Screenwriter Ernest Lehman, a six-time Oscar nominee, died the other day at the age of 89. Among his more famous credits are “North by Northwest” and “The Sweet Smell of Success.” He was also involved in the screen versions of “West Side Story,” “Hello Dolly!” and “Portnoy’s Complaint” – obviously a man of a catholic tastes.
I knew Ernie slightly from having traveled with him on a screenwriter’s “culture exchange” to the Soviet Union in 1991 arranged between our Writers Guild and their Cinematographers Union (which subsumed most film workers). He, Mel Shavelson and the extraordinary Julius Epstein formed the small geezer caucus in our larger contingent that included Willam Goldman and Paul Schrader. (I was added at the last moment when someone dropped out and had by far the least impressive credits.) Of all these people, the only one whose work the Soviets recognized was Julius. His film “Casablanca,” which he co-authored with his brother, was the one American movie to have made it through the Iron Curtain in any sufficient degree. So the Russians loved Julius who was a lovable cherubic character anyway, resembling an aging ET.
Turning back to Ernie, he was finally awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1991 and made the following statement:
“I accept this rarest of honors on behalf of screenwriters everywhere, but especially those in the Writers Guild of America. We have suffered anonymity far too often. I appeal to all movie critics and feature writers to please always bear in mind that a film production begins and ends with a screenplay.”
I not sure those writers are quite as anonymous as they (and Ernie) think they are, but Lehman is certainly right that a film “begins and ends with a screenplay.” The auteur theory is pretty much another piece of French bunkum. As they used to say in Hollywood during Ernie Lehman’s time, “If ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.” And we all know they made better movies then. Ernie, et al, have the credits to prove it.
A great writer, indeed. Another giant passes…
I’ve read that the Soviets also screened Grapes of Wrath, thinking that people would see the devastation of the Depression and think the US was about to crumble. But Russians said, hey, they can get up and move where they want, they can form unions and not get shot, sounds like heaven! So the Soviets pulled it.
Who was it who said that auteur was French for “plagiarist”?
There was an article similar to that on Drudge recently about a propaganda film about a North Korean who was a prisoner in the South. People were astonished that he was given 3 square meals a day and survived in jail for 10 years, so they had to pull the propaganda film
It’s better to live in a South Korean jail than it is in North Korea. Those poor poor people.
…a film “begins and ends with a screenplay.”
Absolutely. The story/screenplay can’t necessarily “make” the film, but it sure as heck can break it.
Sweet Smell of Success is one of my favorites. Great direction, great performances, amazing James Wong photography (is there anything better than B&W), but the Alpha and the Omega is the screenplay (Lehman shared writing credit with Clifford Odets btw). And Lehman wrote pitch perfect for Cary Grant. A very fine talent. RIP
Another fun Hollywood anecdote, Roger.
The Epsteins have another claim to fame for us New Englanders. Philip Epstein was the grandfather, and Julius the great-uncle, of this guy.
There was absolutely no reason whatsoever to bring that up, NNC.
signed,
A Yankee fan
When Haskell Wexler, the “revolutionary” documentary maker whose production company now tools around LA in customized Hummers making high-end commercials, took one of those “solidarity” tours to the USSR, he was astonished when the Soviet filmmakers accused them of being capitalist propagandists. When the right-thinking Hollywoodians asked how that could be, they were told, look at your movies. The man drives up in his big car to his big house, he goes inside, he opens his big refrigerator, he has a big refrigerator, the refrigerator is full of food…
Despite the fact that our charming host is extremely handsome, very debonair, and preternaturally youthful, let me be the first to suggest that he also is now very much in his anecdotage.
“The Epsteins have another claim to fame for us New Englanders”
Amazing that there should be so much talent in one family. I understand that Durkheim, Mauss, Sartre and Levi-Strauss were also members of the same family. Genes or culture, I wonder?
Kyda ó You mean, not two years in a row?
We live in a wonderful country where talented, hard-working people can achieve their dreams. Thanks, Mr. Lehman.
Once every 100 years or so, Richard, is more than enough.
Haskell Wexler could have offered, in his defense, Matewan, the dramatic story of genuinely impoverished workers standing up to oppression.
I’m not surprised by the Hummers. He was a sports car racer during the ’50s, holding his own against Jag-you-ares and Ferraris in a hot rod special. One of my links to him, other than my leftist magazine photographer father, is the Chicago sportscar crowd of the time. He also acted, and appeared in a movie with Kevin Bacon.
Haskell Wexler’s son rebelled against his old man by becoming a staunch Republican you know, and he’s just made a documentary about his difficult reconciliation with his dad. (Might be of interest to those of you who’ve found yourselves in divided households over the last few years.) It’s called Tell Them Who You Are and it’ll be making the rounds. Reviews have been highly positive.
***
Roger Thornhill: What the devil is all this about? Why was I brought here?
Phillip Vandamm: Games, must we?
Roger Thornhill: Not that I mind a slight case of abduction now and then, but I have tickets for the theater this evening, to a show I was looking forward to, and I get, well, kind of *unreasonable* about things like that.
Phillip Vandamm: With such expert playacting, you make this very room a theater.
Did James Mason deliver a single non-quotable line in that movie? No, I don’t think he did.
Lehman did the commentary for the North By Northwest DVD and he sounded like quite the gentleman.
They managed to make a movie out of Portnoy’s Complaint? =^)
All I can say is, I don’t want to see the liver scene.
Julius Epstein wrote Casablanca? Hardly. It was originally a stage play–Everyone Comes to Ricks– and the two people who wrote it never forgave themselves for signing off for 20K. As it was the screenplay was written by committee and had no ending at all til the end of shooting. And then it was changed by Veidt and Bogart. I used to know Howard Koch, who had more than a little to do with writing it, and he used to shake his head over the movie. “We had no idea what we were doing. The Epstein brothers put in this great dialogue and then Bogart, Lorre, Veidt and God only knows who wrote the rest.” He also said Jack Warner wrote a word or two. And David O. Selznick stuck in his two cents about the ending. It’s kind of weird that Julius (and not his brother) gets full credit for writing what was already written. It is generally agreed that the play was undoable as a movie and had to be rewritten.
Having just watched The Princess Bride, again, my own hat goes to William Goldman.
Great lines, many even better the second time, that’s what makes a good movie.
And a good book. 2 more days before Harry Potter #6 — in 50 years this series will be the most read books of this decade, I’m certain.