DOCSLIB.ORG

An Interview with John Howard Lawson Author(S): John Howard Lawson, Dave Davis and Neal Goldberg Source: Cinéaste, Vol

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Interview with John Howard Lawson Author(S): John Howard Lawson, Dave Davis and Neal Goldberg Source: Cinéaste, Vol ORGANIZING THE SCREEN WRITERS GUILD: An Interview with John Howard Lawson Author(s): John Howard Lawson, Dave Davis and Neal Goldberg Source: Cinéaste, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1977), pp. 4-11, 58 Published by: Cineaste Publishers, Inc Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41685800 . Accessed: 15/02/2014 06:06 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cineaste Publishers, Inc is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cinéaste. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.59.62.83 on Sat, 15 Feb 2014 06:06:01 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions /';-=09 )(8*=-0/'] This content downloaded from 128.59.62.83 on Sat, 15 Feb 2014 06:06:01 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions OnAugust 11, 1977, former screenwriter JohnHoward Lawson died in somemeasure ofcontrol over their own work. Mt.Zion Hospital, San Francisco, at the age of 82. Lawson'sreputation Forhis efforts, Lawson was blacklisted in 1947, as a memberof the restson hisscripts (BLOCKADE, SAHARA, ALGIERS, COUNTER- Hollywood10.He was the first "unfriendly" witness todefy the House Un- ATTACK,ACTION IN THE NORTHATLANTIC), his critical works AmericanActivities Committee, andwas dragged from the hearing by Fed- (Film : TheCreative Process, Theory and Techniqueof Playwriting and eralofficers for insisting that Chairman Parnell Thomas, later jailed him- Screenwriting,Filmin the Battle of Ideas), and plays (Processional, Suc- self,accord him the same courtesy Thomas had extended tothe long parade cessStory), but he was also a major,dare I sayheroic, figure on the Holly- ofcooperative witnesses who had been encouraged togive lengthy testi- woodleft who worked long and arduously within the film industry forsocial monialsto their own patriotism and the treason of others. Lawson's defi- change.Although Lawson was a giftedwriter (official historians ofscreen- anceof Thomas sent the star-studded Committee forthe First Amendment writingofcourse neglect him altogether), it is hispart in foundingthe scurryingback to Beverly Hills, but he set an example for those who fol- ScreenWritersGuild and his subsequent role in the Hollywood branch of lowedhim before HUAC. He served nearly a year in prison for contempt of theCommunist Party that were in the long run more significant. Congress,and never worked inHollywood again. It is hardlynecessary torecall that little is knownabout the political Asa critic,Lawson shared Marx's conviction that culture is classcul- historyof Hollywoodand less about Lawson himself, since students of ture,an instrumentofclass domination. Although his adherence to the Americanfilm have long pretended itdoesn't exist, preferring tochurn out Partyline and liberal use of Party rhetoric blinded him to some of the pro- identicalbooks on John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock for their own amuse- gressivecontradictions inpopular culture, he nevertheless wrote percep- ment.When interest inthe Hollywood left finally revived inthe late 60's tively,ifharshly, onHollywood film. A selectionofhis essays, published in andearly 70's, Lawson was too old and ill to submit to extensive interviews. 1953under the title Film in the Battle of Ideas, is a minorclassic of its Hisdeath will make it immeasurably more difficult to piece together the kind. story,although he was reportedly at work on an autobiographywhen he Thefollowing interview (edited here to read as a first-personnarrative) died,which isto be completed byhis daughter. wasconducted by Dave Davis and Neal Goldberg in 1973in connection Priorto the founding ofthe ScreenWriters Guild in 1933,Hollywood withtheir research into labor history inSouthern California.* Itsheds light writerswere treated with contempt. Itwas not uncommon for8 or10 writers on thecircumstances surrounding theformation of the ScreenWriters towork on one script with screen credit whimsically distributed among the Guild,but regrettably - because the interview was only the first of what producers'in-laws, golf partners, or bookies.In organizingthe Guild, washoped would be a seriesof discussions - it does not touch on the role of writershoped to exercise economic leverage against the studios and gain theCPUSA in Hollywood, noron Lawson's role within the Party. PeterBiskind My relationshipwith film goes back to 1920,when I'd just abouttwo- and- a- half years, coming out in thefall of 1928 and comeback from the First World War, where I was in theambu- stayinguntil the middle or end of 1930,during which time the lanceservice. I was broke and I had a familyand, at thattime, in stockmarket crashed. The whole economy of the country went to 1920or thefirst months of 1921,I sold a playto Paramount piecesbut therewas stillplenty of moneycirculating and avail- picturesfor $5,000. That enabled me to go to Europefor two years able in Hollywood.I did a numberof very bad butvery important towrite and that resulted in the plays Roger Bloomer and Proces- pictureswhich made a greatdeal of money,including OUR sional, which were done in the New York theater in 1923and 1925. BLUSHINGBRIDES starringJoan Crawford, another one called So I hadactually had business connections for the sale ofmaterial THE SEA BAT, and DYNAMITE,Cecil B. De Mille'sfirst talk- toHollywood as earlyas 1920-21. ingpicture. All of these were among my credits during those first Thatfirst contact didn't result in anyfurther attempts to do coupleof years, so I wasreally very successful in Hollywood. workfor the industrybecause during the 1920's I was preoc- By thistime, though, I was beginningto feelthat, in many cupiedwith trying to developan avant-gardemovement in the ways,art should be connectedwith social issues. I was willingto theater,a movementtowards theatricalism and awayfrom stage acceptthe conditions under which one worked in Hollywood,but I realism,an attemptto introduceentirely new values into the couldn'thelp recognizing that these conditions were abominable, theater.It correspondedin manyways with what Brecht and thateven from the point of view of turning out a satisfactorycom- Piscatorand Meyerholdwere doing in Europe. The most mercialproduct, it was verydifficult and almostimpossible to importantexample of thiswas probablymy play Processional functioneffectively under Hollywood conditions. That was true in whichwas doneby the Theater Guild. I thenwent on to form, 1929and 1930and I suspectthat, from all I knowabout Holly- alongwith four other writers, the New Playwrights Theater, which wood,it's still true today. From the point of view of the bankers functionedin NewYork in 1927and into1928 at theCherry Lane andfinanciers, ofcourse, it makes lots of sense because they make Playhousein GreenwichVillage. Although it was important,in a lotof money out of deals. But from the point of view of turning myopinion, and made a deep impressionon manypeople, it outan effectiveand usefulcommercial product, it makes no sense becameapparent that we could not subsist. The conditionsunder at all, in myopinion. Of course,that's something that could be whichwe operatedjust didn't allow us to existas writersor pro- debatedat greatlength. ducersor managers. By1931 I'd putaside a littleof my money from Hollywood and It wasabsolutely essential that we find a differentway of func- I decidedto go backto NewYork where the conditions were more tioning,especially because I wasdead broke at thattime and had favorablefor my plays than they had beenearlier, because the heavydebts. The NewPlaywrights Theater could no longerfunc- Depressionhad intervenedand playswith some social content tionand therewas reallynothing else in NewYork theater that werebeginning to be in demand.This was just at thetime when couldafford to supportan avant-garde- a so-calledWorkers' or theroots of the Group Theater were being formed by Clurman and Peoples'theater, which is whatwe weretrying to establish.Just Strasbergand CherylCrawford. I knew them and was acquainted aboutthat time, in late 1928, I receivedan offerto comeout and withtheir efforts. It wasa periodwhen it looked as ifthere would workfor MGM. It wasinteresting that they should ask me,of all be opportunitiesin the theater, but to go backto New York I had people,because I was associatedwith a moreor less revolu- tofree myself from my contract with MGM. Theonly way I could tionaryor rebelliousmovement in the theater.But the motion freemyself from it was to break it, so I wentto Irving Thalberg and picturecompanies didn't care about that - theythought they could toldhim that I wantedto breakmy contract and go backto New use me,get something out of me and, at thetime, they weren't York because I had some plays that I wanteddone. Well, worriedabout what my opinions were. As a matterof fact, that was Thalberg,being a suspiciousman by nature and having experience rightat thetime that Eisenstein was visiting Hollywood and had a withParamount in relationto a dramatizationof Dreiser's job *An oftheir research was STRIKE THE a 30 minute novel,An American Tragedy. outgrowth SET, So I cameout to MGM on a contractfor three months with b/wdocumentary onthe history oflabor organization inHollywood, with rarefootage
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Academy Committees 19~5 - 19~6
    ACADEMY COMMITTEES 19~5 - 19~6 Jean Hersholt, president and Margaret Gledhill, Executive Secretary, ex officio members of all committees. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SPECIAL DOCUMENTARY Harry Brand COMMITTEE lBTH AWARDS will i am Do z i e r Sidney Solow, Chairman Ray Heindorf William Dozier Frank Lloyd Philip Dunne Mary C. McCall, Jr. James Wong Howe Thomas T. Moulton Nunnally Johnson James Stewart William Cameron Menzies Harriet Parsons FINANCE COMMITTEE Anne Revere Joseph Si strom John LeRoy Johnston, Chairman Frank Tuttle Gordon Hollingshead wi a rd I h n en · SPECIAL COMMITTEE 18TH AWARDS PRESENTATION FILM VIEWING COMMITTEE Farciot Edouart, Chairman William Dozier, Chairman Charles Brackett Joan Harrison Will i am Do z i e r Howard Koch Hal E1 ias Dore Schary A. Arnold Gillespie Johnny Green SHORT SUBJECTS EXECUTIVE Bernard Herzbrun COMMI TTEE Gordon Hollingshead Wiard Ihnen Jules white, Chairman John LeRoy Johnston Gordon Ho11 ingshead St acy Keach Walter Lantz Hal Kern Louis Notarius Robert Lees Pete Smith Fred MacMu rray Mary C. McCall, Jr. MUSIC BRANCH EXECUTIVE Lou i s Mesenkop COMMITTEE Victor Milner Thomas T. Moulton Mario Caste1nuovo-Tedesco Clem Portman Adolph Deutsch Fred Ri chards Ray Heindorf Frederick Rinaldo Louis Lipstone Sidney Solow Abe Meyer Alfred Newman Herbert Stothart INTERNATIONAL AWARD Ned Washington COMM I TTEE Charles Boyer MUSIC BRANCH HOLLYWOOD Walt Disney BOWL CONCERT COMMITTEE wi 11 i am Gordon Luigi Luraschi Johnny Green, Chairman Robert Riskin Adolph Deutsch Carl Schaefer Ray Heindorf Robert Vogel Edward B. Powell Morris Stoloff Charles Wolcott ACADEMY FOUNDATION TRUSTEES Victor Young Charles Brackett Michael Curtiz MUSIC BRANCH ACTIVITIES Farc i ot Edouart COMMITTEE Nat Finston Jean Hersholt Franz Waxman, Chairman Y.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Vs. Film: LA CHIENNE Vs. SCARLET STREET
    BOOK VS FILM Brian Light author’s commentary on the incestuous bed- counterpoint to the plotline. The book is fellows of art and commerce. frank in its depiction of the sordid relation- ew French writers in the first In his preface, de la Fouchardière calls ship between Lulu and Dédé and the pseudo half of the 20th century could attention to the theatrical staging used to romantic/financial arrangement between rival the output of Georges de set up the narrative structure of the story: Lulu and Legrand. la Fouchardière. He produced “I have chosen a technique borrowed from In 1931, Jean Renoir adapted the book 33 humorous novels and crime dramatic art…each of the characters who to the screen with the same title. An early Fthrillers, over a dozen of which were adapted participate in the story will in turn take the example of poetic realism, this was only for the screen in the 1920s and ’30s. He was a stage and tell in his own way about events Renoir’s second talking picture, and, to his prodigious journalist and devout pacifist who in which he has been implicated.” In chap- credit, he shot the entire film using actual covered WWI and WWII for two newspapers, ters titled “He,” “She,” and “The Other,” Parisian street locations. The preceding year La Vague and Paris-Soir, and he also wrote a we are provided with three distinct points of Alfred Knopf published an English transla- column for the weekly journal Paris-Sport. In view. “He” (Maurice Legrand) is the princi- tion of La Chienne, titled Poor Sap, which 1929, he published La Chienne (The Bitch), pal storyteller, and, as such, he is depicted enjoyed a second printing.
    [Show full text]
  • Mark Glancy: When Hollywood Loved Britain. the Hollywood 'British' film 2000
    Repositorium für die Medienwissenschaft Drew Bassett Mark Glancy: When Hollywood loved Britain. The Hollywood 'British' film 2000 https://doi.org/10.17192/ep2000.2.2765 Veröffentlichungsversion / published version Rezension / review Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Bassett, Drew: Mark Glancy: When Hollywood loved Britain. The Hollywood 'British' film. In: MEDIENwissenschaft: Rezensionen | Reviews, Jg. 17 (2000), Nr. 2, S. 204–206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17192/ep2000.2.2765. Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer Deposit-Lizenz (Keine This document is made available under a Deposit License (No Weiterverbreitung - keine Bearbeitung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Redistribution - no modifications). We grant a non-exclusive, Gewährt wird ein nicht exklusives, nicht übertragbares, non-transferable, individual, and limited right for using this persönliches und beschränktes Recht auf Nutzung dieses document. This document is solely intended for your personal, Dokuments. Dieses Dokument ist ausschließlich für non-commercial use. All copies of this documents must retain den persönlichen, nicht-kommerziellen Gebrauch bestimmt. all copyright information and other information regarding legal Auf sämtlichen Kopien dieses Dokuments müssen alle protection. You are not allowed to alter this document in any Urheberrechtshinweise und sonstigen Hinweise auf gesetzlichen way, to copy it for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the Schutz beibehalten werden. Sie dürfen dieses Dokument document in public, to perform, distribute, or otherwise use the nicht in irgendeiner Weise abändern, noch dürfen Sie document in public. dieses Dokument für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke By using this particular document, you accept the conditions of vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, aufführen, vertreiben oder use stated above. anderweitig nutzen. Mit der Verwendung dieses Dokuments erkennen Sie die Nutzungsbedingungen an.
    [Show full text]
  • Ronald Davis Oral History Collection on the Performing Arts
    Oral History Collection on the Performing Arts in America Southern Methodist University The Southern Methodist University Oral History Program was begun in 1972 and is part of the University’s DeGolyer Institute for American Studies. The goal is to gather primary source material for future writers and cultural historians on all branches of the performing arts- opera, ballet, the concert stage, theatre, films, radio, television, burlesque, vaudeville, popular music, jazz, the circus, and miscellaneous amateur and local productions. The Collection is particularly strong, however, in the areas of motion pictures and popular music and includes interviews with celebrated performers as well as a wide variety of behind-the-scenes personnel, several of whom are now deceased. Most interviews are biographical in nature although some are focused exclusively on a single topic of historical importance. The Program aims at balancing national developments with examples from local history. Interviews with members of the Dallas Little Theatre, therefore, serve to illustrate a nation-wide movement, while film exhibition across the country is exemplified by the Interstate Theater Circuit of Texas. The interviews have all been conducted by trained historians, who attempt to view artistic achievements against a broad social and cultural backdrop. Many of the persons interviewed, because of educational limitations or various extenuating circumstances, would never write down their experiences, and therefore valuable information on our nation’s cultural heritage would be lost if it were not for the S.M.U. Oral History Program. Interviewees are selected on the strength of (1) their contribution to the performing arts in America, (2) their unique position in a given art form, and (3) availability.
    [Show full text]
  • Kipling, Masculinity and Empire
    Kunapipi Volume 18 Issue 1 Article 10 1996 America's Raj: Kipling, Masculinity and Empire Nicholas J. Cull Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Cull, Nicholas J., America's Raj: Kipling, Masculinity and Empire, Kunapipi, 18(1), 1996. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol18/iss1/10 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] America's Raj: Kipling, Masculinity and Empire Abstract The posters for Gunga Din promised much: 'Thrills for a thousand movies, plundered for one mighty show'. That show was a valentine to the British Raj, in which three sergeants (engagingly played by Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) defeat marauding hoards of 'natives' with the aid of their 'Uncle Tom' water bearer, Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe)[Plate VII]. Audiences loved it. Its racism notwithstanding, even an astute viewer like Bertolt Brecht confessed: 'My heart was touched ... f felt like applauding and laughed in all the right places'. 1 Outwardly the film had little ot do with the United States. Most of the cast were British-born and its screenplay claimed to be 'from the poem by Rudyard Kipling' .2 Yet the film was neither British or faithful ot Kipling, but solidly American: directed by George Stevens for RKO, with a screenplay by Oxford-educated Joel Sayre and Stevens's regular collaborator Fred Guiol.3 This journal article is available in Kunapipi: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol18/iss1/10 America's Raj: Kipling, Masculinity, and Empire 85 NICHOLAS J.
    [Show full text]
  • Joe Breen's Oscar
    Dickinson College Dickinson Scholar Faculty and Staff Publications By Year Faculty and Staff Publications 2005 Joe Breen's Oscar Stephen Weinberger Dickinson College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications Part of the Film Production Commons Recommended Citation Weinberger, Stephen. "Joe Breen's Oscar." Film History 17, no. 4 (2005), 380-391. This article is brought to you for free and open access by Dickinson Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Film History, Volume 17, pp. 380–391, 2005. Copyright © John Libbey Publishing ISSN: 0892-2160. Printed in United States of America Joe Breen’s Oscar Joe Breens Oscar Stephen Weinberger t the twenty-sixth Academy Awards ceremo- A raconteur par excellance, Breen delighted in nies held on the evening of 25 March 1954, relating, often to people who had heard the stories Asomething quite remarkable occurred, al- before, and in various forms, how he had bested the though it attracted little attention at the time. Hollywood moguls. How, for example, at a meeting As often happens at this event, one film swept most with Harry Warner to discuss the Catholic boycott of ofthe awards. From HeretoEternity won eightOscars, Warner theaters in Philadelphia, the stressed-out including those for best picture, best supporting actor president of Warner Brothers began ‘shedding tears and actress, best director, and best screenplay. the size of horse turds and pleading for someone to In addition to the usual categories, there were get him off the hook’.2 Or how, at his first meeting four honorary Oscars awarded that night.
    [Show full text]
  • Ambivalence As a Theme in "On the Waterfront" (1954): an Interdisciplinary Approach to Film Study Author(S): Kenneth Hey Source: American Quarterly, Vol
    Ambivalence as a Theme in "On the Waterfront" (1954): An Interdisciplinary Approach to Film Study Author(s): Kenneth Hey Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 5, Special Issue: Film and American Studies (Winter, 1979), pp. 666-696 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712431 Accessed: 02/07/2010 10:41 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org AMBIVALENCE AS A THEME IN ON THE WATERFRONT (1954): AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO FILM STUDY KENNETH HEY BrooklynCollege of theCity University of New York THE STUDY OF FILM IN AMERICAN CULTURE POSES SOME INTERESTING challengesto theperson using an interdisciplinarymethod.
    [Show full text]
  • John Ford's Stagecoach
    LELAND POAGUE 3 That Past, This Present Historicizing John Ford, 1939 Though its credit sequence features a montage of leisurely move- ments – shots of a stagecoach and its escort moving one way; of U.S. cavalry, then Apache warriors, the other; of the stagecoach again, sans escort, as if returning – Stagecoach proper begins with riders gal- loping hell-bent-for-leather almost directly toward the camera, in a long shot.1 This shot then dissolves to an army outpost on the edge of nowhere, hitching rails to frame left, tents and camp furniture and a flag staff to frame right. A bugle blows. The stars and stripes ascend the pole in the background while the riders pass back-to- front through the frame. A more visually and dramatically central flag raising occurs at the end of Drums Along the Mohawk, another 1939 John Ford film involving frontier outposts, besieged settlers, sinister aristocrats, newborn infants, and courage tested by combat or contest. And it concludes, almost as Stagecoach begins, with a dis- play of the national banner. Few of the Revolutionary-era characters who watch its ascent in Drums have ever seen the flag before; the symbolism of its stars and stripes must literally be explained. And individual “watchers” are picked out by Ford’s camera and cutting to witness its ascent, as if they were watching on our behalf. Claudette Colbert’s Lana Martin thinks the flag is “pretty”; a black woman, Daisy, Mrs. McKlennar’s “servant,” looks up tearfully; Blue Back, a Christian Indian, offers salute; and Henry Fonda’s Gil Martin gets a good eyeful and says it’s “time to get back to work” because there’s a “heap to do from now on.” 82 HISTORICIZING JOHN FORD, 1939 83 It is the work of this essay to investigate the historicity of John Ford’s films and filmmaking in 1939, commonly regarded as Hollywood’s and Ford’s most “spectacularly prolific” year.2 I invoke a portion of that history as prologue in order to acknowledge the necessary partiality of the enterprise.
    [Show full text]
  • Foreign Correspondent (United Artists Pressbook, 1940)
    •II* PRESENTS The thrill spectacle of the year. In this magnificent production you will see scene after scene of a magni¬ tude rarely equalled on the screen. For this is the exciting story of the lives and loves of the greatest adventurers of our time. Masterfully directed by the man who gave you "Rebecca ALFRED HITCHCOCK S ‘Production of STARRING JOELMcCREA LARAINE DAY • HERBERT MARSHALL - GEORGE SANDERS ALBERT BASSERMAN • ROBERT BENCHLEY Directed by ALFRED HITCHCOCK • Released thru United Artists his ye; r Walter Wanger concentr. his effo diking two great pi tures. A Hitchcock’s productioi ofKoH^N CORRESPONDS^ is the thrill spectacle of the ye Watch frvi <3 „ «h* Br..« •* * ih„ *‘ ‘“'J w—^ M — •* ‘ ‘ ’ de„. JL. - , tr„.^- • •' „i#' forre^P0®* 8B"‘*mT err®®4’ Cote^® . t , H : re«#r^e „„aet«,.i>-''*’e’ ,...*>'*“l,‘ tfc . .«.».*• l”w" „ae..«*w“,,‘ 4^*- 1 • " Mill «*'“"** '“ , *. ««—** ”*’ ' > »> CV- a 4ir4i%J. •* 4o»“h‘ ,r»®s - WW .« "bi4 l‘ * # Tbe th * Ut. •»»*** * „ 4.-«^o«d 11 ^ . sv,«., •*«-' e“C °* h S *!•** ^ " b^ „tl oi »*tioWS h4S SM ,J< vrai,.a» “i*ht* fBde" 0< Wat' a,tU^ •* Sia“ Sn‘““ «“* 04 “ ol tl»c ' l ,.„lorf‘l 1 »»d ¥oreig« . *,«.* 4„, „,,.». “'”r' ««'*”’ re ,»« ' „ , „.o.<»>- i «rr‘ * . „ lioiti**1'* id by This it his >thers Risheds ibo rail- TO full Hstudios VaO play- hummer m2 sets Stchcock fen Cor- |»spense fetches Rrch de¬ ll British pet was H25 feet Bbar 00 I and a ■ a good Is ever picture, ice ap- ninutes |ed pic- fp intro- t types rea and ther as HERE IS •finding reaches British cted in ACTION ROMANCE inicians from the first frame to the final fadeout ..
    [Show full text]
  • Finding Aid for the Fritz Lang Collection
    Finding Aid for the Fritz Lang Collection Special Collections #4 Collection Processed by: Sarah Blankfort Clothier, 9.10.12 Revised, Emily Wittenberg, 10.18.18 Finding Aid Written by: Sarah Blankfort Clothier, 9.10.12 Revised, Emily Wittenberg,10.18.18 OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION: Origination/Creator: Lang, Fritz Title of Collection: Fritz Lang Collection Date of Collection: 1934 -- 1953 Physical Description: 19 boxes; 7.92 linear feet Identification: Special Collection #4 Repository: American Film Institute Louis B. Mayer Library, Los Angeles, CA RIGHTS AND RESTRICTIONS: Access Restrictions: Collection is open for research. Copyright: The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Louis B. Mayer Library. Acquisition Method: Donated by Michael Nesmith in 1990. BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORY NOTE: Fritz Lang was a noted filmmaker who immigrated to Hollywood via France during WWII in 1934, in protest against the Nazi regime, becoming a United States citizen in 1939. Lang was born Friedrich Christian Anton Lang in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1890 to parents Anton and Paula Lang. He briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna where he studied civil engineering before switching to art; he studied painting under teachers in Vienna, Munich, and Paris. In WWI Lang served in the Austrian Army where he was wounded three times and decorated four times while fighting in Russia and Romania. His German Expressionist films, including METROPOLIS (1927) and M (1931), are considered precursors to the film noir style of filmmaking that was popular in Hollywood from the early 1940s to late 1950s. Upon his move to the United States, Lang was employed at Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (M-G-M), where he rose to prominence by directing FURY (1936).
    [Show full text]
  • (Washington, DC). 1934-10-09
    rith such agonizing results—a color __AMUSEMENTS._ ‘r lcture will seem the only possible a Wife’ Color Film Gives hlng And, In like ratio, a venture Takes Beauty a to white will have the lie Farmer In “The of Innocence” j black and Age une effect on us as a silent movie Ann New Zest i iow does. Season at National Of Harding We remember how we all felt about Opens t he first talkies. Dr. Kalmus agrees rlth me that injudicious use of color Canal Life Shows Walter Wanger Production Foreshadows Prob- i las crippled some of the Initial ven- Very Pie asing Play of Erie ures In this medium. The next two able Day When There'll Be no More r aen to apply color—Robert Edmond Unusual Attention to Detail and Keen ones and Walter Wanger—have, Dr. Black and White Pictures. i Calm us feels, ideal artistic flair for a Drawing of Characters. 1 enture in this new and difficult me- < lium. BY MOLUE MERRICK. < Copyright. 1934, by North American Newspaper Alliance. Inc.). BY E. de S. MELCHER. Calif., October 9.—From time to time the went last at the National on, or curtain up night cinema industry has suffered color invasion, but with each Fay Wray Asks Final Papers. rather in the vicinity of the Erie Canal (pronounced succeeding development of this angle of picture making it LOS ANGELES, October 9 <&).— “canawl”). In a corner of Hennessy’s Hotel at Rome, N. Y., HOLLYWOOD,has seemed to me that the hopelessness of perfecting such middle 1850s a lady” was having two teeth !anadlan-born Fay Wray, movie ac- THEin the “fancy a thing became increasingly apparent.
    [Show full text]
  • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Short Story
    FOUR OUT OF TEN WINS! The record speaks for itself! There can be no question as to which company won the Quigley Short Subject Annual Exhibitor Vote. The results appeared on Page 21 of Motion Picture Herald, issue of Jan. 11, 1941, as follows: M-G-M 4 Next Company 3 Next Company 1 Next Company 1 Next Company 1 Leadership means doing the unusual first! Here's M-G-M's newest idea: Watch for this great short Tapping an unexplored field, subject! Short story masterpieces at last "THE On the screen— the first is HAPPIEST MAN 'THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH" ON EARTH" One of M-G-M's most important steps featuring In years of short subject leadership. PAUL KELLY VICTOR KILLIAN Get ready for PETE SMITH'S "PENNY TO THE RESCUE," another Prudence Penny cookery The O. Henry Memorial comedy in Technicolor. It's swell. Also CAREY WILSON'S "MORE ABOUT NOSTRADAMUS/' Award -Winning Short Story a sequel to the prediction short that fascinated the nation. Scanned from the collections of The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation www.loc.gov/avconservation Motion Picture and Television Reading Room www.loc.gov/rr/mopic Recorded Sound Reference Center www.loc.gov/rr/record 7 Quicker'n a wink' playing on the current program with 'Escape' is proving a sensation of unusual quality. Comments from our patrons are most enthusiastic. The sub- ject is a rare blending of scientific and entertaining units into an alto- gether delightful offering that is definitely boxoffice. This is an as- sured fact based on the number of calls we are receiving to inquire the screening time of the subject." BRUCE FOWLER, Mgr.
    [Show full text]