, was actions catch us off-guard. At one point, groggy now a tough-minded critic of life's iniquities and from sleep and preparing to resume his hideous Robert, previously her amiable unmalicious friend , spiel , he suddenly muses to a flunky about his past, was now a cypher. Rocky's missions of mercy to about how his father, a faith healer, used him to \" squirreling \" contestants were fascinating , and yet enact the cripple whom he cured for the assembled .. . His stress on the audience's need to believe believers. When a demented woman starts scream- in the marathon was acute, but since the movie ing about imaginary bugs crawling all over her, never indicated that any spectator's sado- Rocky calms her expertly, firmly , yet gently, too. In masochistic bubble had been pricked ... His glib the same way he coaxes the disintegrating Alice out of the shower, embracing her protectively, almost THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON 'T THEY ? lovingly as he leads her away. These episodes are intended to give Rocky more depth , make him an Jane Fonda. Red Buttons, Susannah York and Michael Sarrazin . individual with facets and quirks that we hardly [All photos: Cinerama] expect when first we see him sardonically eliminat- ing contestants and later spurring the survivors onward with a creepily hearty \" yowza, yowza, yowza.\" These \" humanizing\" moments seem de- signed to bring out the full complexity of his person- ality; they encourage us to regard him as no mere cardboard villain . Usually when a character is por- trayed as totally evil (or totally good), we stop be- lieving because we feel that his creator 's ineptitude keeps us from seeing him whole and we know from life that \"good \" and \" evil \" are terms that sum up virtually no one. Thus, we are receptive to the thought that the movie's announcer, who frequently seems almost diabolical, has a more sympathetic side to his nature . And yet Rocky is perversely funny and brashly believable only when prancing on the FILM COMMENT 65

podium in his white tuxedo and dressy outfits and less viable emotion than before. This grinding , yet unbuttoned shirts; when closely inspected, his powerful vulgarity is not nearly so effective in the \" good\" side falls apart. Perhaps the faith-healer film . Poe's Rocky ridicules and debases for and with scene is supposed to mark him as the true son of his audience actual people and events of the thirties, his father in that he likewise dupes and uses people, whereas the movie's Rocky mocks nothing specific but without (and here the film is unclear) even the with his references to America. As a result he seems sincerity of his father's evangelical fanaticism . But anachronistic . by this point we have already seen that Rocky is a cruel exploiter; the scene in no way reveals how Yet Poe deepens him without recourse to Pollack 's or why he took up his father's work, and so it seems and Thompson 's worked-up compassion . Many of like just a bit of synthetic sympathy forced into the the dancers cherish hopes of becoming actors or script to make us say , \" See, he's not such a bastard extras; Rocky acts as if he has already become their after all. \" The same holds true for another key in- production chief, the Goldwyn-Mayer of the Santa stant. When Gloria ridicules his technique for calm- Monica seaside. By concentrating on his hysteria ing the women and asks why he doesn't exhibit them and harshness unrelentingly, Poe obliquely states in cages, he murmurs, \" No , it's too real. \" Yet it is Rocky 's kinship to the others. He, too, is deluded , all too obvious that Rocky could never have said even more so than they because he thinks that he this because what is \" real \" to him is precisely his has reached a position of eminence whereas they gutsy Clyde Beatty role, not any such Florence know that they are at rock bottom . Poe's madwoman Nightingale part . This in turn undercuts the Alice imagines that she is drowning , but Rocky throws episode, effectively done though it was. Gig Young's her no life preserver; he stays away and waits for her looks and performance as this crass cousin of Anton bellows of terror to subside. He saves no one. It Walbrook 's master of ceremonies from Ophuls ' LA is this single-minded callousness , this unerring in- RONDE are so tangily exact that he minimizes these stinct for tawdry showmanship, and not the film's flaws, but no actor can hide basic misconceptions portrayal of him as a son-of-a-bitch with an erratic for long. heart of gold , that is the truth of his character . Poe made Rocky a lacerating epitome of the Show- man , a clip-joint but uncannily skilled P.T. Barnum This alteration clarifies the significance of some who cracked the whip over the horses in his one-ring apparently minor changes. Because Pollack and circus with a bottomless cynicism impervious to any Thompson soften Rocky yet insist on making Gloria's appeal. This frayed and seedy junior-grade DeMille worldview identical to the film 's, they need to rein- at times becomes so frenzied that he approaches force her hopelessness. (Unlike either McCoy or megalomania. Once, while he and a henchman scan Poe, whose versions do not propound her despon- the floor for easy lays, Rocky meditates on \" My raw dency .) So they changed the story 's time from material. From this I gotta make a show. With heroes Roosevelt's first term to the dregs of Hoover's ad- and heavies . . . hearts and flowers ... the American ministration . In 1932 the country was paralyzed by flag . My personal production : a pageant! Of freaks.\" the Depression ; in 1933 it was starting to recover . When Rocky breezily glorifies the American spirit Having their marathon take place during this period and how it will surely \" if I may wax philosophical \" of recovery WOUld , they apparently thought, under- lift both nation and dancers from their misery, the cut the \" absurdity\" that they wanted to project. For hope that he dangles before the Depression-bound similar reasons the $5000 prize in Poe's script people below him represents a debasement of any shrinks to $1500 in Thompson's . And the movie's possibility for true hope because his invocation of Rocky would deny even this paltry sum to the win- it, like that of so many politicians, is so deeply ners so as to prove Gloria right and make the movie moronic and trivial as to make such hope seem a . .. existential. But this episode is a desperate con- trivance that shows what a culture-mongering idea Jane Fonda of existentialism Pollack and Thompson have. and Michael McCoy's boss, Socks Donald , is a thug given to blackjacking those who cross him. But when a De- Sarrazin . cency League shuts down his marathon , he divides the prize money among all the remaining couples and even tosses in another thousand besides. In Poe's adaptation, one couple wins the entire prize. Do these climaxes, which (unlike the film 's) are believable, make the story any less metaphorical? Just as Norman Jewison strained so hard to make IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT significant that he botched the murder mystery on which his significance de- pended, so also do Pollack and Thompson become so enmeshed in bargain-basement philosophizing that they misconceive their characters and knock their story akimbo. The differences between the two Alices are equally striking . The film version is fairly stupid. We know when we first see her that she is a ewe whose slaughter we will be witnessing before too long. She tries to come on as a sophisticated cosmopolitan , yet she is, of course , almost totally naive. Her excru- ciating renditions of Shaw and pastiche Coward inspire snickers, yet she thinks people are impressed she waits for an onlooking producer to pluck her out of the mob and make her an international star. 66 WINTER 1970-71

Her crack-up comes not because Gloria sets the have been the supreme actress that she had hoped other women against her (as she does in Poe 's to be even when she most severely mocked this script) but because once her delusions have crum- ambition. The fall of the movie's Alice is pathetic; bled she has nothing else to help her maintain her the fall of this Alice is tragic . In a prior moment, equilibrium . Perhaps Pollack and Thompson frustrated by Robert's criticism and her inability to wanted her fate to dovetail with Rocky's shrill cheers explain herself, she had cried, \"I have moods, Rob- for Americanism by showing the wholesale self- ert. \" This beautiful line points to the full richness destruction of a familiar and usually loveable figure of the Alice who did not make it to the screen. Why from movies, the dizzy, indomitable, naughty-but- she did not is one subject of the following interview. nice, dumb blonde played in so many different guises MICHAEL DEMPSEY: The first thing I 'd like to know by Judy Holliday and Marilyn Monroe. is, in general, what happened. JAMES POE : The book 's been a favorite of mine Poe's conception is more interesting. His Alice is since 1940. I tried to buy it in 1949. The price was strong, knowing , and intelligent. Whether flaunting $3000 for all rights . McCoy was alive then . I didn't her body for the spectators or screwing everyone have $3000. A friend of mine borrowed $3000 from in the contest during the ten-minute rest periods , Chaplin and proceeded to try to get a script out she knows exactly what she is doing and why . She of it-he was the first of many. It then traveled has a saving measure of irony ab.out her audience. around from hand to hand like an unwanted child . Unlike the movie's Alice, she realizes that they \"want No one could come up with an acceptable screen- to see me down! They want to see me down in the play . I finally bought it in 1966. The price had gone dust with my dress up and my mouth open and my from $3000 to $50,000. It took a year to do my mind gone mad! That's what they come here for research and write a screenplay that was workable. . . . night after night! But I turn the tables, Robert! I shopped for backing. I had several offers and I give them something else.\" When the bewildered decided to make a deal with ABC's Palomar Com- Robert asks what, she replies, \" I give them Theatre. pany, at the beginning of 1968. I had several in- Dear Old Dirty ... Theatre.\" But her intelligence dependent budgets drawn up based on the script. condemns her to know and to watch her sickening They all came to the same figure , $850,000. Palomar slide towards the brink , helpless to prevent yet fas- insisted I get a producer who would meet with their cinated by the process. A little earlier in the Poe approval. I went to four before we finally settled on screenplay, following their fevered lovemaking , (Robert) Chartoff and (Irwin) Winkler. The entry of Robert had said that the other dancers knew what Chartoff and Winkler on the project changed it they had done, and Alice had replied , \" That . .. somewhat. The budget continued to be $850,000, never . . . happened .\" In the movie she says exactly but with their addition it was nine-fifty. The ABC the same words. But because no lovemaking took agreement was that there would be mutual artistic place in the movie, she is merely stating the truth . control and consultation and agreement and so In Poe 's script she is denying what actually oc- forth. After a lot of discussion we decided to make curred , and for the first time we begin to be caught the picture in Hollywood. Actually it could have been up in her imminent collapse and her fear of losing made anywhere in the world because I had written her mind . Because she is not a dumb blonde, her a one set picture which was entirely interior, which decline is more upsetting because a superior mind could be shot by day or by night. I wanted to use is failing and because she wants to stop her self-an- the original ballroom, which was on the beach, and nihilation but cannot. For her sense of irony extends we made an arrangement to use what had formerly to herself as well as to the audience. She fully un- been the Bon Ton Ballroom in the twenties and derstands her own masochism, as well as their sa- through the years gone downhill, had been a roller dism. She even suggests those of our first class skating rink, for a long period itwas Lawrence Welk's movie actors-John Barrymore, Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, whose decline from commanding power Susannah to self-parodying buffoonery Pauline Kael has pre- York. viously investigated. For there is no doubt that Poe intended Alice to be worthy of this company. Her film flip-out is by no means pretty, but Poe's version of it is more shocking and more revelatory . It grows naturally out of the other women 's envy of her sexuality and beauty, which is not the case in the movie. There Alice stands alone. Gloria and the others know of her delusions and pay her pretenses little heed ; they have nothing to do with the insanity that finally darkens her intellect. In Poe's script the enraged women strip her, throw her into the shower, and beat her savagely. She staggers away from them and out onto the floor before the amazed onlookers. Nude, bruised, and bleeding-a battered September Morn figure-she has a final mad Vision of herself as a victim of lions, who roar on the soundtrack as if from an ancient gladiatorial charnal house. She shrieks at them , at the audience, bidding them to come and engulf her while the officials frantically try to hustle her out of sight. At this moment we realize that, degraded as she is , she has achieved a kind of greatness. She has revealed that she could FILM COMMENT 67

A stronghold, and at this time it had just finished a $650,000 for the part. And all my negative antici- psychedelic trip as The Cheetah . It was a sensational pations came through from that pOint forward . It 'fI~I~.' set. Dick Sylbert, an old friend of mine, looked at suddenly became an Important Picture, and the it and told me how we could dress it for the picture autonomy went out the window. Everybody wanted 1.A'I'I~1l with very little money. A sound man scared ABC . to play the boy. Everybody wanted to play the Lionel He said it was too noisy. I thought that was fine . Stander part. I exerted all the pressure I could and • \"2\\S My script anticipated that. It was jammed with noise. got Stander's deal set, $75,000. I worked out a deal It used the surf continually, the way McCoy had in with Jenkins, $8000. The set was almost completed. 1~I1U~)) the book. In addition to that the foot noises of the Donfeld , an old friend , was hired to do the cos- dancers, the crowd noises, the music track (which tumes-he was doing a good job. A deal was worked was to run throughout the picture)-for the most out with Alexander Courage to do the music for part, scratchy 78rpm records. I even put the floor $10,000. And ABC changed management. The new men on roller skates. What I wanted to do was get head of films for ABC was Martin Baum , an agent away from the Hollywood thing of total silence dur- who had no prior experience in filmmaking . He did, ing shooting. ABC didn 't go for it, and this meant however, have a number of ex-clients. One was Gig calling in an art director. Harry Horner, who's one Young . He was very insistent that Young play the of the best I know, read the script, was enthusiastic, Lionel Stander part. And he attempted to break and agreed to do it. He designed a facsimile of the Stander's deal. The lawsuit is still pending. He in- ballroom , and it was set to be built at Warners. At sisted that Susannah York play the English girl. The the same time there was a problem of casting. I pressure was on , I had a deadline, and I agreed wanted the picture made without names. to accept Susannah York. Allen Jenkins' part was one which Baum considered perfect for his ex-client, DEMPSEY: Totally without names? Red Buttons. His former partner in the agency busi- POE : Totally without names. I felt the story was ness had some other clients, John Green and Tom strong, and the addition of names would only distort Panko for music and choreography respectively. the audience's perception . The closest we came to a major star, I think, was Shirley Knight. DEMPSEY : Was it at this point that they started to DEMPSEY : Shirley Knight would have had the Jane think about getting a different dir.ector? Fonda part? POE: That's right, the part of Gloria. But there was POE : I'd heard rumors about it. I went to see Baum, a lot of pressure for a star. Now this had not been and he affirmed that he was going with me all the the original concept, and this hadn 't been what had way. And a week later I was fired. The reasons for the been discussed with ABC. However, they argued firing were somewhat nebulous. The general feeling as follows : \" This is a directorial debut. You feel you seemed to be that my picture, which seemed to cost can do the picture in 30 days. If you'll take Fonda, in excess of $4,000,000, was not to be entrusted you can have 54 days , and you'll be insuring your to someone who hadn 't directed before. It was a own bet. \" I was reluctant because I could feel what total violation of trust and faith ; and I looked at the the addition of a single star would do. A star usually contract, my lawyers looked at it, and they said that calls for a co-star. That meant I'd have to get a name as long as ABC paid me off there was nothing we for the boy. If you had two , you had to get important could do. At any rate , after I was out, they called people for the supporting roles and so on and so a number of directors, who called me indignantly on . At this point the only important name I had in to tell me that they had turned them down and why. mind was for the part of Rocky. I'd written that part And they came up with Sydney Pollack, whom I don't for Lionel Stander, who hadn't been seen in America know . Pollack, as I understand it, brought in a writer for a dozen years. The part of the Sailor I'd created named Thompson . I'd never heard of him. He'd around an old actor named Allen Jenkins. You may never written a picture before; he was a television remember him from the old Warner Brothers pic- writer from New York. I went off to Rome to screen- tures of the thirties. I went to France and saw Fonda play GOOD NIGHT, SWEET PRINCE , the Gene Fowler on her farm outside Paris. She was pregnant. This biography of John Barrymore, and stayed away from meant 8 months' delay. I felt she could handle the Hollywood the rest of the year while they shot the part, and she felt I could handle the picture from picture. what she knew of me and the script, and we agreed to go ahead . Chartoff and Winkler worked out a deal DEMPSEY: How much would you say is yours that 's with Fonda's agents whereby she'd receive still in the picture? POE : What's in is mine about 90%. Many of the characters in the picture were created by me. In the re-write, dialogue was changed . The relation- ships were not. No new characters were added, but a very important character was deleted. That's the character of the Pimp , from whom Gloria is in full flight. DEMPSEY: He was in your script? POE : Yes. I needed something recognizable to the audience so that they 'd understand her desperation , understand what she was running from , and vaguely what the prize money meant that she was running towards . The old lady of the book I felt slowed the storytelling and didn 't contribute, so I deleted her. They put her back in. All the flash-forwards and flash-backs and so on . .. DEMPSEY: The prologue, too? POE : And the prologue, too-were added gratu- 68 WINTER 1970-71

itously by Pollack and Thompson . Meanwhile, that a mess . I'm saying this despite the fact that I still '1'III~Y screenplay, which was mine rewritten by Thompson , am the majority private percentage holder or what- came out under Thompson 's name with a long, ever you want to call it. I think I' m stuck with bad ItJ)N\".' rambling introduction by Sydney Pollack in which taste and a lot of useless points, whic h I'd love to he claimed credit for creating this. I don 't like the sell Martin Baum , by the way .* ItO script . DEMPSEY: I take it you really weren 't much inter- '.'III~IIl DEMPSEY : Do you like the movie? ested in the idea that Pollack seemed to expound II.»).I~\"~)IlI' POE : No . about the dance of life or death and ex istential metaphor? DEMPSEY: Why not? POE : I think Pollack got that, one, from reading my POE : Pollack does not know how to tell a story . script, and , two, from reading the introduction to This told very badly. The original concept was very the original pocketbook edition of They Shoot complex, but it was good storytelling . There were Horses . As far as McCoy and existentialism goes, many secondary stories running at the same time. it's a little sensational. I don't think the public gives They were either ignored or goofed up. I'd con- a damn one way or the other. I knew McCoy, ad- structed the thing with a very strong third act, mo- mired him . This was his best book. It was as a result tivated and directed toward the climactic movement of this book, which came out in 1935, that he got and the killing of Fonda. That was ignored, and it the Legion of Honor. He was pounding Gower Street sagged . I felt the pace was slow. It followed the as a $75 a week writer. The French government sent script very carefully in the first derby and couldn 't him a ticket. He went to France. They wined him , seem to meet it in the second derby. dined him, gave him the Legion of Honor, I think the Goncourt Prize, and made him a member of DEMPSEY: Do you think they just repeated them- several academies, told him he was greater than selves ? Hemingway, Dos Passos, and Faulkner. He returned POE : Yes, the only variation was the use of slow- to Hollywood. No one knew he'd gone. And a pro- motion photography. That was in the original script. ducer offered him a polish job if he'd take off that You see, they ignored a lot of things. They didn 't goddamned rosette. He did . He never touched do their homework. Horses again , though he wrote more Hollywood novels. I'm sorry the whole thing happened. The DEMPSEY: What were some of those things? same thing happened to a friend of mine a year POE : Well , for example , one , something that's not later, a man named Joe Massot. He wrote a screen- touched upon in McCoy 's book , is this-the problem play in London , came to America , and made a deal of temporary insanity on the part of the dancers. with ABC. Drew up his budget, scouted his loca- If you stay awake without sleep , you go through tions, and was ready to roll. They replaced him at the full catalog of psychoses. Hallucinations aren 't the last minute as director with somebody else. the sole province of drug experimentors. Those people hallucinated. The history of marathon danc- DEMPSEY: Do you think this is typical of these ing is fantastic that way . I worked on the hallucina- companies that come out of television into active tory thing . I wanted to develop it for the audience with the use of distorted sound and color and pho- production? There have been a lot of complaints tography and the action itself to the point where the audience would become temporarily as crazed about shoddy, out-of-focus, grainy photography. as the participants , to the point where they 'd accept POE : I don 't mind \" shoddy, out-of-focus, grainy\" - the illogical and be moved by it. The picture failed sometimes it'd be welcome. I must say this about that way. The Susannah York crack-up was a wa- the photography of that picture. I spent a lot of time tered-down version of what I'd planned . Susannah with the cameraman, Phil Lathrop, looking at the York , who had just completed THE KILLING OF SISTER various lab techniques for desaturization of the GEORGE, insisted she was not going to play anything negative. That's a process for taking out the color. distasteful. Apparently she got her way after I was I wanted to reach a color that wouldn 't look like off the project. Baum directed that his friend Young a hot fudge sundae, which would have a feeling be given a sympathetic portrayal, and they bent the of the period and of this dance hall in particular-a character sideways to oblige him . They took scenes sort of smoky, faded , grimy look. We found the right away from Fonda and [Michael] Sarrazin , the leads, process. Pollack didn't use it. The picture looks like and shifted the emphasis so that the story itself was a banana split. And , moreover, the camerawork distorted . It didn 't move you . I feel that , if it had under Pollack 's direction is uniformly at standing been properly dr?matized, we would have achieved eye-level, with the result that Harry Horner's catharsis in the grand , tragic sense , the Aristotelian magnificent set-God, it was a beauty!-Iooks very sense, and the audience would have wept at the small. It was large. It didn't come across that way finale. Instead they left the theatre like mummies on the screen . On the problem of casting the extras, on an escalator, not knowing what they felt. They 'd I wanted them to look like the Dust Bowl refugees been stuck with the emotional tab. It's a cute trick , who were flooding Los Angeles at that time. I did and we used to do it in the forties and fifties . But, not want the Serutan set from the Screen Extras Jesus God, not now! Today leave that stuff for the Guild with their artificial smiles and drearied enthu- young filmmakers . This was intended as a strong , siasm . I felt the faces of the other dancers were powerful , deeply moving tragedy . And it isn 't. It's very important. For example, I'd hired an excellent actor named Severn Darden . He's in the picture, * Martin Baum, President, ABC Pictures: \" Since nobody believe it or not! knows what the new public wants, you can 't pander to tastes. So you make what you like. This is a golden age, the best DEMPSEY : Where is he? of times for creative people because, with far lower bud- POE : That's a good question . If you look very care- gets, we can gamble with new ideas and new talent. \" fully, you ' ll see him fly through in one frame . He -Look, 3 November 1970. was on the picture for eight weeks. Now Severn 's brilliant. He can make you laugh with his fat neck FILM COMMENT 69

at fifty feet , back to the camera. They didn 't know POE : In my original concept he did . Of course he what to do with him , and he wasn 't used . I didn 't did , and that set up the blow-up with Gloria. In this feel humor in the picture . it's only implied , and we ' re shown that it does not come off. Gloria without motivation , without under- DEMPSEY : Your concept had a lot more humor in standable motivation-all we see is the veneer , the it then? tough exterior. That's wrong . In my script , Gloria POE : Yes, yes. Some was harsh , some was very steals the English girl 's dress, Gloria tries to force harsh . That was cut out. All the sex was cut out. the pregnant girl out of the contest, Gloria will do For some damn reason , Baum insisted this picture anything to win-anything. had to have a GP rating . I' m not in favor of X rated pictures, but I felt this could be made with an R. DEMPSEY: She was anxious to win? I didn 't propose it as an entertainment for children . POE: This is the whole idea. Gloria is Lady Macbeth. To get back to Fonda. Jane is a good actress. She has certain limitations, but she would have been DEMPSEY: In the movie she seemed just like what right for this with her motivation clearly defined for the audience. Rocky called her, just a loser. DEMPSEY : She didn 't seem to have any motivation POE : Right. Now this brings us to the important point in the film. in the third act. I had written a third derby. The POE : No . What I had come up with is the concept contest actually comes down to four couples. Two of a girl who is on the run from something . She couples are professionals-one of them was sup- seems almost paranoid the way her eyes dart about posed to win-the pregnant couple, and Gloria and the audience. Something frightens her below this Robert. Getting rid of the others took a lot of con- tough veneer. struction and manipulation . In the final derby Gloria and Robert come with in inches of winning , and I)OI.I.J\\(~I{ DEMPSEY : Was it just the Pimp, or was that a sym- something makes her balk. And that something is the loser quality. I wanted it to be a point which III.I~\"T bol of something more? the audience would debate after they 'd seen it. I l'III~ POE: That 's a symbol of the whole thing that she's wrote it in such a way that it would be debatable. trying to escape from . I have the Pimp show up I~NJ)ING halfway through . First time you only see him as a DEMPSEY : Simultaneously with having a lust to win, silhouette in the crowd. She doesn 't know if she sees him or if she's hallucinating. Then he appears she was also to have an impulse to lose? again . Then we do have a confrontation , the obliga- POE : This deep, deep-seated conviction that she tory scene. I'd even picked somebody to play the was a loser. Pimp, and I did a screen test of him . He was fantas- tic . He was killed last summer. His name was Jay DEMPSEY: Where did you have that come from? Sebring . Jay was small, very intense, black eyes, POE : Me . .. me. I suppose, looking at it now, an black hair, a glittering, brooding manner, and ir- epilogue ... I was the loser. resistible to women . He was a friend. I found him amusing and right for the part. I wrote it with prac- DEMPSEY : The book seemed fairly perfunctory in tically no dialogue; I just wanted to get the feeling its treatment of the audience. The movie seemed to of him . He was very much like early John Garfield. emphasize the audience as being sadists a lot more. Garfield , incidentally, was what the picture needed . Did you have that idea, too? I think Garfield would have been fine for the boy, POE : Yes , I did . We still have that audience. In the Sarrazin part. Sarrazin, incidentally, would have preparing the picture, I'd spent a lot of time at the been fine-I picked him . I had been running a lot roller derby watching the audience. The roller derby of Henry Fonda pictures of the thirties, YOU ONLY audience is the son of the marathon dancing audi- LIVE ONCE and so on . There 's a physical similarity. ence. After marathon dancing the formula was We had only spoken on the phone. He was in changed slightly to walkathons, and from walka- Europe. I told him I found these films and wanted thons they went to professional wrestling . And then to run them with him when he got here. By the time someone came up with the roller derby formula. he arrived, I was off the picture. Pollack told him After roller derby there ' ll be something else. In the bluntly that he had not chosen him and that he didn 't rivalry of the two leading women , I had planned to see much point to it. Sarrazin complained to me have the emcee take advantage of the situation and about this, and I suggested he go ahead and see suggest to them that, because they had broken a the Fonda films anyhow and perhaps they'd help number of rules , he was going to have them thrown him . I don 't know what happened . The performance out of the contest unless they held a showdown for was disappointing. I don 't fault him . the benefit of the audience. This was to be mud- wrestling . It would have been a sensational se- DEMPSEY : I was interested in one point that quence because it's what that audience wanted and everyone seemed to pick up. In the book Gloria was what our audience would have enjoyed . Incidentally, about our audience and the audience on the screen , such a weak person that it was believable that she there was an interesting black humor point. The sado-masochistic spectacle held a certain onus for did kill herself, whereas in the film everything our audience but not if they could look at another seemed to conform to her vision of the world. For audience enjoying these things. That's the reason example, Rocky tells her that even if she were to for the audience reaction being so emphasized . win she 'd end up with no money because of bills. Again , I don 't feel that it was handled properly. She seemed to De the toughest, most perceptive DEMPSEY : Rocky kept alluding to the American Way character, so why would she kill herself? being competition, lust for money, and the wh ole POE : Pollack blew the ending , just as he blew the spectacle thing. Did you have that idea ? Wa s that Susannah York-Michael Sarrazin scene where he cut down, too? was supposed to ball her. POE : No , I thought that was a very important point. I remember audiences of that period. I had referred DEMPSEY: I couldn 't make any sense of that. to Roosevelt. When you referred to Roosevelt in 70 WINTER 1970-71

1935 with any audience, you got a mixture of cheers to a total crack-up anyway-it'd only take a little .JA)II~S and boos. Roosevelt jokes and imitations, jokes more push-and she turned the others on her. The about Falla and Eleanor were big then . That mi xture woman fl ips out , and so she gets Robert bac k . I\"\"~ of corn and patriotism I felt was essential to his DEMPSEY: She wanted Robert back, as well as the characterization . ra ce, jus t because she wanted to win? POE : Yes. Also it has to do with telling a story to DEMPSEY : Did you think that the novel wa s a suc- the audience. cessful piece of work? POE : I thought it was a successful novel. I've adapt- DEMPSEY: Do you find that it's the usual thing for ed a lot of novels. Invariably because of the restric- tions of the film form , they have to be replotted . you to write vivid details on a page and not have Sometimes you'll condense several characters into one. Other times you must invent additional charac- them appear anywhere on the screen or have the ters to demonstrate through action or word certain whole feeling lost because you weren 't directing? story points. There's a brief reference to a girl who POE: That has happened very often . Sometimes I've pulls our hero-the protagonist-under the band- been lucky. In one case I did a low budget film with stand . Her name was Rosemary : I said I'd take the an actor and a director . We did it for fun , to please Rosemary idea but create a new character. I thought ourselves, and we didn 't take money. Our shooting of the kinds of women who were stranded in LA schedule was ten days. The picture had to cost less at that time , who had come here for one reason than $250,000. There wasn 't time for the director or another, and came up with the idea of the English to change anything , so he followed it to the letter, girl. There was an English actress , an excellent one , and the picture was very successful. It was called who had appeared in 8Y2-Barbara Steele. So I LILIES OF THE FIELD . The rivalry between screen- rewrote the part for her. Miss Steele is a brun ette . writers and directors in America-I emphasize \" in I wanted her hair to grow out during the contest America \" -is very old . American films in the past so that it would remain bleached ; but the ro ots , the have been made in a businesslike way where usually blackness, would get longer and longer. And let the the screenplay , that is to say the blueprint , is com- hair grow under the arms and play on the business plete to its last detail before the director is hired . of the Harlow silver dress. Let her wipe her hands He's then given it and told to put it on film . In Europe, on it, so you could smell it. I wanted her to be very where the possessive credit is the usual thing, the strong , vivid . I wanted the audience to smell her. directors are also writers. American directors want I wanted the shining exhibitionism, the glittering to have the same prestige and the sense of film quality at the beginning , to degenerate. Susannah authorship that the Europeans have. Most of them York insisted that her \" concept\" was that this girl cannot write. Nonetheless, because they are the was really Shaw's Joan of Arc; and somehow, God people you actually see in work on the sets , they 've knows how or why , Pollack put it in the beginning . been able to get it. DEMPSEY : You didn 't have that quotation she does DEMPSEY : So you 're denying the authorship of a in line at the start? film to anyone who hasn 't also written it? POE: No , I don 't write that badly. I can write very POE: That's right. With the exception of, say, Mi- badly , but not that badly. In reverse I was going chael Wadleigh 's WOODSTOCK . He earned that. to do the same thing with Sailor, with Allen Jenkins, who looks like an old turtle and has a marvellous DEMPSEY : In addition , would you say that writing voice. I wanted him to start with patent leather black and directing are the two halves of the whole? hair and let it wear off during the marathon, let the POE : For the most part they are totally separate. grey come through and the white stubble on the The screenwriter is an architect, and the director chin-almost the Alice thing in reverse . I felt that is a contractor . Now he can be very good , or he someone should die, and he seemed just right , just can destroy the work. He can paint the house a fine. Incidentally, Sailor's death was not made very terrible color, or he can take Mies van der Rohe's clear in the final picture. It should have been very blueprints and add the split-level touches and fuck clear to the audience that th is girl was dragging a it up. I don 't want to be terribly hard-nosed on this. dead man . I needed to fall back at a point on the There are excellent directors who sometimes im- old Hollywood boy-meets-girl , boy-loses-girl , boy- prove the material they ' re given . But it's not the rule , gets-g irl business . It's cliche , but this story needed not in my experience. that movement. I had to get them separated-Gloria and Robert. How the hell do you do that? Well , you DEMPSEY: Do you find that you write a different can do it if they fight over someth ing . Well , what script depending on which director you see yourself are they going to fight over? He can get angry be- working for? cause she's balling somebody and won 't ball him POE : I don 't work for a director. I have a reputation or the reverse. So I had to invo lve the English girl , for being very independent. Usually my work is done and they split over that, changed partners. But she before a director moves his stuff onto the lot. Quite loses that second partner. He was an unemployed often he ' ll have several suggestions and I' ll make actor who gets a few weeks work in a picture. them , and by the time the picture 's shooting I'm Alright, let's get her another partner now. Robert's on to my next project . The best director I've ever dancing with the English girl. So Sailor's partner worked with as far as the writer-director relationship falls out. You see, I was trying to develop her goes is Daniel Mann . The picture was called HOT mounting frustration , this drive to win . She gets SPELL. It was from a play called Nex t of Kin by Lonnie Sailor as her third partner. He dies, and then for Coleman . I had a lot of trouble with the first draft. her fourth partner she gets Robert back. But to get The play was very weak in a number of areas. But Robert back I had her push on the English girl , who Hal Wallis had bought it. He felt there was something had laid everybody in the contest , and turn the other there for a strong domestic drama. I'd known Danny women against her. She knew the woman was close for many years, but we had never worked together. He was marvellous. I could feel certain things miss- ing from characters , and so we discussed his child- hood , my childhood , the backgrounds of mutual FILM COMMENT 71

friends and so on . And I tore up the script and wrote after about forty-five minutes, and he went ahead it over. It was much stronger. Mann never suggested and shot what he had. I don't think the picture would any particular dialogue or construction or arrange- have been released if it hadn 't been for one lucky ment of scenes. His only concern was, \" Could we point. There are ten minutes of truth in that picture, have more amplification here? \" or \" Is it possible and our audience is very hungry for valid theatrical to do that more briefly.\" I was pleased with the experience. picture. I haven 't had that relationship with other directors. I worked with one director who came on DEMPSEY : To get back to THEY SHOOT HORSES , when the script was finished, removed all camera suppose they had said, \" All right we 're not going to and dialogue directions, and handed his actors let you direct it. We 'll get some other director, but sheets of pure dialogue . He felt the writer had inter- we 'll have him film your script. \" Do you think you fered with his function as a director. Halfway through might have gotten something closer to what you the picture the actors were lost and so, I think, was wanted? the cameraman . The director declared the picture was going to be a disaster. The picture was a disas- POE: In retrospect , I think I would have come out ter, and it's a shame because it could have been ahead if, instead of directing it, I had chosen to be very good . The name of it was TOYS IN THE ATTIC . producer. I didn 't want to perform all three func- tions. Because the result is a series of compromises . DEMPSEY: Do you think you would always write And when you compromise, you lose. I happen to from now on with a view towards becoming a writ- love film . If I didn 't, I'd have switched over to legiti- er-director? mate playwriting a long time ago. I really wish they POE: I've always written things which anyone could had selected another director, a man with a very direct, including me. I was not interested in directing strong and definite style. Robert Aldrich would have until recently for a terribly simple reason . I'm impa- been fine. I did two pictures with Aldrich many years tient, and the old Hollywood system of filming ago , and I' m a big fan-THE BIG KNIFE and ATTACK . seemed to me tedious. Now that many of the rules ATTACK was a very good picture . It's a war picture are broken , I want very much to direct. And I will . that cost very little, had a terrific cast and, I' ll tell you very modestly, a good , tight script, and it had DEMPSEY: Do you think that a writer who makes a lot to say . He made it go. T~at Mickey Spillane the transition to director is in a better position than picture, KISS ME DEADLY, was ten years ahead of its a technician of some kind, a cameraman? time . THE BIG KNIFE was ahead of its time . Aldrich 's POE : Yes , because the film writer is by vocation , calculated insanity in THE DIRTY DOZEN had a terrible by profession , a storyteller. impact on audiences. DEMPSEY: You see it in terms of story. DEMPSEY: I would have said THE LEGEND OF LYLAH POE : Yes. Absolutely . That's all that film is. With CLARE. the exception of documentaries. When I first started POE: I enjoyed LYLAH. Aldrich went in with a script working in the movie industry, I had no interest in that was too long, so when it came cutting time he Hollywood or story films. I wanted to be a documen- lost a lot. He should not write his own scripts, and tary maker. My heroes were Flaherty and Murnau he had a lot to do with the writing on that. Just as on his newest one , which is lousy, TOO LATE THE and Pare Lorentz. I worked for the MARCH OF TIME HERO. Aldrich worked his way up from fourth assist- in New York . It was a small , tight outfit that made ant, up through production manager and assistant. excellent films, one a month . At that time it was the He was the best production manager in the business only training ground where you could get your and one of the best assistants. He's still one of the hands on film. best directors in the world-with other people 's scripts. Another director who would have been mar- DEMPSEY: One of the reasons I asked was because vellous would have been Schlesinger. Perhaps Billy some of the effects you describe as having been Wilder. He understands the tempo and the black planned for THEY SHOOT HORSES , DON 'T THEY?-the humor of that period. There were some people who hallucinations-are generally thought of as visual, wanted to buy the book from me when they heard rather than literary. I had it. Godard . I told him no sale . Louis Malle. POE : Screenwriters write visually. A screenwriter No sale. Truffaut. Double no sale. I like Truffaut who cannot think visually isn 't a screenwriter. The personally, but I don 't think he's a good filmmaker. writers who have become directors have almost THE BRIDE WORE BLACK, his homage to Hitchcock, without exception become very good ones and very only proved he never learned anything from watch- important ones. The technicians who have become ing Hitchcock films. directors have never been able to transcend their material. DEMPSEY: Is this something for a foreign director to have done? DEMPSEY: To take a recent example, I was thinking POE : The ones I've mentioned , the old school-they of MEDIUM COOL. still bear the \" New Wave\" tag but they aren 't-would POE : I was working at Paramount at the time that have goofed it. They 're not particularly objective Haskell Wexler wrote his script, and Bob Evans said , storytellers. Who 's the best storyteller around now? \" Will you just read it and talk to him? \" I read it. Stanley Kubrick. If I had to pick a filmmaker to make The visual descriptions were fascinating . Here was a film of my script of HORSES , I'd pick Kubrick . He's a script written by a cameraman who had no knowl- fantastic . He can bat left-handed , right-handed , and edge of drama or construction or dramatic tech- he's very good on running bases. I should love to nique. He made a number of mistakes, and it wasn 't have seen HORSES directed by Fritz Lang . He 's bril- a very good script. I met with him and argued with liant, he's alert, he's alive. Bunuel would have been him for two hours on the necessity of a total re-write good . As a matter of fact , Bunuel and I used to talk and simplification of his story. But at that point he about HORSES when he was in Hollywood in 1946. He had a starting date, and he was an xious to get going. was here dubbing Spanish versions for Warners. I could see that glazed look sliding over his eyes 72 WINTER 1970-71

That was all the work he could get. He was starving to 1952 .JAMI~S death here and prey to every psychosomatic ail- SCANDAL SHEET Columbia . Directed by Ph il Karlson . ment-sciatica, deafness, a barrel of frazzled nerves. I\"\"~ He had to go to Mex ico to make it. They didn 't under- Screenplay by Ted Sherdeman , Eugene Ling, and stand him here. James Poe . From the story The Dark Page by Sam- uel Fuller. With Broderick Crawford , Donna Reed , DEMPSEY: Could you see yourself moving outside and John Derek. PAULA Columbia . Directed by Ru- the studio set-up and doing something totally in - dolph Mate. Screenplay by James Poe and William dependent? Sackheim . From a story by Larry Marcus. With POE : Yes. I hope to. You see, the thing that discour- Loretta Young and Kent Smith . aged me before about is now removed . Today you 1953 can shoot a film in 16mm and have it released theat- A SLIGHT CASE OF LARCENY MGM . Directed by Don rically . A lot of it's still held back by the union . The Weis. Screenplay by Jerry Davis. From a story by sound men 's union, for example, still insists that the James Poe. With Mickey Rooney and Eddie Brack- microphone be dangled above the actors on a fish- en . pole and an operator wig-wag the microphone from 1955 one actor to the other, the way it was done 40 years THE BIG KNIFE United Artists. Directed by Robert ago . This isn 't necessary because today we have Aldrich . Screenplay by James Poe. From a story by directional mikes which look like cap pistols. This, Clifford Odets. With Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wen- of course, will put the fishpole guy out of work , so dell Corey, and Shelley Winters. it's not done. But we ' re getting into that more and 1956 more. The whole concept of tape can alter things ATTACK! United Artists . Directed by Robert Aldrich. drastically. It will be possible for you to cut your Screenplay by James Poe. From a story by Norman film on this desk rather than with this complex, Brooks. With Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, and Lee brontosaurial system. You can do your editing alone Marvin . AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS United Artists. in privacy , without interference, without interruption , Directed by Michael Anderson . Screenplay by S. J. just as you concentrate on a typewriter now. I don 't Perelman , James Poe, and John Farrow. From the story by Jules Verne. With David Niven , Cantinflas, know who said it many years ago , I think it was Rene Robert Newton , and Shirley MacLaine. Clair, that the ultimate dream of a filmmaker is to have a camera system , no larger than a fountain 1958 pen , which you 'd simply point. We 're almost there. HOT SPELL Paramount. Directed by Daniel Mann . How all this will work out with the unions I don 't Screenplay by James Poe. From the story Nex t of know, and I must say I don 't care . Today 's audiences Kin by Lonnie Coleman . With Shirley Booth , Anthony do not demand the glossy technical excellence and Quinn , and Shirley MacLaine . CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF elegance of old Hollywood . They don 't seem to MGM . Directed by Richard Brooks. Screenplay by mind, if the story's good . The rest of it doesn 't Brooks and James Poe. From the play by Tennessee matter. A good film can be shot in Super 8 with Williams . With Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl a cassette recorder. Ives, and Jack Carson. 1959 DEMPSEY: Even THEY SHOOT HORSES , DON 'T THE Y? LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL Paramount. Directed POE: Even THEY SHOOT HORSES , DON 'T THEY . I don 't by John Sturges. Screenplay by James Poe. From want to be flip about that. HORSES is a very complex a story by Les Crutchfield. With Kirk Douglas, An- job for one reason , and that 's this: it calls for 400 thony Quinn , Carolyn Jones, and Earl Holliman . extras. The filmmaker certainly needs assistance, 1961 a lot of assistance, to handle that-the aid of a SANCTUARY 20th Century-Fo x. Directed by Tony Rich- choreographer, someone to help him remember ardson . Screenplay by James Poe. From Requiem where the hell people were. for a Nun by William Faulkner. With Lee Remick, DEMPSEY: But he could shoot it in a small gauge? Yves Montand , and Bradford Dillman. SUMMER AND POE : Why not? SMOKE Paramount. Directed by Peter Glenville. Screenplay by James Poe and Meade Roberts. With DEMPSEY: And get all the necessary technical Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page, and Rita Moreno. effects-the hallucinations and such things? 1963 POE : Oh , yes , yes. The hallucinations . . . there are TOYS IN THE ATTIC United Artists. Directed by George many ways of achieving it. The best hallucinations Roy Hill. Screenplay by James Poe. From the play don 't require trick photography or color; they re- by Lillian Hellman . With Dean Martin , Geraldine quire understanding and sympathy on the part of Page , Yvette Mimieu x, and Wendy Hiller. LILIES OF the audience. And that requires careful script prep- THE FIELD United Artists. Directed by Ralph Nelson . aration . Screenplay by James Poe. From the story by William E. Barrett. With Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, and Lisa The one thing I wish-and I say this with deepest Mann. sincerity-I wish I had my script back and could start over. I'd do it very differently ... very differently. 1111111 1965 JAMES POE THE BEDFORD INCIDENT Columbia. Directed by James 1948 B. Harris. Screenplay by James Poe. From a story CLOSE-UP Marathon-EI. Directed by Jack Donohue. by Mark Rascovich . W ith Richard Widmark , Sidney Screenplay by John Bright and Max Wilk . From a POitier, and James MacArthur. story by James Poe. With Alan Baxter and Virginia Gilmore. 1969 1949 WITHOUT HONOR United Artists. Directed by Irving THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? Cineram a. Directed Pichel. Screenplay by James Poe . With Laraine Day, by Sydney Pollack. Screenplay by James Poe and Dane Clark, and Franchot Tone. Robert E. Thompson . From the novel by Horace McCoy. With Jane Fonda, Gig Young , Michael Sar- razin , Susannah York, and Red Buttons. FILM COMMENT 73

1~lle To Ben Hecht, he was the \" pi xy revolutionist \" and the \" owlish-eyed satirist. \" The dust jacket of his wife 's autobiography dubs him \" the noted play- \"';III\\~ wright, philosopher and humorist. \" George Jean Nathan considered him a writer of \" one or two witty and humorous books and even a comedy that con- tained some fair amusement\" who wasted more than fifteen years in writing for the movies . Pejorative \" ••i~es ••1 comments aside, Donald Ogden Stewart was most of these (though philosopher won 't quite do) and more. In each guise, he assumed a new voice and with such dexterity that one is at a loss to cast a It••II;lltl ballot for the real Donald Stewart. His background assured him the position of gentle- man of letters, the first of his guises. He was born in Colu mbus, Ohio in 1894 to a well-to-do family and graduated (B .A.) from Yale in 1916. After serving tttitiell in the Navy during the First World War, he traveled around Europe, meeting all the right people. (He turns up in the index of any number of biographies of the famous, usually as a guest who dropped in for the week-end .) Ste\"';II-t He returned to New York and began writing a series of satiric novels . In the early 20 's, the most fashion- able voice in American comic writing was that of Robert Benchley and the other writers travelling by Cary Carey through the corridors of Vanity Fair. In all , Stewart wrote six books, three of them very much in the Vanity Fair style . These were A Parody Outline of History (1921), Proper Behavior (1922) and Aunt Polly 's Story of Mankind (1923) , all of them very popular in the twenties . They are , however, not the best of their kind and the interim has du lied whatever cutting force their satire may have had, although their flippant tone is still nostalgically amusing. A fair example of their style is the following excerpt from Proper Behavior, which deals with one of the social catastrophies wrought by Prohibition : \" It is lamentably true, that, too often , has a carefully planned society dry raid been spoiled because the host noticed that one of his guests was wearing white sox with a black tie , or that the intruder was using his dessert spoon on the hors d'oeuvres.\" Considerably less successful are his three satiric novels, Mr. and Mrs. Haddock Abroad (1924) , The Crazy Fool (1925), and Mr. and Mrs. Haddock in Paris (1926). Here the writing becomes a little too heady in its outrageousness , loses its grip on what it is satirizing , and ends in a wild unfunniness. All three books are virtually unreadable today, but they too were admired at the time of publication . On the basis of these works, Stewart gained admit- tance to the famous Algonquin Round Table, the ne plus ultra of 1920's New York literary decor. Stewart was a faithful attendant at all the clique 's get-togethers and Alexander Woollcott later re- membered that Stewart's poker-playing was more amusing than h is books. A great number of the Round Table members were interested in the theatre: either they were playwrights (Robert E. Sherwood, George S. Kaufman) or dramatic critics (Woollcott, Dorothy Parker, Benchley); and there was always an actor or two present. The American theatre in the 1920's was , for the first time, a theatre of playwrights and not stars. Literary men were 74 WINTER 1970-71

EDWARD, MY SON. Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr LAUGHTER. Nancy Carroll and Frank Morgan. FILM COMMENT 75

HOLIDAY. their praise. (Dorothy Parker: \" Rebound came home Katharine with me and will stay. Brave and beautiful things Hepburn. don't leave you .\" Woollcott: \" The finale of the sec- ond act is one of the most exciting things I ever turning their sights to playwright and playwrights saw in a theatre .\" Benchley: \" It is only a humorist were considered distinguished litterateurs. like Mr. Stewart who can be serious simultaneously with being funny.\" Heywood Broun: \" The best light Since the theatre was fashionable , it is not surprising comedy written by anybody hereabouts in ten or that Stewart would eventually make an appearance twenty years .\" ) Later in 1930, Stewart had another on its threshold . What is extraordinary is that he success with Fine and Dandy, a musical for which should make his debut as an actor. In 1928, Arthur he had written the book , though book is perhaps Hopkins was casting Philip Barry 's new play, Holi- too highfalutin a word for what was really little more day. The leading lady was Hope Williams , a socialite than an outline upon which comedian Joe Cook who had made a successful debut the season before hung his familiar routines . in a supporting role in Barry 's Paris Bound. Since most of the characters in Holiday were members By 1930, the sound film had arrived for all time and of New York 's 400, Hopkins decided to set off Miss New York was being drained of its writers as they Williams with other members of her own soc ial mi- headed to the mecca of West Coast mad money. lieu . For the roles of socialites Nick and Susan Most of the Roundtable were to end up around Potter, he chose, in the words of critic Burns Mantle , California swimming pools and Stewart was to be \" two amateurs who were to-the-manor born.\" For in the vanguard. His first two pictures were made Nick Potter, Hopkins elected Stewart. by Paramount. The first , LAUGHTER (1930), is one of the best films of Stewart's entire Hollywood ca- Stewart's only qualifications for this new career was reer. It is the story of a chorus girl who marries for \" an interest in amateur theatricals. \" There is a bit millions but finds her heart still belongs to la vie of the stunt about this. A great number of the boheme. Stewart did not write the rather pedestrian Roundtable writers had a streak of the dilettante story (the work of director Harry D'Arrast) but sup- about them, constantly dabbling in all sorts of artistic plied its light-hearted dialogue which is, again , in endeavor. One of their favorite larks was appearing the Barry vein . The New York critics accredited the on the stage-Woollcott, Kaufman , Benchley, Hey- film 's success to Stewart and the playing of Nancy wood Broun and Marc Connelly all tried their hand Carroll and Fredric March . The New York Post critic at it. Stewart, from all reports , was no great shakes wrote: \" The nearest approach to sophisticated but he continued to act off-and-on for the next four comedy which has yet been made in the talkies is years . (He is in three movies: NOT SO DUMB , 1930; LAUGHTER . It is a sly and diverting romance, touched DEVOTION , 1931 ; and CYNARA , 1932.) From stage off with the sparkle of Donald Ogden Stewart's dia- portraits at the time, he hardly presents a striking logue, and expertly played by a gaily intelligent band appearance: affable-enough looking , he is extremely of performers ... LAUGHTER becomes a kind of Philip tall , with thinning blonde hair and eyes hidden be- Barry play of the screen; a smartly and lightly cynical hind an enormous pair of horn-rimmed glasses. comment on New York's perpetual mismating sea- There is something rather stoop-postured about his son .\" stance that makes one doubt that he had much stage presence. These high compliments seem to me slightly below the belt, for actually much of the film's charm is Stewart's acting career would hardly be worth not- the making of director Harry D'Arrast. D'Arrast's ing except for the fact that his debut brought him work is almost unknown today , but he was , at the into contact with Philip Barry, who was to have the end of the silent period, one of the foremost can- next great influence on his career. Two years after didates in the Lubitsch sweepstakes. Many of D'Ar- Holiday, Stewart wrote his first play, Rebound rast's films have been lost, but on the basis of (1930). It is a slight but charming play about two LAUGHTER, his reputation as a director of great visual wealthy Long Island socialites who both lose their wit and sophistication is totally justified . The film lovers and marry on the rebound. Set in Philip is stamped more by his than by Stewart 's personal- Barry-land , it is written with a bantering dialogue ity. that underneath is tender and charged with emotion . In short , it speaks with Philip Barry 's voice , so much Stewart's second film , TARNISHED LADY (1931) , is one so that the mimickry, for anyone familiar with Barry, of only two original screenplays that he wrote during becomes slightly unnerving. The play was a success, his entire film career. (The other is Lewis Milestone's the Roundtable critics being particularly effusive in 1940 NIGHT OF NIGHTS , which I have never seen.) Consequently, one might expect one of his person- alities to come shining through. The film was the first solo film effort of director George Cukor and marked the sound film debut of Tallulah Bankhead. It is a combination that promises compatibility, and the film does start deftly. Socialite Nancy Courtney (Miss Bankhead) stands blindfolded, puffing on a Cigarette. The camera pulls back and we see that she is being photographed for a magazine endorse- ment. For the next few scenes , the dialogue is bright , but one gets an uneasy feeling that things aren 't going as they should . And they aren 't. TARNISHED LADY is not a smart comedy but a sob-sister confes- sion . Nancy marries for money, leaves her husband for an artist, discovers the artist doesn 't love her, finds that she is pregnant (by her husband-thank 76 WINTER 1970-71

God for small favors ), goes to work in the very de- HOLIDAY. partment store from which she previously bought her frocks and furs , and finally is reunited with her Cary Grant husband who has in the meantime lost his millions and in the Crash. Henry Kolker. One hardly believes that Stewart dreamed up this right sounds . Perhaps, it is only the shallowness of horror of a plot as a form of self-expression . It has her prose that makes the book seem so terribly all the earmarks of a studio outline that Stewart superficial. Most objectionable is her conde- developed into a script while gritting his teeth . At scend ing attitude towards Stewart, as every so often very least, one presumes strong studio tampering she gives him a professorial pat on the head for with Stewart 's original. Tallulah Bankhead in her lessons well-learned. Despite the fact that Stewart's autobiography confirms that there was strong studio political conscience was aborning before they met, interference during the making of TARNISHED LADY: I think Miss Winter pushed him too far into directions \" Paramount was teetering on the brink of bankrupt- that overreached his talents. cy . .. Paramount 's corporate jitters were reflected in their products. As filmed , the story of TARNISHED Prior to their marriage in 1938, Stewart worked on LADY was banal .. . Patched , scissored and vic- a screenplay for the George Cukor remake of HOL- timized by all sorts of hocus-pOCUS,. TARNISHED LADY IDAY , the Barry play in which he made his acting wound up a mess .\" And , one assumes, it wound debut. The credits of the film assign the screenplay up more the work of corporate Paramount than solo to both Stewart and Sidney Buchman; but Cukor Donald Ogden Stewart. told me that Stewart was the sole author, and that Buchman received credit only because of studio Until the mid-1930 's, there is nothing in any of the politics. The screenplay is a fine job of adaptation . films on which he worked that one can point out Although the changes that Stewart made are rela- with any certainty as a Donald Stewart epiphany . tively slight, the script is better and stronger than Critics were quick to credit him with any felicity of the original play. While the tone and style of the dialogue and when it was a bust, to cluck that he film are predominately Philip Barry's, there are some wasn 't up to his usual standard . The nitty-gritty truth , hints of Stewart's new-found political self. howeve r, is that many of those happy lines were not Stewart's but Philip Barry 's or Rose Franken 's The play concerns the wealthy Seton family. Eldest of Kaufman-and-Ferber's or Lindsay-and-Crouse's. daughter Julia has fallen in love with Johnny Case , If they weren 't in the original play , they could just a boy beneath her social milieu . Julia presumes that as easily be the work of one of his credited collabo- Johnny will happily accept a position in her family 's rators (Herman J. Mankiewicz, for example , was also business. Johnny, however, is not so sure that all pretty sharp with a snappy line) or even of some he wants to do with his life is earn money. In fact , poor authors whose name got lost on the arbitration he doesn't know what he wants to do; he wants table at the Screenwriters Guild . time \" to find himself.\" In the ensuing battle for his independence, he is supported by Julia 's elder sis- The only conclusion to be drawn from the greatest ter, Linda, the black sheep of the Seton family. part of Stewart's film work is that he was an excellent adaptor. His adaptations, particularly of plays , are In the play, Johnny and Linda 's revolt against the notable for both their fidelity and sensitivity to the Seton 's fortune is really aesthetic . They are not so original material. When Stewart does change a line much objecting to money-making as the ultimate o r add an additional scene, it is with an uncanny goal in life, but rather to the stultification and smug- gift for writing in the precise style of the playwright. ness that rests in the stratum of society that does. He was, then , a kind of play doctor, shaping and They reject the style of life because they cannot pruning other people's work, but guarding carefully express themselves within it. Much of this attitude the illusion that it is they who were speaking . remains in the film , particularly in the character of Linda, but Johnny's position shifts ever so slightly This kind of writing is nothing to be ashamed of, to erase any suggestion of self-indulgence from his particularly when practiced with such finesse. But, attitude and to include a subtle note of distinctively given Stewart's early reputation as a creative writer , 1930's distaste for the very wealthy. it is surprising that he found adaptation so fulfilling that between 1930 and 1942 he never felt the need Stewart may have made these changes to bring the to return to either the novel or the playas a form play up-to-date and to weaken any objections to of personal expression. the Barry world of the ever-so-rich-and-sophisticat- ed. This might also explain his wholesale rewriting In 1936, Stewart met and eventually fell in love with of the characters of Nick and Susan Potter from Ella Winter , the widow of Lincoln Steffens. In her the charming but superficial sophisticates of the play autobiography , And Not To Yield, Miss Winter re- members that at the time of their meeting, Stewart was already politically involved: \" Don had become newly aware in the past few years of social ques- tions, and it was all still fresh and challenging to h im ... He had become passionately interested in what was happening politically in the United States, Germany , California: he read hungrily and was fas- cinated by my experiences .\" I must admit that, on the basis of her autobiography, I don 't like Miss Winter. For a woman supposedly so committed , she comes off with supreme affecta- tion , striking all the right poses and making all the FILM COMMENT 77

to the film 's wry, liberal professorial types who have short stories by Robert Lamb concerning fascist Just enough money for this month's rent. activities in automobile plants. It doesn 't sound too promising , and Miss Winter reports that most Still, I think that there might be another reason for Broadway producers found it too daring to risk . this change. Nick Potter was the role Stewart had Eventually Billy Rose optioned it and asked Orson played on the stage and it seems very probable that Welles to direct it. (Welles , Rose & Stewart-a trio he identified with it. Burns Mantle, in his 1929-30 to make the head spin.) Stewart returned to Holly- Theatre Yearbook, states that Rebound had its ori- wood to work on more adaptations while waiting gin in Stewart's desire to transport Nick and Susan for production of the play to begin . It never did . Potter into a new play of his own devising. In Re- bound, the Potters become Les and Elizabeth Craw- More screenwriting followed, presumably to pay the ford , and Stewart cast himself in the Les Crawford- bills, while Stewart worked on a new play, How I Nick Potter role . I think ·it possible that when Stewart W?nder. This was a comic fantasy concerning the came back to the role ten years later, he could plight of scientists in the Atomic Age . It, too , had no longer identify with it and, perhaps uncon- trouble finding a producer, but eventually Ruth Gor- sciously , adjusted the role so that it was more in don and Garson Kanin (old friends of Stewart) keeping with a new image of himself. agreed to sponsor it. It opened at the Hudson Theatre in 1948 with Raymond Massey in the lead . HOLIDAY was for the time being about the only It managed a run of 63 performances. chance Stewart would get to express even a glimmer of his new self. KITTY FOYLE, Christopher Morley 's George Jean Nathan 's review of the play is one of tnbute to the white-collar girl, might seem to have possibilities, but Stewart's and Dalton Trumbo's 1940 his classic studies in vitriol , triggered as it is by one adaptation , or studio tampering thereupon , turned it into a rather mushy romance. About as sharp as of his pet peeves, Hollywood's destruction of cre- it gets is when Kitty , her dander up , mouths some home truths: \" I read about the guts of the pioneer ative talent. Though it is really needlessly cruel in women and the woman of the dust bowl and the gingham goddess of the covered wagon . What tone, Nathan 's opinion unfortunately carries the about the woman of the covered typewriter?\" I would be happy to assign those lines to Dalton Trumbo weight of some truth . He writes: \"Mr. Stewart has at the peak of his form , but who knows? They did help Ginger Rogers to win the Academy Award in been spending the last fifteen years in Hollywood 1940, the same year in which Stewart won his for a skillful adaptation of Philip Barry's not-so-good as a writer for the moving pictures. It is apparent play, The Philadelphia Story. that, like many another writer for the moving pictures About this time, Stewart decided to buy a farm in the Adirondacks and return to playwriting . Miss in Hollywood, he has been thinking . Thinking is the Winter explains in her autobiography, \" Don wanted to get away from Hollywood and devote himself to favorite extra-professional exercise of such olnitetrhaetii~ more serious writing .. He liked the film medium particularly those who before their fall were ~nd did ~ot join in the popular fashion of denigrating film wntlng, but with more and more to say about way to doing creditable work . .. The cerebration these momentous times, he sought a freer and more independent form of self-expression.\" Rather flowering, thereupon develops into the belief . .. that curiously, Stewart's first try at self-expression was the book for a musical based on Ludwig Bemelman 's h·is dramatic rebirth must take the shape of a per- Hotel Splendide short stories. formance which will be so markedly oppugnant This project was interrupted by a call from Holly- wood asking Stewart to adapt I.A.R. Wylie 's novel, to everything in any manner even distantly associat- The Keeper of the Flame . Miss Winter reports that Stewart readily accepted because the novel was ed with the screen that people will be transportedly anti-fascist and \" he felt that it could be a contribu- tion to this war against Hitler. \" Stewart had been set back on their tails by his inner contempt for president of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League a few years previously and undoubtedly he had some the medium and by his re-divulgation of his old , real, definite thoughts on the subject. Whatever they were will never be known. Katharine Hepburn and admirable self, for years so lamentably suppressed.\" Spencer Tracy, the film 's stars, evidently became nervous about some of the political sentiments that The synopses of How I Wonder (the play is out of Stewart was pouring into the script and complained to MGM's front office. The result was that the script print) support this charge of overly ponderous was quickly bowdlerized . The finished film is a rather muddled Gothic romance concerning the widow of thinking and dramaturgy. a famous American who was actually a fascist cor- ruptor of youth . Stewart's contribution to the war After the closing of the play, Stewart went to London ended as little more than slogan filmmaking : in bold to work on the screen adaptation of EDWARD , MY red letters, it warns that the enemy is everywhere. SON (1949). Later, while working on a screen treat- ment of HUCKLEBERRY FINN , Stewart was invited by Discouraged, Stewart returned to the Adirondacks MGM \" to answer questions\" but he refused be- and began a play, Emily Brady, a dramatization of cause he knew that this would lead to naming names. His work was terminated . Returning to New York , he worked on a new play, The Kidders, which was tried out at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge , Massachusetts in the spring of 1951. No producer was interested in bringing the play to Broadway. Stewart felt that both theatre and film were closed to him in America, so he and his wife moved to London , where they still reside. Considering the point at which he began , nothing could be more surprising than to find Donald Ogden Stewart ending his career as a black-listed writer. Perhaps because the crucial middle years of his career were spent in the self-effacement of Holly- wood studios, there seems to be no line of develop- ment through his career. When he was abruptly silenced was Stewart really speaking in his own voice? Orwas it merely another stage of a chameleon- like existence in which Stewart assumed by turns the colors of those who most impressed him? Was the final voice actually Ella Winter's? 11111111 78 WINTER 1970-71

DONALD OGDEN STEWART (1894- Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney 1930 Buchman . From the play by Philip Barry. With Kath- LAUGHTER Paramount. Directed by Harry D'Arrast. arine Hepburn , Cary Grant, and Lew Ayres. MARIE Screenplay by Harry D'Arrast. Dialogue by Donald ANTOINETTE MGM . Directed by W . S. Van Dyke. Ogden Stewart. With Nancy Carroll. Fredric March Screenplay by Ernest Vajda, Claudine West, and and Glenn Anders. Donald Ogden Stewart. From the biography by Ste- fan Zweig . With Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, 1931 Robert Morley, and John Barrymore. FINN AND HATTIE Paramount. Directed by Norman Taurog and Norman McLeod. Screenplay by Sam 1939 Mintz. From the novel Mr. and Mrs. Haddock Abroad LOVE AFFAIR RKO Radio . Directed by Leo McCarey . by Donald Ogden Stewart. Dialogue by Joseph Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart and Delmer Mankiewicz. With Leon Errol , Mitzi Green , and ZaSu Daves. From a story by Mildred Kram and Leo Mc- Pitts. TARNISHED LADY Paramount. Directed by Carey. With Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. George Cukor. Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. With Tallulah Bankhead and Clive Brook. 1940 REBOUND RKO Pathe. Directed by Edward H. Griffith . NIGHT OF NIGHTS Paramount. Directed by Lewis Mile- Screenplay by Horace Jackson. From the play by stone. Original screenplay by Donald Ogden Donald Ogden Stewart. With Ina Claire, Robert Stewart. With Pat O'Brien and Olympe Bradna. Ames , and Myrna Loy. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY MGM. Directed by George Cukor. Screenplay by Donald Ogden 1932 Stewart. From the play by Philip Barry. With Kath- SMILIN' THROUGH MGM . Directed by Sidney Frank- arine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Cary Grant. lin . Screenplay by Ernest Vajda and Claudine West. KITTY FOYLE RKO Radio. Directed by Sam Wood. Dialogue by Donald Ogden Stewart and James Ber- Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart and Dalton nard Fagan . From the play by Jane Cowl and Jane Trumbo. From the novel by Christopher Morley. With Murfin . With Norma Shearer, Fredric March , and Ginger Rogers and Dennis Morgan. Leslie Howard. 1941 1933 THAT UNCERTAIN FEELING United Artists. Directed by WHITE SISTER MGM . Directed by Victor Fleming . Ernst Lubitsch . Screenplay by Donald Ogden Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. From a novel Stewart. From an adaptation by Walter Reisch of by F. Marion Crawford and a silent adaptation by Victorien Sardou and Emile de Najac's play Oivor- Walter Hackett. With Helen Hayes, Clark Gable , and Gons. With Merle Oberon , Melvin Douglas, and Bur- Lewis Stone. GOING HOLLYWOOD MGM. Directed by gess Meredith . A WOMAN'S FACE MGM . Directed Raoul Walsh . Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. by George Cukor. Screenplay by Donald Ogden From a story by Frances Marion . With Marion Davies, Stewart and Elliott Paul. From the play /I etait une Bing Crosby , and Fifi D'Orsay . ANOTHER LANGUAGE fois by Francis de Groisset. With Joan Crawford MGM. Directed by Edward H. Griffith. Original and Melvin Douglas. SMILlN' THROUGH MGM . screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Gertrude Directed by Frank Borzage. Screenplay by Donald Purcell. Dialogue by Mankiewicz, Purcell, and Don- Ogden Stewart and John Balderston. From the play ald Ogden Stewart. With Helen Hayes , Robert Mont- by Jane Murfin and Jane Cowl. With Jeanette Mac- gomery , and John Boles . DINNER AT EIGHT MGM. Donald , Brian Aherne, and Gene Raymond . Directed by George Cukor. Screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Frances Marion . Additional dia- 1942 logue by Donald Ogden Stewart. From the play by TALES OF MANHATTAN 20th Century-Fox. Directed by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. With Jean Julien Duvivier. Screenplay by Ben Hecht, Ferenc Harlow, John Barrymore, Marie Dressler, and Wal- Molnar, Donald Ogden Stewart, Samuel Hoffenstein , lace Beery. Alan Campbell , Ladislas Fodor, L. Vadnai , L. Georog , Lamar Trotti, and Henry Blankfort. With 1934 Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth , Ginger Rogers, Henry THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET MGM. Directed Fonda, and Charles Laughton. KEEPER OF THE FLAME by Sidney Franklin . Screenplay by Ernest Vajda, MGM. Directed by George Cukor. Screenplay by Claudine West, and Donald Ogden Stewart. From Donald Ogden Stewart. From the novel by I. A. R. the play by Rudolph Beiser. With Norma Shearer, Wylie. With Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Fredric March, and Charles Laughton . 1945 WITHOUT LOVE MGM. Directed by Harold S. Bucquet. 1935 Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. From the play NO MORE LADIES MGM . Directed by Edward H. by Philip Barry. With Katharine Hepburn and Griffith . Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart and Spencer Tracy. Horace Jackson . From the play by A. E. Thomas . With Joan Crawford , Robert Montgomery, and 1947 Franchot Tone. LIFE WITH FATHER Warners. Directed by Michael Cur- tiz . Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. From the 1937 play by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. With THE PRISONER OF ZENDA United Artists. Directed by William Powell and Irene Dunne. CASS TlMBERLANE John Cromwell. Screenplay by John Balderston , MGM . Directed by George Sidney. Screenplay by Wells Root, and Donald Ogden Stewart. From the Donald Ogden Stewart. From the novel by Sinclair novel by Anthony Hope. With Ronald Colman , Ma- Lewis. With Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner. deleine Carroll , and Douglas Fairbanks. 1949 1938 EDWARD, MY SON MGM. Directed by George Cukor. HOLIDAY Columbia. Directed by George Cukor. Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. From the play by Robert Morley and Noel Langley . With Spencer Tracy , Deborah Kerr, and Leueen McGrath . FILM COMMENT 79

PRESTON STURGES On location for THE POWER AND THE GLORY. Left to right : Cullen Johnson, Bill O'Brien, Preston Sturges and director William K. Howard . STRICTLY DISHONORABLE. Lewis Stone and Sidney Fox. 80 WINTER 1970-71

by Andrew NTHETHRTES Sarris Andrew Sarris is the film critic of The Village Voice . were then assigned, by Universal and Columbia respectively, to other screenwriters. It would have This fall, Simon and Schuster published a collection been considered incestuous for Sturges to serve as the dialoguer on his own plays. Such was the of his writing under the title Confessions of a Cultist. absurd position of the screenwriter in the movie He is preparing a book on American cinema of the industry. All in all , Sturges was connected in one thirties, in which the following piece will probably way or another with the writing of seventeen films through the thirties, ranging from the total responsi- appear. bility of an original screenplay for THE POWER AND THE GLORY in 1933 to the minutely marginal assign- To the end of his days Preston Sturges described ment of writing the lyrics to a song for ONE RAINY himself as a writer rather than a director, and he AFTERNOON in 1936. would have been the first to admit that the films he directed through the forties and fifties relied more Where· does that leave us? Not in very good shape. on verbal wit than visual style. Still , all his Rumor has it that all of Preston Sturges' papers are screenwriting efforts in the thirties would now be in the possession of a film scholar who plans to of only the most esoteric concern if he had not made publish the more pertinent items in a definitive biog- the decisive leap from the writer's cubicle to the raphy. Until the happy day of publication arrives, director's chair with THE GREAT MCGINTY in 1940, all we can do is speculate about Sturges ' role in followed by CHRISTMAS IN JULY that same year , THE the thirties. LADY EVE and SULLIVAN 'S TRAVELS (1941), THE PALM At first glance, THE BIG POND and FAST AND LOOSE BEACH STORY (1942), THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S seem logical projects for Sturges in that they indulge CREEK , HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO and THE GREAT the good-natured whimsy to be found his most suc- MOMENT (1944) , MAD WEDNESDAY (1947) , and, some- cessful plays-Strictly Dishonorable and Child of what anticlimactically, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948), Manhattan . THE BIG POND presents Maurice Cheva- THE BEAUTIFUL BLONDE FROM BASHFUL BEND (1949) , lier as an impoverished French aristocrat in love with and THE FRENCH THEY ARE A FUNNY RACE (1957) . Claudette Colbert as the daughter of an American Although it is relatively common for writers to be- come directors nowadays, the switch was somewhat agum magnate la Wrigley played by George Barbier, unusual in the craft-conditioned thirties when it was not unknown for producers to fire directors who had a pre-Edward Arnold big-business boomer. Cheva- the temerity to take up typing. As it was, the suc- lier makes his fortune in America by hitting upon cessful accession of Sturges sparked a writ- the idea of spiking chewing gum with liquor, thus er-director movement involving John Huston , Billy spoofing both Prohibition and American Knowhow Wilder, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Dudley Nichols, Clif- with just a soupCfon of Chevalier 's Gallic insou- ford Odets, Nunnally Johnson , Robert Rossen , Sam- ciance . Indeed , THE BIG POND is so completely a Che- uel Fuller, Frank Tashlin , Richard Brooks and valier vehicle that Miss Colbert is reduced to a rela- Blake Edwards, among others. tively petulant love interest, with none of the incan- descent womanliness Lubitsch was to allow her to But no Hollywood screenwriter-turned-director project in THE SMILING LIEUTENANT. By any standards, ever matched Sturges as the compleat writ- Hobart Henley's direction of THE BIG POND clearly er-director with nine out of his twelve films based lacks the lilt of Lubitsch , but there are little bits of on original screenplays, and even his three adapta- satire at the factory that might possibly be attributed tions (THE LADY EVE, THE GREAT MOMENT and THE to Sturges. Even the spiked chewing gum might FRENCH THEY ARE A FUNNY RACE) bearing the personal have been the brainchild of Sturges, himself the Sturges stamp of the free-wheeling flashback. By inventor of a kiss-proof lipstick for his mother's contrast, most of his aforementioned colleagues cosmetics firm . But with four other writers on the began to fall back on other people's \" properties\" project, the odds certainly discourage any unduly once they had switched their guild affiliation . Stur- creative speculation . Let us say Simply that Sturges ges threw in his script for THE GREAT MCGINTY (origi- himself was already operating in a style and a tradi- nally titled DOWN WENT MCGINTY) for the privilege of tion with many other practitioners-Coward , directing it. Thus , unlike his colleagues , he took a Maugham, Barry, Behrman on the stage, Lubitsch , cut in pay for a rise in status. He proved his pOint St. Clair , D'Arrast on the silent screen , and later and went on to become the brightest comedy direc- Cukor and Leisen in the talkies . Many of the ingre- tor of the forties . But he always remained something dients of the Sturges forties classics are here-the of a loner, relatively speaking . Sturges told me on insane illogic of the American success story the occasion of an interview before his death that (CHRISTMAS IN JULY, MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK , he had never worked with another writer even MAD WEDNESDAY) , the modesty of heroes who dread though his name had been coupled on credit sheets becoming little fish in the big pond , and a suavely with writers as disparate as Edwin Justus Mayer and Europeanized view of America coupled with a Clarence Buddington Kelland. He began his movie brashly Americanized view of Europe so that the career as a \" dialoguer\" (to use the terminology of Jamesian dialectics of innocence and corruption are the Film Daily Year Book) on two Paramount films deflected from tragic irony to comic irony. released in 1930 (THE BIG POND and FAST AND LOOSE). He was hired presumably because of the success FAST AND LOOSE combines the battle of the sexes of his Broadway comedies-Strictly Dishonorable with the struggle of the classes, and again the Stur- and Child of Manhattan-but these two properties FILM COMMENT 81

ges contribution is marginal if not minimal. Still , with as much style and brio as possible . Thus does the rich-poor paradoxes of the plot bear more than Sturges transcend the boozy sentimentality of the a passing resemblance to the exquisitely elaborated speakeasy atmosphere in STRICTLY DISHONORABLE by conceits of THE PALM BEACH STORY. Otherwise, FAST carefully etching the autonomous individualities of AND LOOSE is memorable less for Fred Newmeyer's extras , at times overexploiting the prevailing ethnic labored direction than for the curious tension be- caricature of Italian restaurateurs and Irish cops, tween Miriam Hopkins' screen debut as a rowdy but even here supplying some modifying , warming society girl and Carole Lombard 's relatively sub- idiosyncracy to the stock characterization . His for- dued sass as the poor chorus girl with a disconcer- ties stock company has not yet been assembled , tingly delicate beauty. Miss Hopkins overacts with and he is several years away from becoming the an array of chin-jutting , eye-narrowing mannerisms; Brueghel of American comedy directors, but he is Miss Lombard hardly acts at all and yet steals every nonetheless on his way , influenced equally by the scene with a smouldering impassivity that is the stuff verbal crackle of a Broadway-West End-Boulevards myths are made of. tradition and the lost but still remembered art of silent slapstick. When STRICTLY DISHONORABLE finally materialized on the screen late in 1931 , Preston Sturges wrote a THE POWER AND THE GLORY took Sturges in an unex- letter to Carl Laemmle, President of Universal, con- pectedly ambitious direction in 1933. Producer Jesse gratulating him on the film 's fidelity to the play. John Lasky caused something of a furor by publicizing M. Stahl was one of the more visually fluent directors the film flamboyantly as a breakthrough in the art of the thirties, and Gladys Lehman 's screenplay was reasonably faithful to the Sturges original, but an of \" narratage.\" Not narration, mind you , some crit- especially big break for the film was the casting of ics chortled , but narratage, and how fancy can you Paul Lukas as the romantical opera singer and Lewis get, and all we have here is the good-old fashioned Stone as the tippling judge. Stone and Lukas both flashback with a minor variation of having the narra- projected the civilized dignity of men of the world tor occasionally use his own voice to narrate what more with the zestful sweetness of a Sturges than the characters are mouthing in the flashback. Wil- with the world-weary cynicism one finds in the more liam K. Howard directed Spencer Tracy, Colleen vinegary Viennese comedies of Ernst Lubitsch and Moore, Ralph Morgan and Hel~n Vinson through Billy Wilder. Sturges and Stahl were not so well the intricacies of a surprisingly somber Sturges served by Sidney Fox's determinedly diminutive in- script, and, it seems that Sturges was less than genue complete with a pOignantly innocent South- enchanted by Howard's direction ; he may have re- ern drawl, a Valentine sampler projected more far- solved at this point that he would eventually have cically the following year in ONCE IN A LIFETIME and to direct his scripts himself. The film was neither more sentimentally in THE MOUTHPIECE, on both oc- critically nor commercially the success it set out to casions eclipsed by wondrously woman-wise per- be with so much serious effort from all concerned , formances by Aline McMahon . George Meeker as but it remains one of the more impressive films of the discarded roughneck boyfriend was one of the the thirties , and not at all an entirely unworthy least prepossessing exhibits in Hollywood 's gallery of precursor of CITIZEN KANE in the never very popular losers and masochists in romantic rondelays-Ralph genre of grown-up pessimism about the American Bellamy, Robert Preston , Lee Bowman, John How- Dream (vide the box-office receipts from GREED, THE ard, Jeffrey Lynn , Peter Lawford, Grady Sutton , Allyn CROWD , STREET SCENE , A MAN TO REMEMBER , KANE, Joslin , Donald Woods, Alan Marshall , Richard Carl- THE MAGNIFICENT AMBER SONS , THE GREAT MOMENT). son , David Niven (early) and Herbert Marshall (Iate)-all being somewhat more memorably rejecta- There is a tendency nowadays to underrate the ble than was Meeker. contribution of William K. Howard to THE POWER AND THE GLORY, one recent film historian going so far The plot, and even the mildly paradoxical title of as to view the film merely as an episode in the career STRICTLY DISHONORABLE, reflect the playwright 's of noted cinematographer James Wong Howe. But snug if not smug sophistication regarding the con- it should be recorded (though not amplified at this venient confluence of materialism , mentality and time) that Howard was a director more serious and morality. Hence, though most American movies, offbeat and original than most through a long career particularly during the Depression , sought to con- studded with eye-catching exceptions to commis- sole the masses with the notion that money did not sioned routine , such as WHITE GOLD, THE VALIANT and bring happiness, Sturges quite casually suggested BACK DOOR TO HEAVEN . Nonetheless THE POWER AND that the most provincial girl imaginable was more THE GLORY remains in retrospect more crucial to the likely to find not merely sensual pleasure but even career of Sturges than to those of Howard , Howe, sacred respect from a philandering opera singer Tracy , Lasky et al. The story of a self-made busi- than from the dull boy back home. Later Sturges nessman rising in public life as he falls in private was to write a ringingly Shavian denunciation . of life bears some resemblance to the Orson Welles- poverty as a proposed life style in SULLIVAN 'S Herman J. Mankiewicz treatment of the Hearst-Mc- TRAVELS, making explicit what had always been im- Cormick megalomania, but there are crucial dif- plicit in his success-story-oriented Cinderella plots. ferences as well . KANE gets by with people who Not that Sturges was a Pollyanna about the Ameri- wouldn 't know German ExpreSSionism ifthey collided can Capitalistic System , but the only way to beat with it in a dark alley at the intersection of Caligari it, he implied , was to hang loose, roll with the Court and Murnau Circle. Nor are these same people punches, dance around the ring , and wait for that particularly concerned with the revolutionary impli- one opening that can turn a life around from savage cations of deep focu s for staging scenes as opposed frustration to frenzied success. But even people who to the classically analyti cal tradition of invisible edit- have long since stopped yearning for even the ing and camera movement. For these people , KANE sweepstakes-type success proposed by Sturges functions as a slice of fashionably pessimistic ideol- manage to find satisfaction by doing their own thing ogy out of the Kafka bag . American materialism is a dead end and all that , but, when you think about 82 WINTER 1970-71

it, what isn't? in THE POWER AND THE GLORY is the moral corruption of the milieu into which his wealth has propelled THE POWER AND THE GLORY , unlike KANE , does not him. When he finds his own son making love to his function implicitly or explicitly as ideology . The Stur- second wife, he feels betrayed to the point of first ges sensibility is too ironic for the demands of questioning and then ending his own existence. For dogma. True, the businessman protagonist causes Sturges himself, born and raised under still mysteri- the death of some workers , but there is still some- ous circumstances, in the circle of Mary Oeste, thing admirable (from Sturges 's point of view) in the Isadora Duncan , Gordon Craig, Isaac Singer, torn character's courage and decisiveness. That the between European bohemianism and American ma- story of his life is told after his death by a man he terialism , between feminine fluttering and affectation dominated and spiritually emasculated , a born on the one hand and masculine muscling and ac- Number Two man content to wait in the shadow quisitiveness on the other, the story that emerges of Number One , gives THE POWER AND THE GLORY an in THE POWER AND THE GLORY is too uncomfortably initially disturbing ambiguity which is never dis- clinical for comfort. Still , Sturges treats it gingerly , pelled . Yet we believe the account of Number Two tentatively , as if he were not yet sure of what attitude as objective truth in a way we are never asked to to take to it. Oddly , he never returns to this sort believe the more subjectively oriented recollections of subject again , and never again comes as close of characters in flashback movies like KANE and to an unguarded view of the frightful tensions ALL ABOUT EVE and RASHOMON . Throughout his through which he grew into manhood . screenwriting career, Sturges employed the flash- back not so much to express the selfish subjectivity Sturges was associated with four other writers on of memory , but to reorganize , restructure and rese- the credits of THIRTY DAY PRINCESS, a minor imper- quence reality so that all its ironies, comic and sonation-Cinderella yarn too fragile and undistin- tragic, can be more effectively expressed . Here in guished for extended comment. Marion Gering THE POWER AND THE GLORY , Sturges establishes very directed with ideal structuralist passivity, and Sylvia early that his protagoniSt's son has grown up to be Sidney made another feeble stab at being a comedi- a wastrel , a sponger , a loafer, and an all-round enne mainly by winking excessively in the manner spoiled brat . Part of the problem is that the boy is overindulged by the mother who has felt somewhat Rouben Mamoulian had found so expressive for neglected by her husband , whom she herself has his optical dissolves in CITY STREETS . Miss Sidney driven to be a success. No-one's fault really, just the was to remain the quintessential proletarian princess way things are. Then , much further on in the movie, of the thirti.es , and leave the gossamer comedy to we have proceeded past late flashbacks back to others. Otherwise, the movie is interesting mainly early flashbacks a'nd back to late flashbacks until for its cross-references to the evolution of Cary we find ourselves inside the humble cabin where Grant and Edward Arnold from minor to major levels the protagoniSt's son has just been born. Spencer of casting. Tracy holds up the newborn babe proudly and the music swells and he rousingly declares his hopes Sturges's second play to be adapted to the and dreams for his son-hopes and dreams that we screen-Child of Manhattan-was indifferently have long since learned are to be horribly disap- received. Nancy Carroll, a saucy early-thirties star pointed . And yet the scene is still played for all it was winding up her precipitous decline, and John is worth as if Sturges were trying to tell us that no Boles continued to offend reviewers with his man- matter how things end (and they always end badly), nequin impassivity and light-opera hamminess. Most we must act as if they were going to end well . This offended of all by Boles was temporary movie re- is the affirmative , idealistic side of Sturges that came viewer Graham Greene, who professed never to to the fore in THE GREAT MOMENT, when he began understand why lovely women on the screen suc- with the ignominious death and humiliations of Dr. cumbed to the sensual arrogance of Boles' cowlick. Morton , and ended with the heroic decision of Dr. Again the plot emphasizes the niceness and consid- Morton to end pain at the cost of his own fortune. eration of all sorts of stock characters under the most sordid circumstances, the heroine actually Throughout THE POWER AND THE GLORY there are launching the frothy farce with her illicit pregnancy, exceptionally strenuous metaphors to express the and then wishing to prevent the playboy who has abstract notions of rise and fall , superiority and made the noble gesture from sacrificing his own inferiority, selfishness and self-sacrifice. On one life to her need, and he, on his part, not wishing occasion, Spencer Tracy and Colleen Moore keep to allow her to sacrifice her own happiness merely ascending a hill higher and higher as Tracy keeps through a misguided notion of his own motives. We trying to find .the courage to propose. Earlier, the are light years away from the attitudes struck in Way businessman as a child keeps climbing a tree to Down East and East Lynne, but mere months away ever more dizzying heights as a prophetic expres- from a time when illicit pregnancy will no longer sion of later heights that will be scaled in the busi- have the option of being taken lightly. ness world . Sturges is often given to wildly visual conceits in his screenplays, many out of silent mov- That Sturges reportedly collaborated with Maxwell ies. I wonder if Sturges ever saw Harold Lloyd's KID Anderson and Leonard Praskins on Leo Tolstoy's BROTHER back in the twenties , with its lyrical tree- RESURRECTION for Samuel Goldwyn and Rouben climbing sequence. Since Sturges worked very Mamoulian indicates only that Sturges was consid- knowledgeably with the Lloyd persona in MAD ered a relatively educated man on the Hollywood WEDNESDAY , it is reasonable to assume some feed- totem pole, and was therefore entrusted with arty back . foreign authors like Tolstoy , Ferenc Molnar (THE GOOD FAIRY), Marcel Pagnol (PORT OF SEVEN SEAS) Ultimately, THE POWER AND THE GLORY depresses and FranGois Villon via Justin Huntley McCarthy (IF audiences not merely for its pessimism , which it I WERE KING) . Of these five-foot-shelf-and-Iess pro- shares with KANE , but for its sordidness, in which ductions there is little to note beyond their strained it is unique. What finally destroys the protagonist refinement. WE LIVE AGAIN caused a slight ripple, less through Anna Sten 's Slavic stupefaction and FILM COMMENT 83

Fredric March 's laborious stylishness - which al- prune proprietor of the fashion salon , remain just ways made up in persistence what it lacked in cameos without coalescing into that Dickensian persuasiveness-than through some ideologically density of detail that Sturges will later fashion in pointed speeches about the serfs , which , all things his own films. There are memorable set pieces-the being equal , we would be safer crediting to Maxwell fur coat falling on the double-decker bus, the cus- Anderson than to Sturges. tomers scrambling for food in an automat gone berserkly ejaculatory, and the ticker tape always THE GOOD FAIRY is notable mainly for William Wyler 's fouling up in Edward Arnold 's hands as if to answer strenuous misdirection of delicate comedy, the mis- the never-before-asked question of what happens casting of Herbert Marshall as the lawyer-lover, and to ticker tape day in and day out when it stops the lovely, husky-voiced ingenue performance of tickering-but the gags and the characters end in Margaret Sullavan , particularly in the movie 's best themselves coolly and completely without any and most Sturgean scene in which she plays a carry-over or cross-over. There is a neatness and tearful usherette in attendance at a cast-from- dispatch to the movie that marks it as a work more home-and-hearth-and-cradle side-tearjerker on the of expertly collaborative craftsmanship than of the screen with the remorseless husband uttering and most personal art. It's probably just a coincidence reuttering and fingerpointing his one word of dia- that Sturges was never associated again with Jean logue: \" GO\" to great comic effect. Sturges later Arthur, who gives EASY LIVING much of its spunky- developed other movie-with in-movie routines for elegant resilience ; but it is unlikely that he would SULLIVAN 'S TRAVELS and THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN 'S ever have veiled her with as much expertly mocking CREEK. glamour as the eye-wise Leisen did in her brilliantly composed super-lu xury bedtime (rather than bed- Sturges was not given official credit for IMITATION room) scene in the hotel with Ray Milland. Leisen's OF LIFE and NEXT TIME WE LOVE, two genuinely tasteful hom mage to Sternberg-on-Dietrich is , like Arthur's and above-average sagas of self-sacrifice that de- ambivalent attitude toward her own working girl serve mention, but apart from Sturges's presently beauty , satiric without being derisive, delighted in unknown contributions to their behavioral charms. itself just this side of delirium. DIAMOND JIM and HOTEL HAYWIRE are somewhat more meaningfully related to the personality of Preston Sturges 's career as a scriptwriter , pure and simple , Sturges than their meagre reputations would indi- ends with REMEMBER THE NIGHT, a somber, low-key cate . DIAMOND JIM takes Edward Arnold 's big tycoon delicately awakening light drama of love and re- mannerisms into the climactically logical laughter demption under the shadow of prison and all the of his hammy-heroic self-destruction as a ghoulish guilt such a plot device implies. REMEMBER THE NIGHT gourmet. HOTEL HAYWIRE represents the earliest Stur- is a nice, sensitive, detailed , nuanced movie, and ges effort to work in pure farce , a genre then and Leisen 's direction is virtually faultless from a tech- later in which Sturges tended to enclose his slap- nical standpoint. But this wasn 't enough for Sturges. stick effects within the quotes of self-conscious He wanted something more, a richer tone perhaps, imitation . Sturges, like Welles, was a nouvelle vague , or a more complex mood, or a more personal style. hommage-addicted director before his time. Whatever the source of his discontent, it propelled him into one of the most brilliant and most bizarre Which leaves us with the two quintessentially Stur- bursts of creation in the history of the cinema . 11111111 gean movies of the thirties , EASY LIVING and RE- MEMBER THE NIGHT, both directed by Mitchell Leisen , PRESTON STURGES a stylish middle-level figure at Paramount who (1898-1959) bridged the gap between Lubitsch and Sternberg 1930 at the beginning of the thirties and Sturges and THE BIG POND Paramount. Directed by Hobart Henley. Wilder at the beginning of the forties. Which is not Screenplay by Robert Presnell and Garrett Fort. to say that Frank Tuttle or Wesley Ruggles or Nor- Dialogue by Presnell and Preston Sturges. From a man McLeod or even Edward Sutherland (though play by George Middleton and A.E . Thomas. With it was a bit late for him) could not have taken a Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert. FAST AND stab at EASY LIVING and REMEMBER THE NIGHT. There LOOSE Paramount. Directed by Fred Newmeyer. was a self-operative tradition at Paramount within Screenplay by Doris Anderson and Jack Kirkland . a reasonable margin of error, but Leisen was some- Dialogue by Preston Sturges. From the play The thing more than a studio artisan if something less Best People by David Gray and Avery Hopwood. than a full-fledged auteur. Curiously , EASY LIVING is With Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard, and Frank the only film with which Sturges the writer was Morgan . associated in the thirties that may be reasonably 1931 preferred to any of his own forties films. Not only STRICTLY DISHONORABLE Universal. Directed by John is EASY LIVING funny and gracious and generous in M. Stahl. Screenplay by Gladys Lehman . From the the best Sturges tradition ; it is also velvety smooth play by Preston Sturges. With Paul Lukas, Sidney and comfortably movieish in a way no Stur- Fox, and Lewis Stone. ges-directed film ever was. Always with Sturges's 1933 own work , directed and written in tandem , there CHILD OF MANHATTAN Columbia. Directed by Eddie crept in disturbing dissonances and ambiguities , Buzzell. Screenplay by Gertrude Purcell . From the unexplained tics and complexes , unresolved affini- play by Preston Sturges. With Nancy Carroll , John ties and attractions. Boles, Buck Jones, and Jane Darwell. THE POWER AND THE GLORY Fox. Directed by William K. Howard . There is none of this in EASY LIVING. The light likeabil- Original screenplay by Preston Sturges. With ity of the milieu never crosses over into a more Spencer Tracy, Colleen Moore, Ralph Morgan , and complex complicity. The brilliant bits of Luis Alberni as the frantically bluffing and blackmailing hotel Helen Vinson . impresario , William Demarest as the tough-guy gos- 1934 sip columnist , and Franklin Pangborn as the prissy THIRTY DAY PRINCESS Paramount. Directed by Marion 84 WINTER 1970-71

Gering. Screenplay by Sam Hellman , Edwin Justus 1942 Mayer, Preston Sturges, and Frank Partos. From the THE PALM BEACH STORY Paramount . Directed by story by Clarence Buddington Kelland . With Sylvia Preston Sturges. Original screenplay by Sturges. Sidney , Cary Grant, and Edward Arnold . WE LIVE With Claudette Colbert , Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, AGAIN United Artists. Directed by Rouben Mamou- and Rudy Vallee. lian . Screenplay by Preston Sturges, Maxwell An- derson , and Leonard Praskins . From the novel Res- 1944 urrection by Leo Tolstoy. With Anna Sten , Fredric HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO Paramount. Directed by March , and Jane Baxter. IMITATION OF LIFE Universal. Preston Sturges. Original screenplay by Sturges. Directed by John M. Stahl. Screenplay by William With Eddie Bracken , Ella Raines , and Bill Edwards. Hurlburt (and , uncredited , Preston Sturges). From THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK Paramount. Direct- the novel by Fannie Hurst. With Claudette Colbert, ed by Preston Sturges. Orig inal screenplay by Stur- Warren William , and Rochelle Hudson . ges. With Eddie Bracken , Betty Hutton , Diana Lynn , and William Demarest. THE GREAT MOMENT Para- 1935 mount. Directed by Preston Sturges. Screenplay by THE GOOD FAIRY Universal. Directed by William Wyler. Sturges. Based on the biography Triumph Over Pain Screenplay by Preston Sturges. From the play by by Rene Fulop-Miller. With Joel McCrea, Betty Field , Ferenc Molnar. With Margaret Sullavan , Herbert Harry Carey, and William Demarest. Marshall, and Frank Morgan . DIAMOND JIM Universal. 1947 Directed by Edward Sutherland . Screenplay by I'LL BE YOURS Universal. Directed by William A . Preston Sturges, Harry Clork, and Doris Malloy. Seiter. Screenplay by Feli x Jackson. From the Based on the biography by Parker Morell. With Ed- screenplay The Good Fairy by Preston Sturges , ward Arnold , Jean Arthur, Binnie Barnes, and Ce- based on the play by Ferenc Molnar. With Deanna sar Romero . Durbin , Tom Drake, and Adolphe Menjou. MAD 1936 WEDNESDAY (THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK) United NEXT TIME WE LOVE Universal. Directed by Edward Artists. Directed and produced by Preston Sturges. H. Griffith . Screenplay by Melville Baker (and, un- Original screenplay by Sturges. With Harold Lloyd, credited , Preston Sturges). From the novel Next Frances Ramsden , and Jimmy Conlin . Time We Live by Ursula Parrott. With Margaret Sul- 1948 lavan , James Stewart, and Ray Milland. ONE RAINY UNFAITHFULLY YOURS 20th Century-Fox. Directed and AFTERNOON United Artists . Directed by Rowland V. produced by Preston Sturges. Original screenplay Lee. Screenplay by Stephen Morehouse Avery and Maurice Hanline. From the original story Monsieur by Sturges . With Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell. San Gene by Siovensky Liga Pressberger and Rene 1949 Pujol. Lyrics for Secret Rendezvous by Preston Stur- THE BEAUTIFUL BLONDE FROM BASHFUL BEND 20th ges. With Francis Lederer and Ida Lupino . Century-Fox . Directed and produced by Preston Sturges . Screenplay by Sturges . From the story by 1937 Earl Felton . With Betty Grable , Caesar Romero , and HOTEL HAYWIRE Paramount. Directed by George Ar- Rudy Vallee. chainbaud . Original screenplay by Preston Sturges. 1951 With Leo Carrillo and Mary Carl isle. EASY LIVING Par- VENDETTA RKO RADIO. Directed by Mel Ferrer (and amount. Directed by Mitchell Leisen . Screenplay by uncredited and abortively, Max Ophuls, Preston Preston Sturges. From a story by Vera Caspary. With Sturges , and Stuart Heisler). Screenplay by W.R . Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold , and Ray Milland . Burnett. From the novel Colomba by Prosper Meri- 1938 mee, adapted by Peter O'Crotty. With Faith Domer- PORT OF SEVEN SEAS Universal. Directed by James gue and George Dolenz. STRICTLY DISHONORABLE Whale. Screenplay by Preston Sturges. From the MGM . Directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Pana- plays and screenplays by Marcel Pagnol. With Wal- ma. Screenplay by Melvin Frank and Norman Pana- lace Berry, Frank Morgan , and Maureen O'Sullivan . ma. From the play by Preston Sturges. With Ezio IF I WERE KING Paramount. Directed by Frank Lloyd . Pinza and Janet Leigh . Screenplay by Preston Sturges. From the play by 1956 Justin Huntly McCarthy. With Ronald Colman , Basil THE BIRDS AND THE BEES Paramount. Directed by Rathbone, Frances Dee, and Ellen Drew. Norman Taurog . Screenplay by Sidney Sheldon. From the screenplay The Lady Eve by Preston Stur- 1940 ges, based on the story by Monckton Hoffe. With REMEMBER THE NIGHT Paramount. Directed by Mitch- George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, and David Niven . ell Leisen . Original screenplay by Preston Stur- ges. With Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, and 1957 Beulah Bondi. THE GREAT MCGINTY Paramount. Directed by Preston Sturges. Original screenplay by LES CARNETS DU MAJOR THOMPSON (THE FRENCH, THEY Sturges. With Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, and Akim Tamiroff. CHRISTMAS IN JULY Paramount. ARE A FUNNY RACE) Directed by Preston Sturges. Directed by Preston Sturges. Original screenplay by Screenplay by Sturges. From the essays by Pierre Sturges. With Dick Powell , Ellen Drew, and Ray- Daninos. With Jack Buchanan, Martine Carol, mond Walburn . Noel-Noel, and Totti Truman Taylor. 1941 1958 THE LADY EVE Paramount. Directed by Preston Stur- PARIS HOLIDAY United Artists. Directed by Gerd Os- ges . Screenplay by Sturges . From the story by wald . Screenplay by Edmund Beloin and Dean Monckton Hoffe. With Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Reisner. From a story by Bob Hope. With Bob Hope, Fonda, and Charles Coburn. SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS Fernandel, Anita Ekberg , Martha Hyer, and Preston Paramount. Directed by Preston Sturges. Original Sturges (as Serge Vitry) . ROCK-A-BYE BABY Para- screenplay by Sturges. With Joel McCrea and mount. Directed by Frank Tashlin . Screenplay by Veronica Lake. Tashlin . From the screenplay The Miracle of Mor- gan 's Creek by Preston Sturges. With Jerry Lewis , Marilyn Maxwell, and Connie Stevens. FILM COMMENT 85

SCI~EEN 1~lrEI~S SYml~OSlum This past July, FILM COMMENT sent an informal novel. This was for Enterprise Studios, of blessed questionnaire to fifty of the most important memory, and I did a complete script which I thought screenwriters, and received more than a score of was pretty damned good . The producer (a pleasant answers in return. Except for those of Borden man but jumpy, who is no longer actively producing) Chase, .Carl Foreman and Paul Mazursky, all the thought otherwise, however, and put Zoe Akins on answers are published here in full. the project. I can't say what her version was like, The editor deliberately loaded some of the ques- because very soon thereafter Enterprise came a tions with words like \"author,\" \"tampering,\" and cropper. God knows what happened to the soda- \"cynical,\" in order to prod the more phlegmatic fountain that Ginger Rogers had the studio install screenwriters. But phlegm is not the dominant in her duplex dressing-room , let alone what hap- humor of the breed. There is enough bile in these pened to THE PURSUIT OF LOVE. I may have a copy replies to eat through celluloid, let alone the paper of my version buried deep in the sand somewhere , of this magazine, Still, the tone and substance of but I wouldn't bet on it. their testaments should help suggest the triumphs and traumas inherent in a misunderstood film craft. The second was a fictional story played against the actual background of Chief Joseph 's attempt to lead A PLACE IN THE SUN . the Nez Perce tribe to Canada and safety. I can 't Shelley Winters and recall whether I worked from somebody else's out- Montgomery Clift. line or my own (one does get confused now and then) , but the thing , which was called THUNDER ON Harry Brown THE MOUNTAIN , was getting to be in pretty good shape when MGM lowered the boom, for reasons that ONE. What projects did you work on that were not have escaped me. This was in 1954, I think , and filmed? it was to have been produced by Nicky Nayfack, At least five , maybe more. The first , in 1947, was who was also a very good friend of mine. Nicky THE PURSUIT OF LOVE , based on Nancy Mitford ' s didn 't really belong to Hollywood; and , to prove it, died about ten Years ago . The last I heard , he was haunting his own house, dressed in dinner trousers , white shirt, and black tie-scaring hell out of Joe Hyams and Elke Sommers, the new tenants. Nicky deserved a better fate than that, and so did our picture. The third shelved film , written in the mid-50s, is still a bete noire of mine. 20th Century-Fox had bought a novel, written by some woman or other, called THE ENCHANTED CUP; and Charlie Brackett was to produce it. Charlie hired me as a writer, and we talked the project over for a couple of weeks-it was, incidently, the story of Tristan and Isolde, as it might've been written by Taylor Caldwell. And at the end of the two weeks Charlie and I looked at each other and said : \" What the hell is this? \" Well , whatever it was, it wasn 't our cup of tea, so we did a very simple thing . We threw the book out the 86 WINTER 1970-71

window and went back to the mediaeval version . In At the moment I am sitting on a little number I've the end I came up with perhaps the best script I've called THE PACIFIC PUT-ON , based on the first 35 or ever done-what might be described as a fa iry-tale so pages of The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks & Mrs. for adults. Result?-THE ENCHANTED CUP is still lying Aleshine, a sort of novel sort of written by Frank in some pigeon-hole on the high ground overlooking R. Stockton , a sort of writer of the latter part of the Century City. Reasons?-Well, at the first story-con- last century. It's laid (in more ways than one) on ference Charlie and I had with the Elder Zanuck, a Pacific island in the late 1880s; and although it's he said : \" Take $3,000,000 out of it .\" So I went back a small script, there are those of me who love it . to my little gray hole in the west , and there , by God , Untortunately, according to the momentary de-' I took out two battles, a suit-and-a-half of chain-mail , mands of Hollywood , which wants nothing but pic- and a piebald palfrey. At our next conference Dar- tures about flower-children , pot, and blood on the ryl 's response to this cost-cutting was beautifully saddle-at least until next Tuesday at 4 pm-nobody oblique but devastatingly negative. \" We can 't make is interested in that type of story . In a very short fhis picture,\" he said . \" Why , look, you've got both time , though , it's not only going to be next Tuesday, of the lovers dying , and-goddamit, one of 'em isn 't but it's also going to be 4:03 pm . Then we ' ll see. even sick.\" Au revoir, Tristan! Bon voyage, Isolde, Indeed we will ... baby .. . TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the In 1955 I was hired , by the Goldstein brothers and writers who shared screen credit with you? an Italian producer named Amato , to write a film on the life of Van Gogh . I went to Rome to write I could reply to this in two ways: (a) Only the script; and I'd barely had time to skitter down screenwriters who are married , or perhaps odd in the Spanish Steps a couple of times when I received other areas, work with each other; or (b) ask a a hot little note from one Irving Stone, the author foolish question , get a foolish answer.-In my case, of something called Lust for Life, saying that Vincent I' ll admit, I never saw the bastards if I could help van Gogh was his very own personal property; that it-and usually I could help it. Thinking back , I realize he owned all the \" van Gogh family material ,\" what- that the one time I even discussed a script with the ever that was; and that if I didn 't cease and desist \" other\" writer was when I followed Mike Wilson on he would sue me within an inch of my life. I haven 't A PLACE IN THE SUN. Not long afterwards I found the faintest idea why he chose me for his whipping- myself on location for that particular film-up at Lake boy , what with all those lovely Goldsteins and Signor Tahoe, which at that time of year was terribly out- Amato lying around , but there it was. of-season-writing the next day's immortal lines about 10 hours ahead of next day's first set-up, and Well , I replied to Stone, using language that I con- wishing to God I'd been born rich instead of amena- sidered admirably restrained , to the effect that all ble . I was using as a basis for my script were two volumes of Vincent's letters to Theo-said letters being in In general , I'd say that I was more often than not public domain-and if Stone didn 't like what I was brought in after some hack had botched a job-he doing he could go off in a corner somewhere and frequently being paid a higher salary than myself muck up Michelangelo or somebody. End of to do the botching-and then I would try to put the Brown-Stone confrontation. pieces together. In some cases , notably THE VIRGIN QUEEN , I succeeded ; in others , such as (if you ' ll My script , called THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT, was winsome , excuse the expression) THE FIEND WHO WALKED THE wonderful , and way-out. However (there's always a WEST , they should 've brought in someone else to ' however' in my life), one of the Goldstein twins died , sweep up the shards I left lying around . However, Amato came down with a bad case of moneyless- the actor who played \" The Fiend \" is now head of ness, and-mirabile dictu!-MGM put LUST FOR LIFE production at Paramount, or was at this writing-so in the works. Seems that tney 'd owned the book maybe there is a God after all. all along but had never gotten around to doing anything about it. As a postscript, I'd like to remark that, the last time I saw any figures, there were about 1600 members Then , in the 60s , I got caught and branded by a of the Screen Writers Guild ; and I wouldn 't trust couple of declaredly independent producers who more than 25 of these zeros with the spelling of hadn 't quite made it to 1776. One of these hired \" c-a-t. \" me to do a film about a Marine general , and I later showed my appreciation of his productorial talents THREE. On which films did you collaborate most by hiring a lawyer to get my money out of him . The extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" other of these twin catastrophes wanted to produce of these films? a script based on a James Baldwin short story, and my version was far and away better than the original , I never \" collaborated \" on any film; which is to say-I the background of which was Paris, and the protag- got screwed , but I never moved my hips. As for onist a black American . But Jimmy had script ap- considering myself the \" author\" of any film (except- proval , and he was tucked away in Istamboul with ing A WALK IN THE SUN , of which Milestone said : \" I some Turkish Delights while script-approval time shot the book \" -and he did; and EIGHT IRON MEN , came and went . Long before he got around to say- wh ich Eddie Dmytryk managed to mess up irrepara- ing , \" Not bad for a honkey, man ,\" the producer's bly with his direction) , all I can offer is a question financ ial backers had gone to Nantucket to sit out in return: does the ' X' key on any given typewriter the ne xt forty years and I had lost interest in the boast that it is the author of any given page turned project (in spite of having a percentage). So much out on that typewriter? Because if one 'X' key should for Black Power. The title of Baldwin 's short story, do so-well, then , boys, the Second Coming 's upon come to think of it , was too long for any marquee. us. We 'd 've had to change it to something really Simple . TOM , say-which , as everyone knows , is mot spelled FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- backwards. fa c tion (a) as a script, (b) as a film? FILM COMMENT 87

(a) is a toss-up between THE TRUE GLORY and THE sending the office-boys out for coffee the poor kids VIRGIN QUEEN . I liked the latter because Charlie didn 't get quite as much say in matters as they Brackett let me mess around with Elizabethan idiom ; should've been allowed. And the moral of that is: and it turned out so well that even some English start at the top , and don 't let them send you out critics (my God , English critics!) spoke well of the for coffee. language in the film . And I liked THE TRUE GLORY because it was made when I was in the Army, by EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a a crazy outfit known as the Anglo-American Film \" specialty\" -construction , dialogue , comedy Unit, which had about 109 officers (from 2nd Lt. scenes, etc? up to chicken Colonel), si x sergeants , and two re- peat TWO private soldiers. I was the American pri- What \" assembly-line \" years? Do you mean that films vate ; Peter Ustinov was my British counterpart. now spring , fully-armored , from the head of Zeus? As for (b) , I'll have to say A WALK IN THE SUN , if only Listen , by the time you 've put the soundtrack on because Milestone (see 3 above) shot the book. Yet the film you've been through an assembly-line , and THE SNIPER , a very underrated film , struck me, and no nonsense about it. As for my \" specialty,\" it was still strikes me, as doing exactly what it set out to staying alive in the middle of a pack of hungry do. And what it set out to do, believe me, was a wolves and getting paid handsomely for it. I continue lot. to do so. But if I could ever get mixed up with a flock of smart and interesting sheep-why , it'll be THE off to Jupiter, and in spades, with a soup<;:on of TRUE front-money and a nice percentage. GLORY. NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial \" age of the director\" than they were in the bygone to work with? Which tampered least with your work? \" era of the producer\"? Well, disregarding that \" did you find?\" bit, which makes me sound like a voice from the grave, let's Tot homines, quot sententiae. Or, to quote an old look at it this way-practically every director tam- saw that's a little closer to home, \" If the Camels pered with my, so to speak, work to a greater or don 't get you the Fatimas must.\" lesser extent. You know, it's the nature of the beast. However, I liked , and continue to like, Gordon TEN. Which screenwriters do you most admire? Douglas. He considers the writer a fellow-craftsman, Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film and his attitude is: You know your business, buddy, work? \" and I know mine, so gimme what you've written and I'll shoot it. Gordon never expected to come up with (a) There isn't a screenwriter alive, dead , or unborn a masterpiece every, every time ; and as a result he's whom I admire-i.e. as a screenwriter. I consider turned out a lot of good pictures. James Poe, Christopher Isherwood and Gore Vidal In most instances, I would be three studios away as friends; but none of them is a pure-and-simple by the time a film I wrote reached the stages. That \"screenwriter.\" Poe, for instance, moonlights as a was (and is) probably a good thing , too . Without pool-shark. (b) I admire so many writers , from Homer naming names, I'd like to go on record as stating on down , that to list them would exhaust even a that most directors have about as much story-sense Ph .D. candidate in the Humanities. (c) No stylistic as a sick mink. And the younger men , God help influences whatever, although I do try to hold the them , are not so much interested in story and char- tone of whatever I'm adapting. Usually my attempts acter (filmic-values aside) than they are in trying out are ruined by the next highest man on the totem- all those wild psychedelic tricks they learned while pole. And, in the last analysis-let's face it-only doing, God help them again , TV commercials ... those great, those megalomaniac, those insufferable SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- \"directors\" steal from , or are influenced by, other ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to \" directors\" who are not so much lost as gone be- stay sane in Hollywood? fore. Who was the \" director\" to whom Jean-Luc You must be putting me on , man. Godard owes so much? I've forgotten. Maybe he SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the has, too . producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers at the producer's instigation? A final word on directors: without mentioning names, No, frequently the office-boys got into the act, too; I've met damned few who didn 't have a top-ser- but inasmuch as the higher echelons were always geant's mentality combined with the sensitivity of a Port Sa·fd whore . Which doesn 't exactly explain this year's auctioning-off of the MGM back-lot, but helps a little in understanding the directorial- productorial machinations that went on in Culver City, California, during the last three delicious dec- ades. Postscript: Re-reading the above bead~ of wisdom , love, and half-truths after letting them cool for two days, it strikes me that I've been too harsh on direc- tors. Oh , they've made me gnash my teeth hard enough to crack a cap more often than I want to think about; especially when critics give them credit for \"directorial touches\" that I'd written into scripts before Director X or Y had even checked in on the lot. But at the same time , poor dears, directors didn't, and presumably still don 't, have an easy row to hoe-because the ground is covered with glacial rocks known as \"producers.\" I remember going down to Cuautla a few years ago to visit Sam Peck- 88 WINTER 1970-71

inpah on the MAJOR DUNDEE location ; and, until I saw Not on scripts-since usually I was assigned to start what Sam was going throu gh , I hadn 't appreciated from beginning or to do re-writes after other writers how much a producer rese mbl es a wolverine when were taken off assignments, thus most of my co- he starts nosing around in creat ive country , This credits represented separate contributions rather man (I won 't mention his name, but you can look than active collaboration with other writers. it up) made the shooting-schedule a hell for Sam before proceeding to scissor his great final cut into THREE. On which films did you collabo rate most incoherent fragments , extenSively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" of these films? Writers and directors can work beautifully together, if their ideas and suggestions dovetail , and if their LOVE AFFAIR and AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (with direc- collaboration begins at the inception of a project. tor, Leo McCarey, th us he would have more right Billy Wilder and I. A, L. Diamond are a good example to \" author\" than I alone, even though I contributed of this visual / verbal harmony ; as were Wilder and original story concept without credit) ; NO MORE Charlie Brackett in the SUNSET BOULEVARD days, WOMEN (with Grant Leenhouts as co- \" author\"); most when one man directed what the other man had of the other co-scr credits were not done in actual written , and both meanwhile handled , with no par- collaboration but as final scriptwriter and usually ticular strain , the job of \" producer,\" without ever having opportunity to discuss previous scripts with man given a shared credit later; indeed , Ideally, of course, a film should be directed by the more often the collaboration was with the director man who wrote, or adapted , it-with the producer assigned to make the film thus including his ideas being nothing more than a shadowy, unimpinging in final version , or the producer's. From 1943 on , figure in the background , a fund-raiser, a taciturn as indicated , I usually directed (and later also pro- executive, perhaps a co-ordinator of personnel , but duced) my own screenplays. always a man who keeps his hand off the doors of the stages and his fingers out of the creative pie, FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? In Europe, so they tell me, this blissful separation of Money and Management from Art and Excitement LOVE AFFAIR (later, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER) as a takes place quite often , And , it is further reported , script and film , because I worked with Leo McCarey, the same thing is happening in the United States, the director, from the original concept and through- at least among some of the younger filmmakers, If out the making of the film, actually writing scenes 'tis true, 'tis pity that it didn 't get under way forty as the film progressed thus developing them from years ago, before HOllywood-on-the-lntellectual- the already created (in continuity) scenes-a great Gulf entered on its own version of the Post-Industrial adventure in filmmaking with a very brilliant director; SOCiety , we finished the last scene the night before it was shot ... an exhausting but very rewarding experi- When I say \"Hollywood, \" I perhaps should make ence in writing . clear that the word is also code for Culver City , Beverly Hills and the San Fernando Valley (otherwise FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial known as 'the Valley of the Shadow of Debt'), to work with? Which tampered least with your work? -Harry Brown In earlier days, Frank Borzage was completely sym- patico and a joy to work with-we did 4 films to- FILMOGRAPHY: HARRY BROWN gether; Leo McCarey was the most gifted director. (1917- ) \" Tampered \" is a curious word to use since I, as director of thirty films, made necessary changes on 1945 THE TRUE GLORY (Carol Reed , Garson Kanin) co-scr the set on every film I wrote. 1946 A WALK IN THE SUN (Lewis Milestone) story 1947 THE OTHER LOVE (Andre de Toth) co-scr 1948 ARCH OF TRIUMPH SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- (Lewis Milestone) co-scr WAKE OF THE RED WITCH (Edward ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to Ludwig) co-scr 1949 SANDS OF Iwo JIMA (Allan Dwan ) story, stay sane in Hollywood? co-scr MAN ON THE EIFFEL TOWER (Burgess Meredith) scr 1950 KISS TOMORROW GOODB YE (Go rdon Douglas) scr Again the choice of word (\"cynical\" ) hardly fits our 1951 A PLACE IN THE SUN (George Stevens) co-scr APACHE attitudes, perhaps \" hardened \" applies to those of DRUMS (Val Lewton) story ONLY THE VALIANT (Gordon us who are veterans (I started writing for films in Douglas) co-scr BUGLES IN THE AFTERNOON (Roy Rowland ) 1929) but out of fairness to the many fine directors co-scr 1952 THE SNIPER (Edward Dmytryk) scr EIGHT IRON I worked with prior to becoming a director (and later MEN (Edward Dmytryk) scr, from his play A Sound of Hunt- producer) myself-the directors as often as not im- ing 1953 ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT (Richard Thorpe ) proved on my script-and when they did \"tamper\" scr 1955 MANY RIVERS TO CROSS (Roy Rowland) co-scr or failed to interpret the script as I hoped , as a THE VIRGIN QUEEN (Henry Koster) co-scr 1956 D-DAY, THE professional writer one has to harden himself to the SIXTH OF JUNE (HenwKoster) co-scr 1957 BETWEEN HEAVEN multiple factors that can take place during the AND HELL (Richard Fleischer) scr 1958 THE DEEP SI X (Ru- shooting and final contributions to the finished film dolph Mate) co-scr THE FIEND WHO WALKED THE WEST through music and previews, when the studio heads (Gordon Douglas) co-scr 1960 OCEAN'S ELEVEN (Lewis have legal right to make final decisions usually. Milestone) co-scr 1967 EL DORADO (Howard Hawks) from his novel , The Stars in their Courses, SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers Delmer Daves at the producer's instigation? ONE, What projects did you work on that were not Again the word \" tampering : seems ill chosen , for filmed? it suggests (to me) \" meddling or dealing improperly with .. \" (as in dictionary)-and the people who work 1934-1967: JACKSON HOLE (WB), THE STUFF OF on bringing the scripts to the screen after the writer HEROES (WB), MISSISSIPPI BELLE (WB) MOTHERS & has completed his work are often as dedicated to DAUGHTERS (Col) ; and a few more forgotten doing a fine film as the writer hoped for-so changes ones , , .. (often necessary due to the exigencies of location TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the writers who shared screen credit with you? FILM COMMENT 89

filming, weather, for example, or even the talents CLEAR ALL WIRES (George Hill) adapt 1934 No MORE WOMEN of the actors and directors who find scenes play (Albert Rogell) co-story, co-scr DAMES (Lloyd Bacon) co- better in rehearsal if words are altered or even omit- story, scr FLIRTATION WALK (Frank Borzage) co-story, scr ted, allowing the action to express the idea in- 1935 STRANDED (Frank Borzage) co-scr PAGE MISS GLORY stead-Lubitsch was a great early exponent of this). (Mervyn Le Roy) co-scr SHIPMATES FOREVER (Frank Bor- zage) story, scr 1936 THE PETRIFIED FOREST (Archie Mayo) EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a co-scr 1937 THE GO-GETIER (Busby Berkeley) scr 1938 SHE MARRIED AN ARTIST (Marion Gering) co-scr PROFESSOR \" specialty \" -construction , dialogue , comedy BEWARE (Elliott Nugent) scr 1939 LOVE AFFAIR (Leo Mc- scenes, etc.? Carey) co-scr $1 ,000 A TOUCHDOWN (James Hogan) story, Through my long experience (since 1929) I was scr 1940 THE FARMER 'S DAUGHTER (James Hogan) story assigned as a \" specialist\" to successively changing SAFARI (Edward H. Griffith) scr 1941 THE UNEXPECTED UNCLE kinds of films: youth films, musical films, war films, (Peter Godfrey) co-scr THE NIGHT OF JANUARY 16th (William melodramas, romances, and Westerns-and the Clemens) co-scr 1942 You WERE NEVER LOVELIER (William same thing applied to my directing career , as for A . Seiter) co-scr 1943 STAGE DOOR CANTEEN (Frank Bor- example, being assigned to make 10 Westerns after zage) story, scr DESTINATION TOKYO (Delmer Daves) co-scr BROKEN ARROW. From the beginning I was a screen- 1944 THE VERY THOUGHT OF You (Delmer Daves) co-scr play writer, most often signed to adapt properties HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN (Delmer Daves) story, scr 1947 THE the studio had purchased, although I wrote a dozen RED HOUSE (Delmer Daves) scr DARK PASSAGE (Delmer or more original screen stories en route ; it is obvious Daves) scr 1949 TASK FORCE (Delmer Daves) scr 1951 a screenplay writer should also be a \"construction- BIRD OF PARADISE (Delmer Daves) story , scr 1953 TREASURE ist, dialogue writer, and able to write comedy \" or OF THE GOLDEN CONDOR (Delmer Daves) scr 1954 DRUM drama as required in each script. BEAT (Delmer Daves) story, scr 1955 WHITE FEATHER (Rich- NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current ard Webb) scr 1956 JUBAL (Delmer Daves) co-scr THE LAST \"age of the director\" than they were in the bygone WAGON (Delmer Daves) co-scr 1957 AN AFFAIR TO RE- \"era of the producer\" ? MEMBER (Leo McCarey) remake of LOVE AFFAIR co-scr 1959 Again , a curious choice of words (\"inviolate\") to A SUMMER PLACE (Delmer Daves) scr 1961 PARRISH (Delmer apply to filmmaking ; when I became a writer-director Daves) scr SUSAN SLADE (Delmer Daves) scr 1962 ROME (and later producer) I would often tell the actors ADVENTURE (Delmer Daves) scr 1963 SPENCER 'S MOUNTAIN in first rehearsals (because they can get hang-ups (Delmer Daves) scr 1964 YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE (Delmer on lines) that \"no word in this entire script is Daves) scr 1965 THE BATILE OF THE VILLA FIORITA (Delmer sacred!\" and often would tell them \"we must be Daves) scr God's most flexible company!\"-especially on loca- tions when multitudinous factors can alter original Philip Dunne intentions and plans . An actor can even dread an upcoming scene which seems beyond his capabili- ONE. What projects did you work on that were not ties or apart from his special gifts so that it harms filmed? his whole approach to a role whereas a re-write of it will make him secure in the role. Is this \"tamper- Over the years , possibly ten scripts. The most re- ing\"? I think not. cent, at Universal: RUSS, a film biography of western TEN. Which screenwriters do you most admire? painter Charles Russell , and THE PYTHON PROJECT, Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film a spy thriller. Both are still active projects at Uni- work? versal, pending satisfactory casting . Some writers are more gifted in the classic or period film , others in the comedic, others in the colloquial, TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the others in action or Western films , etc. , others in writers who shared screen credit with you? dialogue .... EVERY great film influenced me con- sciously or unconsciously. Only once, with Edith Soderberg on BLUE DENIM, in recent years. In the 30's, I collaborated with Julien DARK PASSAGE. Josephson on THE RAINS CAME , STANLEY AND LIVING- Lauren Bacall and STONE and SUEZ. Most other shared credits were split Humphrey Bogart. credits: I worked alone, usually after another writer, see footnotes to filmography. FILMOGRAPHY: DELMER DAVES (1904- ) THREE. On which films did you collaborate most 1929 So THIS IS COLLEGE (Sam Wood) co-story, co-scr extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" 1931 SHIPMATES (Harry Pollard) scr, co-adapt, co-dial 1932 of these films? DIVORCE IN THE FAMILY (Charles F. Reisner) scr, dial 1933 See 2 above. I don 't consider any screenwriter the \" author\" of his films , and most emphatically no director except possibly Bergman and Chaplin, should be allowed to cia·im authorship . On THE VIEW FROM POMPEY'S HEAD , I was writer, producer and director, but if I was the \" author,\" what was Hamil- ton Basso, who wrote the book? FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? (a) as a script , HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY and PINKY . (b) as a film, TEN NORTH FREDERICK which I wrote and directed from John O'Hara 's novel. (This was the only adaptation of John O'Hara's work to which he gave his unstinted approval.) FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial to work with? Which tampered least with your work? I could answer \" myself as director,\" but I will rather answer: William Wyler and John Ford . No director tampered with my work. Not twice. 90 WINTER 1970-71

SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- FILMOGRAPHY: PHILIP DUNNE ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to (1908- ) stay sane in Hollywood? 1933 STUDENT TOUR (Monta Bell) co-scr ** 1934 THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (Rowland V. Lee) co-sc r* 1935 THE A loaded question . I have always been able to pro- MELODY LINGERS ON (David Burton) co-sc r \" 1936 TH E tect my work as a writer, either because I directed LAST OF THE MOHICANS (George B. Seitz) co-sc r** 1937 it myself or because the bulk of my work was done LANCER Spy (Gregory Ratoff) scr SUEZ (Allan Dwan ) co-scr * under the aegis of Darryl F. Zanuck, who respected 1938 THE RAINS CAME (Clarenc e Brown) co-sc r * 1939 writers and forced directors to respect the script. SWANEE RIVER (Sidney Lanfield) co-scr * * STANLEY AND He would even raise hell with me when I, as director, LIVINGSTONE (Henry King ) co-scr * 1940 JOHNN Y ApOLLO changed my own scenes of the set. (Henry Hathaway) co-scr ** 1941 How GREEN WAS My VALLEY (John Ford) scr 1942 SON OF FUR Y (John Cromwell) SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the scr [1942- 1946: Chief of Production , Office of War Informa- producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers tion , Overseas Branch] 1947 THE LATE GEORGE APLE Y at the producer 's instigation? (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) scr FOREVER AMBER (Otto Pre- minger) co-scr * THE GHOST AND MRS . MUIR (Joseph L. As I said above, there was very little tampering done. Mankiewicz) scr 1948 THE LUCK OF THE IRISH (Henry Koster) When I didn 't direct it myself, I would always tell scr ESCAPE (Joseph L. Man kiewicz) scr 1949 PIN KY (Ella the director: \" If you want chang'es , I' m available to Kazan ) co-scr '''' 1951 DAVID AND BATHSHEBA (Henry King) make them .\" In almost all cases, this was honored. scr 1952 LYDIA BAILEY (Jean Negulesco) co-scr ** WAY When it wasn 't-I think twice-Zanuck stepped in . OF A GAUCHO (Jacques Tourneur) prod , scr 1953 THE ROBE (Henry Koster) scr 1954 DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a \" specialty \" -construction , dialogue , comedy (Delmer Daves) sc r THE EG YPTIAN (Michael Curtiz) co-scr * * scenes. etc.? \" Assembly-line years \" is an oversimplification. A 1955 PRINCE OF PLAYERS (Phil ip Dunne) prod THE VIEW complete writer should be able to write a complete FROM POMPEY'S HEAD (Philip Dunne) prod , scr 1956 HILDA script. As Bucky Fuller says , over-specialization is CRANE (Philip Dunne) scr 1957 THREE BRAVE MEN (Phil ip destructive. I never specialized. I wrote. And, since Dunne) scr 1958 TEN NORTH FREDERICK (Philip Dunne) direction is merely a visual extension of writing , I scr BLUE DENIM (Philip Dunne) co-scr * 1965 THE AGON Y later took to directing my own scripts. AND THE ECSTACY (Carol Reed ) scr BLINDFOLD (Ph ilip Dunne) co-scr \" NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current \" age of the director \" than they were in the bygone * actual collaboration \" era of the producer\" ? \"*worked separately I don 't really know the answer to this-not from John Michael Hayes personal experience. Other writers have told me of their scripts being ruined by young genius directors ONE, What projec ts did you work on that were not who have come to believe in their press notices. filmed? TEN. Which screenwriters do you most admire? CHARGE TO GLOR Y and ALMOST MIDNIGHT, both Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film Avco-Embassy films. work? TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the Screenwriters I admire: Albert Hackett and Frances writers who shared screen credit with you? Goodrich , Lamar Trotti, Nunnally Johnson, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, George Seaton , Julius I have never worked in direct collaboration with Epstein, Robert Riskin , John Lee Mahin. These are another writer. I have always worked alone. all professionals, whose name on a script was-and in some cases is-a guarantee of its excellence. THREE. No answer. John Huston has had great moments and so has Joe Mankiewicz. Isobel Lennart is consistently FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- first-class. Ring Lardner , Jr. for M·A·S'H'. I probably faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? left out some good ones: blame my memory which is increasingly impaired . REAR WINDOW gave me the most satisfaction as a script, followed closely by PEYTON PLACE , but PEYTON Which writers? John O'Hara for his ear. E. M. For- PLACE gave me most satisfaction as a film , with THE ster, most of Steinbeck and Hemingway, Whitman , TROUBLE WITH HARRY close behind . Melville, Emerson , Hawthorne, Abraham Lincoln , Shakespeare, Moliere, Goeth , Montaigne, Rabelais, FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial Voltaire , Dante, Winston Churchill as historian , Tre- to work with? Which tampered least with your work? velyan , Parkman and Gibbon . But why go on? These are the writers I read. Mark Robson and Daniel Mann were the most con- genial to work with. Alfred Hitchcock tampered least Stylistic influences? There must be some , but I am with my work. unaware of them . A screenwriter at best is a stylistic chameleon : he writes in the style of the original SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- source-or should , if he's worth his salt. There are ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to exceptions. One of the few original screenplays was stay sane in Hollywood? DAVID AND BATHSHEBA, which received an Academy nomination . I wrote most of it in blank verse, possibly No , he does not. He must be determined to speak a stylistic innovation in screenwriting . But I ac- his own literary piece, but be practical enough to knowledge a debt to those great stylists responsible be aware of the hazards and obstacles of the pro- for the King James Vers ion . To put it bluntly, a fession . Of course , this isn 't easy. It isn 't as much screenwriter is basically a hack. It cannot be other- a matter of fighting sanity as it is of fending off wise , as long as motion pictures remain a collabo- discouragement and the ultimate lack of creative rative art. confidence which are the constant companions of screenwriting. Too often you are hired to write a screenplay because of your alleged unique creative viewpoint , or ta lent, only to discover they want you to write \" their\" screenplay, which if they had the ability to write they wouldn 't need you . In such case , all the choices left to the screenwriter are unpleas- ant-knuckle under, qu it, or fight tooth and nail seriously diluting the dedication and energy required FILM COMMENT 91

to write the screenplay well in the first place. extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" of these films? SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers I believe the auteur theory of filmmaking is a fiction promulgated by certain directors and the prestigious at the producer's instigation? critical magazines like Sight and Sound and Cahiers du Cinema. In my opinion film is a collaborative art The most tampering was consistently done by the to which many talents contribute . It seems to me director. Often the director and producer were one obvious that the writer (or writer-director if he is and there was no place to appeal for intelligent both) creates the basic structure on which the other arbitration between two sets of conflicting ideas. As talents build but I don 't consider that he, or anyone a producer-director once said to me, \" I have two else , is the \" author \" of the film . votes. You have one. The ayes have it.\" FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? \" specialty\" -construction, dialogue , comedy scenes, etc.? While I enjoy the creative process of writing a screen- I never worked in the \" assembly-line years .\" But, play, the real satisfaction comes when the film is if I have any specialty it has been dialogues. made with its values intact or, in some cases , en- hanced. The pictures on which I worked that gave NINE . Are scripts any more inviolate in the current me the most satisfaction are THE LETTER , CASA- \" age of the director\" than they were in the bygone \" era of the producer\"? BLANCA, LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, NO SAD I haven 't found it so . SONGS FOR ME and THE GREENGAGE SUMMER (LOSS TEN . Which screenwriters do you most admire? OF INNOCENCE) . Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film work? FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial to work with? Which tampered least with your work? There are many fine screen writers, but I particularly liked the work of Dudley Nichols, John Lee Mahin, Max Ophuls, William Wyler, John Huston , Rudy Sonya Levien and William Bowers. Other writers I Mate, Lewis Gilbert, Orson Welles. admire are Charles Dickens, Ma-rk Twain , the early John Dos Passos, Philip Barry and William Saroyan . SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- I suppose they all had some influence on my style, ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to but so did a man named William Spier, produc- stay sane in Hollywood? er-director of the radio series, Suspense and the Adventures of Sam Spade. I feel if a writer becomes cynical about his work in films, he should be doing something else. I've FILMOGRAPHY: JOHN MICHAEL HAYES never looked down on the film medium-or even on Hollywood (when there was a Hollywood) in spite (1919- ) of its well-advertised inanities and its haphazard 1952 RED BALL EXPRESS (Budd Boetticher) scr 1953 mass production system . Writing a screenplay in Hollywood, or anywhere else , is only part of a writ- THUNDER BAY (Anthony MWJn) story, co-scr WAR ARROW er's function ; struggling to preserve its values is the (George Sherman) story, scr TORCH SONG (Charles Wai- other part. If he cares enough, he ' ll do it. ters) co-scr 1954 REAR WINDOW (Alfred Hitchcock) sc r 1955 To CATCH A THIEF (Alfred Hitchcock) scr THE TROUBLE SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the WITH HARRY (Alfred Hitchcock) scr IT'S A DOG 'S liFE ( Her- producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers man Hoffman) scr 1956 THE MAN WHO KNEW Too MUCH (Alfred Hitchcock) co-scr 1957 PE YTON PLACE ( Mark Rob- at the producer's instigation? son) scr 1958 THE MATCHMAKE R(Joseph Anthony) scr 1959 BUT NOT FOR ME (Walter Lang) scr 1960 BUITERFIELD 8 One can't generalize in answering this question . (Daniel Mann) co-sc r 1962 THE CHILDREN 'S HOUR ( William Almost anyone involved in the making of a film can Wyler) scr 1964 THE CHALK GARDEN ( Ronald Neame) scr hurt it, even the music composer or the editor. THE CARPETBAGGERS ( Edward Dymytryk) scr WHERE LOVE Perhaps the most potentially dangerous man is a HAS GONE (Edward Dmytryk) scr 1965 HARLOW (Gordon director who regards the motion picture narcissis- Douglas) scr 1966 JUDITH (Daniel Mann) co-scr NEVADA tically as a mirror in which to display his virtuosity SMITH (Henry Hathaway) story, scr. or, as the saying goes, placing his stamp on the film, all too often at the expense of its content. Howard Koch EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a ONE. What projects did you work on that were not \" specialty\" -construction , dialogue, comedy filmed? scenes, etc.? Many. In filmmaking as conditions existed and still I think it's wrong to compartmentize a dramatist's ex ist, every project is a gamble with the odds against work either in the theatre or in films . A good screen- you . When a writer's work reaches the screen , it's play, drama or comedy, should contain all the ele- an achievement; when the film that eventuates fulfills ments-visual and auditory-necessary to tell the what he envisioned , it's a miracle. I've been luckier story on the screen . There is no magic in dialogue than most, perhaps because I've had the good for- that will compensate for construction faults although tune to work closely with some of the best producers some producers used to think so. and directors. NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the \" age of the director\" than they were in the bygone writers who shared screen credit with you? \" era of the producer\" ? Only with John Huston on \" Sergeant York .\" In most A director may also be a dramatist, as in the case collaborations I worked on the screenplay after of Huston . If he is not a dramatist and is directing the other writer or writers had made their contribu- someone else's work, he may either add or subtract tions-as in the case of CASABLANCA . from the dramatic values established by the writ- er-depending on his sensitivity. A script is never THREE. On which films did you collaborate most \" inviolate\" in the sense that it can't be improved . 92 WINTER 1970-71

Of course, it can also be murdered which every from my own stage plays. I certainly did consider writer knows from experience . myself the \" author\" of these films. TEN . Which screenwriters do you most admire? Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- work? faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? I admire many screenwriters, among them Zavatini , Trumbo, Polonsky, Ring Lardner, Jr., Waldo Salt, My own favorite is THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES , as a etc. I believe that a film 's \" style\" should be dictated script. As a film , PRINCESS O'ROURKE , which was the by its content-therefore I'm not aware of any stylis- first picture I directed too, and the only Academy tic influence. Award I ever won. There's a moral there someplace. FILMOGRAPHY: HOWARD KOCH FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial (1902- ) to work with ? Which tampered least with your work? 1940 THE SEA HAWK (Michael Curtiz) co-scr THE LETTER (William Wyler) scr 1941 SHINING VICTOR Y (Irving Rapper) Rene Clair and Henry Koster were the two largest co-scr SERGEANT YORK (Howard Hawks) co-scr 1942 IN contributors . I've wo r:<ed on tentative projects with THIS OUR liFE (John Huston) scr CASABLANCA (Michael Billy Wilder, who is the best of all , in my opinion . Curtiz) co-scr 1943 MISSION TO Moscow (Michael Curtiz) Sam Wood never tampered. Stanley Donen mounted scr 1944 IN OUR TiME (Vincent Sherman) co-scr 1945 scenes best. RHAPSODY IN BLUE (Irving Rapper) scr 1946 THREE STRANGERS (Jean Negulesco) co-scr 1948 LETTER FROM SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (Max Ophuls) scr 1950 No SAD SONGS ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerab ility to FOR ME (Rudolph Mate) scr 1951 THE 13TH LETTER (Otto stay sane in Hollywood? Preminger) scr 1961 THE GREENGAGE SUMMER [LOSS OF INNOCENCE] (Lewis Gilbert) scr 1962 THE WAR LOVER (Philip I hate to agree with the word 'cynical ,' but I get Leacock) scr 1967 THE Fox (Mark Rydell) co-scr your point. Maybe a sense of proportion is a better phrase, or not to take disappointments too seriously. Norman Krasna The other nuts have ego troubles too. When you start in films it can be heartbreaking . ONE. What projects did you work on that were not filmed? SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the Dear Friend: I was an active screenwriter for over producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers thirty years , and many, many projects went up in at the producer's instigation? smoke . Some were cancelled in the front office while the p roducer himself was ignorant of it. Normal , Producers. But fair is fair. Some of the scripts need- normal. ed tampering , possibly, and it is his job to decide that. Also, some producers were quite creative. Hunt SUNDAY IN NEW YORK. Rod Taylor and Jane Fonda. Stromberg, for instance. TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a writers who shared screen credit with you? \" specialty \" -construction , dialogue, comedy Rarely. I made a fancy week ly salary and after my scenes, etc.? version sometimes, for economy, or my unavailabi- lity, or, I am sure, difference of opinion , another My own modest assessment is that I was quite good writer would be added. Also, producers like to man- at construction, and fair at dialogue. I had a reason- age. Human, human. Some credits I have, like the able reputation for comedy dialogue but I thought second BACHELOR MOTHER , are merely collaborative it came from doing dialogue which fit the appropri- because my original solo screenplay credit has been ate construction . You can 't write very clever dia- added to the new re-make. Also , THE RICHEST GIRL logue for an inappropriate scene. I wrote many IN THE WORLD , as another example . The New Yorker pictures which were filmed verbatim. magazine blasted me personally for the second . Never saw it. NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current THREE. On which films did you collaborate m os t \" age of the director\" than they were in the bygone extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" \" era of the producer\" ? of these films? I mostly did original screenplays, or screenplays Just depends on the team working together. Who- ever is strongest wins out. TEN. Wh ich screenwriters do you most admire? Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film work? Billy Wilder , I. A. L. Diamond . There are many good ones now, more than twenty years ago . I am not conscious of any style. Most comedy writers belong to the Lubitsch school of indirection , which keeps evolving . FILMOGRAPHY: NORMAN KRASNA 1932 HOLLYWOOD SPEAKS (Eddie Buzzell) story, co-scr, co-dial , with Jo Swerling THAT'S My Boy (Roy William Neill) scr 1933 PAROLE GIRL (Eddie Kline) story; adapt, dial So THIS IS AFRICA (Eddie Cline) story, adapt LOVE , HONOR AND OH , BABY! (Edd ie Buzzell ) co-adapt with Eddie Buzzell MEET THE BARON (Walter Lang) co-story with Herman J. Mankie- wi cz 1934 RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (William A. Seiter) story, adapt, scr ROMANCEIN MANHATTAN (Stephen Roberts) story with Don Hartman 1935 FOUR HOURS TO KILL (Mitchell Leisen) scr from his play. Small Miracle. HANDS ACROSSTHE TABLE (Mitchell Leisen) scr with Vincent Lawrence, Herbert Fields 1936 WIFE VERSUS SECRETARY (Clarence Brown) scr with Alice Duer Miller, John Lee Mah in FURY (Fritz Lang) FILM COMMENT 93

story 1937 THE KING AND THE CHORUS GIRL (Mervyn LeRoy) Director (who was usually the producer). But tam- co-story, co-scr with Groucho Marx As GOOD AS MARRIED pering is such a vague term . I did a film in which (Edward Buzzell) story THE BIG CITY (Frank Borzage) story, the director did not change a word or a scene-but prod 1938 THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS (Richard Thorpe) from my point of view the director was so terrible, story, prod You AND ME (Fritz Lang) story 1939 BACHELOR the result was unrecognizable: echt tampering? MOTHER (Garson Kanin) scr 1940 IT'S A DATE (William A. Seiter) scr 1941 THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES (Sam Wood) EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a story, scr, co-prod MR. AND MRS. SMITH (Alfred Hitchcock) \" specialty\" -construction , dialogue, comedy story, scr THE FLAME OF NEW ORLEANS (Rene Clair) story, scenes, etc.? scr IT STARTED WITH EVE (Henry Koster) co-scr with Leo Townsend 1943 PRINCESS O'ROURKE (Norman Krasna) No. story, scr 1944 BRIDE BY MISTAKE (Edward Wallace) story PRACTICALLY YOURS (Mitchell Leisen) story, scr 1947 DEAR NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current RUTH (William D. Russell) from his play 1949 JOHN LOVES \" age of the director \" than they were in the bygone MARY (David Butler) from his play 1950 THE BIG HANGOVER \" era of the producer\"? (Norman Krasna) story, scr, prod 1956 THE AMBASSADOR'S DAUGHTER (Norman Krasna) scr, prod BUNDLE OF JOY (Nor- Yes-if the director writes them . man Taurog) co-scr 1958 INDISCREET (Stanley Donen) scr, from his play Kind Sir 1960 WHO WAS THAT LADY (George TEN. Which screenwriters do you most admire? Sidney) prod , scr, from his play , Who Was That Lady I Saw Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film You With? LET'S MAKE LOVE (George Cukor) scr THE RICHEST work? GIRL IN THE WORLD (Lau Lauritzen) Danish remake of the Film is a director's medium. The screenplay is sec- 1934 film 1962 My GEISHA (Jack Cardiff) scr 1963 SUNDAY ond in importance. IN NEW YORK (Peter Tewksbury) scr, from his play. FILMOGRAPHY: ARTHUR LAURENTS Arthur Laurents (1918- ) 1948 ROPE (Alfred Hitchcock) story, scr THE SNAKE PIT ONE, What projects did you work on that were not (Anatole Litvak) co-scr 1949 HOME OF THE BRAVE (Mark filmed? Robson) from his play ANNA LUCASTA (Irving Rapper) co-scr CAUGHT (Max Ophuls) scr 1955 SUMMERTIME (David Lean) Screenplay of NO STRINGS-loosely based on the from his play, The Time of the Cuckoo 1956 ANASTASIA musical. It dealt with racial relations, and the pro- (Anatole Litvak) scr 1958 BONJOUR TRISTESSE (Otto Prem- ducer (Ray Stark) found it impossible (he said) to inger) scr 1961 WEST SIDE STORY (Jerome Robbins and get big enough stars to justify the expense. They Robert Wise) from his musical book 1962 GyPSY (Mervyn were afraid of the subject matter(!) This was about LeRoy) from his musical book 1964! Ernest Lehman TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the writers who shared screen credit with you? ONE. What projects did you work on that were not filmed? No . On THE SNAKE PIT, I re-wrote the entire script- working closely with the director, Anatole Litvak, THE LABOR STORY , MGM , to be produced by John who was \" too busy\" shooting the film to appear Houseman. I quit the project because I felt it would at the credit arbitration. never make a film, much less a good one, or a successful one. It was l1ever done. I started an THREE. On which films did you collaborate most untitled original screen story for Alfred Hitchcock extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" after NORTH BY NORTHWEST. After a few months, I of these films? told him I didn't want to continue because I felt it would never work out satisfactorily. It was never ROPE .-No , because even though the dialogue was made. totally mine, the material came from a play; and the picture followed the structure of the play (too close- TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the ly, I thought) . writers who shared screen credit with you? FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- Only with Billy Wild~r on SABRINA . Worked with him faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? right up to the final day of shooting . On SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS , Clifford O'dets came on the film just (a) & (b) ANASTASIA . before shooting started, just after I had been forced to leave by illness, before getting a chance to rewrite FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial certain scenes of my screenplay, which was based to work with? Which tampered least with your work? on my published novelette. Hitchcock and Litvak. Hitchcock tampered only in THREE. On which films did you collaborate most one instance (but I think the picture itself was a extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" special circumstance). Litvak fusses and changes of these films? the dialogue, although his own speech is accented and not American . He doesn't tamper too much This question, following question 2, is not clear to though . me. I only \" collaborated \" on films on which there was another screenwriter (see above). I collaborated SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- most extensively (see above) on SABRINA. I consider ularly cynical about his own work's vulnerability to myself the co-author of that film-and the author stay sane in Hollywood? of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and co-author of its screenplay. He has to be realistic. The main character in any film is the camera-and that is created by the direc- FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- tor. Also, in Hollywood, almost no directors know faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? how to direct actors (or don't bother). They are interested almost exclusively in the camera and (a) & (b): SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME schedule. FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the to work with? Which tampered least with your work? producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers at the producer's instigation? Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Wise. No director has 94 WINTER 1970-71

ever tampered with my work . I've been lucky. It IS the grotesque fact that they have responsibility , but no power. SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- One has only to look at the way films are actually ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to made. Generally, the idea comes from one of three stay sane in Hollywood? sources: Rarely , it is an idea of a director or a producer, who Absolutely not. No good screenplay is vulnerable . is generally quite devoid of any but the most primi- Only those that still need work are vulnerable, and tive notion of actual human life. Frequently, he is should be vulnerable , and should be worked on quite unable to write, though there are certain gifted some more by the writer-or if not him , another individuals who are able to dictate. writer-to ensure, or make possible , a good film . The screen writer, then , is hired or otherwise per- It is not at all difficult for a writer to stay sane in suaded to develop this verbal idea, to put skin Hollywood. Cynicism is more often a defense against on the characters, and possibly a bit of flesh, and just criticism . at any rate to specify when their mouths open and close. SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers THE BALCONY. at the producer's instigation? -...:j\" ;;;::;;;::J1 Peter Brocco and What tampering? In films? I've heard there's been a lot of that in TV, but not in theatrical motion Ruby Dee. pictures-unless of course there has been a pro- ducer, director or other writer creative enough and It is very difficult to make these people come alive, bright enough to know how to make a script better because the original idea, however charming, does before shooting begins. Call that \" tampering \" ? not grow from the marvelous confusion of American Life, but springs like Athena from the crevices of EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a a clever, skillful, and egotistical brain . \" specialty \" -construction , dialogue, comedy The second and chief source of American films is scenes, etc.? a novel or other work of fiction , which is bought most often out of distrust of the makers in their own Came out in the early Fifties from N.Y .C., I guess judgement. The novel or play or musical has already after \" assembly lines\" had disappeared. So I can 't been chosen by somebody else , and has enjoyed answer this one. at least a moderate success. Obviously, the fact that numbers of people have already paid cash to see NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current the play or buy the paperback is absolutely no as- \" age of the director\" than they were in the bygone surance that the story can be cramped into the \" era of the producer\" ? peculiar drama of a film. Because there is the terribly stubborn fact that the As you must realize by now, I resist generalizations. screen writer is asked to translate one kind of art Bad scripts are, I suppose and were, I suppose, into another. One can , of course, be utterly faithful changed , revised , cut , rewritten , etc. in the current to the book, and get an Oscar for what is essentially and bygone eras. The better the script the more a tableau vivant, like the Great Paintings they stage inviolate it is, and was . Any generalization beyond in La Jolla every summer. that is, I feel , meaningless. Still , if the novel is bad , the film has a decent chance to be good . If the novel is fairly good, the film is TEN. Which screenwriters do you most admire? generally not bad at all. But if the novel is great, Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film the film, paralyzed with admiration , is quite hopeless. work? Personally, I must admit that I have enjoyed a great many films of both these categories, but it is de- Screenwriters:-Robert Bolt, Neil Paterson , William meaning to the language to call any of them great, Rose, Herman Mankiewicz, and John Huston. Writ- in the sense that Dostoievski, Melville, Shakespeare, ers: Philip Roth , Bernard Malamud, Graham Greene, Ibsen, to use only literary parallels, can be consid- Irwin Shaw, Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, Strindberg, ered treasures of the human mind . No, the truly great Ibsen, Shakespeare. Stylistic influences: The short films are to be made when the real maker of the stories and novelettes of Ernest Lehman . film , the director, is also the author. This imposes the interesting burden upon him or her of being a ALMOGRAPHY:ERNESTLEHMAN person of enormous talent. We have, so far in this country, only a few who can do it. Most filmmakers 1948 THE INSIDE STORY (Allan Dwan) co-story 1954 are simply not grown-up, nor are their talents broad EXECUTIVE SUITE (Robert Wise) scr SABRINA (Billy Wilder) co-scr 1956 SOMEBODY UP THERE liKES ME (Robert Wise) scr THE KING AND I (Walter Lang) scr 1957 SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (Alexander Mackendrick) story, co-scr 1959 NORTH BY NORT.HWEST (Alfred Hitchcock) scr 1960 FROM THE TERRACE (Mark Robson) scr 1961 WEST SIDE STORY (Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins) scr 1963 THE PRIZE (Mark Robson) scr 1965 THE SOUND OF MUSIc (Robert Wise) 1966 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (Mike Nichols) scr, prod 1969 HELLO, DOLLY! (Gene Kelly) scr, prod 1971 PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT (Ernest Lehman) scr, prod . Ben Maddow I'd like, instead of answering the rather painful questions in your survey, to give you a short analysis of the curious problems of the screen writer. This will allow me to be tolerant and intolerant at the same time. It has been my experience, which extends over 30 years , that there is no such animal as a screen writer. There are persons, of course, who write screen plays, but they are admittedly monsters, because FILM COMMENT 95

enough , nor is it easy to have all at once, a native EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a visual sense, a decent sensitivity to sound , an in- \" specialty \" -construction , dialogue , comedy stinct for drama, a talent for understanding and scenes, etc.? provoking actors, and , what is most important, a profound interest in real human beings. No . So we have, so far, no Robert Bresson , no Anto- NINE. Are scripts an y more in violate in the c urrent nioni, no Renoir, no Kurasawa, no Pontecorvo, no \" age of the director \" than they were in the bygone Bertolucci . \" era of the producer\" ? The situation is not without hope. I have a purely No. personal superstition that good films are made TEN. Which screenwriters do you most admire? Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film mostly in the decade after a country has suffered work? defeat. Let us hope, then , that the golden age of Screenwriters: Paul Osborn, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Billy Wilder and I.A. Diamond . Writ- film in America is yet to be. -Ben Maddow ers: Hemingway, John MacDonald , James M ichen er, Robert Louis Stevenson. FILMOGRAPHY: BEN MADDOW FILMOGRAPHY: JOHN LEE MAHIN 1942 NATIVE LAND (Leo Hurwitz, Paul Strand , AI Saxon , William Watts) co-sc r\" 1947 FRAMED ( Richard Wallace) 1932 BEAST OF THE CITY (Charles Brabin) scr, dial SCARFACE scr 1948 THE MAN FROM COLORADO ( Henry Levin) co-scr (Howard Hawks) co-scr, co-dial WET PARADE (Victor Flem- KIss THE BLOOD OFF My HANDS (Norman Foster) 1949 ing ) scr, dial RED DUST (Victor Flem ing) scr, dial 1933 INTRUDER IN THE DUST (Clarence Brown) scr'''' 1950 THE ESKIMO (W. S. Van Dyke) adapt BOMBSHELL (Victor Fleming) ASPHALT JUNGLE (John Huston) co-scr '''' 1951 SHADOW co-adapt THE PRIZEFIGHTER AND THE LADY (W. S. Van Dyke) IN THE SKY (Fred M. Wilco x) scr 1953 THE STAIRS (Ben co-adapt, co-story HELL BELOW (Jack Conway) act co-dial Maddow) scr\"\" 1954 JOHNNY GUITAR (Nicholas Ray) co-scr 1934 LAUGHING Boy (W. S. Van Dyke) co-scr TREASURE [uncredited] 1960 THE UNFORGIVEN (John Huston) co-scr ISLAND (Victor Fleming ) scr CHAINED (Clarence Brown ) scr THE SAVAGE EYE (Ben Maddow, Joseph Strick , Sidney 1935 NAUGHTY MARIETTA (W. S. Van Dyke) co-scr 1936 Meyers) co-scr ''':' 1961 Two LOVES (Charles Walters) scr SMALL TOWN GIRL (William A. Wellman) co-scr WIFE VERSUS 1963 THE BALCON Y (Joseph Strick) scr':'* 1964 AN AFFAIR SECRETAR Y (Clarence Brown) co-scr THE DEVIL IS A SISSY OF THE SKIN (Ben Maddow) story, scr\"':' 1967 THE WAY (W. S. Van Dyke) co-scr LOVE ON THE RUN (W. S. Van Dyke) WEST (Andrew V. McLaglen) co-scr 1970 STORM OF co-scr 1937 CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (Victor Fleming) co-scr STRANGERS (Ben Maddow) scr':\":' THE LAST GANGSTER (Edward Ludwig) scr 1938 Too HOT TO HANDLE (Jack Conway) co-scr 1940 BOOM TOWN (Jack * under the pseudonym \" David Wolff\" Conway} scr 1941 DR . JEKYLL AND MR . HYDE (Victor Flem- ''':''' 1 prefer to be mentioned as the author of these ing) scr JOHNNY EAGER (Mervyn LeRoy) co-scr 1942 TORTILLA FLAT (Victor Fleming) co-scr 1949 DOWN TO THE screenplays only.\" -Ben Maddow SEA IN SHIPS (Henry Hathaway) co-scr 1950 LOVE THAT BRUTE (Alexander Hall ) co-story, co-scr 1951 SHOW BOAT John Lee Mahin (George Sidney) scr Quo VADIS (Mervyn LeRoy) co-scr 1953 MOGAMBO (John Ford) scr 1954 ELEPHANT WALK ONE. What projects did you work on that were not (William Dieterle) scr 1955 Lucy GALLANT (Robert Parrish) filmed? co-scr 1956 THE BAD SEED (Mervyn LeRoy) scr 1957 HEAVEN KNOWS , MR . ALLISON (John Huston) co-scr 1958 LETTER FROM PEKING , the Pearl Buck novel , a script No TIME FOR SERGEANTS (Mervyn LeRoy) scr 1959 THE which she liked and was not produced due to some HORSE SOLDIERS (John Ford) co-scr, co-prod 1960 NORTH vagary and the fact of Jack Warner. TO ALASKA (Henry Hathaway) co-scr 1962 THE SPIRAL ROAD (Robert Mulligan) co-scr 1966 MOMENT TO MOMENT (Mervyn TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the LeRoy) scr, writers who shared screen credit with you? Daniel Mainwaring On eight films. ONE. What projects did you work on that were not THREE. On which films did you collaborate most filmed? extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" of these films? THE SHAYS REBELLION for Sid Harmon ; KING KELLY , for Kirk Douglas ; IRRESISTIBLE, (MALTESE FALCON) SCARFACE , LAUGHING BOY (a disaster of miscasting MGM ; MAN FROM NOWHERE , for Joe Losey ; SILVER on a script which faithfully followed a beautiful STREET , from novel by Richard Johnson ; NO SINS novel) , TOO HOT TO HANDLE , JOHNNY EAGER , HEAVEN TO WASH AWAY , for Ray Stark ; BORDER TRUMPET, for KNOWS MR . ALLISON , THE HORSE SOLDIERS , NORTH TO Walter Wanger; UNDER WESTERN EYES , novel by Jo- ALASKA . No-co-author. seph Conrad, for Werner Jager, Germany. FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? writers who shared screen credit with you? HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON . Only with George Worthing Yates and James Clavell. FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial THREE. On which films did you collaborate most to work with? Which tampered least with your work? extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" of these films? Victor Fleming and Mervyn LeRoy. All the good directors I worked with and there were many, called WAL K LIKE A DRAGON and the LAST OUTPOST. No . the writer to the set if something didn 't play. Clavell and Yates contributed their share. SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? to stay sane in Hollywood? OUT OF THE PAST both as a script and film . THE Not if he's a pro and worth his money. LAWLESS , also as script and film . THUNDERSTORM , SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers at the producer's instigation? I have experienced none of this. 96 WINTER 1970-71

likewise, and POWDER RIVER, likewise; INVASION OF John Paxton BODY SNATCHERS and BABY FACE NELSON , likewise. ONE. What projects did you work on that were not FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial filmed? to work with? Which tampered least with your work? Perhaps fifteen projects during last twelve years. Don Siegel , Joe Losey, Mark Robson, in that order. TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the writers who shared screen credit with you? Siegel tampered least. No . The real collaboration has been with the pro- SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- ducer: Notably Adrian Scott, Stanley Kramer, John ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to Houseman , Irving Reis , etc. Currently, with Richard stay sane in Hollywood? Carter. In my experience it has been the producer who has been the originator, the pusher, the man- No. Ilike writing for the screen when I am associated who-had-the-dream : a much mis-understood and with intelligent men like Siegel , Losey, Clavell , Guil- maligned function ... lerman and Robson . THREE. On which films did you collaborate most extensively? 00 you consider yourself the \" author\" SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the of these films? producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers at the producer's instigation? See above. I do not consider myself the author of any film , but the screenwriter. The term author On ATLANTIS by the Producer-Director George Pal derives from the French , from a totally different who rewrote every line of dialogue and let me take approach to film-as a personal expression rather than a collaborative achievement. A screenwriter is the blame. a dramatist. \"Auteur\" is a silly term , even if he happens to be in a position to and qualified to EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a produce and direct his own work. \" specialty \" -construction , dialogue, comedy FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- scenes, etc.? faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? As far as I was concerned there were no assembly- An impossible question . No screenwriter is ever line years. I was considered good at both construc- entirely satisfied with the final product, no matter tion and dialogue wherever I worked . how big a hand he has in things ... Most American films do suffer from too much re-touching , too much NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current refining . For a number of reasons , CROSSFIRE was \" age of the director \" than they were in the bygone made quickly and released quickly, cast well, and \" era of the producer\" ? came remarkably close to the original concept. I disagree that this is the age of the director unless FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial the director writes the script. to work with? Which tampered least with your work? Really? TEN. Which screenwriters do you most admire? Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- work? ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to stay sane in Hollywood? Waldo Salt, Michael Wilson , Abraham Polonsky and Not particularly. Is he cynical about life in general? William Goldman . Writers : H. L. Davis and Ken What is he trying to do? Who is he? Where is Holly- Kesey. I don 't recall being influenced . wood? FILMOGRAPHY: DANIEL MAINWARING SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the (1902- ) producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers 1941 No HANDS ON THE CLOCK (Frank McDonald) from his at the producer's instigation? novel \" 1942 SECRETS OF THE UNDERGROUND (William Mor- gan) story , co-scr * CRIME BY NIGHT (William Clemens) from Oh , come on now . . . Tampering is a loaded word. his novel , Forty Whacks · 1944 DANGEROUS PASSAGE (Wil- Unless the screenwriter has all the money he isn 't liam Berke) story* 1945 SCARED STIFF (Frank McDonald) going to have all the control. A variety of minds and co-scr \" TOKYO ROSE (Lew Landers) co-scr \" 1946 HOT opinions are going to be involved . A variety of things CARGO (Lew Landers) scr* SWAMP FIRE (William Pine) story, can and do and will happen to his work in the scr * THEY MADE ME A KILLER (William Thomas) co-scr * process of putting it on the screen , both good and 1947 BIG TOWN (William Pine) co-story, co-scr \" OUT OF THE bad. PAST (Jacques Tourneur) scr \" from his novel , Build My Gallows High * 1949 ROUGHSHOD (Mark Robson) co-scr * EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a THE BIG STEAL (Don Siegel) co-scr * 1950 THE LAWLESS (Joseph Losey) scr, from his novel , The Voice of Stephen \" specialty \" -construction , dialogue, comedy Wilder* THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK (Lewis R. Foster) co-scr * scenes, etc.? 1951 THE TALL TARGET (Anthony Mann) co-story ' ROAD- BLOCK (Harold D~niels) co-story * THE LAST OUTPOST (Lewis \" The assembly-line years\" are and were a miscon- R. Foster) co-scr * 1952 BUGLES IN THE AFTERNOON (Roy ception , too complicated to correct here . .. It so Rowland) co-scr * THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS (Felix Feist) happens that I have been involved mostly in the co-scr * 1953 POWDER RIVER (Louis King) scr THOSE dramatization of novels. REDHEADS FROM SEATTLE (Lewis R. Foster) co-scr * CAMELS WEST co-scr 1954 ALASKA SEAS (Jerry Hopper) co-scr * NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current THE DESPERADO (Thomas Carr) scr * BLACK HORSE CANYON \" age of the director \" than they were in the bygone (Jesse Hibbs) scr * 1955 A BULLET FOR JOEY (Lewis Allen) \" era of the producer \" ? co-scr * AN ANNAPOLIS STORY (Don Siegel) co-scr * THE PHENIX CITY STORY (Phil Karlson) co-scr 1956 THUNDER- STORM (John Guillermin) scr INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Don Siegel) scr 1957 BABY FACE NELSON (Don Siegel) scr 1958 COLE YOUNGER , GUNFIGHTER (R . G. Springsteen) scr SPACE MASTER X-7 (Edward Bernds) co-scr THE GUNRUNNERS (Don Siegel) co-scr 1960 WALK liKE A DRAGON (James Clavell) co-scr 1961 THE MINOTAUR (Silvio Amadio) co-scr ATLANTIS , THE LOST CONTINENT (George Pal) scr. ' under his pseudonym Geoffrey Homes FILM COMMENT 97

\" The age of the director\" ? This is largely a critical that my work was tampered with . If La Cava and term , an abstraction. Once the cameras start turn- I disagreed on the thrust of a scene, we 'd shoot ing , somebody has to be general, the director. This it both ways. has always been true, probably always will be. Prep- aration is another matter, it depends on who is SIX. Did-or does-a screenwriter have to be partic- involved. The man who is paying the bill has always , ularly cynical about his own work 's vulnerability to will always, have a lot to say. stay sane in Hollywood? TEN. Which screenwriters do you most admire? Which writers? Any stylistic influences on your film ~ot if he picks his spots , and doesn 't take-or un- work? dertake-work he knows is not up his alley. But then , That was a long time ago . . . stage , screen or novel , no writer is completely sane . FILMOGRAPHY: JOHN PAXTON SEVEN. Was most of the tampering done by the (1911- ) producer, the director, the actor, or by other writers at the producer's instigation? 1944 MURDER My SWEET (Edward Dmytryk) My PAL WOLF (Alfred Werker) co-scr 1946 CORNERED (Edward Dmytryk) Most of the tampering was done by me. If, watching CRACK UP (Irving Reis) co-scr 1947 CROSSFIRE (Edward a scene, I felt it didn 't come off, I'd suggest some Dmytryk) So WELL REMEMBERED (Edward Dmytryk) 1949 changes for other takes. ROPE OF SAND (William Dieterle) dial 1950 OF MEN AND MUSI C (Irving Re is) 1951 14 HOURS (Henry Hathaway) EIGHT. In the assembly-line years, did you have a 1954 THE WILD ONE (Laslo Benedek) 1955 PRIZE OF GOLD \" specialty \" -construction, dialogue, comedy (Mark Robson ) co-scr THE COBWEB (Vincente Minnelli) scenes, etc.? 1957 INTERPOL (John Gilling) How TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE (Nigel Patrick) prod 1959 ON THE BEACH (Stanley Kramer) Not particularly. If I was called in to \"doctor\" a script, I'd go after the weak spot-and that meant MY MAN GODFREY. often a complete rewrite of several scenes. Left to right : Eugene '11........... NINE. Are scripts any more inviolate in the current Pallette, Carole II \" age of the director \" than they were in the bygone Lombard , Al ice Brady \" era of the producer\" ? and Misha Au er. ....00...:'--_ _'--_ _ __ I wouldn 't know about today. But one thing I learned , the director is the boss-and rightly so-on the Morrie Ryskind screen , as compared to the stage. I could argue about scenes and their content, but never about ONE. What projects did you work on that were not the best camera angles to put them over. And some- filmed? times a brilliant angle (that only a director ,. . I recall only one-and that was when the producer and the director came to a parting of the ways-and think of) makes even the best written dialogl l . . u- not, incidentally, over that particular production . bly effective . TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the writers who shared screen credit with you? TEN. Wh ich screenwriters do you most )? Only on NIGHT AT THE OPERA with George Kaufman . Which writers? Any stylistiC influences on . .,m Otherwise, I worked alone-often at home. work? THREE. On which films did you collaborate most extensively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" Here again I must bow out, since I know almost of these films? none of the current crop. I take it the above answers that. FOUR. Which screenplay gave you the most satis- FILMOGRAPHY: MORRIE RYSKIND faction (a) as a script, (b) as a film? Hard to differentiate, since I usually worked on set 1929 THE COCOANUTS (Joseph Santley, Robert Florey) scr w ith director. At the time , ANIMAL CRACKERS (from 1930 AN IMAL CRACKERS (Victor Heerman) co-author, co-scr, the play by Kaufman and myself), but NIGHT AT THE co-dial 1931 PALMY DAYS (A. Edward Sutherland) co-author , OPERA stands up today where the former doesn 't. co-scr, co-dial 1935 A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (Sam Wood) But GODFREY, STAGE DOOR , PENNY SERNADE and co-autho r, co-scr CEILING ZERO (Howard Hawks) co-scr, CLAUDIA gave me the deepest satisfaction . [uncredited] 1936 My MAN GODFREY (Gregory La Cava) FIVE. Which directors did you find most congenial co-scr 1937 STAGE DOOR (Gregory La Cava) co-scr 1938 to work with? Which tampered least with your work? ROOM SERVICE (Will iam A. Seiter) scr 1939 MAN ABOUT La Cava and George Stevens. I cannot complain TOWN (Mark Sand rich ) co-autho r, scr 1941 PENNY SERENADE (George Stevens) scr 1943 CLAUDIA (Edmund Goulding) scr 1945 WHERE Do WE Go FROM HERE? (Gregory Ratoff) co-author, scr 1946 HEART BEAT (Sam Wood ) adapt. Stirling Silliphant ONE. What projects did you work on that were not filmed? An original screenplay THE YARDS AT ESSENDORF with director John Sturges for Walter Mirisch-United Art- ists. A screenplay of Raymond Chandler's THE LONG GOODBYE for MGM . TWO. Did you work in close collaboration with the writers who shared screen credit with you? Of si xteen screenplays , only three were shared credits-all others my own work . Of the three shared credits , two were in close collaboration , one I never met my co-writers-they were in England. THREE. On which films did you collaborate most ex tenSively? Do you consider yourself the \" author\" of these films ? 98 WINTER 1970-71